Book Review: Miracle of Miracles

I posted a review of the book Miracle of Miracles: A Muslim Woman’s Conversion to Christ And Flight from the Perils of Islam by Mina Nevisa with Jim Croft.

If the following snippet of the review intrigues you, read the complete review at Book Reviews from Christian E-Authors.

Miracle of Miracles reminds us that all Christians must pray for persecuted Christians and for the salvation of Muslims. The threat of radical Islam can best be met by spreading the Gospel to those in the dark. Muslims practice a religion of harsh rules, submission, and violence. Christians have a personal relationship with a loving Savior who offers eternal life.

I have to ask myself: Could I stand up to persecution for my faith? I pray so.

Spam

Are you overwhelmed with spam these days? An article in the New York Times reports: “Worldwide spam volumes have doubled from last year, according to Ironport, a spam filtering firm, and unsolicited junk mail now accounts for more than 9 of every 10 e-mail messages sent over the Internet.”

And spam in blog comments is just as bad. I waste a lot of time every day deleting e-mail spam and moderating  comments on several blogs. Dozens of the messages repeat the same message with different subject lines and different senders.

And now someone is spoofing e-mail addresses from YourInformationCenter.com, so I’m getting dozens more e-mails every day saying the messages I sent couldn’t be delivered. Of course, I didn’t send the messages with subjects like “Hector advice,” “it’s me elise,” “relative benevolent” … from addresses such as xqzm@….com.

It’s hard to believe anyone actually reads this junk, much less falls for it. But ABC’s Brian Ross & The Investigative Team Web site has videos showing how churches, a former Congressman, prominent doctors and lawyers, and other have been victimized in the billion-dollar Nigerian e-mail scams. If you receive an e-mail addressed to “undisclosed recipients” saying you’ve inherited millions from an unknown relative … hit the delete key! Greed – the possibility of getting something for nothing … or tens of millions for only a “small” fee … makes people gullible. As the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The only people getting rich from these e-mails are the scammers/spammers. Another site for information specifically on the Nigerian and related scams is Nigeria – The 419 Coalition.

At least the scams have a somewhat coherent story, though usually the messages are filled with grammar and spelling errors. The ones I wonder about are the messages that don’t make any sense whatsoever. Words and phrases are randomly strung together. Paragraphs stop in mid-sentence, and the sentences or phrases don’t have anything to do with what the spammers are trying to sell. I figure they have files of words, phrases, and sentences, and they just pull a word from one file, a phrase from another, a few sentences from the next …

You’re probably wondering how I know so much about what these nonsensical messages say. Why don’t I just delete them en masse? Well, I always find a few legitimate messages among the junk mail, as well as lots of junk mail that gets through the spam filters. I have to read enough to sort them out – that is, if the subject is something other than “Milligan advice,” “it’s me helena,” “amidst displeasure,” and the like.

Did you know you can subscribe to my blog?

I knew WordPress blogs are available for subscription as RSS feeds … but I didn’t really understand how to do it. Now that I’ve recently upgraded to Internet Explorer 7, I’ve discovered how simple it is with this browser.

David Bowles explains how to subscribe to his blog (and you can use his instructions to subscribe to my blog too) at Writing the Westward Sagas. Read his explanation … and maybe you’ll decide to subscribe to both our blogs!

I’ve subscribed to several blogs that I enjoy reading on a regular basis. Take a lot at my blogroll to see who I’m reading.

Advent

Today is the First Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a time of preparation for Christians that leads up to Christmas. Fr. Chip Harper All Saints Anglican Church, which is my parish, offers a short liturgy lesson about the meaning of Advent.

The liturgies during the Advent season focus on three Advents: the Advent of Jesus’ birth in a manger two thousand years ago, the Advent of the Lord in our own hearts and lives, and the Advent of the Second Coming at the end of time. The Bible teaches us to be ever-ready as we don’t know when the Lord will come. Advent is a time to prepare … to get ready.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and busy-ness of the holiday season instead of focusing of the real meaning of the holy season. Adding special devotions … maybe using an Advent wreath … spending time with the Lord are all good ways to focus on what Christmas is really all about.

I’ve created Scripture/prayer cards that have a Bible verse on one side and a prayer on the other. You can download a PDF file and print the cards on your own computer printer. Reading one of the cards can create a brief moment of devotion in a busy day.

The download of the cards is my gift to you with the prayer that we both focus on the meaning of the season this Advent … and prepare for Christmas.

As Shadows Fall

Grace Anne Schaefer’s next book, As Shadows Fall: People of the Frozen Earth Book Two, is scheduled for release in January 2007.

Book One: The New Day Dawns has created a bunch of ardent fans eagerly awaiting the sequel. It has also received excellent reviews, the latest a 5-Angel review from Fallen Angel Reviews.

Having read As Shadows Fall, I can attest that it is as good as The New Day Dawns. I told you about reading the book aloud to edit. I think that’s the best way to catch errors that are easily missed by reading silently from a printed manuscript or from a computer screen. As many edits as this book has gone through, it should be perfect. I don’t think there’s ever been a perfect book … there’s bound to be something that slipped through … but we tried!

You can read the first chapter of As Shadows Fall by going to either People of the Frozen Earth (where you can learn more about Grace Anne and the People of the Frozen Earth) or GASLight Publishing (where you can also check out some other great books – including my own Stroke of Luck   

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