Global Day of Prayer 2009

If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ~ 2 Chron.7: 14

Prayer for the Nations from the Book of Common Prayer:
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, guide, we beseech thee, the Nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

This Pentecost, the Global Day of Prayer 2009, Christians around the world are praying together this Prayer for the World:

Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Together with believers all over the world,
we gather today to glorify Your Name.
You are the Creator of heaven and earth.
There is no one like You, holy and righteous in all Your ways.
We submit to Your authority as the King of the universe.
We pray with one voice to enthrone You in our hearts
and to honour You before the world.
Lord God, You alone are worthy of our praise and adoration.
Our Father in heaven,
Thank You for loving the world so greatly.
You gave Your only Son, Jesus Christ,
to die on the cross for our sins
so that we could be reconciled to You.
We are grateful to call You Father and to be called Your children.
Nothing can separate us from Your love.
Thank You Father, for adopting us into Your family
because of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You alone are worthy to open the scrolls of history,
for You were slain and have redeemed us to the Father by Your blood.
We confess that You are Head of the Church
and Lord of all heaven and earth.
May people from every tribe and language become Your followers
so that Your blessing brings transformation among all peoples.
Let Your kingdom be established in every nation of the world
so that governments will rule with righteousness and justice.
And may Your Name be great, from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Jesus Christ, You are the Saviour of the world and the Lord of all.
Father of mercy and grace,
We acknowledge that we have sinned
and that our world is gripped by the power of sin.
Our hearts are grieved by injustice, hatred and violence.
We are shamed by oppression, racism and bloodshed in our land.
We mourn all loss of life in murder, war and terrorism.
Our homes are broken and our churches are divided by rebellion and pride.
Our lives are polluted by selishness, greed, idolatry and sexual sin.
We have grieved Your heart and brought shame to Your Name.
Have mercy on us as we repent with all our hearts.
God of mercy, forgive our sins.
Pour out Your grace and heal our land.
Spirit of the living God,
Apart from You, we can do nothing.
Transform Your Church into the image of Jesus Christ.
Release Your power to bring healing to the sick,
freedom to the oppressed and comfort to those who mourn.
Pour Your love into our hearts and fill us with compassion
to answer the call of the homeless and the hungry
and to enfold orphans, widows and the elderly in Your care.
Give us wisdom and insight for the complex problems we face today.
Help us to use the resources of the earth for the well-being of all.
Holy Spirit, we need Your comfort and guidance.
Transform our hearts.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Because You were dead, but are now risen,
and the Father has given You a Name above all names,
You will defeat all powers of evil.
Tear down strongholds and ideologies that resist the knowledge of God.
Remove the veil of darkness that covers the peoples.
Restrain the evil that promotes violence and death.
Bring deliverance from demonic oppression.
Break the hold of slavery, tyranny and disease.
Fill us with courage to preach Your word fearlessly,
and to intercede for the lost faithfully.
Almighty God, deliver us from evil.
King of Glory,
Come and finish Your work in our cities, our peoples and our nations.
We lift our voices in unison with believers from Africa and Asia,
from the Middle East and Europe, from North and South America,
and from Australia and the Pacific Islands—together we cry:
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Be lifted up ancient doors
so that the King of glory may come in!
As Your deeds increase throughout the earth,
and as Your blessings abound to all the nations,
they will seek You, asking, “Who is this King of glory?”
Together we will answer:
He is the Lord Almighty!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Come fill the earth with Your glory as the waters cover the sea.
The Spirit and the Bride say:
Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Comments, Spam, and Comment Spam

Is it just me or is it getting harder to separate legitimate comments from spam comments?

Often legitimate comments are easy to identify. They add relevant  insights, new information, or another opinion on the topic of the post, and they are posted under the commenter’s full name (or least a nickname). Sometimes they simply affirm the commenter’s agreement or encouragement to the blogger, but they clearly show the commenter is responding to a specific post. Occasionally, a few words that agree or encourage without specifically mentioning the topic are readily recognized as legitimate because the commenter is a regular reader who has left comments before.

Many spam comments are just as easy to identify. They promote pills, porn, or propoganda; are frequently posted using a keyword instead of a name; and may have several links in the body of the comment.

Then there are the ones in the gray area.

The comment may be relevant to the topic but be posted by a keyword instead of a person. I always remind commenters that with KeywordLuv, they can use both their name and keywords. Then I can address them as a real person, and they still get their keyword link. I would much rather chat with John Smith from Dayton Used Cars than with Dayton Used Cars. I can’t help envisioning a used car typing the comment, and I can’t get excited about carrying on a conversation with a used car or insurance or a dentist or … whatever. Note: as of 8/31/09, I changed my comment policy and automatically mark as spam any comment left with keywords only and no name.

