“But when?” did I hear you ask?
On June 28 at 10:30 AM at New Hope Community Church, El Monte, California.
I would love to have those of you who can make it to the LA area come to celebrate
the recent release of my two books:
Hannah’s Promise Devotional and Discussion Guide and Joel’s Wife.
I have already given you a little information about Hannah’s Promise Devotional and Discussion Guide
so now let me tell you about Joel’s Wife.
This novel picks up where Hannah’s Promise left off.
Some of you who have never read Hannah’s Promise will want to order a book from Amazon now,
so that when Joel’s Wife is released, you will be able to read them in order.
But if you don’t think that idea is for you,
don’t worry;
You can easily enjoy Joel’s Wife without having read Hannah’s Promise.
Joel’s Wife is about Joel’s wife.
(I hope you smiled.)
I’ve named Joel’s wife Jerusha, but, really there is nothing at all in the Bible about her.
Jerusha is pure fiction,
but the Bible tells about her husband, Joel.
Joel was the grandson of Hannah.
Joel’s father was Samuel the great prophet-judge of Israel.
But neither Joel nor his brother, Abijah, had a passion for God like their father, Samuel.
This Bible story raises some questions for me that aren’t explained in the Bible.
The first actually goes back to the promise Hannah made in her desperation.
She wanted God to give her a son.
That’s reasonable, especially in her culture.
What isn’t reasonable is the condition of her vow.
Why would a woman who wants a son promise to give him back to the Lord?
Those of you who have read Hannah’s Promise know how I dealt with that issue.
In this part of the story, several other questions come to mind.
For one, since Samuel was such a godly man, why were neither of his sons devoted to God?
Here is a second question.
For those of you who remember Eli, the high priest,
you know his sons, like Samuel’s, were not lovers of God.
But God dealt with Eli’s and Samuel’s situations very differently.
God warned Eli that he would be punished severely because of his sons’ behavior.
Yet when Israel asks for a king,
Samuel takes the blame and God comes to Samuel’s defense.
Why the difference?
A third question:
Although Joel is not a lover of God, his son is.
What could have been the cause this reversal?
During the month of June,
I will be sending you blogs weekly,
hopefully whetting your appetite for one of my favorite pleasures in life:
enjoying a good book!
"What about meeting a new friend?" you ask.
In this first blog you get only a little introduction, but don't worry, there is much more to come.
For now go to the Book Description tab at the top of this blog.
At the bottom of that section you will find Joel's Wife.
She's eager to meet you, too.