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Dancing Along the Journey

9/28/2014

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This afternoon I put up 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 3 quarts of pumpkin puree and put 3 quarts of shredded zucchini into the freezer. There's a cheesy zucchini bake in one oven and caesar chicken thighs in the other. The dishes have all been washed and put away. 

This morning my mom and I picked the remaining tomatoes -- about 5 pounds -- the spaghetti squash, and more than a dozen pumpkins. Then we pulled up all the plants and cleaned out the garden. After that, we rearranged the Junk Creek room. 

Somewhere in there Scott and I closed up the tent trailer and winterized all the camping gear. 

I'm not telling you this so that you'll be impressed or call me Super Woman. I assure you I am not she. I tell you this because it means I'm feeling normal again.


Just a few weeks ago, I could barely drag myself out of bed. I could hardly face the day. Anxiety. Headaches. Exhaustion. Malaise. Racing heart. Crying for no reason. A trip to the clinic for ridiculously high blood pressure. Adrenal fatigue had gotten the best of me. 


But, God is good. He is faithful. He gives us abundantly, exceedingly more than we can imagine. He is healer. 


A few months ago, stuck in that well-known chair, I dreamed of all the things I would do when my abilities were restored. I imagined all the fun I'd have with my kids when I could walk again without pain. And for a few weeks, those dreams were reality. I thought my journey through "the valley of the shadow of death" had come to an end and I was once again on the mountain top. 

I was wrong. My journey took me deeper into that lonely valley of pain. That valley where you think, "Surely, this is the end. There is no coming out of this darkness." 


I'd thought my broken leg was the struggle. I had no idea it was the preparation. God used that injury to teach me to trust my limits, to seek rest, and to look for Him. The darkest days were still ahead. I had no idea. 

Is my journey through the valley over? I have no idea. I may have simply found a meadow of flowers in which to romp for a time. I could walk through a cavernous darkness again before I emerge on the other side. Or the shadows of this trial could be behind me forever. I don't know and I'm not sure it matters. Because He's with me. Even when I don't realize it. Even in the darkest of dark. And even today in the bright light of restoration. He is here. Today we are dancing together. Tomorrow I may be in His arms, unable to walk another step. But it's for His glory and my good. Lead on, Lord. I will follow. 

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.Ephesians 3:20
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Becoming Me....

9/26/2014

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I've been eyeing Stasi Eldredge's book Becoming Myself: Embracing God's Dream of You at the local book shop and online several times but always had too much other reading to accomplish first. I was finally able to read it this past month and wish I'd moved it to the top of my reading list a year ago. Alas, all things are providential and designed by God, so perhaps the timing really was perfect. 

It's no secret that I have had a difficult year. First a broken leg, then a diagnosis of hypothyroid, followed by adrenal fatigue. Somewhere in there my tried-and-true foe anxiety raged and I even ended up in the clinic for ridiculously high blood pressure. Beyond health issues, it's been a year of changes because of health issues and because God was teaching me to let go, to be still and to change. So when I read the publisher's description of Eldredge's book, I knew this book was for me. 

Publisher's Description

God has dreams--just for you 
Becoming Myself
 is a hope-filled book for anyone who wonders if her life will ever change—if she will ever change.In Stasi Eldredge’s most intimate book yet, she shares her own struggles with self-worth, weight, and her past as she shows readers how God is faithfully unveiling who we truly are. Stasi urges you to lay down your past thoughts about yourself and receive God’s incredible dreams for you instead. We cannot heal ourselves. We cannot become ourselves by ourselves. But we are not by ourselves. The King of love wants to help us become. God desires to restore us—the real us. As he heals our inner life, he calls us to rise to the occasion of our lives. The most important journey any woman can take is the journey into becoming her true self through the love of God. It's a beautiful paradox. The more of God’s you become, the more yourself you become—the “self” he had in mind when he thought of you before the creation of the world. Discover your truest self—the woman God created you to be—in Becoming Myself.

I've laughed, I've cried, I've journaled until I ran out of ink. Becoming Myself has churned up long forgotten memories, dealt with old wounds and reinvigorated lost dreams. 

