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The Precipice

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The Precipice - When Everything you know Changes

Having known TC Avey via Social Media (@TCAvey1 on Twitter) for several years now, reading her blog and interacting with her socially, I was very excited to find out she was writing a book.  I was gifted a copy of The Precipice: When Everything We Know Ends in exchange for an honest review.

I read the book in ONE sitting. Easy to keep up with,expertly written and I have to say, each scenario is completely possible in this day and age.

While this book is a work of fiction, TC has done her homework with these three short stories and honestly the things in her book could become reality for many.

These stories easily get your attention as specific freedoms are challenged. 

I would suggest using the Reality Check section at the end of each story in this book in a Bible study settings to prompt discussions about the events she covers as well as family time discussions.

As you read her book, search your own heart and think of what you would do should everything as you know it….change.

Here is an interview TC has graciously given me.  

1.  What prompted you to write this book? 

I’ve always been passionate about Current Events, History, and the Word of God. A few years ago God began tying these together so that each news story or history lesson I read, I saw God at work.

I was troubled when I began to see the path America, and the world, is on.

I found comfort in 2 Chronicles 7:14 but I felt compelled to do more.

But what was I to do?

After church one day, God gave me this message. It took months of prayer, research, and seeking God before this book became a reality. More than once I tried tabling this book and saying it wasn’t the “right time”, but I had no peace when I did this.

Continually God brought me back to Jeremiah 20:8-9. I can’t keep this message inside. It must be spoken. How it is received isn’t up to me. I must do my part and trust God to finish what He began. God is speaking to His people…are we listening?

2.  Each person has gifts given to them by God to aide in their calling. How did you know you were called to write?

I’m not sure. Some people hear a voice from God. Some people know from a young age. There are countless books/resources out there to help you discover your gifts. Each Member in the Body of Christ has gifts and those gifts are meant to bring glory to God.

For me, I can’t NOT write. I love writing. I love reading. I love learning. Those are things God placed inside me. But I’ve not always used them for His glory.

I wrote for years, but it’s only been since 2011 that I’ve been courageous enough to share my writings with the world through my blog, Wisdom of a Fool.

I guess my answer to those seeking to know their gifts and calling is ask yourself, what passions has He placed inside me? What do I enjoy doing?

When I began my blog, I had no idea God would lead me to write this book. But this book takes all my passions (reading, writing, research, God) and brings them together, hopefully all for His glory and not my own.

3.  Explain how your book encourages people to be more active in their faith. 

When we accept Christ as our Savior we are a New Creation. That New Creation longs to please God, to do good works, to bring Him glory.

We can never earn our Salvation, but when we begin to grasp all that God has done for us, we can’t help but share that Good News with the world.

Our flesh wars with our spirits and this world does a wonderful job of distracting us from the Great Commission we are each given.

It’s my prayer that people will read my book and be inspired to KNOW God more. To follow Him. To dedicate their lives, energies, talents, time and so on to the One who gave Himself for us (John 3:16-17).

Truth is, our lives aren’t about us. They are about the One who purchased us, who redeemed us from our fleshly desires.

It’s time we wake up and stop living our lives for ourselves and begin being a City on a Hill.

I hope my book helps people analyze where they place their trust. Anything other than the solid foundation of Christ won’t stand.

4.  If people take one thing away from your book, what do you hope it is? 

Not to fear the trials and pains of this world, but cling to the Word of God. For God’s Word to be ALIVE in them. Jesus says that in this world we will have tribulation, but we can have hope and joy because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

This type of hope and joy can only be found in a RELATIONSHIP with Christ, not a religion. 

5.  How can people maintain their joy when there are so many troubling things in the world? 

By NOT focusing on what is transpiring in the world. Focus on the Word of God.

This seems contrary to much of my book highlighting Modern Events.

However, it’s true. God’s Word must be our source and foundation. That being said, I think it’s imperative people also know what is going on in the world.

How can we know how to pray? How can we see the signs described to us in Matt 24, if we don’t pay attention to the birth pangs transpiring around us?

