Sunday Words of Encouragement December 30, 2018

Our Sunday School teacher continued the lessons in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 where Paul addresses marriage and divorce. He also noted Malachi 2:15-16 where it states that God hates divorce and wants Godly children from marriage. There was some discussion about the difficulties of divorce and its impact on children. It was noted that there are times that divorce is favorable to take a child away from a very abusive situation, so they can be raised in a Godly manner.

We enjoyed praise and worship in service before Pastor’s end of the year sermon. He noted that most of us seek to start a new year with a new plan; to make or do things better. He encouraged us to look back, even at the hard parts of 2018, and celebrate what God has brought us through.
He stated that true thankfulness can bring a fresh attitude for the new year.

He asked: “What does God say about thankfulness.” The old testament is full of ritual systems for celebration and giving thanks. Often readers of the Bible stories can draw a line from unthankfulness to sin.

Thankfulness is a key ingredient to an obedient, worshipful heart. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 admonishes the believers to always be thankful.

Point A thankful life is the only way of life for the healthy Christ-follower.

The Psalms are full of praise and thanksgiving.

Thankfulness pours out of healthy Christ followers.
Thankfulness shrinks the parts of us identified as the flesh. We are not to love worldly things but to do the will of God. 1John 2:15-17.
Thankfulness reduces our tendency to feel entitlement.
Thankfulness reduces our lust for what the world offers.
Thankfulness raises the value of what we already have, and Who it came from.
Thankfulness puts us in our right place and God in His right place.

God gives everything to us, including our very breath! Shouldn’t we use that breath and life to give Him thanks?

Nothing does more to express our thankful attitude than bringing the tithe as directed by God.
God gave us the ultimate gift in the sacrifice of His son.
We always have all we need to be thankful, if we focus on Christ’s gift.

2018 brought unexpected, unplanned events into our lives. Still, we can exercise thankfulness.
Pastor challenged us to consider Psalm 136 then make a point today to think of three specific things to be thankful for, beyond the obvious of life and family.

I was ready to post a different praise song but this one tugged on me.
Perhaps someone who reads this post needs to remember this song.
Praise You in This Storm.

Verses for Today:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 136:1 and 26
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.


26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.

One of my selections for thankfulness today: I give thanks for the assurance and peace in my soul when I remember that God is in Control!

Sharing Beyond Books #359 Comment Giveaway December 29, 2018

Hello again and Welcome back to the last Sharing Beyond Books, SBB, of 2018.

Thanks to everyone who commented last week.
Nine commenters say "no" to FB and 5 more say it is not necessary to follow on FB but 3 of those find advantages to following on FB, One finds it a good idea, while four are following favorite authors on FB. Several prefer newsletters and some like to follow on instagram (see cute kitty pics) and on twitter.

The Winner from SBB #358 comments is: #11 MaryP 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. -- [12/15/18 I am pulling out some new Christmas and Love titles to add to the Win box choices. I had to move the books due to the water threat in office. I will dig them out again soon.]

**NOTE: I did post an Updated ARC and Other books for Giveaways. I have to go back and list the titles -- someday.
Please let me know your choice by completing the WINNER FORM.

WEEK #359

(One Question.)

MaryP asks: Do you have a favorite childhood book that you have re-read as an adult??

I don't often re-read (except when reading with the grandchildren). However I do have some childhood books (before age 10) that come to mind for re-reading. These will age me because they are books popular in the 1950s. These include: Black Beauty; Smokey, a Cow Horse; Charlotte's Web; Aesop's Fables; The Little Prince; The Just So Stories and Winnie the Pooh.
[Perhaps another day we can share books we read ages 10-18; and then books read in college.]

Image found at Wikipedia.

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 book choice or 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.
Credit for questions shared in December go to NIKKI, MIKI and MARYP. Thank you.

Your turn to share. MaryP asks: Do you have a favorite childhood book that you have re-read as an adult??

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.
I will pick a Comment winner from all comments made through Saturday January 12, 2019 at 5 PM central.

