Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado

There are giants everywhere but we are not grasshoppers in our minds.  With all the power of Heaven at our disposal and the sword of the spirit in our hands, we can defeat any enemy that comes against us.

In Max Lucado’s book called Facing Your Giants, he takes the life of David and shares secrets and insights that can help us face the giants in our lives. 

We have all heard the story of David and Goliath. David was the skinny little freckle faced shepherd boy completely out of his element on the battlefield. Goliath was a nine-foot giant that had a little too much pride and confidence in his ability.  But David had something Goliath didn’t have with all his physical abilities, the power of God backing him up.  When David saw Goliath on top of the hill, he didn’t slink back and hide like the rest of the army.  Instead, he called upon his God and ran toward his giant picking up five smooth stones as he ran and slinging his slingshot.  Even with a nonsophisticated weapon, he was able to hit Goliath where he wasn’t protected and kill him.

As Max points out in this book, even later in David’s life when he fell short and lost sight of God, he was always able to come back and face his giants and receive God’s forgiveness.   God is always there waiting to forgive and restore your life but you have to face your problems, not run away from them.

The only part of you that is not protected with the armor of God is your backside.  God intended for us to face our giants head on not running away from them where they have a target to hit.

These days we don’t have nine-foot giants to face and kill. We have debt, worry, sickness, anger, bitterness, failures, and fear.  But if we take David’s advice, we can cast our cares and let God fight our battles. We will always win with him on our side as long as we don’t run.  But we have to stay focused on God and his Word. 

I will leave you with a quote from this book:

            Focus on Giants – You Stumble

            Focus on God – Your Giants Tumble

I hope you will read this book and learn how to follow David’s example and conquer any Goliath you have facing you today! 

You can purchase this book here.

Trial by Fire by Terri Blackstock

Amid all the difficult circumstances that life throws my way, I always find it relaxing at the end of a hard day to stretch out with a good book.  I just completed the fourth book in the Newpointe 911 series by Terri Blackstock called Trial by Fire.

This book centers on Nick Foster who is both a firefighter and the pastor in Newpointe, Louisiana.  When they get the call that his church is on fire, they rush to the scene in hopes of saving the building that means so much to the entire town.  Once they arrive on the scene, Nick sees that the whole building is engulfed but he charges in amidst the flames to make sure no one is trapped.  After sustaining burns to his arms and legs, he frees a young man from the building only to find that the kid has a bullet hole through his head.  He didn’t just die in the fire; this is a murder.

The local paramedic, Issie Mattreaux, is the complete opposite of Nick with a wild lifestyle and a record of poor choices.  After the fire at the church she begins searching for her nephew, Jake, who has went missing.  But what she finds will put her life and those close to her in danger.  When an attempt is made on Issie’s life, she doesn’t know who else to call so she calls Nick.  In an ironic twist, the preacher and the town sinner will have to stick together to stay alive. Can Nick keep her alive long enough to share his faith with her and just maybe find the girl of his dreams beneath Issie’s tough exterior?

This is a great book that will have you hanging onto every word!

You can purchase this book here.

Word of Honor by Terri Blackstock

Word of Honor is the third book in the Newpointe 911 series by Terri Blackstock.  This book focuses on the local attorney Jill Clark and her old flame, Dan Nichols.  When a bomb goes off in the downtown post office killing three people and leaving a five-year-old boy lying comatose in the hospital. 

The man seen leaving the scene of the bombing breaks into Jill’s hotel room and holds her hostage while trying to figure out his next move.  The whole time she is being held hostage, her captor keeps telling her he is innocent but he will not give police the name of anyone else.  To get out of the gunman’s hands, Jill agrees to represent him. However, once outside she backs out of her promise.

With the suspected bomber in jail, things get rocky when there are multiple attempts made on her life and it becomes clear that he may not be the bomber or at least not acted alone. Jill starts digging deeper into the case with Dan’s assistance but finds that to solve it, she must dig deeper into the Bible and find out what a covenant really is.

This is a high action book that I highly recommend!

You can find out more here.

Shadow of Doubt by Terri Blackstock

Hello Fellow Readers!! Summer will soon be here with its warm weather and sunshine.  People will be outside mowing yards, working in gardens, and swimming in pools of chlorinated water.  However, I hope you take the time to stop and have a seat in a comfy chair in the sunshine and curl up with a good book. I have never found anything quite as relaxing as that. I hope you will decide to read some of these books I have been recommending. In case you do, I have another book for you! 

This is the second book in the Newpointe 911 series by Terri Blackstock.  If you have been reading my blog for long you will have noticed I like to read series.  This series has a total of five books that I will be posting about, but for now let me tell you a little about the second one called Shadow of Doubt.