How can we encourage others, if we don’t know what it is they are burdened with?

God’s Word must permeate our minds and souls, but we can’t neglect to stay informed if only so we can help others who are burdened down with the cares of this world.

Also, one must never operate their lives from a position of fear. Fear is satans tool to immobilize us. But God, who is perfect love, casts out fear. Cling to that Love. Stay in the Vine.

BIO-

TC Avey is a Christian devoted to God, family and friends. She is passionate about encouraging Christians to live a life dedicated to Christ as well as helping them understand the importance of preserving our national freedoms through knowledge and love. She blogs at Wisdom of a Fool (tcavey.blogspot.com). You can also follow her on Twitter (TCAvey1). Her book, The Precipice: When Everything We Know Ends, is available on Amazon.  You can also check out her book on GoodReads.

 

I highly recommend this book. I hope you’ll read it, spend some time in thought with regards to the events listed in the book and then share it.

Thanks TC for this opportunity to share The Precipice: When Everything We Know Ends.

*No compensation was received in exchange for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  I was not required to give a positive review. 

 You can purchase a copy via Amazon here. 

What will you do when your basic Christian Freedoms are challenged? Get the book, think about it.

Mike, New Posts, Recent blogs

And Others….

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Faith is an essential part of the Christian life.  We came to God by faith, we live by faith, all we have is the result of faith.

Faith in God is at the very heart of the Christian experience.

There is a chapter in the bible that speaks exclusively of men and women who lived by faith, trusted God, made choices, built boats…all by faith.  They believed God, acted and saw the results of their faith in their lives.

But others (and this is where we struggle with the passage) lived by faith and died, lost everything, struggled, were tortured and seemed to fail.

We have a problem with that because we have adopted the belief that if we have faith good things will happen, prosperity will come, prayers will be answered, mountains will move.

But not for everyone, not all the time.

Some will live by faith and have nothing,

be hungry,

struggle to live at all

and others will lose their lives.

All these things will happen in the lives of people of faith!

How can this be?

Doesn’t faith do things?

Doesn’t it have good results?

Here are the words from this chapter on faith that we try to ignore,

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,”

These were men and women of faith and it appears their faith “didn’t work!”  But faith is not a gum ball machine…put in your coin and get your prize…it’s trust in God with no idea of what will happen next.

It’s living with eyes on God regardless of the outcome.

Faith is trust in God.  It’s not a magic lamp I can use for my desires, but it’s a decision to trust in the God who loves me no matter what happens!

So what if I’m one of the “others”, those who don’t see their faith “work?”  What if I trust God and lose everything?  I still win!  I’m trusting God, even if I have nothing at all, even if I’m tortured, even if I lose my life…I still win and my faith in God will take me into eternity!

 

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

Blogs, Mike

Mundane Faithfulness

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 Lately I’ve been following the last journals of Kara Tippetts and her husband, Jason, at Mundane Faithfulness.  It’s a blessing, a grief, a joy, a sorrow….even though I don’t know them personally they have opened their hearts and lives as she has neared her own death from cancer.
The reality of death and its heavy hand on each of us makes us focus on what is really important.  Kara and Jason are doing that.  There is nothing that sobers and focuses our lives like the end of it.  I know thousands have been encouraged by Kara and Jason’s words and faith.Her life and death models what a walk with God should look like….trusting him even in the hard days.  If you haven’t followed her story I encourage you to do so.  It will help you in your own walk with God.  You can find her story here.

Visit Mike at Finishing Well for more.
Mike, Recent blogs

Extreme Grace

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I am thrilled to know and experience the grace of God.  It’s absolutely life changing once you know what God has done for us.

