The Bible Story Family

  Creative Fiction               The number of new books published annually in the United States has exploded to over one million.   With more than 13 million previously published books still available, most analysts suggest that “the marketplace is not able to absorb all these books and is hugely oversaturated”   (Piersanti).             On the other hand, it has never been easier to get a book published.   Self-published volumes amounted to over 700,000 in 2015.   The market has changed so rapidly that many of today’s new books are selling only to the author’s and publisher’s communities.   It is authors who do most of the marketing of new books rather than publishers.   They do that through the creation of a personal platform which might involve any or all of the following:         ...

CONCERTS OF PRAYER Our youngest came home excited to share the depths of his first grade knowledge.   “Did you know that in George Washington’s day they only had black and white TVs?”   He might as well have said, “In Washington’s day they had prayer meeting.” For many people prayer meeting has gone the way of the Edsel and the silent movie. Midweek prayer meetings have vanished like the ghost of Christmas past. Other good church programs occupy the time slots formerly designated for corporate supplication and petition. Family altars have entered the realm of myth and mystery. It doesn’t have to be that way. Reviving the prayer meeting can be accomplished through spiritual resuscitation. Concerted corporate devotions, or Concerts of Prayer can once again become the furnace which provides passion and heat for your congregation.   Here are some ideas for implementing such events. 1.         Plan a service of prayer for elected offic...

WRITING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY One of the greatest gifts my father gave me was a little mimeographed booklet called “Still Climbing.”   In that book he recorded family history which I would never have heard in any other way.   He was delivered by a blind doctor in rural Iowa.   Apparently, the doctor forgot his name when he got back to his office and filled out the birth certificate with the name John.   Years later, after being called Arthur all of his life, Dad applied for his first passport and found out that the birth certificate said he was John. I want to encourage you to bless your family with a similar gift.   You don’t need to write a book.   I am going to suggest several possible ways to package such a gift.    You choose the one which fits you best.      ROUND ROBIN LETTERS It may be too late for some of us to use this idea, not because of age, but because of the disappearance of letter writing as an art form and...