#NetGalley Book Review: 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks from Fresh Eggs Daily: Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for You and your Hen by Lisa Steele

This was fun with some good images and tips.
101 Chicken Keeping Hacks from Fresh Eggs Daily:
Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for You and your Hen
by Lisa Steele

File Size: 40368 KB
Print Length: 176 pages
Publisher: Voyageur Press (October 9, 2018)
ASIN: B07HKWDS55
Genre: Animal Husbandry, DIY, Nonfiction, Reference
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

Spoil your chickens and beautify your coop with 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks from Fresh Eggs Daily.
Join Lisa Steele, chicken-keeper extraordinaire and founder of Fresh Eggs Daily, on a behind-the-coop tour like you've never seen. Lisa has spent years figuring out the best ways to keep chickens healthy, the natural way, and she's collected more than just your average tips.
101 Chicken Keeping Hacks from Fresh Eggs Daily includes simple ideas for re-using and upcycling old items, as well as detailed information on using natural ingredients to enhance and improve your chickens' lives without breaking the bank.
This guide includes these handy ideas and much more:
Feeding: Try homemade scratch, growing fodder, or frozen treats
The Run: Make a chicken swing or DIY scarecrow
Chicken Health: Find ideas for boredom busters, homemade salves, and herbal teas
The Coop: Keep it clean with a natural coop cleaner and make your own coop curtains
The Garden: Build an herb drying rack or brew a batch of chicken poop “tea”
So what are you waiting for? Make your chickens the happiest birds on the block!

Review:
Since we have added our hen house this year, I thought this would be a good book to read. I loved the pictures of fluffy chickens, including some on swings and wearing tutus! There are good tips for cleaning the coop, the chickens and the eggs. There are some homemade recipes for food treats, herbal teas (I’m excited to try these) and homemade salves. I like the suggestion of sanitizing lotion at the pen. I am very careful to wash my hands anytime I pet the chickens (yes, they like to be petted), collect eggs or touch the coop and run gates.

I made note of herbs and treats that are healthy and those that are poisonous to chickens. the I know I won’t implement all of the ideas, but there are healthy ones and fun ones. I might not be making curtains to spruce up our coop but I will try the frozen treats. And I hope to get hubby to make a swing for the chickens to play on. The recycling ideas are wonderful too - wish I had more time for those. I certainly can recommend this to new chicken breeders and to those who love to learn fun ideas and things about chickens.

Source: 2018 NetGalley. This qualifies for NetGalley Challenge.

#NetGalley Book Review: Slay Bells: A Christmas Village Mystery by T.C. Wescott

This is a solid cozy mystery with some fun characters and mysterious deaths to unravel.

Slay Bells: A Christmas Village Mystery
by T.C. Wescott

File Size: 3376 KB
Print Length: 230 pages
Publisher: Better Mousetrap Books (November 23, 2018)
ASIN: B07HGG7ZFR
Genre: Christmas, Cozy Mystery
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

“If there is a list of perfect books for Christmas, then I am pretty sure Slay Bells is on that list.” – GOODREADS review
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the village, the night settled in over swirling-smoke chimneys.
The air was alive with pine and with holly, with sugar and cinnamon and cider, by golly!
Along snowy lanes and through shadows it crept, past windows behind which each villager slept,
Where sleeping dogs lie and cats rest a’purring—
Tonight, in Christmas Village, a killer is stirring.
Nestled betwixt an opulent garden with meandering footpaths and an ancient grove of plum trees, Plum Cottage Inn is plum-full with lodgers in for the Christmas Festival. There are no vacancies...until one by one the lodgers start dying in inexplicable ways.
Short as a stump, round as a wheel, sweet as a candy cane, and a sharp as a whip, Maribel Claus loves a good puzzle. Can Mrs. Claus solve the mystery and save Christmas?
If you enjoy the classic Golden Age small village and English country house mysteries as well as lighthearted cozies of our present day, you will fall in love with the Christmas Village Mysteries. And your love affair starts right here with Slay Bells.
Slay Bells includes diagrams of the murder scenes and a one-of-a-kind BOOK GROUP CHALLENGE.

Review:
Plum Cottage Inn is housing a traveling troupe that is in town as entertainment for the Christmas Festival. The troupe includes a magician, a strongman, a juggler who walks on stilts, an acrobat and a fortuneteller. The troupe leader is a tyrannical, complaining man who is assisted by the troupe’s efficient arranger. The Inn’s proprietor, Rose, is happy to share local myths and folklore and is busy with holiday preparations until she injures her ankle. Fortunately, her very good friend, Maribel Claus, steps in to help. That puts Maribel, who is a keen observer and lover of puzzles, in the middle of the mystery when death comes knocking.