Other times the comment may be left by a commenter who uses a name but without responding directly the topic of the post.“Great post,” “I agree,” “Thanks for sharing,” and similar sentiments may be sincere, but they are also the kind of comments left by robots or by humans who haven’t taken the time to read the content of the post. If the person has commented before, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. However, comments of this nature from first-time commenters are treated as spam.

The spam comments that offend me the most are the ones that plagiarize as well as spam. These may be fairly easy to catch on recent posts but can slip through when left on old posts. My first experience with this was a single comment left on an old post. The comment added insight on the topic of the post, so I approved it. The next day, I had more than a dozen comments from the same “person.” The comments were posted immediately—comments are held for moderation only for the first comment. When I started responding to the comments, as I do to every comment, I recognized one of the comments as something I’d heard before. Reading the earlier comments revealed that the new comment was a repeat of a comment left months ago by someone else. That discovery led me to review every single comment left by this spammer, and every one proved to be copied from an earlier comment. I deleted all the comments and blacklisted the spammer, but that taught me to check more closely on comments on older posts.

Since then, I’ve found this happening frequently. Some are creative enough to take a sentence from each of three or four different comments so their comment isn’t identical to any other comment but is identical to parts of several different comments. Worse, some of the spam comments take material directly from the post itself. They have the nerve to leave me a comment composed of my words in the post they are commenting on!

The spam comments that puzzle me the most are the ones that are nothing but question marks, sometimes a few, sometimes hundreds. My only guess as to why anyone would do this is to get a comment past moderation with the expectation of lots more spamming with links included in future comments.

Other than spam, the only comments I don’t approve fall into one of two categories:

• Comments that are disrespectful of my beliefs and values. Respectful disagreement is allowed; rudeness or disrespect of me, my readers/commenters, my faith, our country or troops, or my values is not allowed.
• Comments that link to sites that I don’t consider appropriate for a Christian audience, such as blogs on how to enhance body parts, sites that denigrate people or values, and risque entertainment. Occasionally I may approve the comment but delete the link, but usually I delete the comment. 

I love comments and encourage them with DoFollow, CommentLuv, KeywordLuv, and other plugins designed to make the commenting experience easy and fun and to reward them with links that help with SEO. I visit the site of every person who leaves a comment here and often subscribe to their blogs as well. I reply to every single comment, and I thank commenters monthly for being part of the community.  

Too bad that spammers make moderating and responding to comments more of a challenge for me and all bloggers.

Are you finding it more difficult to sort out spam from legitimate comments?

Lillie’s Q&A at Ask Wendy

This seems to be my week for interviews. Today, I answer ten questions for Wendy Burt-Thomas on her blog  Ask Wendy – The Query Queen. I hope you’ll stop by and say hello.

In a few weeks, I’ll be interviewing Wendy about her latest book about writing query letters. If you’re not a subscriber to my blog, you may want to subscribe now so you won’t miss this post.

Story Behind the Story at Writer-in-Progress

Beth Morrow at Writer-in-Progress interviewed me for her feature “The Story Behind the Story.” Stop by to say hello and learn how Dream or Destiny came into being.  

If you’re not a regular reader of Writer-in-Progress, you’ll want to check out Beth’s other posts, especially her daily writing tips.

Memorial Day 2009

The video shows the Memorial Day observance at Arlington in 2007, accompanied by Trace Atkins singing “Arlington.”

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

Interview: Pat & James Taylor

I’m delighted that my friends, Patricia Eytcheson Taylor and the Rev. Dr. James C. Taylor, are visiting here today. Pat contacted me about editing a book about her spiritual journey after being referred to me by two mutual friends, my client David Bowles and college professor Dr. Jan Kilby. Later, I discovered we have other friends in common, but we met for the first time to discuss the book. I saw that Pat had a powerful testimony to give and was happy to work with her.

Lillie: Welcome to A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, Pat and James. My readers know a little about On the Wings of the Wind: A Journey to Faith from reading about it here on my blog shortly before it was released. But they’re eager to learn more about the book and how it came about. What led you to write the book, Pat?

Pat: I was not intentionally going to write another book, even though I had written children’s books before. When I lost my precious husband, I lost the will to live or do anything else, but at night I began to write note after notes. I was pouring my heart and feelings out to God. I was raised with a strong belief and faith in God. My mother took a picture of God accidentally, which is explained in our book and which helped build my strong faith. Yet as I went through my busy life, I hadn’t paid as much attention to God as I should have.

