Amish author Amy Lillard’s new book, Katie’s Choice, is now available, and you do NOT want to miss it! I’ll let her tell you a little about why she does this sort of writing, and then direct you to the spot where you can order her latest release. Be sure to read to the end to find out how to enter to win some great prizes!

Umpteen years ago when I starting writing seriously, I never dreamed that one day I’d be writing Amish romance. Romance yes, of course. Naturally even. I wrote historical romances with a partner, then without a partner. After that I switched to short contemporary romances and then to romantic comedies and single titles.

Then I had the opportunity to switch things up and write an Amish romance.

There are many reasons why I love writing Amish romance, but I’d have to say the number one reason is the challenge of getting two people to fall in love under such conservative circumstances. In a culture where a young unmarried couple would not be allowed to be alone for long—if at all—the lure of a stolen kiss or a brief touch is too good to be ignored.

In Katie’s Choice, Katie Rose Fisher is past the age of singings and having her potential beau court her in the traditional ways of the Amish. Yet she finds herself attracted to the handsome English reporter, Zane Carson. Both of them feel this pull, but they also know that they can’t act on it.

They decide to become friends, each of them wanting to spend time with the other yet knowing that it will lead nowhere. So along with the conservative dating practices, there’s the lure of the forbidden.

English wanting to join up with the Amish is practically unheard of, but the thought does cross Zane’s mind. It’s just about then that Samuel Beachy returns, and Katie is forced into the choice of a lifetime.

Katie’s Choice is the second novel in the Clover Ridge Series and is available now.

Buy links:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=amy%20lillard&sprefix=amy+lill%2Caps%2C435&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aamy%20lillard

Leave a comment for a chance to win the following: In addition to the rafflecopter giveaway (A Reader’s Prize Pack – a copy of Katie’s Choice, a mug, chocolate, etc) Amy will be giving away a prize for each individual blog. Each will be in a sealed envelope. Some will be gift cards & others may be a copy of the book. So be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win–and PLEASE leave clear contact (email) info in case you win. Thank you!

My friend Jane Hampton Cook has written a stellar historical account that reads like page-turning fiction. You do NOT want to miss this one!

Discover John Quincy and Louisa Adams’s unexpected journey that changed everything. Once again independence depends on an Adams. . . two of them.

Buy American Phoenix, a new book, by Jane Hampton Cook

“Communication changes. Technology transforms time, but the human heart doesn’t change. The need for honor, family, acceptance, justice, reunion, faith, hope,  and love is as real today as it was from 1809 to 1815. From being down-on-your luck to rising stronger than before, American Phoenix shows the triumph that can come when anyone’s life—yours, mine, or theirs—takes an unexpected journey.” (from author’s note.)

So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He [Moses] said, “A rod.”

“And He [God] said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (Exodus 4:2-4, NKJV).

            Moses is not only an excellent example of a shepherd, one who leads and guides those over whom he has charge, but he is also a clear picture of how God’s power operates through human vessels.

            When God first called Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the enslaved Israelites go, Moses protested that he was inadequate and unequipped to do so. God then called Moses’ attention to the shepherd’s staff in his hand, a symbol of how Moses made his living. I find that fascinating. God didn’t say, “You’re right; you’re a dummy. I’ll call someone else.” Nor did He say, “Moses, you don’t realize how really brilliant and powerful you are.” He simply asked, “What’s that in your hand?” Then, when Moses identified it as a shepherd’s staff, God challenged him to throw it on the ground. Moses did, and the staff turned into a serpent, illustrating the ability of the symbol of Moses’ own personal strength and abilities to turn deadly. But then God demanded something even stranger; He told Moses to pick up the serpent by the tail.

            Now anyone who knows anything at all about snakes understands that we do NOT pick them up by the tail, as that leaves the serpent free to turn and bite us. Human logic tells us to pick it up by its head so we can control its venomous fangs. But God wanted Moses to see that this dangerous creature could only be controlled by God’s power, not Moses’ power. The only way Moses could learn that was to lay aside human logic and obey God’s command, regardless of how intimidating it might seem.

            There’s a strong lesson in that for all of us. God has woven into our very beings the motivational gifts, or passions, that will naturally drive us toward God’s purpose for our lives. Moses, though raised in a palace, had left that life behind and taken up the lowly existence of a shepherd, the very profession God had designed for him that would help prepare Moses for the greater job of shepherding God’s people. But it wasn’t enough for Moses to identify and pursue the passion God had put inside of him; he also had to submit that passion to God’s purpose. Hence, the example of God telling Moses to throw down his shepherd’s staff, which then turned into a dangerous creature, and then God ordering Moses to pick it back up in an even more dangerous manner. Moses’ innate, God-given passion to be a shepherd was represented in that staff, but that same staff had to be submitted to God’s purpose before it would evidence the power of God that would fulfill that purpose.

