Sunday Words of Encouragment February 12, 2023 - Agape Love

My stomach was not settled Sunday morning and after going twice to the car, I decided to stay home rather than risk exposing anyone else to a tummy bug. Pastor’s message was about Agape Love - from 1 John 4:7-10.

These words were directed to believers, not a specific church group. These are universal truths.
Agape love is a benevolent love desiring the best for the object of the love.
It is a command of God and God gives us the ability to do what He commands.
God so loved us that He made a way out of our sinful condition. John 3:16.
If we don’t want the best for others, we don’t know God. Our desire should be that everyone be saved and go to Heaven.

God is love It isn’t always easy to desire the best for others, like exes or those who have mistreated us or threatened us. But if God is in us, His love will flow through us. We need to abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us. 1 John 4:15-16.

The first fruit of the spirit is Love. Galatians 5:22-23. Only God can change, or transform, our hearts from hate to love. We have to get rid of negative attitudes of jealousy, covetousness, hate.
We have to have an attitude of love, then we have to act in love.
How do we act? We serve for the benefit of others. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Love is patient…. And that is another fruit of the spirit. If we struggle with patience we have an issue with Agape love. Agape love gives mercy and patience. Love is the expansion joint that God gives us to deal with others.

God is forbearing and patient with us. When we recognize that, we can be forbearing and patient with others. Ephesians 4:2. Colossians 3:13.
If we can’t love one another, how can we love the world?
Agape love is more than acceptance. It is wanting the best for others.
We offend God but He sent His Son to atone for our offense and bring us back in relationship.
If someone has offended us, we need Agape love to forgive the offense.

To get Agape love we have to have transformation in our hearts. We have to surrender to God and allow Him to dwell in us.

I found this song and it made me cry. "Love You With the Truth"

Verses for Today:
1 John 4:7-11 NIV
God’s Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Lord, thank you for loving me so much that you gave your son Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for my sins. Please help me to love others enough to show your nature to them.

Sharing Beyond Books #455 Comment Giveaway February 11, 2023

Welcome to Sharing Beyond Books.  I am sorry only five people commented last month but I am glad to hear from each of you. I will continue this post monthly for now.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last question.
Last post SBB #454: Natalia asked: What would you do if you had more free time??
Two commenters said reading and two more included reading. Two of us included decluttering, and another mentioned other household chores. One also mentioned things like crafts and baking. Finally another item mentioned was jigsaw and word puzzles. I would like those too. I was hooked on Wordle, Dordle, and Quordle for several months but when my computer got cleaned, I stopped mostly due to be tired at night.

The Winner from SBB #453 comments is #4 LIFE'S SIMPLE PLEASURES who can make a GC choice if international or book choice from the Updated (**Finally!) ARC/Review titles or (recently updated) Love and Christmas titles - all linked near the end of the post. -- [9-18-2021 I have added a new box and crossed off books no longer available through August 2021.]

Please let me know your choice by completing the WINNER FORM.

WEEK #455

(One Question.)

Life's Simple Pleasures asks: Has the pandemic turned you into a gardener? Be it flowers/leafy plants as a hobby or a vege gardener for food??

Since I continued working through the pandemic, I didn't add gardening as a hobby, even though I love it. However, I added six decent size plants from my husband's funeral last May. I now consider my front room with those plants as my little garden of remembrance.

Image found at Greenhouse Product News.

Thanks to those who are sending in Questions. DON'T BE SHY! Surely everyone has a Q or two you'd like to ask. Input suggestions in this Suggested Question Form. At the end of each month, I draw from the suggestions I used during the month and that person will get a 1/2 book choice or $2.50 towards GC. I thank everyone for submitting questions. Thanks for sending in questions! The supply of questions is dwindling so share some if you think of any -- even if they are duplicates I'll weed through or try to modify them.
November question was provided by LIFE'S SIMPLE PLEASURES who gets a GC credit.

Your turn to share. Life's Simple Pleasures asks: Has the pandemic turned you into a gardener? Be it flowers/leafy plants as a hobby or a vege gardener for food??
SBB Comment Winners can choose a selection from the Updated ARC and Other books, including the "Love" and Christmas titles all in one post.

SBB Rules:
a) Must be a follower.
b) Share a comment on the question above.
Open internationally and an international winner may get a smaller book or a $5.00 GC if I decide the mailing is too much.
The deadline is a month, until March 11, 2023.
I will pick a Comment winner from all comments made through Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 5 PM central.

Audible Book Review: How Great Science Fiction Works by Gary K. Wolfe

This course is very informative. I am glad I listened to it and got the pdf before the free download became unavailable in my library.
How Great Science Fiction Works
By: Gary K. Wolfe, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Gary K. Wolfe

Series: The Great Courses: Genre Fiction
Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
Lecture
Release date: 01-08-16
Publisher: The Great Courses
Genre: Nonfiction, Science Fiction
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 4.5.

