God's Princesses are Beautiful

Reviewed by Phee Paradise
Fit for My King by Sheri Rose Shepherd

I was excited about Fit for My King because I have been struggling with weight loss for years. I know all the principles of healthy eating, but usually can’t motivate myself to follow them. I hoped a Christian perspective would make the difference.

The book offers a diet plan the author has developed from her own experiences with eating disorders. But first, Shepherd talks about Queen Esther’s beauty regimen developed to please the king. She tells her readers we are princesses and challenges us to live to please our King. She uses several different scriptures to remind us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and treating it well will give us health and energy.

Before presenting the eating plan, she also offers a covenant letter for the reader to sign. The rest of the book is a series of 30 daily devotionals with a scripture, a prayer and an action to take. It ends with menu plans and recipes for “His princess” to follow.

The concept that intrigued me was tying fasting to healthy eating. Shepherd challenges her readers to fast from sugar, as well as other unhealthy foods, for 30 days. For me, this turned a fairly familiar diet plan into an act of worship. Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn’t help me to follow the plan the way I was hoping. I found the devotionals to be pep talks, rather than meditations on the scriptures presented. Many of them were about issues of self-esteem that I do not face.

You’ll appreciate the book if you are looking for Christian encouragement and emotional support. It may also challenge you to change your attitudes toward food.

Pros: Christian perspective on healthy eating with daily devotionals and new recipes. Also has some insight into causes of eating disorders.

Cons: Scriptures are quoted, but not explained.


Available November 2009 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

About the book:

Discover the best health and weight-loss secrets found in God's Word!

In this 30 day journey, the bestselling author of His Princess shares how God healed her from an eating disorder, helped her conquer chronic fatigue, and gave her the strength and wisdom to lose over sixty pounds and keep it off. Today, at nearly 50 years old, Sheri Rose is healthy and free. More than a half a million women have been set free through this life changing teaching.

You can win this diet war once and for all! Sheri Rose Shepherd walks through each day with you, supporting you with 30 days of life changing devotions, heartwarming stories, creative cooking, and a daily dose of Scripture to keep you on track. The treasures of truth found in these pages will transform the way you see yourself forever.

It's time to get your girlfriends together and become the best version of you! God loves you and will be with you every step of the way.

About the author:

Sheri Rose Shepherd is the founder of His Princess Ministries and the author of several books, including the bestselling His Princess: Love Letters from Your King. She was the popular subject of a prime-time Billy Graham special and will be touring with Extraordinary Women in 2010. She lives with her family in Orange County, California.

You're Invited to an Online "Happy Birthday, Jesus" Party

NASHVILLE—November 19, 2009 - This Christmas an expected quarter million Christian families—individually and through churches—will make high-tech history when, through Really Woolly® Kids, a Dayspring® division, they participate in a two-month online Happy Birthday, Jesus party with a live teacher, part of Really Woolly Kids’s growing line of Online Family Adventures.

Happy Birthday, Jesus launched its new interactive online experience in partnership with Oregon-based Flying Rhinoceros Enterprises. Really Woolly Kids premierd this unprecedented technology to unite kids and parents in spiritual learning while giving kids a safe place to play because the teacher sees kids’ game progress but sees no kids. (Really Woolly teachers come largely from Portland Bible College or Multnomah grad students. The program allows for an unlimited number of teachers.)

How does the Happy Birthday party work? Families, churches or Sunday school departments log on. Teachers appear on-screen—young, enthusiastic, encouraging each child by name—and the games and learning begin. All through the lovable lamb characters that made Really Woolly the top-selling division in Dayspring. Each log-in to the party gives:

*A live, interactive, 30-minute session with a trained teacher
*Live sessions on your schedule, daily, each hour 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
*Games and activities that educate and entertain
*Stories from the lovable lambs of the Really Woolly Kids series
*A week's worth of daily activities

(For a free demonstration, log on to www.ReallyWoolly.com, click on "free experience," login with Support@FraboomLive.com password: support.)

“From searching the world, at this point we know of no Christian or secular technology where a teacher connects live with kids in an interactive game platform. This is a first,” said Flying Rhinoceros founder and president Ranjy Thomas. Within 18 months, Thomas predicts, this Internet platform will be the “best after-school program in the nation.” Kids’ enthusiasm for Webkins and Club Penguin, precursors to Thomas’ more advanced technology, he says, bodes well for HBJ and Dayspring’s future Online Family Adventures.

