Seekerville: The Journey Continues

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer (1511): from top to bottom: Holy Spirit (dove), God the Father and the crucified Christ. [PD-US]

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16-18

The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe.  

PENTECOST SUNDAY

Fresco of the Pentecostal dove representing the Holy Spirit at the Karlskirche in Vienna, Austria.[PD-US]

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

John 20:19-23

The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe. 

Wishing you a joyous Pentecost!

May you be filled with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

 today and in the year ahead.

 SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

THE ASCENSION*

Jesus' ascension to Heaven depicted by John Singleton Copley in Ascension (1775). [PD-US]

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us throughout this Easter Season with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.  

  *The Ascension was Thursday, May 18, but many churches observe the special day on this Sunday.

By Debby Giusti

I'm excited to be with you in Seekerville today, and I'm eager to tell you about my June release from Love Inspired Suspense. You've probably seen the blurb on the weekend edition and some of you may have already ordered the book. If so, thank you! I'm grateful for your support.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

An image of God the Father by Julius Schnorr, 1860. [PD-US]

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him,
"Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him,
"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father."

John 14:1-12

 The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us throughout this Easter Season with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.      

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

The Lord is my Good Shepherd, 19th century by German Artist Bernard Plockhorst. [PD-US]

Jesus said:

"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
John 10:1-10

 The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us throughout this Easter Season with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.     

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Pilgrims at Emmaus, Titian, 1535, Louvre Museum, Paris, France. [PD-US]

That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus' disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
"What are you discussing as you walk along?"
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?"
And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"
They said to him,
"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see."
And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
"Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Luke 24:13-35

The Seekerville bloggers have been praying for YOU and for our entire blog community. If you have any special intentions that need additional coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Please pray for world peace, for the protection of our military, law enforcement officers and border agents.   

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us throughout this Easter Season with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.      

My first book was released in 2007, the year this blog went live. Nine years later, I came up with nine steps that took me from the fear I felt as a new author to freedom. I wanted to share them with you today.

Pray. In my opinion, everything should begin with prayer. We were a military family and moved every two to three years. Each time we changed locations, I prayed for the Lord to direct my steps to what he wanted for my life.

Make a decision to write. I had published a few articles when my children were young, but as they grew, I set aside my love for writing and volunteered heavily in their schools, in our church and within the military community in which we lived. All the while, the Lord gently reminded me about my heart’s desire to write. When we moved to Georgia, I realized I was running out of time and needed to try my hand at writing again. 

Ignore the negatives. Early on, I purchased Julia Cameron’s book, THE ARTIST’S WAY. Cameron talks about the negative voice that lives within each of us. It’s the discourager who rears its ugly head all too frequently with caustic rhetoric, such as “Who do you think you are? You will never be a writer,” or “You’re stupid to expend so much energy on something in which you will never succeed,” or even, “Get real. You’re too dumb to write.”

I controlled the negative voice by following Cameron’s advice. She says to turn each negative into a positive and write it five time. When Mr. Negative whispers, “Who are you trying to fool? You’re not a writer,” I countered by writing and rewriting “I am a writer. I am a writer. I am a writer.”

Fiction mirrors life. The characters in our stories have baggage and so do most of us. Screenwriting consultant Michael Hauge, in his book, WRITING SCREENPLAYS THAT SELL, encourages writers to explore past wounds that shape the way their characters act. Characters must overcome or heal their brokenness before they can live fully in the present.      

My father was an excellent technical writer, and in my youth, he always corrected my creative attempts, perhaps a bit overzealously. Growing into adulthood, I never felt my writing measured up to his standards. Realizing that even my dad would have struggled to create a full-length work of fiction freed me to move forward on my writing journey.

Put God in control.  Soon after receiving “The Call,” I penned “The Writer’s Prayer.” The Lord provided the words, and I was merely the scribe. As many of you know, I give the prayer away at conferences and in mailings, and so many authors have told me how meaningful the prayer has been in their own lives. “The Writer’s Prayer” sits next to my computer and always helps me focus as I start to write. It also reminds me that the Lord is in charge of my career. 

