N/A

Grace is defined as undeserved merit or love. At least, that is the way I would have defined it before reading Rich Miller's book titled 40 DAYS OF GRACE. Grace is a much deeper subject than I ever knew. It is boundless. I especially liked the chapter about guilt. At the end of the chapter about guilt and the other chapters in the book there are 4 units: A thought to chew on, A truth to remember, A question to mull over and Talking it over with God. Really, I am listening to the devil when thoughts of guilt are swimming through my mind. I can only conquer the devil by feeding my mind with God's love. Remembering I am most definitely His child. His plans for me are not for evil but for good. Neither is there condemnation found in Him. I really looked forward to the units at the end of the chapters. They gave me time to examine myself with a gleaming spiritual flashlight. It gave me a chance to release my thoughts of anger and shame to God. This is a wonderfully simple but

'" Iddo reached through the open tent flap behind him and picked up the ram's horn that the priest had given him to use for practice. As he ran his fingers down the shofar's long, gentle curve, another buried memory suddenly came to him."'

I liked the striped cover of this novel. It reminds me of wallpaper in a plain but safe home. Wallpaper is fragile. It can tear. Just like at different times our lives become torn. I didn't feel enthusiastic about the title of the novel until I began to read the book. MarGreat is a cartoon sketched by Timothy.  The main character in Please Don't Remove MarGreat's Glasses! by Josh Baker is Timothy. However, without the other characters in the novel including MarGreat he would have never moved forward. Just like real life other people enter into a person's life and make it not an arc but a circle. Along the way chances are given to lead lost people to a Savior. In Please Don't Remove MarGreat's Glasses! Jude is one person who has made saving people from trouble his life's goal. Josh Baker never evangelizes or preaches. In some way he gets the message across that we can't walk alone without people or a Savior. The novel is a coming of age story. It

'" Will you help me practice my Torah portion, Saba? I want to read it perfectly on the day of my bar mitzvah. I want you to be proud of me."'

' '"The Almighty One's hand is in this," the elder replied. "He promised that one day the Babylonian empire would fall, and last night it happened."'

Devotional Favorite verse Prayer  John 1:1-51 John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. From the time I could understand language my parents taught me that there was a Creator of the universe. My father called Him The Great Architect. He often said "without Him I couldn't twinkle my little finger." Some ideas my parents taught me I have questioned. I have never questioned or doubted the fact that a marvelous being created everything and everyone around me. For me that Creator is known by the name Jesus. Prayer Father God, today I thank you for all that you have created. You've given us so much on this earth to freely enjoy. Help me to open my eyes daily and see the magnificent around me whether it's a baby, a child, an elder adult or a tree, the ocean or just a puddle. Help me to remember to thank you for what you have given me including my mind, my hands, my feet, my whole body. Thank you. In Jesu

Scranton Pennsylvania is a place full of interesting characters living their lives like other Americans in the 1940's. However, life is tougher for the African Americans. Jim Crow is not just two names which fit well together. Jim Crow sets one man against another man. Daily making the man aware he is unequal and not privy to the freedoms of society. Pieces of The Heart is about families, friendships, romances and just plain everyday life. Life is certainly not easy for Cordelia, Bernard, Charles, Anna, Emmanuel and his wife nor for Gertie. It's hard work in a factory where a woman might face harassment. It's striving to have faith when God's face and voice seem faraway or not real. It's going to war as a whole man and coming back lost to oneself and to all the people who ever loved you. It's about forgiveness.Stepping into forgiveness doesn't happen at the same time for the people involved. I might forgive a person knowing it's hurting me more th