Dayspring Marketing Manger Kendra Moore likes seeing the technology turn the clock back on how families absorb eternal values together. “In our consumer society, once a week, parents drop kids at the children’s department and head off to their own classes or service,” Moore explains. “We come alongside parents and bridge the gap between Sundays with biblically sound, entertaining, and engaging activities to pull families closer together."

“In beta tests,” Moore added, “response was off the charts."

Local churches can join the world’s biggest birthday party at Happy Birthday, Jesus, free to use:

*Introductory videos suitable for any size group from a Sunday School class to a full sanctuary
*Frequently Asked Questions for church leaders and individual families
*Safety descriptions
*Free, ready-to-use templates for bulletin inserts, fliers, and emails to spread the word about this exciting project to an estimated 250,000 families

The Happy Birthday, Jesus support site and the Happy Birthday, Jesus online party site are up and running. The party runs throughout November and December 2009.

Happy Birthday, Jesus springs from Really Woolly and DaySpring Cards’ recently launched Online Family Adventure. Dayspring is the world’s largest creator and distributor of Christian cards, personal expressions, gifts and home décor.

DaySpring is a leading manufacturer and distributor of Christian greeting cards and other personal expression products and gifts. DaySpring products are sold in Christian retailers, card and gift stores, and other outlets in the United States and 60 foreign countries. Based in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, DaySpring has a staff of over 325 employees. In 1999, the company was acquired by Hallmark. DaySpring offers more than 7,000 products each year and touches more than 860 million people in a year.

Surviving Thanksgiving

BY SUZANNE WILLIAMS

Thanksgiving being a one-day event has always brought difficulty for me. This is because, simply put, once I was married, I found myself with too much family. My one, big meal now stretched into three big meals. Need I remind you that, discounting breakfast, there are only two other meals during the day? Suddenly, I had to somehow fit everyone into the schedule.

And more meals meant extra cooking. Dishes had to be fixed to arrive piping hot at a particular place at only certain times. I had to be sure I was smiling and happy for each event, willing to try every casserole or dessert brought, and full of positive feedback. After all, they only fixed that dish once a year. Frankly, by the time I reached the dinner meal, I was exhausted and couldn't care less what my family looked like, much less have any room left in my stomach to force any food into.

Over the years, things have adjusted somewhat. I have learned how to cope, what to put aside, and how to enjoy the day. Here are a few tips from my personal experience.

1. Sit down

Take the time to stop cooking, and rest for a moment. Turn your thoughts to something not Thanksgiving related and forget for at least a few minutes the hectic things going on around you.

Tiara

2. Be patient

Thanksgiving, and Christmas too, for that matter, means dealing with friends and relatives you don't see very often. Their habits and your habits can clash and cause conflict. Determine instead to exercise your patience. You'll find it will make the day go much smoother. You are, after all, only responsible for your own behavior, not theirs.

3. Take photographs

Photograph the food, the location, the people, even the pets. Put on your creative hat and look for unusual angles. Take photos that depict the action. Group things together - the dishes you only take out twice a year, the decorations, or the generations of your family (grandmother, mother, daughter). If you are indoors, use a tripod or a flash. Pay attention to your shutter speed so that any movement blur is minimized.

Harvest Basket

4. Be thankful

Don't forget what the holiday was created for. This is a day to say show your gratitude for those in your life who have helped you. And most of all be grateful for what God has done for you this year. The sports and the food are only part of the celebration. Take the time to pray and tell Him "thanks".

This is my last Pix-N-Pens blog for 2009. They will resume each Thursday beginning in January of 2010. I will continue to update my personal blog (link below) if you wish to continue to hear from me.

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Suzanne Williams Photography
My Blog
Florida, USA

Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, and mother, with a penchant for spelling anything, who happens to love photography.

Will Death be Defeated in the Future?

Reviewed by Phee Paradise
Eternity Falls by Kirk Outerbridge

I’ve never read a cyber thriller, although I like science fiction. So Eternity Falls was new to me, but had a lot of familiar elements. The world of Rick Macey has taken our obsession with the internet to a new extreme and it was a little scary to read about people physically connected through jacks in their necks. But I’ve seen enough futuristic movies for that to almost seem natural.

The real theme is whether mankind should use science to prolong our lives indefinitely. A Miracle Treatment has been developed that will do just that, and Macey is hired to stop a “terrorist” who has found a way to negate the treatment. His adventures are typical of any detective novel, including car chases, gun battles and fighting an evil mastermind. He’s hired by a beautiful woman who intrigues him, but hinders his investigation.

