THE WRITING DESK – by Rachel Hauck

RACHEL HAUCK

 The Writing Desk

by Rachel Hauck

 

Ebook: 418 pages, Publisher: Zondervan (July 11, 2017).

ISBN: 0310341590 & ASIN: B01MRJJ0N2. Price: $10.90

 

The Writing Desk by Rachel Hauck is about the connected multigenerational stories of two lady writers from two different eras and two very different worlds, separated by relentless time and fiery circumstances, who achieve their goals with indomitable courage, defying all odds and braving obstacles. Fate binds them together irrevocably in a way time cannot erase. This faith-based book, with its beautifully integrated spiritual content, has wide-spread appeal for its extremely meaningful story, well-developed characters, intriguing storylines and surprise plot twists, blending the mysterious past with the predictable present, to create a captivating tale of enduring love, strong faith, forgiveness, and the beauty of second chances.

HOME TO CHAPEL SPRINGS – by Ane Mulligan

“Home to Chapel Springs” by Ane Mulligan has the most perfect, picturesque, small-town charm anywhere. The people are dynamic and enterprising in their growth, smartness and ingenuity. Ane turns phrases with dexterity, making lavish use of in-vogue colloquialisms and fast humor, to drive her readers to laughter and tears, as the story lines twist and turn effortlessly, intricately spinning the beautiful tale of charming people who love God. This is an inspiring story of faith, with a touch of humor, a dab of mystery, silent heartache and poignant tears. We marvel at the peculiar quirkiness of the town’s people and take delight in the every day drama, mysterious intrigue, and lighthearted romance of their lives. Brimming with delightful humor, wit, intelligence, shrewdness, astuteness, cleverness, candidness, common sense, wisdom, sagacity, judgment, acumen and insight, “Home to Chapel Springs” entertains its readers from a dramatic, inspiring start to a flourishing, spellbound finish. Ane Mulligan is the perfect storyteller, an amazing author who knows how to create a charming novel for her readers to enjoy. Ane has a natural aptitude and sparkling wit to use words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create dashing humor, wittiness, drollery, jokes, witticisms, quips and puns to delight her readers and render her novels unforgettable!

Miriam Jacob

Home to Chapel Springs by Ane Mulligan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Prophetess – Deborah’s Story – by Jill Eileen Smith

Bold, outspoken and fearless as Israel’s most powerful woman, Deborah has faith in God but cannot see the hidden potential in her own life. As an Israelite woman, the mundane tasks of life seem to be more than sufficient to occupy her time and energy. But God has a unique plan for Deborah. He calls her to deliver her people from the oppression and constant terror of Canaan’s armies for twenty years. Will her family understand and her people believe in God’s calling upon her life? Jill Eileen Smith’s impeccable research and imaginative storytelling brings to life the mystical figure of Deborah in an intriguing and inspiring novel, giving vivid voice to the woman at the center of Israel’s victory over Canaan. This is a tale of indomitable courage, determination, fearless strength and passionate faith that bears the utmost significance and relevance for all ages.

Be Confident in Your Calling – by Nathan D. Thomas

In “Be Confident in Your Calling,” Nathan Thomas writes with warmth, simplicity and an incredibly helpful spirit. The thoughts and ideas presented are excellent. The Lord has a certain plan and calling for each one of us. This book is a real encouragement and strength for every Christian. Jesus Christ is the answer to all our problems. He is our guide through life. Here is a book with very simple truths, filled with encouragement, insightful quotes, questions, and personal reflections.

WAITING FOR WONDER – Learning to Live on God’s Timeline – by Marlo Schalesky

WAITING FOR WONDER – Learning to Live on God’s Timeline

by Marlo Schalesky

Publisher: Abingdon Press,

15 Nov 2016.

Paperback: 272 pages.

ISBN: 9781501820106. Price: $16.99

Ebook: 224 pages.

ISBN: 9781501820113. Price: $16.99

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marlo Schalesky is an award-winning author of 10 books, fiction and non-fiction, including “Wrestling with Wonder: A Transformational Journey through the Life of Mary” (Zondervan) and “Waiting for Wonder: Learning to Live on God’s Timetable” (Abingdon Press). Over 1,000 of Marlo’s articles are published in Christian magazines, including Focus on the Family, Today’s Christian Woman and In Touch. A graduate of Stanford University, she earned her Masters in Theology, with an emphasis in Biblical Studies, from Fuller Theological Seminary. Marlo is the founder and president of Wonder Wood Ranch, a California charitable organization bringing hope to a hurting community through horses.

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REVIEW BY MIRIAM JACOB

Sarah, wife of the Biblical patriarch, Abraham, waited for wonder in her wilderness. Weary and worn-out with endless waiting, she had given up all hope of ever seeing God’s promises fulfilled in her life. With rich insights and refreshing hope, this book transforms Sarah’s deep-rooted weariness into stunning, eye-opening wonder to see God’s sacred plans and purposes unfold in her personal wilderness of waiting. Sarah’s decades-long, wearisome wait for God’s promises to happen in her life is heartrending and utterly riveting. New hope springs up in her heart to see God at work, hemming her in with wonder, as she waited for God’s wonder-working power to unfold, when life’s trials hit home mercilessly, threatening to engulf and submerge her in its devastating deluge. Waiting for Wonder is all about hope in the midst of despair as we read Sarah’s passionate story of agonizing heartache, bitter struggle and seemingly endless waiting upon God.