One of the great tragedies of the church in our day is the fear so many have of grace.  They fear what might happen if people really knew they were completely forgiven, loved and part of heaven even now.  That security, for some, is just too good to be true. There must be a trick up God’s sleeve somewhere.  He can’t really mean that we already have everything and can never lose it.  There must be something we have to do, some work, some duty that will let us make our relationship and eternity sure, but there isn’t….it’s absolutely and totally free, available by faith alone and will last forever!
But grace is even more extreme than you think it is.  It’s outrageous and foolish from man’s viewpoint.  In his love God provided for all of mankind a free gift of forgiveness, redemption, salvation, security, eternity with him, and peace now…if they would simply accept his gift by faith.
You have to know I haven’t gotten to the extreme part yet.  Here it is, are you ready?  God has made it possible for us to be his sons, his daughters!  Imagine, a son of God.  That is so crazy I can’t even understand what that

looks like! But there’s more….he’s also given each of his children HIS Spirit to dwell in them, lead them, help them, and be with them….are you ready….forever.  When the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, takes up residence in us he promises to never leave.  We are men and women indwelt by the God who made us for all eternity!
More?  Ok, here we go…there is nothing you can do, good or bad…ever, to lose what he has given you.  You cannot lose his gifts to you if you have received them.  They are yours by faith alone and eternally yours….you can never be lost.  An eternal, indwelt by the Spirit of God, child of God.  More? We are destined to live with God and be part of his eternal kingdom.  Priests and Kings he calls us.  Children of God he describes us.  The names and provisions would fill pages, more than I have room to speak of here, but his grace extended to us is extreme at the far end of the scale.
The work of God in grace could fill volumes!  It’s not just a “saving grace”, although it is that, it’s an extreme grace that completely changes everything about our lives here and our eternity ahead.
But sadly many have made this wonderful grace a small thing.  They fear what believers might do if they knew.  The tragedy is that if they knew they would fall more deeply in love with God and lean in closer to know him better.  Let’s talk about this extreme grace to those we know and celebrate the amazing love of God in his provision for us. It is a wonderfully glorious magnificent extreme grace!
Visit Mike at Finishing Well.
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Share Your Faith App

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– Ever find it hard to share your faith?

– Felt tongue-tied and unsure of what to say next?

There’s an app for that!

And maybe this app is for you.

Check out this website, How To Share Your Faith, and download the app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android.

As Christ followers we are called to go and disciple those for His kingdom.

Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Archived, Guest, Rose

Remembering 9/11

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Cross Amidst the Ruins

On an early September morning;
Hatred reared it’s ugly head.
Terrorism struck Manhattan;
It’s wake left thousands dead!

It truly was a miracle …
How many lives were saved.
Over-shadowed by the horror;
Of the war-like rubbled grave!

Time seemed frozen, hope was lost;
For loved ones left behind.
Trying to hold onto their faith,
Praying, “God give us a sign!”

Uncovered from the wreckage;
A sight that seemed unreal.
A cross that stood ’bout twenty feet …
From twisted beams of steel!   

© Marge Batzer

 

 

 

 

 

Archived, Mike

Walking With God

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After many years of faith and a walk with God I’m learning that God’s will isn’t a path clearly marked out for years to come, but instead it’s guidance for the moment.  

God’s will and direction for life are much like a GPS.  

“In .3 miles turn left…”  The directions of the GPS are as you need them. 

Walking with God is much like that.  It’s not a course revealed for the next 40 years, but a walk of steps and turns and moments.  Each day is a new day of walking with God and finding his will for you in the moments, in the encounters of your life.  The course, as it looks to you, might go around in circles for a bit, but God has a plan and it’s only revealed as we come to each turn in our course.

We are in Hawaii for a couple weeks and although I have never been here before we have found our way around easily with the help of our GPS.  We don’t need to know the route, we simply need to obey the prompts of the sweet voice on the GPS and soon we arrive at our destination.  God’s Spirit works in that same way as we walk with him through the day.  We may not know all the turns and twists in our route, but simply need to trust the guidance we receive as we walk with God through the moments.  Walking with God is a fascinating adventure.  You never know who you will meet, where you will go, but it’s never boring.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight.
Prov. 3:5-6
Archived, Mike

Heart Direction

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“May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.” 2 Thes. 3:5.