Eldredge takes the reader back to her childhood where our dreams begin and sometimes end. Again and again she coaches you through hard memories, encourages you to remember good ones and reminds you that God was with you through it all and He still is. He has a dream for you and for your life. He created you with a purpose. The enemy may have ensnared you with bad body image, a difficult childhood, disappointing relationships or other past hurts, but those dreams? They're still there. They're still you. You just have to find them, remember them. 

Becoming Myself, while perhaps watery in theology, is rich in encouragement and inspiration. Eldredge uses scripture to gently remind the reader she is beautiful, she is unique and she is His. And she repeatedly encourages the reader to give the hurts and the dreams back to the Creator. The healing that has taken place in my heart is immeasurable. 

If you are struggling with who you are, or who you were or who you think you should be, you should definitely pick up this book. While you're at it, grab the 8-session study guide. Complete it with a friend, with a small group, or just during your own study time. Both are available at Amazon. 

Go. Remember the dreams you had, the ones your Father created you to have and to fulfill.
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Tosca Lee on Sheba

9/3/2014

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I have long been a fan of Tosca Lee's books. It all started when a dear friend sent Lee's "Havah" to me. I devoured the story of Eve quicker than Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I gorged myself on every detail, digesting this well-known story, washing it down with new insight. If you read my review yesterday of Lee's newest book, "Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen," you know that it did not disappoint. Not in the slightest. 

One thing that I love about Lee--besides that she and I both attended Oxford though at different times-- is that she not only weaves historical fact and biblical truth into her stories but she also provides formidable research at the back of each book. That recounting of facts and revealing of research is nearly as delicious as the tale itself.

Here's what she says about her research and the tale of Sheba:

  • You are known for your meticulous research. How did researching Legend of Sheba differ from your other books?

After a year and a half of hard research for Iscariot, I thought research for Sheba would be much easier. Not so! It is much harder to fill in the historical record of 1000 years earlier than the time of Christ due to the dearth of archaeological progress in history-rich and troubled Yemen, natural phenomena such as the encroaching sands of the desert, and a lack of historical records recording any queen in the Southern Arabian region.

  • What do we actually know about the Queen of Sheba?

We know something about the Sabaean (the Israelite Sheba = ancient Arabian Saba) people: that they had a capital in Marib, a sovereign “federator” who united the kingdoms of Saba, an elegant and evolving script, a sophisticated dam near the capital that turned Marib’s dusty fields into oases, and that there is great evidence of Sabaean settlement in the area of Ethiopia near what would become Aksum. We know the Sabaeans of the 10th Century BC worshipped the moon god, Almaqah, though experts do not agree whether this was a male or female deity. We know that in terms of the ancient world, they were quite rich due in large part to their cultivation of frankincense in the southeastern region, and that they had an extensive and evolving trade network that extended as far north as Damascus, as far east as India, and as far west across the Red Sea as Ethiopia and the continent beyond.

  • What do we actually know about King Solomon—I understand that the academic opinion varies quite a lot from the biblical account.

Again, we know more about the region, people, language, culture and ethnic history of the Israelites than anything, archaeologically-speaking, of the king himself. It would be such a help if something were unearthed from the City of David or the Temple Mount that could be linked to Solomon’s temple or directly to Solomon himself! There was an item—a small ivory pomegranate that was once thought to top the scepter of a priest of this time period, with an inscription indicating so… but this was later ruled to be a forgery, though the carved pomegranate did date to the correct (early to mid-900s BC) time period. I say more about this question in the Author’s Notes of Legend of Sheba.

  • The queen is a very minor character in the scope of the biblical narrative, but you assert that her famous visit to King Solomon is vitally important in the scope of Old Testament history. Why?

For two reasons. If the story of the United Monarchy (the kingdom of David and his son/successor, Solomon) is not true, then the bedrock of three major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) collapses into fiction, and the claim of Jews to the land of Israel with it. Perhaps the authors of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles knew that, because they took the opportunity to basically say, “Hey, this queen from the ends of the earth, that famous Queen of Sheba, came and brought tribute to our king, and blessed him and our god and said ‘All that I heard was true, and I never even heard the half of it!’” This is fascinating. It begs the question: what was it that was so great about this female sovereign—in a time when the world was ruled by men—and a pagan, no less… what was it about her that was so outstanding that her endorsement of Solomon, his riches, wisdom, and god, held so much weight as to be included in the Old Testament narrative? Who was this woman who matched wits with the wisest man in the world—whose throne was so secure that she could leave it and make the 1400 mile journey of half a year to visit this king… before making the long trek back? Well, this must be a woman worth knowing something about.

