Positive Grace by Deb Haggerty

Deb’s Dozen: Renew Your Hope! Strategies to Enable You to Surmount Life’s Challenges Joyfully!

In Renew Your Hope: Remedies for Personal Breakthroughs, Pamela Christian has truly enabled the reader to have hope—despite whatever challenges life may throw at them. If we are in Jesus Christ, we have great power to overcome—He offers us so much if we believe. This is not the “believe it and seize it” theology, but a proven application of Scriptures for living that brings hope and joy. As she succinctly writes, we must: 1) Understand, 2) Acknowledge, 3) Believe, and 4) Receive.

Through personal examples as well as stories from people who have passed through the fires of life and come through stronger, Pamela shows us that “God has done everything possible to overcome obstacles in this life.” She shows us the many deceptions that the world throws in our paths to keep us from attaining that which we desire.

Pam has written this book for those of us who have faced burdens or who have trials and tribulations now—those of us who are tired and weary and just want to give up—those who have believed in what Christ can do in our lives and have claimed His promises. She provides tools for all of us that will lead us to new perspectives and a greater faith in the God who saved us and loves us unconditionally.

Written from a sound theological perspective, Ms. Christian demonstrates that the abundant life is available to Christians here and now—not at some vague time in the future. But we do have to position ourselves for the abundant life and she shows us how to go about doing just that.

Pam says her premise for writing this book was: “Faith that moves mountains is something we can experience, if we understand how to wield effective faith. Effective faith is not Word Faith theology where a person seeks to declare what they want to occur in his or her life. Rather, effective faith is Faith Word theology, where believers learn to trust God for His promises to occur in this life!”

Pamela Christian became a Christian when she was nearly thirty years old and promptly dove into learning everything she could about the Christian life. She listened to Christian talk radio, read and listened to R.C. Sproul, A.W. Tozer, Josh McDowell, Greg Koukl, and others as well as studied apologetics through Biola University. Her first ministry service was as Teaching Director for a local Community Bible Study class (an interdenominational, international organization).

Pam says she writes to appeal to the intellect first—that too many people today are only concerned with “feeling” and not with thinking. She states, “If we don’t think about what we believe, we can easily be deceived and not know it, because that’s the nature of deception.”

Her passion is to inspire people to live in life-giving truth. Oswald Chambers has been a great inspiration in her life. After reading Chamber’s explanation of tenacious faith, she realized she has been given the gift of faith—something she prayed for without realizing what she’d have to experience to actually posses such a gift. Pam candidly shares the many trials that have served to strengthen her faith, and she has a heart of compassion to help others persevere.

She labels herself a “Conservative Charismatic” who doesn’t agree with the position of some who claim the miraculous gifts aren’t for today. She makes a compelling argument for Christians having a greater need for miraculous gifts now and in the end times. She references Christ’s declaration that believers who came after Him would do even greater miracles than He did (John 14:12).

She says, “Today in our culture many people say they only believe that what they “feel” and “see” is real—their significance and worth are tied up in feelings, yet they are starved for true reality. They really want to know God and understand who they are in Christ. They lack a proper identity in Jesus Christ—people need to realize their true worth and that they and their circumstances can change.”

Besides writing (Renew Your Hope! is the second book in the Faith to Live By series—the first was Examine Your Faith: Finding Truth in a World of Lies), Pam enjoys faith, family, friends, and fun. She has taken several gourmet cooking classes because cooking and entertaining are favorite pastimes. She and her husband, David, live in Orange County, CA; her two grown children and their families live close by.

To get Renew Your Hope! click the link: Renew Your Hope!: Remedy for Personal Breakthroughs (Faith to Live By)

Pamela Christian kindly gave me a copy of Renew Your Hope! Remedies for Personal Breakthroughs in exchange for my candid review.

Deb’s Dozen: Elderly being scammed. FBI and police dueling. Double Cross in the works?

Laurel Evertson is an FBI agent investigating a group of scammers targeting the elderly. She is horrified when the evidence points to Morton Wilmington, a convicted felon she’d arrested on her first undercover assignment—one she’d rather forget.

Daniel Hilton is a Houston Police officer who fears his grandparents are the next target. Dan would do anything to protect them and keep them safe. After all, they’re the ones who raised him after his mom was put in prison.

Earl and Abby, Dan’s grandparents, are in their golden years. Earl is slowly progressing into Alzheimer’s, but still sharp sometimes. Abby is quite a pistol for her age and can still shoot one accurately, thank you very much. They spend their days at the Silver Hospitality facility where Earl can socialize and play cards with his friends there. Abby stays there too so she can watch over Earl.

Dan and Laurel meet and connect at the Silver Hospitality center when one of the residents is scammed and subsequently dies. Dan fears Earl and Abby may be in danger because Earl can recognize one of the men. Laurel feels strongly that Milton may be at the bottom of the scheme and that his jailhouse conversion is in itself a scam.

They team up to solve the crimes—will that lead to them teaming up in other areas? Will Earl and Abby survive? Is Milton involved or has he truly reformed? Mills quotes Abraham Joshua Heschel, “When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”

You will be sitting on the edges of your chairs while reading Double Cross—first biting your fingernails and then sighing with relief. There are twists and turns aplenty as Mills leads us on the chase for the scammers. You’ll also gain an empathy you may not have had for the elderly and their caregivers. Dan and Laurel and Abby are complex, well-written characters that you will root for throughout the story. But as Laurel says at one point, “Finding answers often meant looking into dark and angry places … a survivor on the outside, a fragile soul on the inside.”

Double Cross is five stars in my book—and I wouldn’t scam you! To get your copy of Double Cross, click this link: Double Cross (FBI: Houston)

DiAnn Mills is a multiple award winning author. This year she finaled for the Christy Award in the Suspense category and for the Golden Scroll Award in fiction for her novel, Firewall. Double Cross will surely be up for awards in the future.

I had the privilege of interviewing DiAnn about Double Cross and her other novels during the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando the end of June. She is a delightful woman, enviably petite, and extremely articulate about her art. When asked why she chose this topic for Double Cross, she replied that she is now seeing her friends with parents in their 80s and older who are no longer sharp and are relying on their children for counsel and care. She feels it is of utmost importance to grant the elderly the dignity they deserve and not to ignore them or neglect them. Respect, honor, and love are important themes in Double Cross. Abby is a strong example that age doesn’t have to mean you quit doing what is important to you.

Double Cross intends that we become aware of the elderly and what they face. We realize this situation could be happening to me when I am older. There is danger and suspense to be faced as we become aware of the physical and mental danger that arises for the elderly.

DiAnn and her husband live in Houston, Texas. DiAnn says she enjoys being a wife, mother and grandma—loves playing with her three grandkids. They give her great story ideas.

DiAnn attended Moody Bible Institute online and would have a BA of Biblical Studies “if not for the math!” She’s always enjoyed writing and telling stories—story has always been important to her. Her passion is writing Christian suspense fiction with a risk of romance—to give hope even in a dangerous world. To quote Laurel’s feelings as she observes Dan and Abby and Earl … “The love and unity the small family shared was more than blood or the same last name. She recognized it. Craved it. Hope.”