            And that’s the lesson to each of us. We are no different than Moses, in that God has woven a passion into us that will drive us toward our life’s purpose. But if we want to see that purpose successfully fulfilled, we must submit that passion to God’s purpose, recognizing that we are unable to fulfill it in our own strength. When we do that, God’s power will rise up within our lives and then spill over onto the lives of others in ways we could never have imagined.

            God is not a respecter of persons. He has called each of us to fulfill His purpose, and He has equipped us with a passion that will ultimately drive us toward that purpose. The question is, will we submit that passion to His purpose to release His power into a world that so desperately needs it?

Jocelyn Green is one of my personal favorite authors, and I can’t recommend this book highly enough! Here’s some info on it, including how/where to order.

For all who have suffered great loss of heart, home, health or family; true home and genuine lasting love can be found.

When a horrific battle rips through Gettysburg, the farm of Union widow Liberty Holloway is disfigured into a Confederate field hospital, bringing her face to face with unspeakable suffering-and a Confederate scout who awakens her long dormant heart.

While Liberty’s future crumbles as her home is destroyed, the past comes rushing back to Bella, a former slave and Liberty’s hired help, when she finds herself surrounded by Southern soldiers, one of whom knows the secret that would place Liberty in danger if revealed.

In the wake of shattered homes and bodies, Liberty and Bella struggle to pick up the pieces the battle has left behind. Will Liberty be defined by the tragedy in her life, or will she find a way to triumph over it?

Inspired by first-person accounts from women who lived in Gettysburg during the battle and its aftermath, Widow of Gettysburg is Book 2 in the Heroines Behind the Lines  series.

To purchase: http://amzn.to/XRWx6y

 Watch the book trailer: https://vimeo.com/63167219

So happy for Retha’s first book to be released! Here’s some info on it:

The king continued: “From this day forward we will refer to our four sons as The Four Faces. The future of the kingdom is in the hands of The Four Faces. It’s vital that they find the right answer. I don’t even want to think of the possibility that they could come back without the answer.”

Human, Lion, Ox, and Eagle are sent on a journey to find out what their purpose is. On their quest, they journey through interesting and wonderful places; they meet strangers, friends and foes; they are challenged with the unknown and with themselves. Will they succeed?

To Read Chapter One:

The Question that Changed Everything: http://wp.me/p3lbM9-1d

To Purchase:

Available at all bookstores, online bookstores such as Amazon in paper back or Kindle Kindle http://goo.gl/el6mG or Nook http://goo.gl/FUQRM

Goodreads:  http://goo.gl/LdH3J

About the Author: Retha Groenewald, passionate about the Bible since childhood, was a storyteller before she could read or write, which followed soon thereafter. She has degrees in nutrition, business, law, and theology. She is a member of Elim in Durbanville. She lives in Western Cape, in beautiful South Africa.

I am so excited to see this book release! I met Susan at a writers’ conference and fell in love with her manuscript. This is a gripping, page-turning book. Don’t miss it! Here’s an interview with the author, as well as an ordering link for the book.

1. What inspired you to write The Moses Conspiracy?

Thank you for having me here today, Kathi. My late husband and I visited Gettysburg prior to Christmas in 2004. While standing in the old town square, surrounded by history, I could “hear” the forefathers’ voices. However, they were like fading echoes.

After several failed attempts to write non-fiction pieces, I put it on the back burner and prayed for direction. In August 2005, we were talking about “the Gettysburg experience,” and he said, “That’s it!  That’s your book! And you’ll write it in 4 months and call it Ghosts of the Past.”

I thought he was crazy, but caught the vision. The name changed to Echoes of the Past and later to The Moses Conspiracy. When I sat down at the computer, I had no clue what I was going to write. By Christmas 2005, I had 55,000 words.

2. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

There are several messages, including the faithfulness of God during difficult times, the importance of protecting our freedoms, and building strong family relationships.

3. What genre is your book?

I loosely define The Moses Conspiracy as Christian Speculative Fiction because it takes place in 2025. Although it takes place in the near future, I’ve avoided a lot of techno-babble. One take-away I wanted for the reader was the possibility this or something similar could happen.

4.  Please give us a thumbnail sketch of The Moses Conspiracy.

A trip to post-terrorized Washington, D.C. in 2025 and an unusual buggy accident in Bird-in-Hand, PA set in motion events that expose a diabolical plan to destroy the Christian community. Ellie and John Zimmerman find themselves embroiled in a life-threatening investigation, fighting a shadowy enemy.

