La Belle Design

Daniel 3:17-18 ESV - If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." The courage and steadfastness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo was astounding. They trusted God’s will in both life and death and made sure that if God’s will was that they die in the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar and all present knew that He is still a God worthy of worship. Most of us will never face such a dire circumstance, but there are choices we make regularly. Are we willing to stand firm and trust God even if we are placing our own desires at risk? I’m speaking to myself too. Be bold, even when the circumstances don’t look promising. He is God even then.  How can you stand for Jesus this week?

Playing for Keeps by Mandi Blake is a sweet second chance Christian romance that is short enough for a quick read but manages to pack a lot of depth in the characters in that short time.   In the small town of Redemption Ridge, Caroline Taylor is sweet in every sense of the word—right down to her bakery. She loves the Lord and she’s able to see the best in everything except her failed secret relationship with Justin McKinnon from her past and that drives her relationships in the present.  When Justin comes back in town as a police officer and her small business is attacked, Caroline is forced to face those feelings for him that she’s never let go of. This book has a few time hops to the past so you can see snippets of Justin and Caroline’s early relationship. With those flashbacks it also reveals the growth and maturity that both have had. They’ve gone from sneaking around behind their parents’ (who were feuding) backs and jumping into a relationship instantly to wanting ...

When studying the Bible, I recommend putting away (or ignoring) the notes in a study Bible and not looking at the internet or other sources for the answers in each section you’re studying until you have done all you can to see what God is teaching you in it. This is why I encourage and teach with inductive Bible studies. This type of study encourages you to find your own answers through observation, interpretation, and application rather than the author of the study telling you at the outset, “this is what the text means.” This allows God to speak to you personally and you may see things you would never have seen. Much of God’s word has such depth of meaning that you could study the same set of verses many times and each time God may show you something different that He wants you to see and apply. When we study God’s word, we always want to study it to know Him better. Our secondary purpose is to learn how He wants us to apply what we learn by living it out. My preferred way to s...

  Faded Jeans and Pfannkuchen by Storm Shultz is a sweet faith-filled romance that will make you want to read all of Storm’s books. The Dolly Parton references, animal mischief, Alaska vibes, and German cooking all give this story its unique and fun flavor.  Storm has a way of touching on real-life difficulties from a Christian perspective that shows you how God can work in seemingly hopeless situations. She also excels at crafting unique settings that draw you in with fun, food, animals, and the outdoors.  Jolene has just returned home to Alaska from Nashville where her music dreams didn’t take flight, much to her mom’s disappointment. As se’s searching for her purpose, her life becomes entangled with her best friend’s handsome brother, Noah. This book highlights friendship and sweet romance alongside complicated family dynamics that had me rushing to the end to see how it all worked out. Like all of Storm’s books it left me satisfied and looking forward to her nex...

Some Melodious Sonnet by Jennifer Q. Hunt is another one of her beautifully written Christian historical fiction books with romance. This one takes place in the 1830s in what is now northwest Georgia but at the time was Cherokee land. The story centers around the Christian missionaries to the Cherokees and their work to keep the state of Georgia from claiming their land. After attending finishing school, Cairstine Mackay moves to help her brother at her father’s mercantile store in the Cherokee lands and soon meets Jeremiah Harrison, who she clashes with every time they see one another. Jeremiah has moved there to help with the legal aspects of the missionaries and Cherokees and is awaiting the arrival of his bride to be, a recent widow.  In true Hunt fashion, Jennifer takes this simple sounding story and makes every moment count with twists and turns, emotional ups and downs, peril, and realistic Christian characters who grapple with how to handle their situations in a Chr...

  My review of Sowing Hope: Sowing Hope by Heather Wood will take you on a journey as you follow along with Patrick Gallagher in 1836 on his path from Maryland to Missouri to work with Elijah Lovejoy a famous abolitionist (a real historical figure). Along the way you’ll also meet Anna Markland and find out the mysteries she holds as their lives intersect. This book places you right in the action—including the hardships of the time, difficulties for abolitionists and black Americans, and the spiritual battle that took place among it all as Heather Wood weaves together an excellent Christian Historical Fiction story that is filled with so much fact and many real people that it’s hard to imagine her fictional characters weren’t really there. And yes, her story has a sweet romance too. One of my favorite aspects of a Heather Wood book is always the faith threaded throughout. Her characters exemplify real trials, temptations, sin, and moral failures, but she also shows redemption, f...

  My review of Grits and Glamor A famous crush, a southern cook, rabbits, faith, and love—it’s quite a mash up and B.R. Goodwin pulls them all together with flair that had me laughing, swooning, and anxious for more.  Chloe Garland is a chef who finds herself working for her Hollywood crush, Roman Rivers. But it’s not all starstruck romance when she finds out what she’s actually been hired for and the secrets she has to keep.  Roman has two jobs—one is glamorous and the other is the hardest and least glamorous thing he’s ever done. He’s the guardian of his teen sister. Those two jobs are all he wants to focus on and he takes both jobs seriously. When Chloe enters his life with all her quirks and contagious complements, his life is upended.  B. R. did a great job in balancing the comedy, romance, and faith so in the end I felt encouraged, stretched, and thoroughly entertained. I also love the way her Christian characters exemplify purity before marriage.  I...

Proverbs 25:28 (ESV) A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Self control requires us to create our own boundaries in a world that increasingly removes boundaries. God has given us boundaries, but we must maintain them and enforce them within ourselves. As a parent learns when raising a small child, boundaries are actually freeing. If we know the limits, we can feel safe within them. They bring order from chaos. God has shown us examples of this in His creation of the universe in the first two chapters of Genesis. God has shown us where to set our boundaries, but the temptations and distractions of the world often draw us to move past those boundaries with promises of better things. This is like in the garden of Eden. God had given Adam and Eve a boundary, Satan tempted them to move past it, and they did not hold to the boundary.  We now have something Adam and Eve did not—the power of God in us, the Holy Spirit. Yet often times we push back o...