The only detective in the small town of Newpointe, Louisiana is rushed to the hospital for arsenic poisoning.  As he is laying in a coma, the police investigating the crime look to his wife, Celia, for answers.  Although as the town soon find out, Celia is no stranger to arsenic poisoning. Her first husband died after being poisoned. Celia was arrested for the crime but got off on a technicality.  Now it seems with all the evidence piling up against her, no one believes in her innocence except her attorney, Jill.  But Jill is having a few doubts herself.  Could Celia really have poisoned both of her husbands or is this just an elaborate set-up.  With no one in town believing in her innocence, Celia must turn to God and trust that he will work everything out.

This is a great book that will have you on the edge of your seat! I highly recommend! 

Find out more and purchase here! 

Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Attitude is everything! It can mean the difference between a life of happiness and fulfillment and a life of utter torment.  Everybody gets knocked down, everyone makes mistakes, and everyone gets hurt sometimes.  But it is how you deal with the hurt and step back up to the plate to take another swing at the balls life throws at you that will mean the difference.

It IS possible to be positive in the midst of a bad day or troubling circumstances. Even if you think you are the lowest of the low, you still have something to be thankful for. Just that you are saved and one of God’s chosen children is reason to rejoice!  I love horses and the one thing you will hear when you are around them is if you get bucked off, get right back on. Don’t ever end the lesson on a negative note. It will instill fear in you and make it more difficult to climb back in the saddle the next time.  Life is just a long ride across the prairie toward the horizon.  You will undoubtedly encounter some clouds and rain, maybe even a few tornadoes and hurricanes.  But as long as your faith is in Jesus, you will come out on the other side stronger than you were before.

This book by Max Lucado called Great Day Every Day: Navigating Life’s Challenges with Promise and Purpose talks about giving everyday a chance.  He speaks about the importance of seeing the good in the midst of the bad no matter how small.  He tells a story about a young soldier that was imprisoned in the Vietnam War.  He had plenty of reason to give up hope but the one thing that got him through his seven years in a Vietnamese prison was laying on his stomach on the dirt floor and staring at a tiny leaf of green grass growing in the midst of all the turmoil and death.  He focused on the positive and not the negative. 

Sometimes blessings and good things can surround you yet you focus on the negative. Take Eve for example.  She was in the Garden of Eden, the most beautiful place on earth. She could have lived her life wanting nothing, just tending to the garden God had placed there for them. But she chose to focus on the one fruit that God commanded her not to eat.  What she focused on was the difference between an easy life and a hard life.

If you want to know more and really change how you look at life and the troubles and roadblocks that pop up along the way, I highly recommend you read this book with an open mind.  Remember, it’s all about perspective! 

You can purchase this book here.

Private Justice by Terri Blackstock

Happy Easter Everyone!!! Today I want to tell you about a book that recently finished reading called Private Justice by Terri Blackstock.  This is the first of five books in the Newpointe 911 series. 

In the small close-knit town of Newpointe, Louisiana, terror is running loose.  There is a serial killer stalking this community. He has a definite mode of operation: kill with a bullet and then burn in a house fire set with diesel fuel as the accelerant. Who is the killer targeting?  He is targeting the wives of the local firemen.

Mark Branning, one of the firefighters in Newpointe, knows that his wife may be next on the killers list.  He is determined to protect her but that is not as easy as it appears because they are currently separated and their marriage is crumbling fast.  Will it be possible for Mark to get his life right with God and be able to get his wife to trust him so he can protect her?  Will Allie be able to forgive Mark and possibly reconcile their relationship? Will they have the time to work out their differences and get their lives back on track before the killer strikes again?

This is a book that will have you on the edge of your seat waiting for what happens next.  I started this book and got to chapter thirty-eight before I was able to stop and take a break! Although this is a fictional story, it has many good points that will bless you. It's a story of forgiveness, love, and true selflessness. You can do anything in life as long as you put God first! 

You can find out more here.

Silent Pledge by Hannah Alexander

Hello again fellow readers!! I have been on vacation for a week but now I am back and ready to tell you about another book that I have finished reading! A few weeks ago, I posted about Sacred Trust and Solemn Oath by Hannah Alexander.  If you missed those reviews, feel free to go back and read them. These are two great books!

Today I want to tell you about the third and final book in this series called Silent Pledge. This book continues with the story of ER doctor Lukas Bower and Dr. Mercy Richmond.  After the fire that destroyed the Knolls Community Hospital ER in the last book, Dr. Bower has taken a temporary position in an ER about 3 hours away from the people he cares about.  He soon discovers that he made a mistake in coming here. He is having to battle unethical co-workers and incompetent hospital management, unlike his wonderful staff in Knolls.

Meanwhile, with the ER temporarily closed and being remodeled, Dr. Mercy Richmond has turned her office into a temporary ER as well.  She constantly has to make time for her daughter in the middle of this influx in patients with Dr. Bower out of town.  As Lukas is struggling with whether or not to tell Mercy about his feelings for her, Mercy’s ex-husband tries to get to know his daughter again and has some surprises waiting for him when a simple physical and blood test show some things he nor his family were prepared for.  Can their faith get them through the hard times that lie ahead?

Read the book and find out! You won't be disappointed! 

You can purchase this book here.