Publisher's Summary
Robots, spaceships, futuristic megacities, planets orbiting distant stars. These icons of science fiction are now in our daily news. Science fiction, once maligned as mere pulp, has motivated cutting-edge scientific research, inspired new technologies, and changed how we view everyday life - and its themes and questions permeate popular culture. Take an unparalleled look at the influence, history, and greatest works of science fiction with illuminating insights and fascinating facts about this wide-ranging genre. If you think science fiction doesn't have anything to do with you, this course deserves your attention. And if you love science fiction, you can't miss this opportunity to trace the arc of science fiction's evolution, understand the hallmarks of great science fiction, and delve deeply into classics while finding some new favorites.
These 24 captivating lectures reveal the qualities that make science fiction an enduring phenomenon that has been steadily gaining popularity. You'll grasp the context and achievements of authors like Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. LeGuin, and many more. You'll experience the wonder, horror, and incredible imagination of works like Frankenstein, the Foundation series, Stranger in a Strange Land, and dozens of more recent stories as well. You'll also see this genre's influence in movies like Star Wars and TV shows like The Twilight Zone.
Science fiction can take us places in time and space where no other form of fiction can - outer space, the far future, alternate universes, unfathomable civilizations. The best science fiction expands our imaginations and makes its mark on our reality. And while few writers would ever claim to predict the future, sometimes authors get it almost eerily right: Gernsback describing radar in 1911, Bradbury describing giant flatscreen TVs in 1951, Gibson inventing "cyberspace" in 1984, and so on.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2016 The Great Courses (P)2016 The Teaching Company, LLC

Review:
This lecture is very informative on the history of science fiction writing themes, notable authors and their works. The material is presented in logical groupings, and it kept my interest. It supplies a great resource for me to look for more authors and works in the genre that I will want to read/listen to. What this course DID NOT clearly include, though implied by the title, is what writing features make great science fiction. I know that I have often commented on the “irony” aspects of science fiction stories that I read. I was hoping to learn the elements of the genre to look for as I read.

There were some genre features shared such as the fact that science fiction is deemed to be a category presenting future worlds although time travel and alternate worlds fit too. Science fiction is distinguished from fantasy which generally contains more world building than connection to possible realities. The material presented described the creative use of futuristic technologies that often became real in a matter of years. It made me wonder if science developed on the creative ideas or if the authors had leaks of real projects.

Another part of the features that did contribute to the writing of science fiction are subsets such as the various means to make space travel possible and “The Artifact” as a specific theme to build stories on. The course also covers post-apocalyptic and dystopian themes. I enjoyed hearing authors and titles that I am familiar with. And now have more to look for. I do recommend this to anyone interested in the history of science fiction.

Audio Notes: The author does a good job narrating this lecture material. As noted in my comments above, the material is grouped well and makes the listening move along well. I am glad that I got to listen to the free book while available in my library. But I am also very glad to have the pdf available for future resource material.

Source: September 2022 Audible Plus Catalog. This qualifies for 2023TBR, 2023Audiobook, 2023Alphabet, and 2023Nonfiction goals.

Audible Book Review: The Last Tribe by Brad Manuel

I liked this post-apocalyptic which is full of characters and survival rather than guns and gore.

The Last Tribe
By: Brad Manuel
Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 22 hrs and 42 mins
Release date: 06-14-16
Publisher: Podium Audio
Genre: Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.25; Narration 4.25.

Publisher's Summary
Imagine being alone in the world, one of only a handful to survive a global pandemic. Not only do you struggle to find food, water, and shelter but you also deal with the sadness and losing everyone you know and everything you have.
Fourteen-year-old Greg Dixon is living that nightmare. Attending boarding school outside of Boston, he is separated from his family when a pandemic strikes. His classmates and teachers are dead, rotting in a dormitory-turned-morgue steps from his room. The nights are getting colder, and his food has run out. The last message from his father is to get away from the city and to meet at his grandparents' town in remote New Hampshire. Knowing the impending New England winter could be the final nail in his coffin, Greg packs what little food he can find and sets off on his 100-mile walk north with the unwavering belief that his family is alive and will join him.
As the fast-moving and deadly disease strips away family and friends, Greg's father, John, is trapped in South Carolina. Roadblocks, a panic-stricken population, and winter make it impossible for him to get to his son. John and his three brothers appear to be immune, but they are scattered across a locked-down United States, forced to wait for the end of humanity before travelling to the mountains of New Hampshire.
Spring arrives, and the Dixons make their way north to find young Greg. They meet others along the way, slowly forming the last tribe of humanity from the few people still alive in the Northeast.
©2015 Brad Manuel (P)2016 Podium Publishing.

