An early thanksgiving

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NASB)

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre, (Psalms 147:7 NASB)

Today is a day of thanksgiving and praise for me. We will get back to Luke tomorrow, but today is a wow day and I'm spending the day recognizing what God has done and thanking Him for it. 

After 46 days, the blog has had just a few shy of 5,000 views. (By the end of today, it will likely be over 5,000) God has done it. He's given me the words to write and has drawn people to the blog. The stories of lives that have been touched are just thrilling to me. If you haven't heard me say this yet, let me assure you that it has nothing to do with me (except as the typist/plow horse) and everything to do with God. 

Even more amazing to me is that 93 days ago, I wrote the first Luke devotional. In  those 93 days, an entire book has been written, formatted, reformatted several times due to computer glitches, and published as an ebook (a completely new format for me). Everything that was critical worked so smoothly, from obtaining ISBN's to LLCN's (the registration numbers books need) to learning the Kindle format to the upload. When the book was uploaded last night, I received a message back that said the number of misspelled words was zero! He equipped me and trained me and helped me, and He did it in record time. Just for comparison, my last book took ten years to complete. 

I'm later than usual with the post today, and I apologize. I was too excited to sleep last night, and my sister and I had to be up long before dawn to make it to the Charity Sale at Belk. She needed shoes for her son Ben's wedding and I needed a dress for it.  That's a praise all it's own, but a story for another day. 

I want you all to know how much I appreciate your prayers, your encouragement, your kindness. These last few weeks have been so very hard as I struggled to balance my medical practice, the farm, the blog, all my boards and committees, as well as life in general, with writing, editing, and formatting the book. I didn't think I could do it. Actually, I knew I couldn't. God, however, had a plan and He accomplished what He started. 

The Road to Bethlehem went live on Amazon as a Kindle book at 3am today. Please pray now that God will use it to accomplish all He intended. There are thousands, well probably millions, of parents who are broken hearted over the spiritual condition of their children. One of the key words for the book is prodigal so perhaps those parents will find it and get a fresh infusion of hope. There is a brief section at the end that speaks to the parents of prodigals and offers them the opportunity to pray for their children in the same way we have. I promised a dedicated website for parents of prodigals by Dec. 1, so your prayers are needed as I begin yet another whirlwind of work. 

Today, we are thanking God for His faithfulness and the hope He has given us. We are praying, as always, for our children, but today we are also praying for the parents of prodigals who are desperate for the hope that only God can give as well their children who are one bent knee from redemption.