  • I understand you created a special bonus for your readers with Legend of Sheba. Can you tell us more about that?

Ismeni—a free eBook short story prequel to The Legend of Sheba—will be available August 26. This is the story of Sheba’s mother, and sheds some light on the man who would become the queen of Sheba’s right-hand councilor. It’s about 34 pages long, and also includes a preview of the Prologue and first chapter of The Legend of Sheba.

About Tosca Lee

“One of the most gifted novelists writing today.”
—Steven James, best-selling author.

Tosca Lee is the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Iscariot; Demon: A Memoir; Havah: The Story of Eve, and the Books of Mortals series with New York Times best-seller Ted Dekker (Forbidden, Mortal and Sovereign). Her highly anticipated seventh novel, The Legend of Sheba, releases September 9, 2014.

Tosca received her B.A. in English and International Relations from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts with studies at Oxford University. She is a lifelong world adventure traveler and makes her home in the Midwest. To learn more about Tosca, visit www.toscalee.com.


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Captivated by Sheba

9/2/2014

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Buy it today at Amazon.
From the very first word of Tosca Lee's forthcoming book "The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen" I was captivated. Entranced, really. Totally drawn into the story as if I were there. I could smell the spices, hear the camels' hooves, see the alabaster and feel Sheba's emotions. 

I was captivated by Queen Bilqis much the way King Solomon was in Lee's telling of this obscure yet infamous queen. It was like she'd gotten under my skin and I couldn't untangle my life from hers until the very last page. Yes, the book was that good. 

After the traumatic death of her mother, Bilqis suffers neglect and abuse at the hand of her father's other wife. She thinks the god of her mother saves her from further torment and she journeys to the land of her mother where she finds love. But then, her father dies and the throne of Saba is at risk. Bilqis rises to the occasion, unifies her kingdom and saves the throne. That is just the beginning of the story. 

She hears, from her prolific trader, of Solomon, King of Israel and is intrigued by his worship of the Nameless God, the great I Am. Theirs is a mutal desire to be known, understood, loved. 

But you'll have to read it yourself to find out what happens. 

Lee, whose other books I have voraciously read, skillfully weaves a beautiful, palpable story. She masterfully creates characters that walk off the pages and into your living room. This delicious book about the Queen of Sheba is no less a masterpiece. It will stay with you long after you put it down.

Check back tomorrow for an interview with author Tosca Lee!

From the Publisher
Her name is legend. Her story, the epic of nations. The Queen of Sheba. A powerful new novel of love, power, and the questions at the heart of existence by the author of the award-winning “brilliant” (Library Journal) and “masterful” (Publishers Weekly) Iscariot.

There is the story you know: A foreign queen, journeying north with a caravan of riches to pay tribute to a king favored by the One God. The tale of a queen conquered by a king and god both before returning to her own land laden with gifts.

That is the tale you were meant to believe.

Which means most of it is a lie.


The truth is far more than even the storytellers could conjure. The riches more priceless. The secrets more corrosive. The love and betrayal more passionate and devastating.


Across the Red Sea, the pillars of the great oval temple once bore my name: Bilqis, Daughter of the Moon. Here, to the west, the porticoes knew another: Makeda, Woman of Fire. To the Israelites, I was queen of the spice lands, which they called Sheba.

In the tenth century BC, the new Queen of Sheba has inherited her father’s throne and all its riches at great personal cost. Her realm stretches west across the Red Sea into land wealthy in gold, frankincense, and spices. But now new alliances to the North threaten the trade routes that are the lifeblood of her nation. Solomon, the brash new king of Israel famous for his wealth and wisdom, will not be denied the tribute of the world—or of Sheba’s queen. With tensions ready to erupt within her own borders and the future of her nation at stake, the one woman who can match wits with Solomon undertakes the journey of a lifetime in a daring bid to test and win the king. But neither ruler has anticipated the clash of agendas, gods, and passion that threatens to ignite—and ruin—them both. An explosive retelling of the legendary king and queen and the nations that shaped history.

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