I love my Dad! by Doug Webb

My dad, Joseph Webb

The other day my cousin posted a picture of my dad.  It made me miss him so much.  He was such a great dad.  I tell people that my dad was like Bill Cosby.  My dad was also the assistant principal of a Junior High School and I learned he had another side to his personality.  When we would go out into public we would sometimes run into his former students.  They would all say the same thing. “Your dad was mean!”.   It would always shock me.  For one thing my dad would laugh and then the former student would laugh.  I wanted to punch them in the nose for calling my daddy “mean”!  They would later explain that my dad would “make” them go to class, do their homework, stop fighting, be respectful to the teachers, and have their parents be involved in their lives.  I thought to myself, that’s not “mean”.  My dad was trying to help you out. 

 

My other Dad is Jesus’ Dad!   To be honest I was afraid of Jesus’ Dad. You read the Old Testament and God is “mean” or so I thought.  Then I ran into this scripture.

 

John 14:7-10  (NKJV)  ⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”   ⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”  ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

Jesus was saying He is just like His Father.  My first thought was “NO WAY!”.  I pictured getting to heaven, and hiding behind Jesus as I talk to the Father.  I know it sounds terrible but when I think of the God of the Old Testament, He appears pretty ruthless, stoic, and mean.

So now I was challenged to believe Jesus’ words and change my view of the Father.  I pondered this.  The Father is just like Jesus.  Then I thought some more.  Jesus is actually saying He is like His FATHER!! Whoa!!??   How could that be possible?  Jesus is the good guy.  The Father has all this wrath and anger and you expect me to believe He’s the good guy too?!  

This is why I wrote my book.  I went in search of the Father’s heart and I have been on a mission to reconcile the Old Testament Father versus the Father we see in Jesus.  So I prayed.  “Lord, help me to see You the way Jesus sees You. I want the truth.”  

The depth of our entire relationship with God hinges on how you view His heart.  It will make or break you.  Now I was in the position of my dad’s former student’s and Jesus was in my position.  My new mission was to see the Father through Jesus' eyes, not mine.   

Me and my two oldest Chris and Christina

Leaf-blowing

It's Fall on the East Coast and that means that daily our lawn gets covered with orange, yellow and brown leaves. Daily, I pick a late afternoon hour as outdoor time for my 4 yr old son, a break for myself from writing, editing and marketing our books, and leaf blowing.

I enjoy blowing the leaves most of the time. It's nice to inhale the crisp autumn air, smell the nutty smoke from my neighbor's fireplace, and notice how the suns' rays can finally reach the dirt floor of the thinning forest that surrounds our backyard.

I learned a lesson the other day while leaf blowing. The edge of many leaves were stuck between strands of grass, despite the mega volt power coming at them. Other leaves, that had not grown comfortable on their patch of grass blew easily wherever the blower directed them to go.

It's difficult to crawl out from a warm blanket and meet the cold, dark air of a new morning. But we will never discover the value of that day if we don't get uncomfortable.  The Holy Spirit knows this. And like Him, I kept the force of the blower's wind on those comfortable leaves until they loosened from the soft strands of grass.

The leaves found a new resting place. Unlike the blown leaves that will crack and shred as winter enters the scene, we as God's children can loosen our grip from the comfortable places and relax knowing that we will find pleasure and life in every new or unknown season of life.

John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

News!

Doug's nonfiction book "I Was Framed!" Signed, God received its first review: 5 stars

Tina's fantasy fiction novelette, Before The Beginning reached #4 in the Christian fantasy, #4 in the Christian action and adventure and #5 in the military and war listings on Amazon during its free days two weeks ago. She had downloads from England, Canada, India and Italy as well as other places in the world.

Free eBook on Amazon!

My novel is FREE Friday, Oct 11 through Tuesday Oct 15!

Before The Beginning ebook by T. Webb

This fantasy fiction novelette has receive only 5 star reviews!   Reviews have said: "A spiritual thriller!", "wonderful and fast paced novella", "skillful execution of pacing and story telling."

Does God pursue to punish or to protect? This fantasy fiction novelette illustrates the original intentions of God towards the instigator of the heavenly rebellion: Helel Ben Shachar.  God is Love. Helel refuses Love and damns himself.  Abba (God) laments. “Can the sadness of rejected affection ever leave the memory of the One rejected?”Relentless to protect the innocent ones, Abba births justice and banishes Helel from His presence for eternity.

http://smarturl.it/BeforeTheBeginning

Never Alone

I am compelled, out of gratitude, to write a brief blog about the subject of community. Have you ever felt like you were thrown into an abyss of the "unknown" all by your lonesome?  I can relate. I'm thankful for the people God has put in my path to help me navigate through.

In my Christian circles, community has become a "coin" word as of late. The question that dictates that discussion is what does community in God's Kingdom on earth look like?

I'm learning the answer every day. As a new author, my answer is different than it used to be when I was caught up in my small home schooling and local church worlds. Now I'm navigating this previously unknown world of professional writing. I've watched it from afar for awhile. Author Lauralee Bliss and I have attended church together for decades. As I watched her write book after book, my own dream became more achievable for that "one day" when the time was right. New graphic novelist Matt McDowell who released Nephilites, is a few steps ahead of me in his exciting journey. We attended church together for awhile. Although he writes in a different genre, our plots both involve angels. Nope, I'm not alone. A local church is also where I met Author Precarious Yates, whom I knew as Sarah Rogers then Sarah Smith. At the time, I didn't realize how serious she was about writing! Our brief conversations were mostly about parenting, her past ministry work in Ireland and perhaps that Sunday's sermon. Years later, she's graciously begun to mentor me as a new author. I'm so grateful. My first introduction to the online community of Christian authors was through CrossReads, a site that connects readers and authors. Then social media opened the door to direct advice from fellow authors. This advice gave me my new marketing handbook, "Book Marketing For Beginners by Heather Hart. Hart encourages networking and forming relationships with other authors. I learned that seasoned authors regularly mentor new authors! Thank You God! I'm not in this alone. 

Although I'd never recommend forsaking the local for the virtual, both can provide encouragement, mentoring, accountability, and advice. Here's a shout-out to the helpful folks on CrossReads Authors FB page like Annie Douglass Lima, who pointed out that the all important comma needed to be inserted in the title of my husband's future non-fiction release! I also thank Kelly Hagin, who gave me the opportunity to do my first interview. When I was late in submitting interview information, due to my mommy duties, she quickly assured me that she too, was a mother, and understood. Nope, I'm not alone.

Despite my introverted personality, I'm learning that I can have a sense of community with people I'll likely never meet in person. This is a different type of community, but one just as God-given and necessary as my local community of friends. I guess it only makes sense with the new, but now normal, world of cyberspace.

I thought professional writing would be a dog-eat-dog world. But it's not. There are some good people out there. I thank God for them.