I’m fascinated by this short, simple verse. It’s a prayer of Paul for those suffering in Thessalonica. I would have prayed “May the Lord direct your minds…” but Paul prays for heart direction. There is a knowing of the heart that the mind cannot comprehend. There is an assurance of the heart that the mind cannot grasp. There is a relationship with God of the heart that the mind can only dream about. In this time of rest and sabbatical I have been seeking the face of God. It’s a passion I acquired from David the king. He pursued the face of God. I can only imagine what that looks like because, in truth, it’s a heart quest, not a quest of the mind.

One of the things I find as I get closer to the face of God is his love and joy in my presence. He really loves me! He likes me, he really does. He’s glad to see me. Personally. I feel so inadequate to even be in his presence, unworthy, imposing on his time and attention, but he loves me. As my heart is directed into his love I begin to see myself as he does. I see the me he sees and it brings the same response that Jesus had to the love of the father….steadfastness. As Jesus prayed in the garden, steadfast in his decision to obey the father because of the father’s love for him and for us, he went to the cross steadfast in obedience because he knew the father loved him. I see I cannot walk in steadfast obedience until I know the father’s love. It’s his love that gives me the ability to be steadfast in Christ.

We all go through difficult days, days that challenge our commitment to faith, but the love of God will bring us to a steadfast walk that can only be known to the heart. The mind would say you are crazy, but the heart knows the Father’s love and that makes all the difference.

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

Archived, Mike

The Normal Christian Life

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Christian life. Specifically MY Christian life. I’ve been trying to evaluate my route of recent years. Why has my odyssey gone this way? Why have I struggled at different times and why have other days been easy and inspired? It’s clear that my walk with God has not been a progressively growing and increasingly happy life. I don’t think anyone has that kind of walk with God.

 
 

Let me see if I can describe the Christian life from my own walk and perspective. For me, as I walk with God, it seems that my walk looks more life a long walk through the desert with an occasional stop at an oasis for refreshment and rest. An oasis is a strange place. In the middle of miles of sand, suddenly and for no reason, water, trees and life suddenly appear. It’s at the oasis where a weary traveler can rest, get water and gain new strength.

  

It’s my experience that my walk with God can best be described this way- There are many dry days as I continue to walk with God. All the way I know God is with me and caring for me, but days of joy, inspiration and great victory are rare. Then, suddenly and for no reason, I come to an oasis. It’s wonderful! Refreshment, rest, water and revival of spirit. If I can, I linger at the oasis for a while…it’s such a wonderful place, but at some point I must continue my walk and so I head back into the desert to continue my walk with God.

 

The oasis is great. They are needed. I would get discouraged and might give up if it weren’t for the occasional oasis, but life with God has to be a life of dependence. It must be a life in which I look to God and trust him. I won’t find that relationship at the oasis. I have to go out into the desert to discover this kind of relationship. It’s the dry days when I learn to trust God. It’s the days in the desert when I look to him to help me and give me what I need for the day. It’s the dry days in the desert when I grow in my faith the most.

 
 

Some pray for an eternal oasis. They never want to leave the cool springs, the wonderful shade of the fig trees, the comfort of the oasis. But if you depend on the oasis you will never learn to depend on God. So, off to the desert we are led. Led by God to meet with him there. Dry days when we will find our richest walk with God. As I’ve tried to think through my own walk with God I think this describes my odyssey so far. It’s not glorious. It’s not always full of great testimonies to share. It’s often dry and difficult, but it’s my time with God in the desert where I find an intimacy with God I can never find at the oasis.

This is what I would call the normal Christian life. I think it’s the real life of every Christian. Many linger long at the oasis not wanting to leave the comfort there, but some find a hunger for God more powerful than the comfort of the oasis and so they head off into the desert. It’s there we find an intimacy and relationship with God that will never be found at the oasis. It’s this strange contrast between oasis and desert that describe the walk of the Christian. It’s not always glorious, it’s not always easy. It’s not filled with wonderful stories although there are some. There are days when the best we can say is, with God’s help, we got through the day, but between rest at the oasis and walking with God through the desert we grow in faith. The goal? A walk with God that is lived in dependence on him. As best as I can describe it, this is my walk with God.

 

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.