5.  Where can readers get The Moses Conspiracy and/or find out more about you?

Amazon Link

http://www.amazon.com/The-Moses-Conspiracy-Novel-ebook/dp/B00BV8ZQ0Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1363620282&sr=8-4&keywords=The+moses+conspiracy

Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/susan.j.reinhardt

Twitter link:

http://twitter.com/susanjreinhardt

B&N Link:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-moses-conspiracy-a-novel-susan-j-reinhardt/1114847096?ean=2940016213866

Kobobooks.com Link

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Moses-Conspiracy-A-Novel/book-IegUFEoIzUy8BnQ8gZqGGg/page1.html?s=0mghuw11SUS93idSXbaZsg&r=1

Blog Link:

http://www.susanjreinhardt.com

The Big IF – Facing Infertility with Faith

IF. Stands for infertility. A big ugly word that hangs over the hearts of more than seven million people. It’s also a complicated word. It’s a word that lots of people think is an easy fix when it’s not. It’s a turn-your-world-on-it’s-head word. A word that simultaneously brings silence and shouting to deep places in one’s soul. A word that touches things inside you that you didn’t want to be touched.

And it’s not the end of the story.

As my husband and I have traveled this road of waiting to have a baby, of doctor’s appointments, prayer, seeking, hoping, reading and studying, charting temperatures and unmentionables, and buying an insane amount of pregnancy tests, we’ve learned things about God, about each other, about ourselves and about the power of empty places.

God does amazing things in and through empty places.

•  The bottom of an empty well was the beginning of Joseph’s destiny (Genesis 37:24).

•  A poverty stricken widow with children’s mouths to fill was at the end of her rope and found hope when God sent provision through Elisha and some empty jars. (2 Kings4:3-7).

•  The best of all the “empty” things in Scripture is the empty tomb (Luke 22:12).  The empty tomb means that Christ could not be held by the power of death and that He was indeed the sacrifice to end all sacrifices so that we might have forgiveness from our sins (Hebrews 10:10).

Now we, “know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” 1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT.  Empty things no longer have a hold on our new life in Christ!

Through the wrestling with emotions, laboring in prayer and the intensity of this journey, we’ve sought to lift up this empty place in our lives to let God do with it what He wanted.

Whether your wait for a baby feels like an eternity or has just begun, the issue of infertility or struggling to conceive reaches far and wide across our identities, relationships with friends and family, our marriage and even our relationship with God.  And while the process hurts beyond description, if we let Him, God can do a beautiful work through all of it.

Consider the following stories from Scripture:

Ruth had been widowed at a young age. Her devotion to God led her to follow her also widowed mother-in-law back to the homeland of Israel. Ruth would always be a Moabite to the Jews – a foreigner. She couldn’t let herself dream of a husband, let alone ever having a baby. She would do well just to be able to work hard enough to feed herself and Naomi. But God had a plan. He blessed her with a good man, a son and a place in the lineage of Christ. His hand filled her emptiness and her life reflected His goodness.

A barren couple went about life as usual. The chores. The work. The wishing for a baby couldn’t be silenced, but what could they do? Manoah and his wife had no choice but to plug along and make do. Then one day an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and promised her a baby. Not just any baby, but one with a special destiny. He would rescue Israel from her enemies. He would be a mighty warrior and judge. He would be Samson. And this couple would raise him in an unusual way to prepare him for all that God had in store for him.

Scripture records Elkanah and Hannah, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah as also being couples that God prepared for parenting a special child by giving them a long season of barrenness.

I don’t know what God has planned for our family or yours, but I do know that He doesn’t waste our pain. He has collected every tear (Psalm 56:8) we cried as another month passed into another year without a baby. He has seen the longings of our hearts.

God might be preparing us to parent a child with a special destiny like the parents from the above scripture passages. He also might have a great purpose for us to live out without having children of our own.

He makes the barren woman abide in the house

As a joyful mother of children.

Praise the LORD! Psalm 113:9 NAS

There are kids at church, teens in your neighborhood, babies in foster care and adoption centers and children waiting to be “adopted” through organizations like Compassion. Now, I’ve been the recipient of a fair amount of comments like, “just adopt.” Some of us with empty cradles feel led to adopt, some of us don’t. Some of us have tried and had the door shut. So I’m not throwing out some simple-fix answer. Just reminding us all that there might be things God has for us to accomplish without children of our own so that we might bless His children. Paul referred to Timothy as a spiritual son. Children can come in a variety of ways. Can you imagine with some seven million people in the U.S. alone (as of the most recent available stats) who sought IF treatments, if we all prayed for direction to know how to bless just one of God’s kids what a difference He might make in this world through our “emptiness”?