In most of our lives there comes a time of crisis that no one can help us but God, if you let Him. Too many times we wait for a crisis before we turn to God, usually as a last resource when He is the first one we should turn to.

The Bible keeps telling us that our body is the “Holy Temple of God.” Take it to heart. We must become humble and have a willingness to receive God’s wisdom and be open to him. Without God, I would be nothing. Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him I can now can do all things, through Christ that has strengthened me. (Philippians 4:13)

My notes written at night shared this common theme, said in many different ways. Many writers write at night because when it is quiet God can reach and inspire us in our writing. For me this quietness allows me to take time to listen, and listening is the key to hearing God’s voice. Without faithfulness and belief, this story wouldn’t have been written.

On The Wings of The Wind is a love story, created by a young girl who found true love on a beautiful beach in California. Her young soul carried God with her throughout her life. But then a time came when God prepared her in mind and body for something to come which she couldn’t explain or even talk about to her husband or anyone else. She had known that she had the gift of premonitions, which came true, but they had always been for fun and entertainment. Now these strong premonitions were scary; none had been like that before.

When her premonitions came true, she was devastated, and that started her journey to a stronger faith and a closer walk with the Holy Spirit.

Lillie: The book started as Pat’s project. How did you get involved, James?

James: After Pat and I were married, we were sent to Germany on my last tour in the military. I was searching for some papers one day and came across some of Pat’s notes she had written before we met. She told me how in the middle of the night she would cry out to the Lord for guidance and support. Soon she learned to turn over everything to God and began to live for Him in her everyday life. She wrote notes of her experiences night after night. When I found those notes, I noticed a similarity with the Scriptures in the Bible. I found it quite extraordinary for a person to do this, and we both felt that God was speaking and using her for a greater purpose than just herself.

Being an Army Chaplain and a pastor, I talked it over with Pat and decided this work had to be put into a story so others could experience how Pat and I had come to know the living presence of God in our lives. Our story was written that others might read and be encouraged in their life journey by our experiences and be able to understand the Bible better.

Pat and I co-authored this book from her early life until today to show how God was always there for her, sometimes even when she didn’t know it. Our relationship with God the Holy Spirit is shown by the cover of our book, a beach scene where Jesus is walking alone, yet just moments before two sets of foot prints are visible. As the poem “Footprints in The Sand” illustrates, Jesus carries us when we are too weak, exhausted, or afraid to do it by ourselves. When God takes over, His promise of joy and peace and purpose is far greater then we can imagine. You make God your partner, your life, and your friend. He then impacts and relates to us in every area of our everyday life.

Lillie: What is the most important thing you want readers to take away from On the Wings of the Wind?

Pat & James: When we have a deeper faith in Him, we find hope and joy in our lives, even as we face the crises and storms. God is the one that gives us the strength to continue. He lets us know and feel His presence as our faith is strengthened in this all-powerful and loving God. And the most important fact is that He loves us. He loves you.

Lillie: Where did you get the title On the Wings of the Wind?

Pat & James: Our book takes it’s title from our understanding that in the Old Testament, The Rhuah, the Spirit or the Wind of God, is the creating force of all that exists.

The Bible states that God comes on the Wings of the Storm. In Psalm 18:10 it says: “mounted on the cherubim he speeds swiftly to my aid with the wings of the wind.” Storms can be on the inside or outside of our body, but they are no match for He who comes on the Wings of the Wind. 

Lillie: You’ve mentioned that you have three common reactions to your book. What are they?

Pat & James: The first reaction is that once they start to read the book they can’t put it down. It is written in an easy to read and understand format, with Scriptures throughout each chapter. The second comment is that their spouses want to read the book, sometimes taking it and finishing before they have finished with it. The third comment is that they are reading it again because they have found so many things that are helpful and spiritually relevant in their lives. Many people are sharing our book with neighbors and friends, some as far away as England, Germany, Bosnia, and Africa.

Lillie: One of the ways you have promoted On the Wings of the Wind is through speaking at church and military activities. Please tell us a little about that.

Pat & James: We have attended church conferences and been guest speakers where we present a one-hour workshop on “The Holy Spirit for Today.” These short sessions have standing room only. We also have worked through military wives’ groups and Bible studies at several military posts. The Military Post Exchanges have allowed us to have book signings in the front of their stores because some of our book deals with military life after September 11, 2001.

Lillie: Can you share something that was challenging and/or rewarding about the writing and publishing process?

Pat & James: Finding the right publisher who agreed that we need to get our book out to the public in a timely manner.

Lillie: I’m sure my readers will want to know more about you and your book. Do you have a blog and/or Web site? Where can readers buy On the Wings of the Wind?