The first victim is the unpleasant troupe leader who has no shortage of people who would be glad to see him gone. He is discovered on the top of a small hill outside of the Inn with no evidence of footprints or obvious murder weapon. This creates the first puzzle that pulls Maribel in to help the local sheriff to his frustration and reluctant acknowledgment of her skills. The investigation is serious in its efforts even as they try to ignore a local character who insists that monsters of folklore have descended on the town.

Several of the troupe members are easily suspected but the authorities are struggling to put together definitive evidence. A second murder occurs leaving another puzzling path as there are no footsteps leading to the spot of death other than the victim and then the footprints leading away from the body don’t match any of the suspects.

I enjoyed the cozy writing style although the beginning seemed a little busy and full of characters. As the book proceeds the characters are sorted out with the help of the investigation. It was fun to have the clues and theories bounced around committee consisting of the sheriff, his deputy, the town mayor, a local professor and, of course, Maribel. This is a solid cozy mystery and I recommend to fans of the genre.

Source: 2018 NetGalley. This qualifies for NetGalley Challenge.

#NetGalley and Audible Book Review: The Trouble with Twelfth Grave by Darynda Jones

This was a good entry in the series.
The Trouble with Twelfth Grave
A Novel
By: Darynda Jones
Narrated by: Lorelei King

Series: Charley Davidson, Book 12
Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 10-31-17
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Fantasy, Ghosts, Private Investigator
My Rating: 4.5 Overall; 4.25 Story; 5.0 Narration

The Trouble with Twelfth Grave: A Novel (Charley Davidson Series Book 12) Kindle Edition

Publisher's Summary
Grim Reaper Charley Davidson is back in the 12th installment of Darynda Jones' New York Times best-selling paranormal series, The Trouble with Twelfth Grave.
Ever since Reyes Farrow escaped from a hell dimension in which Charley Davidson accidentally trapped him, the son of Satan has been brimstone-bent on destroying the world his heavenly Brother created. His volatile tendencies have put Charley in a bit of a pickle. But that's not the only briny vegetable on her plate. While trying to domesticate the feral being that used to be her husband, she also has to deal with her everyday life of annoying all manner of beings - some corporeal, some not so much - as she struggles to right the wrongs of society. Only this time she's not uncovering a murder. This time she's covering one up.
Add to that her new occupation of keeping a start-up PI venture - the indomitable mystery-solving team of Amber Kowalski and Quentin Rutherford - out of trouble and dealing with the Vatican's inquiries into her beloved daughter, and Charley is on the brink of throwing in the towel and becoming a professional shopper. Or possibly a live mannequin. But when someone starts attacking humans who are sensitive to the supernatural world, Charley knows it's time to let loose her razor-sharp claws. Then again, her number one suspect is the dark entity she's loved for centuries. So the question becomes: Can she tame the unruly beast before it destroys everything she's worked so hard to protect?
©2017 Darynda Jones (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Review:
Charley’s husband, Reyes, has returned from the hell dimension as a wrathful, brimstone satanic god set on destroying Charley’s world. Charley is convinced that the better side of Reyes is still within the evil Rey’aziel but God’s archangel, Michael, has given her a time limit to control Reyes or he must be eliminated. Charley and her friends, Cookie, Osh, Garrett and ghost Angel, plot out how to capture Reyes.

Charley is also trying to help her Uncle Bob investigate bizarre deaths where the victims are strangely burned. Charley is desperately hoping that the killer isn’t her fiery husband.

Meanwhile Charley is dealing with the mundane mysteries of her private investigation business, including trying to help clients sort out the ghostly beings in their homes. Additionally, she has to protect a friend who had an unfortunate connection with an overbearing, possessive and abusive man who has ended up dead. On top of all of that, her best friend’s daughter, Amber, is starting her own investigation agency to pursue troubles at school.

There is plenty to keep the reader interested in this volume. I enjoyed seeing so many of Charley’s friends, including her supernatural rottweiler, Artemis, and her asylum friends, Rocket and Blue. Even Beep is threatened and makes a brief appearance. There is good tension and a few surprises. All of the action made it worthwhile getting past the one fairly steamy scene. The book ends with a customary zinger so I am certainly anxious to see how the author wraps up this series in the final book.

Audio Notes: Lorelei King is the voice of Charley and her cohorts. Her narration is spot on as usual and adds to the emotion of the story.

Source(s) NetGalley 2018 and Audible Sale Purchase November 2018. I am counting this towards NetGalley and Audio Challenges.

My reviews for books one through eleven can be read under this link.