Macey faces the question of immortality in an internal debate, as well as with Sheila, who is a scientist, and even the terrorist. Religion has been all but forgotten, after the passage of the Freedom from Deity law, but Macey was once a Christian. God plays a role in the decisions about the Miracle Treatment and Macey must confront his past.

Outerbridge has constructed a tight crime story with lots of action, thought provoking themes and good characters. My only complaint is with Sheila, the woman who hires Macey. She is presented as a tough corporate manager, with some nasty personal habits. But she very quickly turns into an emotional wimp. It’s a bit incongruous when Macey calls her face angelic. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying a fun story.

Pros: Fast action, challenging ideas and good characters as well as a strange but believable futuristic world.

Cons: Lots of computer jargon and technology that is quite confusing, but necessary to the action.

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Eternity Falls
Marcher Lord Press (October 1, 2009)
by
Kirk Outerbridge


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kirk Outerbridge developed a passion for storytelling at an early age. Through years of reading Fantasy and Science Fiction novels, comics, table top gaming and watching endless hours Japanese anime, he developed a keen sense for what made stories enjoyable and more importantly—what didn’t.

While pursuing an engineering degree in college, Kirk endeavored to tell his own stories, choosing writing as the easiest and cheapest medium to master—or so he thought. Several years and several hundred thousand words later, he produced a Sci-fi trilogy that shall never (God willing) see the light of day, but that did teach him much needed lessons about the craft of writing fiction.

After college Kirk returned to his homeland of Bermuda where he reunited with his childhood friend and future wife, Ria. But before marrying his lovely wife, Kirk entered an even greater marriage and devoted his life to Christ in 2002.

With a new found direction in life, writing fell by the wayside but the urge to tell futuristic stories never left. After much prayer and contemplation, Kirk purposed his writing for God’s Will, seeking to draw to Christ those who shared his passions for all things futuristic and Sci-fi.

Kirk currently lives with his wife Ria and 18 month old son Miles in beautiful Bermuda. He is a faithful member of the Church of Christ and is a professional engineer employed by the government.



ABOUT THE BOOK

In the future, death is only a problem if you can’t afford the price. Such is the promise of Gentec Corporation’s “Miracle Treatment”, a genetic anti-aging elixir that grants eternal life—or does it?

When a Gentec client suddenly dies of natural causes, the powers that be will stop at nothing to ensure their version of eternity remains unchallenged; even if it means concocting a religious sabotage conspiracy to cover a lie.

With the media about to blow the story wide open, the credibility of Gentec and the lives of millions of clients rest on one man’s ability to uncover the truth.
Enter detective Rick Macey, religious counterterrorist expert and Gentec executive Sheila Dunn’s last hope for salvation.

Now with the clock ticking and the corporate brass seeking their own solution at any cost, Macey must track down a religious zealot out to destroy the Miracle Treatment for good.

But when Macey finds himself not only falling for his client, but confronted with the possibility that the culprit could hold a connection to his shaded past, the truth suddenly becomes a dangerous thing.

Only through a test of faith can he stop the crisis before it’s all too late and eternity falls.

To read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Eternity Falls, click HERE

Writing a Christmas Blessing

Give the Gift of Words
By Debbie Roome

How do you feel when someone pays you a genuine compliment? Warm and fuzzy inside? Excited and happy? Like you’re floating around for the rest of the day? Positive words can transform the way we view ourselves and make us feel better about life. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful Christmas gift to give a friend or family member?

How can I Write a Blessing
There are several ways we can bless a loved one with our written words. Here are some ideas:
· Write an account of something meaningful she has achieved
· Write a paragraph of two on how you perceive God’s peace, joy etc in his actions and lifestyle
· Fictionalize an event in her life and write it into a story she will recognize
· Ask his friends and family members to write a few lines about what he means to them

How to Present the Blessing
Again, there are different ways we can do this:
· Print the words onto special card or paper and frame them
· Make the story into a booklet with a cover and photos of the person and what they have achieved
· Make a scrapbook and include comments from friends on each page
· Find a blank card with a meaningful image on front and glue the words inside

A Gift that will last Forever
The power of words should never be underestimated. I have a box full of uplifting cards and letters I’ve received over the years. Even though some were written ages ago, they still have the power to encourage me and spur me on to greater things.

A written Christmas blessing is a wonderful gift to give and will normally be treasured for years – long after the chocolates are eaten, the socks are worn out and the jewellery tarnished. Why not start working on your blessing now? Ask God for inspiration and wisdom ... and have some creative fun!

Debbie Roome works as a freelance writer from her home in New Zealand. Visit her at Debbie Roome or read some of her work at Suite 101 , Take Root and Write and Faithwriters.