Pat & James: We have a Web site/blog, On the Wings of the Wind. You can order the book directly from us on the Web site. When you order from us, you not only receive an autographed copy of the book, you also get a bonus, a CD that has Christian music by a wonderful singer, Janet Norris, and a sermon on the Holy Spirit by James. You can also order the book from Amazon.com.

Lillie: Is there anything else you’d like to share that I haven’t asked?

Pat & James: On The Wings of the Wind provides spiritual guidance to teens and adults as they journey through life. If we submit ourselves to God and let Him plan our life, He will care and provide for us and can give us riches and blessing beyond measures. We need to give Him our cooperation and be willing to do all that He tells us to even if it doesn’t make sense to us.

Our book shows and tells you how to know when it’s God telling you to do something. As we become on speaking terms with God, we learn to recognize His voice. If you give your heart to Him, He will talk to you. We need to put a few moments of silent time aside for Him, empty our minds and just wait, expecting Him speak. When you wake up in the morning, simply tell Him that you love him and thank him for the day. He could respond by your having a great day. He can’t resist being loved any more than you or I can.

We are very blessed with the wonderful news that the Midwest Book Review gave  On the Wings of the Wind a rating of Highly Recommended, and Libraries Alive of the National Church Association gave the a book a rating 4 Stars-Highly Recommended.  Our book will be listed in their national publication for the next five years.

Lillie: Pat & James, thank you for visiting. I’m sure I didn’t ask everything my readers want to know so I hope you’ll check in during the day to answer questions.

Pat & James: Yes, we’ll be back and hope to answer lots of questions. Thank you for inviting us to visit your blog today.

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Patricia and James Taylor, authors of On the Wings of the Wind, live in San Antonio, Texas. Since retirement from the U. S. Army Chaplain Corps, James has served as a Lutheran interim pastor in several congregations. Pat shares in this ministry through her gifts of compassion, visitation, and speaking.

Global Day of Prayer 2009: 10 Days

In the post on the National Day of Prayer, I mentioned the upcoming Global Day of Prayer on May 31st.

Today is the beginning of the 10 Days leading up to the Global Day of Prayer.

The Global Day of Prayer is a call to united prayer. The 10 Days preceding the Global Day of Prayer creates an excellent opportunity to unite in prayer with millions around the globe, based on Acts 1 + 2. The 10 Days helps us to gradually build a lifestyle of prayer in our communities, as well as to focus our prayers much wider than our personal and national needs as we pray with millions during this time.

You can download a 10-day Prayer Guide if you would like to join in prayer for the next 10 days.

Virtual Writers Conference

How would you like to attend a writers conference and learn from a couple dozen authors, editors, publishers, publicists, and marketing experts?

You may think such a conference is too expensive and would require too much time away from work. If so, you’re wrong.

Author Gayle Trent is sponsoring a Virtual Writers Conference  from May 19 through May 22. The conference is free, and you can participate on your own schedule. Just visit the conference blog and read contributions by the likes of marketing guru John Kremer, literary publicist Penny Sansevieri, and an assortment of talented writers, editors, and publishers.

My Seventeen Tips for Self-Editing appeared on May 19th, and I anticipate learning  from each of the articles posted during the conference.  

Attending a conference in person is exciting, educational, and expensive. Attending the Virtual Writers Conference can be exciting and educational, but it’s totally free. See you there!

The Taylors Coming to Visit

On the Wings of the Wind: A Journey to Faith by Patricia Eytcheson Taylor and the Rev. James C. Taylor was released about a year and a half ago. I announced the release of the book, but I hadn’t started interviewing authors on my blog at that time.

Although the book isn’t new, it is very timely now. In difficult times, many people seek a closer relationship with the Lord. The Taylors’ book is a guide to do that. Pat shares her spiritual journey from her despair at the death of her first husband through a deeper faith and closer relationship with the Holy Spirit to her marriage and sharing  ministry with James, an Army chaplain (now retired).

I’ll be interviewing Pat and James on Friday, so be sure to come by to hear their story.

Armed Forces Day 2009

Today is Armed Forces Day in the US, a day to honor our military and thank them for their service.

Thank you to everyone who makes personal sacrifices and risks their lives for our security. And thank you to their families who sacrifice so the military members they love can serve their country.

O LORD God of Hosts, stretch forth, we pray thee, thine almighty arm to strengthen and protect all the members of our country’s armed forces. Support them in the day of battle, and in the time of peace keep them safe from all evil; endue them with courage and loyalty; and grant that in all things they may serve without reproach; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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