Congratulations, Alamo-Girl, on the Release of Your New Book!

It is my honor and distinct pleasure to announce the publication of Alamo-Girl’s new book, There Is Only One Great Commandment, a prayerful work of Christian witness and devotion that speaks to how one centers one’s life in God. A non-denominational, non-sectarian work, it focuses on Christian living — on the growth of the Image of Christ in our souls, in our everyday lives.

In There Is Only One Great Commandment, Alamo-Girl offers to conduct you on a spiritual walk through the Scriptures, using the Lord’s Prayer as the guiding map, mining the truths embedded within that prayer. As marron writes on the cover, "Each word and phrase has been pulled out, held to the light, admired, contemplated, and then returned carefully to its place. And the way it was written is exactly the right way to read this book: This is not a book to read in a day but tasted and chewed morsel by morsel. Take your time. Let it sink in line by line. You won’t be disappointed."

All to the glory of God — in Christian faith and confident affirmation that there is only one great commandment: To love God with your whole heart, and soul, and mind — to love Him surpassingly above all else.

And thus we have yet another work published by a Freeper author! Earlier this year, likelight published his excellent A Believer’s Guide to Legal Issues (which very lately was an invaluable resource for me as I faced a case of “settle or litigate” in my own personal life). As the cover jacket says, this book “isn’t written for legal scholars or ivory-tower intellectuals, but for average Christians currently interacting in some way with the legal system (whether by choice or unavoidable circumstance). It promotes a system of Christian legal ethics that restores relationships, values integrity, and promotes peace. It confronts an out-of-control secular legal system that destroys relationships, idolizes greed, and celebrates revenge…. Readers will be enlightened, encouraged in their faith, and empowered in their ability to make sound decisions to honor that faith, even in the high-stakes, pressure-filled, secular legal arena.”

In 2006, Alamo-Girl and betty boop published their collaboration, Don’t Let Science Get You Down, Timothy, to which marron contributed two brilliant articles. The book has been described by an astrophysicist reviewer as “one of the rare attempts nowadays to restore the unity of science and religion. It presents a good picture of present-day science, focusing on the perennial great questions regarding the relations between Man and the Universe. It attempts the virtually impossible: to present a constructive dialog of diametrically opposed worldviews. It succeeds in opening a challenging avenue of conversation between materialists and open-minded religious people….”

I have learned that there are other works in progress within the Freerepublic creative community! So stay tuned….

CONGRATULATIONS, Alamo-Girl, on the publication of this marvelous work of Christian witness, testimony, and spirituality!

I am reminded of the line in the Patti Smith tune - “Why must we pray screaming?”

And seems to me he gets only mediocre reviews as a father - what kind of father lets his kids pull some of the sh*t we do?

Dear djf, if you want, I will come and sit beside you on your mourning bench. It has been almost two weeks now since my dear son Alex was stabbed to death. I haven't been able to sustain much interest in anything else or even to bring myself to post much of anything. But seeing your post I will venture out a little bit here to share your grief. It you want me to just to sit silently with you I can do that. I understand. For a moment, though, please let me pour out a little of my soul. Maybe it will help someone else listening in.

I am so blessed and grateful for how my dear sisters betty boop and Alamo-Girl and many, many others here, and many others elsewhere have lifted me and my grieving family up to the Father in prayer.

Where else can I go? To whom else can I go, but to God?

"Why?" is the natural cry of the heart. Perhaps the better question, though, is the one asked by the Psalmists over and over; "How long, O LORD?" How Long?

Psalm 90

BOOK FOUR

From Everlasting to Everlasting

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1Lord, you have been our dwelling place
   in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
   or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3You return man to dust
   and say, "Return, O children of man!"
4For a thousand years in your sight
   are but as yesterday when it is past,
   or as a watch in the night.
5You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
   like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
   in the evening it fades and withers.
7For we are brought to an end by your anger;
   by your wrath we are dismayed.
8You have set our iniquities before you,
   our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9For all our days pass away under your wrath;
   we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10The years of our life are seventy,
   or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
   they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11Who considers the power of your anger,
   and your wrath according to the fear of you?
12 So teach us to number our days
   that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD! How long?
   Have pity on your servants!
14Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
   that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
   and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16Let your work be shown to your servants,
   and your glorious power to their children.
17Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
   and establish the work of our hands upon us;
   yes, establish the work of our hands!

What is faith?

I read this one time:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hupostasis, the word translated "substance," means "that which underlies the apparent; that which is the basis of something, hence, assurance, guarantee and confidence" (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, p. 1426). The English "substance" is built from a prefix and a root which together mean "that which stands under." Webster's defines it as "the real or essential part or element of anything; essence, reality, or basic matter." It is very similar in meaning to hupostasis.

Faith is not only being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see, faith itself is the "evidence", literally, "title deed" of things real, yet unseen. I struggled for a long time to understand the meaning of that phrase, "faith is the evidence of things unseen." How could faith itself be the evidence? That's didn't make any sense to me.

What helped me to understand it was when someone explained it to me like this; Can you see your ownership of your house? You know your ownership of your house is real, but you cannot actually see the ownership, can you? Yet, you know you own your house, and you have the title deed as evidence of it. You don't need any convincing that you are the owner. You are assured of it. For me, that is at least some of what faith is.

Perhaps you have not really lost your faith. Maybe you just need to do a title search for it, and take a look at the hard copy of the deed.

I grieve with you in the loss of your wife, djf. Anybody who glosses over the awfulness of death with platitudes really doesn't know what they're talking about. It is truly awful.

Yet, I can, by the grace of God alone, say this in the midst of my overwhelming grief;

23You who fear the LORD, praise him!
   All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
   and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24For he has not despised or abhorred
   the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
   but has heard, when he cried to him.
25From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
   my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
   those who seek him shall praise the LORD!

Cordially,

What better time to publish such a Christ-centered work than during a Christmas season in which our nation’s soul is being so deeply tested?

My thought exactly, joanie-f. IMHO, what America most needs now is spiritual renewal! We have a choice of being God-centered or man-centered. It seems to me we have no security with the latter. (History confirms this.) As you are well aware, the Framers understood that all too well. But we, their heirs, have largely forgotten their wisdom, and so increasingly squander their great legacy.

Alamo-Girl's awesome book helps us understand what it is to be God-centered. Her central insight is that if we love God surpassingly above all else, all else in our lives — our priorities, our relations with other men and world and society — just naturally fall into their proper places, in their proper order; whereby we gain understanding, strength, hope, and peace in our lives. (Courage too, should that be needed.)

To me, the man who centers in himself is a dead end and not quite fully human. The man who centers Himself in Christ is the child of liberty, a son of God....

Well, so much for my musings! I think you will very much like A-G's beautiful testimony!

Thanks so much for writing joanie-f!

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