The Way (A Song in Three Parts) by Susan Barclay

 I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Way is baptized

Preaches good tidings 

Binds up the broken

Proclaims liberty 

 

The Truth weeps for His friend

Cries over Jerusalem

Speaks to the heart

Quenches the thirst

The Life is found on an ancient road

Stands silent before a crowd

Hangs on a cross

Lies in a tomb

 

 II

 

 

 

A hush, a cloud

Hangs over the earth

Disciples hold their breath

How can this be?

 

III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then God, who turned His gaze away

Who crucified Himself in Christ

Who bore our sins upon the tree

Breaks death in two

The shroud falls off

Christ rises up as if from sleep

Light of the world

Mourning has broken

We laugh, we dance

We praise the Name

Whom the Son sets free

Is free indeed!

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You can find out more about Susan Barclay's writing at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com 

Extraordinary Directions, Extraordinary Peace by Marcia Lee Laycock

My husband and I, Dawson City Yukon, 1978

As I made our bed, the one my husband had constructed that week as a temporary place for us to lay our heads as we finished our eight-sided log home, I wondered how long we would live there. The still small voice that responded, “six years,” made my hands stop their tucking and smoothing. I did not recognize the voice of God at that moment, but for some reason I believed it. I peered out the window at the hayfield and hills around it and listened to the gurgling Klondike River that ran just beyond our door. Six years. Well. I purposed in my heart to enjoy every day of that time.

It was six years later when my husband came home after a hunting trip with our pastor. He was laughing as he came in the door and when I asked him why he shook his head and said. “Oh, that crazy Pastor Jack Sailor! He just told me he thinks I’m going to be a pastor someday.” I smiled. I knew it was true and I knew God was about to cause our world to turn upside down, once again.

But I had complete peace. God didn’t reveal all the details of what was about to happen, and it’s a good thing He didn’t or I likely would have tried to run, but I knew, as each step unfolded, that we had been called to go in an extraordinary direction by an extraordinary God.

We had only been believers in Christ for about two years. Our lives had already been turned upside down, the changes obvious to all. Now the road was narrowing even more, and the challenges just kept on coming as we made the decision to go to Bible College.

We had to come to terms with selling the house we had built with our own hands, giving it to God, not as a precious sacrifice on our part, but as something He had given us for a time and was now taking back so that He could give us something much more valuable– a life lived in service to Him.

We had only just gotten our heads and hearts around that hurdle when things started going awry. We bought an old station wagon and a tent trailer to make the 3,222 km. trip south with two young children and an aging husky dog, but shortly after we bought it the motor died. A wonderful mechanic friend came to our rescue, helped us find another motor, and installed it for us for free. 

We had thought the house and property were sold but that fell through at the last minute. The new butcher in town asked if he could rent it, so we agreed, with a handshake but no lease signed. He backed out just after we’d mailed all our belongings away. Then a man who’d just had an amazing conversion to Christ told us he’d dreamed about living in our house and believed God wanted him to buy it – two days before we had to leave. Those are just a few of the details that should have shaken my world. 

But I had extraordinary peace. 

God had told me we’d live in that home for six years and it came to pass. He made it clear to us that He wanted us to go to a Bible college in Saskatchewan and even though my husband resisted that idea at first, I knew it would come to be. Things began to fall apart in many ways, but I just kept on packing.

That was thirty-five years ago, almost to the day. It has been an extraordinary path He set our feet, and our minds and hearts on, way back then. It hasn’t all been easy, by any means, but it has been a life I would not change for all the gold and silver in the world. His blessings have abounded, His grace evident at every turn and His mercy enough to send us to our knees over and over again, as He continued to teach us and grow us into His disciples. Flawed though we are, He continues that work.

Extraordinary directions. Extraordinary peace. Extraordinary God.

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Read more at www.marcialeelaycock.com

Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow by Marcia Lee Laycock

                                                        Photo by Marcia Lee Laycock

“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Psalm 26:7 KJV). Ask any Christian author and I’m sure they’d tell you that’s what writing is all about.

I came to Christ relatively late in life and I came to the realization that I could write for God’s kingdom late in life too. I had always written from the time I was quite young and I received a lot of praise for my writing as I went through high school and then on to study journalism at university. But my writing, like my life, had no purpose or direction. I quickly became dissatisfied with university and ended up running away to the Yukon where I survived my first winter by sitting by my woodstove, which I had to keep roaring continually to ward off the -60 below weather, and writing my first novel, a fantasy about talking ravens. (Thank goodness that one has never been published!).