We’re not alone. While working on an especially tight deadline in the wee hours of the night, I was overcome with fear that creating the next story depended totally on me. Thankfully, I was able to power through that fear and complete the manuscript on time. The truth is that authors have the support and expertise of their editors, copy editors and marketing and art departments. That entire team is working together to make the story the best it can be. 

It’s common knowledge that writing is a solitary profession. Whether published or pre-pubbed, writers need to surround themselves with writing friends, critique partners and blog communities, like Seekerville, for support, affirmation and encouragement. 

Analyze the process. Once we have a few books under our belts, we might see a pattern in the way we write. By understanding our process, we can take comfort, knowing we have faced doubts before and have gone on to accomplish our goals. My husband and children remind me that with each book I go through the this-is-the-worst-thing-I’ve-ever-written phase, the this-story-will-never-work phase, the I-should-just give-up phase, and how-can-I-call-myself-a-writer phase. Eventually, the story is completed, submitted and, with the help of my wonderful editor, reaches publication.

No ticking time bombs. Our stories have ticking time bombs, but that’s not what we need in life. Instead, we need to set achievable goals and give ourselves adequate time to complete our projects, to learn new craft techniques and to write our books or get our stories ready for submission. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was a writing career.

God’s timing is always perfect. Some years ago, I meditated on the idea of God’s perfect time and realized He always provided the wherewithal for me to write my stories and make my deadlines. That realization brought a sense of security. Now even when I’m short on time or when I’ve overextended my schedule, I trust that the Lord will provide enough time—His perfect time—for me to complete the work. 

What steps have you taken to overcome fear and achieve your goals? 

Wishing you abundant blessings!

Happy writing!

Debby Giusti

www.DebbyGiusti.com

AMISH BLAST INVESTIGATION

A June 2023 Release!

PALM SUNDAY    

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!), Antonio Ciseri, c1860-c1880, Art Museum in Lugano, Switzerland. [PD-US]

Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
Jesus said, "You say so."
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
"Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?"
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
"Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
"Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him."
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
"Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"
They answered, "Barabbas!"
Pilate said to them,
"Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?"
They all said,
"Let him be crucified!"
But he said,
"Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder,
"Let him be crucified!"
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood.
Look to it yourselves."
And the whole people said in reply,
"His blood be upon us and upon our children."
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.

As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha
— which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
"You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!"
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.

From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"
which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"This one is calling for Elijah."
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
'Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him."
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
"Truly, this was the Son of God!"

Matthew 27:11-24

 The Seekerville bloggers are praying for YOU and for our entire blog community throughout Lent. If you have any special intentions that need additional prayer coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Also pray for world peace and a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us during this Holy Week with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.     

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

The Resurrection of Lazarus, Caravaggio, 1601, Museo Naziomeli, Germany [PD-US].

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, 
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil 
and dried his feet with her hair; 
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying, 
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death, 
but is for the glory of God, 
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, 
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples, 
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him, 
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, 
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, 
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles, 
because the light is not in him.” 
He said this, and then told them,
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
“Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death, 
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. 
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe. 
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, 
“Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus 
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary 
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus, 
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life; 
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, 
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, 
“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village, 
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her 
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her, 
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, 
she fell at his feet and said to him, 
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, 
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, 
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man 
have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, 
“Lord, by now there will be a stench; 
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe 
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; 
but because of the crowd here I have said this, 
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice, 
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands, 
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

John 11:1-45

 The Seekerville bloggers are praying for YOU and for our entire blog community throughout Lent. If you have any special intentions that need additional prayer coverage, leave a request for prayer in the comment section below. 

Please pray for our country and for an end to the problems that plague us at this current time, such as the increased cost of fuel and food and the rise in crime. Also pray for world peace and a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.

God bless you and keep you safe.

May the Lord bless all of us during this prayerful time of Lent with a new appreciation of His mercy and love.