Review:
A fast-moving global pandemic has eliminated most of the people within two months. There is no clear reason why certain people survive and others do not. Surprisingly in this world, four Dixon brothers seem to be immune. Even more surprising, one of their wives survived too. The four brothers are spread across the Eastern United States from South Carolina to Ohio. John, Todd, Paul, and Hank agree to meet in the spring at their childhood home in Hanover, New Hampshire.

John is in Charleston, with two of his sons who survived. His fourteen-year-old son, Greg, is away at boarding school in Massachusetts. In their last phone call John told Greg to get to Hanover to wait for the rest of the Dixon men. After all of the others at his school appear to be dead, Greg sets out alone on his journey north. Along the way he is stunned to stumble upon another living person. Thirteen-year-old Rebecca is a young genius who is determined to survive.

Paul and Hank live in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, respectively. They react differently when their wives and children die leaving them alone. They have to decide how to travel north and whether they should travel before winter.

Todd lives in Raleigh and is relived that his wife, Emily, and two young sons, have survived. Emily is determined to continue to educate their boys even as they travel to meet the rest of the family. They have a surprising visit to the Governor’s house before they proceed on their journey, adding some interesting companions along the way.

John and his sons have the furthest distance to travel. Young adult, Matt is prepared to help his father as soon as they can get control of young Craig who is suffering grief and anxious to get to Greg. When they get Craig focused on fishing, he can add his skills to their survival.

A handful of other survivors are discovered along the various journeys. There is a fine dilemma between finding others to rebuild society and finding others who are safe to trust. This is a totally character driven post apocalyptic story. Rebecca, the child genius, and extreme organizer, is a fascinating character. The other characters are well developed I was engaged by the character interactions which kept the story interesting. Although there is no heavy action, I enjoyed all of the survival observations and techniques.  I recommend this to post-apocalyptic survival fans who would enjoy character strengths as a change of pace.

Audio Notes: Scott Brick is a talented narrator. He delivers clear voices and appropriate emotion. I enjoyed the audio entertainment.

Source: 05/17/2020 Audible Credit pick. This qualifies for 2023TBR, 2023Audiobook, and 2023Alphabet goal.

Audible Book Review: Forging Zero: The Legend of ZERO by Sara King

This is a good space sci fi.
Forging Zero: The Legend of ZERO
By: Sara King
Narrated by: Liam Owen

Series: Legend of ZERO, Book 1
Length: 21 hours and 54 minutes
Published: December 17, 2013 by Sara King
Genre: First Contact, Science Fiction, Space Exploration
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.25; Narration 4.25.

The Legend of Zero begins the epic journey of 14-year-old Joe Dobbs in a post-apocalyptic universe following a massive alien invasion of Earth. The oldest of the children drafted from humanity's devastated planet, Joe is impressed into service by the alien Congressional Ground Force - and becomes the unwitting centerpiece in a millennia-long alien struggle for independence.
Once his training begins, one of the elusive and prophetic Trith appears to give Joe a spine-chilling prophecy that the universe has been anticipating for millions of years: Joe will be the one to finally shatter the vast alien government known as Congress. And the Trith cannot lie. But first Joe has to make it through bootcamp.

Review:
Joe Dobbs accidentally got impressed into service by aliens who take children to train as expendable military forces. Joe is 14 which is above the age they take but he got pulled into the ship after he attacked the aliens. Bootcamp is hard. The alien troop leaders are pretty harsh and most of them would be glad to kill Joe in training. But one supervisor has received a prophesy that makes him think that Joe is part of the future to destroy the Congress government. This creates a quandary because he isn’t sure if he wants to allow Joe to fulfill the prophesy or just kill him now.

As the oldest of the captured children, Joe tends to take care of the younger kids. His small team of kids begins to look up to him and trust him to lead them safely. But at some point they are going to find out that he has kept his prophesy a secret and some may see that as a betrayal.

I did have a little confusion early in the story trying to figure out which of the aliens were good and which bad. I enjoyed the relationships that developed between the children. The level of growth in Joe’s personality, and reluctant determination to shield his team, was intriguing. Initially this seems like a good story for young people, but then it adds suffering, sexual content, and graphic violence that might not be comfortable for all readers. I became invested in the characters and was sad when they became disillusioned and separated.

The author tells the story from Joe’s view and the reader, like Joe, is unaware of a lot of the political intrigues that are going on. The last quarter of the book rushes forward in time, skipping a lot of the time during which Joe’s character and position change. This was a bit awkward and disappointing. The end leaves the door open for more adventures but I am sorry that the books are not available in audio format. It is less likely that I will continue with the series in digital. I recommend this to fans of first contact and space exploration stories.

Audio Notes: I enjoyed the narration by Liam Owen. The voice and energy fit the characters for the most part – I’m not so sure there was strong distinction among the alien characters. I am very glad I had this on audio and wish the next in the series was available in audio format.

Source: 11/28/2016 Audible Sale. This qualifies for 2023TBR, 2023Audiobook, 2023Alphabet, and 2023Numbers goals.