Whether God fills your family with blessed little ones or fills your heart with His children, I pray that you and your spouse would be comforted with the truth that God sees you, that He loves you, that you are not forgotten and that He has a plan – a good, wonderful, gracious plan.

follow Motl Ministries on facebook or twitter!

Looking for more encouragement for your journey through infertility?

Check out: Waiting for God to Fill the Cradle – One Month Devotional for Couples

It’s not a pretty subject. It’s not a warm-fuzzy feeling. The struggle with infertility or hampered fertility is a heavy burden for couples all over the world! In the U.S. alone more than 7.3 million people sought treatment for infertility in the last year – so guess what, you are NOT alone!

And better yet, God sees YOU!

Come along with us on this month long journey to discover God’s heart for those of us who are waiting for Him to fill our cradles!

PS- Stick around for the rest of The Big IF series and if you have any friends who might be struggling with infertility, invite them along! April is infertility awareness month and we are highlighting this issue this month.

(Article first published on Crosswalk.com February 2012)

***REMEMBER: Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this excellent devotional.

who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19, NKJV)

For many of us the focus these past few weeks has been resurrection—and rightfully so. It is the very heart of Christianity, the turning point of history, the hope of the Church. It is also the driving force of people of all faiths—or of no real faith at all.

Though some say they believe that once we die, that’s it, deep down they hold out a hope for something more, something better. For instance, we see that flimsy hope reflected in the popular movies about vampires—eternal life that requires no repentance or turning to the true God, life everlasting as a result of our own endeavors, however macabre they may be.

But, plain and simple, it doesn’t work that way, though for years people who rejected God’s Word have tried to make it so. The Old Testament strictly forbids communicating with the dead, yet we see examples in Scripture of those who sought out mediums to try to do just that. God was not pleased.

Even in Christian circles we must be wary. Check out the shelves in Christian bookstores (or the bestseller list) and you will find several books written by those who claim to have died and gone to heaven, then returned to share their story. Granted, those stories can be encouraging and may very well be true. However, accepting them as such without first checking them against Scripture can be dangerous. If God’s Word doesn’t support what has been written by a human being—even one who claims to have been to heaven and back—then we must reject it. That doesn’t make it an outright lie, but it does make it erroneous if it contradicts what God says is Truth.

As we continue throughout the year to focus on resurrection, may we remember that eternal life was bought with a great price. The One who paid that price is also the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Resurrection, the hope of life after death, is a universal longing, but it can only be found as we heed God’s Word and submit to His Truth.

When the biological father of Jessica MacAllister’s son decides to break their custody agreement, Jessica and her son visit her Uncle George for advice and refuge… 

When the lives of these two women cross, they discover that one heart-shaped ring binds their stories together. But will the results be a rekindled faith and new hope, or will it lead them both back into the darkness they’ve fought for so long?

To order: http://bit.ly/SSfxlr

Come, see the place where the Lord lay (Matthew 28:6, NKJV).

“The Old Rugged Cross” will always be one of my favorite hymns, for the old rugged Cross is where the costly, bloody price was paid for my sin—and for yours. Without it, we would all be without hope in this world.

But the story doesn’t end at the Cross. Though we focus on that great sacrificial symbol throughout Holy Week—and rightfully so—that beloved Cross would be meaningless and powerless if it hadn’t culminated in the empty tomb. On Easter morning, our focus moves from Christ’s death to His Resurrection, for that is what we truly celebrate.

Without the empty tomb, the Cross, as precious as it is to those of us who have personally identified with its sacrifice, would be the saddest emblem in history, the symbol of the worst failure and defeat of all time. For if Christ had not risen from the dead, then He would merely have been a nice man who performed good deeds, modeled a good life, and then died a martyr, deserted by His followers, leaving nothing more than an example behind.

Praise be to God that the Story did NOT end there! God accepted His Son’s sacrifice, and visibly exhibited His acceptance by raising Jesus from the dead and restoring Him to power at the right hand of the Father. That very acceptance, shown in the Resurrection, is our insurance of resurrection as well. Because humanity had turned away from God, each choosing to go his or her own way, a tremendous price had to be paid to restore us to relationship with God. That price could only be paid by One without sin. No human being has ever met that criterion, except the One who was both Man and God—Jesus Christ Himself. Out of a depth of love that we can’t even begin to imagine, God sent His only Son to be that sinless sacrifice. Out of that same unconditional love, the Son willingly came and suffered an excruciating death on our behalf. But three days after being placed in the grave, He burst the bonds of death and hell and arose, victorious, opening the door to heaven once again.

That old rugged Cross will always be precious to me, but it is the empty tomb I will celebrate this Easter. May you too join the many choruses of hallelujahs resounding around the globe this Sunday morning as we celebrate the pivotal point of all history, the empty tomb!