It was there that I met my husband and became a believer in Christ. Within three years of our conversion, God scooped us up and deposited us in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairie at a place called Briercrest Bible College. It was there that I realized God not only had a plan for my life, He had a plan to put the gifts he had given me to work for His kingdom and his glory.

We had sold our home in the Yukon to pay for the schooling, but by the end of that time we were out of money. So when a friend asked me to accompany her to a seminar with Carol Kent called Speak up with Confidence, I said no. I had no intention of ever becoming a public speaker (little did I know what God had in mind!) and I couldn’t afford the registration fee. But my friend was insistent and offered to pay my way so in the end I said yes. I think God had a plan.

It was during that seminar that the proverbial light bulb lit up in my mind, heart and soul, and the burning desire to write was ignited once again as I realized I could now write and “tell of all his wondrous works.” We had seen God do some amazing things in the few short years we’d been believers and I couldn’t wait to put it all down on paper.

But I had no idea how to go about it. Then my husband took over as senior pastor of a good-sized church. He met with the previous pastor and he gave Spence a long list of all the things for which he would now be responsible. Just as they were about to part ways, Pastor Don said, “Oh and by the way, you have to write a weekly column for the newspaper and it’s due tomorrow morning. Spence came home feeling overwhelmed with it all and asked if I could write the article. So I sat down and wrote my first devotional and that was the beginning of almost twenty years of writing a faith column for two local papers. Those articles became my first devotional book, then I published a few short stories and articles, and well, to use a cliché, the rest is history. God had a plan. His plan is all about broadcasting His love and mercy and the reality of His glory to a world that desperately needs that good news.

I believe He led me to that college, to that seminar, to that town, to that editor and to an organization called Alberta Christian Writers’ Fellowship (now InScribe), which helped to train me to do the job He wanted me to do.

If there is one thing I’ve learned as a writer struggling to get my books out to people who need them, it’s that - God does have a plan and leads us into it so that we “may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Psalm 26:7 KJV).

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Marcia still lives with her husband in central Alberta. She still writes devotionals and they are sent out regularly by email. To subscribe, click this link

Visit Marcia's website

Becoming a Writer by Michelle M. Brown

It took until after I had written the first draft for me to research the different methods that are used by various authors, in writing a book. I know I put the cart before the horse, but I had been explicitly encouraged by God to write my story. The thought of there being a process, more than just sitting down and writing, was unknown to me. I was amazed at the undertaking that is implemented in the planning stage of writing a book by some writers. The meticulous effort that is utilized in defining the topic, writing a proposal, creating an outline and setting up a work schedule so deadlines can be met.

My process for writing a book consisted of much less time and task management and more “go with the flow”. I sat down every morning with my bible, my devotional for the day and spent time with God. I then started writing. My time with God was my planning stage. Not for the book, but for me being in the right frame of mind to tackle the task God had assigned me. I wasn’t sure what direction the story would take or even what my message was. It was God’s story of my life, and I allowed Him to tell it through me. I didn’t need a plan because God had one.

It took me three months to write seventy thousand words. Some days I wrote for twenty minutes and other days I wrote for two hours. It was an emotional process that I allowed to ebb and flow as dictated by my ability to deal with the content. There was no schedule or order that I can pinpoint. Just God and I detailing a life shaped by adversity and circumstance. It was a journey of healing old wounds and discovering forgotten strengths.

The research for process came after I completed that first draft because it was time to edit what I had hammered out on my keyboard and make sense of it for other people to read. This step is slow and painful. Not because of the content, this time, but because my writing skills leave a lot to be desired. It is where I fall short and where I have decided to learn, 45 years after I entered the school system, so I can continue on this journey to be God’s writer.

I have recently been reading 50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Heroines of the Faith by Michelle DeRusha. Fifty, courageous, Godly women who stepped out in faith between the years 1038-2013. Most were writers, all were called, few felt they had the ability, but all were willing to listen to God’s calling on their life and face opposition, ridicule, imprisonment and death. They genuinely are heroines in God’s army of women.

God called me to write, but he never said it would be easy and I wouldn’t have to work for it. Putting myself out there in this position of vulnerability has been challenging to my pride and often my self-esteem. In the end, though, I realize that God never calls us to do what is easy. He calls us to do what He needs, and with that comes its own blessing of being an obedient child that is pleasing to her Father.

"...for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." ~Romans 11:2

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Michelle M. Brown was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada. She has a background in Marketing & Design. An avid hiker and adventure junkie she has embarked on a journey to conquer 50 adventurous activities in her 50th year.