God’s timing is not our own. We believe God when His promise is new but as the long, seemingly endless years pass by and nothing really changes, desperation strikes our hearts. Yet, as we are Waiting for Wonder, God calls us to experience the Wonder of Waiting. We miss the wonder of God’s plan when we struggle to wait. Abraham’s wife, Sarah knew what it meant to wait. God gives us strength to hope against hope and pray for the desires of our heart to be fulfilled. Waiting for Wonder takes us into the heart of God to ask questions and discover God’s answers, to appreciate God’s plan for our lives and refresh our spirits, to rekindle our hope and renew our trust in God’s promises, and to learn to wait for God’s time.

Rich spiritual insights in this life-transforming book will fill you with wide eye-opening wonder as you clearly see God’s divine purposes in your wilderness of waiting. Are you Waiting for Wonder? As you wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life, fresh new hope will spring up in your life, when God hems you in with wonder on every side. This inspiring book touches our hearts as we are Waiting for Wonder from God. It is all about hope, faith, love and trust. The Bible’s real life story of Sarah’s bitter heartache, struggle and forever waiting on God turns into a precious lesson for us to trust Him with our lives. If God wants us to wait as Sarah did, we must learn the lessons she did. This engaging story inspires us to come closer to God, dig deeper into faith and trust even more deeply in the God who will never let us down. In today’s instant world, waiting is considered to be a waste of time. But in God’s world, waiting is a priceless treasure to be discovered. .

In ‘Waiting for Wonder’, Marlo Schalesky’s deeply soulful and insightful wisdom is revealed as she passionately probes the unexplored landscape of Sarah’s wilderness journey, in the hollow canyons of the mountains and deep valleys of waiting, exposing the everpresent barrenness teetering at the precipice of doubt and despair. Sarah’s life is a silent testimony to how she fervently hoped against hope, trusting and believing in the endless years of waiting, that God would find a way out to illuminate the pure wonder of waiting, until He fulfilled His glorious promise to her.

Marlo Schalesky’s hard-won courage, wrested from the heart of despair, lights our hearts with love, inspires us with hope and illuminates our eyes to the pure wonder of waiting. Waiting for Wonder helps us to understand God, whose ways are not our ways, and trust Him still. Marlo sees very human people behind Bible characters, studying their lives for soul-transforming truth, saying it gracefully in all humility. Waiting for Wonder reveals Marlo’s devotion to the truth of God’s Word as she discovers wonder-filled moments of God’s grace. The spiritual truths in this book open our eyes in breathless wonder to see God in our waiting.

At the heart of Marlo Schalesky’s “Waiting for Wonder: Learning to Live on God’s Timeline”, lies an important spiritual truth. In our waiting, God calls us to more. Waiting is hard and learning to wait well, even more so. At first, we all wait well, with new-found faith and hope, expecting God to meet us at our point of need, to answer our persistent questions and bring our fledgling dreams to life. But what happens in God’s timeline, when troublesome days turn into wearisome weeks, tiresome months, and seemingly endless years? Do we still wait well or flag in zeal and become discouraged? Waiting on God is where we all want to be. Though we believe God when a promise is new, it gets so much harder as the long years pass by with no significant changes. That’s when desperation strikes and plans backfire, causing tremendous pain and distress. In the midst of all this waiting, God calls us to more.

Studying the life of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who learnt to wait the hard way, we glimpse the character of God, as He works in the lives of Sarah and Abraham in their long wait for the child of God’s promise. Like them, as we wait for wonder, we wrestle with wonder. As Marlo Schalesky wisely points out, in our lives, God loves to redeem the deepest sorrow, the worst guilt, the most agonizing pain, transforming them into platforms for His glory to be revealed. When we are so deeply hurt that we feel the pain will never pass, so bitterly frustrated to see the fragments of our carefully planned lives crumble into dust, can we trust God to bring overwhelming good out of the devastation of evil. This awesome and inspiring biography of Sarah will encourage and refresh your soul as you wait for the God of all hope to reveal His glory in your life.

In ‘Waiting for Wonder’, Marlo gently dislodge deeply-wedged rocks of doubt and despair to transform our understanding of Sarah’s eventful life into the fullness of God’s glory. Gifted with the unique God-given ability to bring Biblical characters to life, portraying them as very humane people, Marlo sifts through their lives to glean rich gems of truth, revealing her selfless devotion to God’s Word, and her ability to discover life’s transforming wonder.

Waiting for Wonder ponders Biblical truths to reveal how God infuses wonder into waiting. Sarah’s life was filled with decades of promises still not come true, of desperate prayers of long, agonizing months turned into endless years. Sarah’s heart ached with the hope of a whole world blessed as she wrestled with the wonder of waiting. Who is this God of waiting who makes impossible promises, then asks Sarah and Abraham to wait, without even a glimmer of hope, and only the myriad stars to see in the silent sky? Who is this God of long intervals, painful delays, and yet-unanswered prayers?

To grasp the wonder of the God of the waiting room, we must find Him in the wilderness of waiting, where He seems most absent. Is anything too difficult for the Lord? He brings laughter when it seems too late. He is the God of wonder-while-you-wait. Sarah’s life is a soul-seeking journey of disappointment, doubt, and detours to discover God in the wilderness of life, believing in His commitment to bless all the families of the earth through her. Like Sarah, God calls us to wait for wonder, to laugh in the face of the impossible, to claim a blessing for the whole world, as we patiently wait for His time. Discover this God of waiting, of a whole world blessed through Sarah’s amazing life story, in “Waiting for Wonder” by Marlo Schalesky.

Miriam Jacob

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GOODREADS – WAITING FOR WONDER – Review by Miriam Jacob

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