I grew up in an upper middle class home in which social status meant a lot…almost everything. My mom always wanted more–the best car (we had a Cadillac), the most expensive clothes and jewelry and even a fur coat. But stuff, things, status is not lasting. One day, all of this will go away and you and I will stand before the King of Glory, with nothing to say for ourselves other than what we did for Him. You see, my friends, social status does not define who you are. Your character, however, says a lot about you and your relationship to the King of Kings. When my husband was in the military, making rank was “everything.” If you didn’t make rank, then you could be kicked out of the military, and there went your career. My husband advanced to the rank of Captain in the USAF and would have advanced higher if he had agreed to move again, probably overseas. But he put family above his career and turned down the last move and with it another advancement. Thus, he retired instead of continuing his military career. When he stands before the King, the Lord will not be asking Him for His military rank or any of the medals that he received to honor His hard work and commitment. No, our Lord wants to know only what we have done to make His kingdom grow, to spread the Good News and to revere His Holy Name. What we do does not define us, but who we are in Christ Jesus does. I was a teacher for 34 years, garnering many titles and awards through the years. All of my plaques and certificates are put away somewhere (I’m not even sure where right now). At the time, they meant a lot to me. Now, I look back and I see that they were like the dandelions that blow in the wind; they are soon gone from sight and don’t mean anything. As human beings in a society that is competitive about just about everything, we have learned the behavior that we have to be the best, have the awards to show it, and to have the best to show off to others. Like the Pharisees, we want to be seen for who we think we are instead of what is in our hearts. My prayer for each of you today is that you will examine your hearts and come to the realization that only Jesus and your relationship with Him matters. Only Jesus!

Here is an article from Dr. Denison that is on the same topic:

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/prince-harry-offered-a-job-at-burger-king-status-is-fickle-but-service-changes-the-world/

And here is a song to help you to remember what is important in life:

Only Jesus by Casting Crowns

When you are young, you have a tendency to think that you are almost immortal, that death will never touch you. Then, as you age, you begin to see those around you become more frail, become ill even and then pass away. And you begin to think, “Hmmm. That could be me!” How do I know about these thoughts? Because I have lived them myself. I was a young Christian, going through my life, taking care of my children and a job and going to church, studying the Bible, but not really making God the center of my life. Now, as I have aged, I have become closer to God. I spend more time listening for His voice, just enjoying the quietness around me and the beauty of His world. I can make excuses and say that when I was younger, I was just very busy. Aren’t we all? That doesn’t mean that we should put God on a back burner and continue with our lives, thinking that one day we will have more time for Him. What about all of the people who die when they are young? I am glad that God was merciful to me and has brought me this far in my life. I rejoice that He holds me close daily and is still teaching me to trust Him.

Blessings to each of you for a day filled with His love, His mercy and the knowledge that death is waiting for you, but it is not scary if you trust that you will go to be with the Lord.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, and I found it to be mildly entertaining, It was a light, quick romance that could be categorized as “Chick Lit.” Sarah owns a small bookstore in the small town of Ashford and has a boyfriend named Ridge who is busy with his career. When Sarah’s friend Sophie, who owns a bookshop in Paris, offers to exchange bookshops for a while, Sarah doesn’t have to ponder the offer for very long. After all, it is Paris! So, Sarah sets off with a glow in her eye, expecting to be charmed by the bookshop and the city. What she is not prepared for is how disorganized the shop is and how disrespectful the employees are. This is not really a rocking romance, but rather it is a character study of Sarah and how she overcomes her own insecurities and becomes a strong and independent woman. The hostile environment that she encounters in Paris was unexpected for her and forced her to make wise and strong decisions. The romance with Ridge was a slow burn on the back burner, consisting mostly of missed phone calls and messages. There is romance, but it does not play a significant part in the central story. The story itself is charming, with some surprises and some humor. The theme is to be willing to take chances and to be open to new opportunities when they come up, to take risks and to grow from them. I recommend this book to fans of light romance, quick reads and Chick Lit.

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

Note to my readers: This is more or less a clean read with a lot of humor and descriptions of Paris.

THE LITTLE BOOKSHOP ON THE SEINE Author: Rebecca Raisin

ISBN: 9781335012500

Publication Date: 1/7/2020

Publisher: HQN Books

To buy, go to:

Harlequin Indiebound Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Target

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Social Links:

Author Website

Twitter: @JaxandWillsMum Facebook: @RebeccaRaisinAuthor Instagram: @RebeccaRaisinWrites Goodreads

Author Bio:

Rebecca Raisin is the author of several novels, including the beloved Little Paris series and the Gingerbread Café trilogy, and her short stories have been published in various anthologies and fiction magazines. You can follow Rebecca on Facebook, and at http://www.rebeccaraisin.com

Have you been following the news about Harry and Meghan? Harry was born into the royal family, a grandson of the reigning monarch of Great Britain. It is one country in the world in which royalty is emphasized and still seen as important. However, this royalty is not eternal. Nothing in this life is. What is eternal is our relationship with the Lord. Once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, we become a child of the King of Heaven, an eternal recognition that we are His, bought with the dear price of His own blood. So, while I follow the news about Harry and Meghan and get more and more upset about how they seem to want to toss their royalty to the side, I can’t help but feel relieved that God is holding on to me and I’m holding on to Him. I am a child of the Eternal King of Glory! I may never be called a princess or a duchess or any of those names that people immediately bow to; nevertheless, the Lord calls me His, and that is enough!

Here is Dr. Jim Denison’s report about the royals:

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/prince-harry-to-meet-with-queen-elizabeth-today-a-spiritual-look-at-the-royal-family/

And here is my praise song for today:

I’m a Child of the King by the Gaithers

Blessings to each of you royals out there! Wear your crown proudly because the Lord has made you His child, a child of the One True King!

First of all, I am very hopeful that this is the first of a new series that will view Patricia Cornwall and Kathy Reichs some competition! This book was a fascinating foray into the world of forensic science, with a lot of gritty and realistic details. For example, the main character is a medical examiner named Dr. Jessie Teska. After doing a particularly odious autopsy, she desperately needs a shower and can’t get one, so her odorous self is described in explicit and yucky detail. In fact, there are graphic descriptions throughout the book, so for that reason, it will not be for everyone. I would categorize the book as a thriller/mystery/suspense. Jessie is faced with the challenge of following the clues wherever they follow and ends up being blocked by the police, big tech and her own boss. Her determination and grit made me cheer her on and encouraged me to read faster. This was a quick-paced book with some really unexpected twists as well as a surprise ending. I really encourage fans of forensic science mysteries to read this book, and I applaud the tremendously entertaining plot with the quirky and humorous new medical examiner.

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

Note to my readers: This is a very graphic novel with explicit and gory details included about autopsies.

FIRST CUT

Author: Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell ISBN: 9781335008305

Publication Date: January 7, 2020 Publisher: Hanover Square Press

BIO:

Judy Melinek was an assistant medical examiner in San Francisco for nine years, and today works as a forensic pathologist in Oakland and as CEO of PathologyExpert Inc. She and T.J. Mitchell met as undergraduates at Harvard, after which she studied medicine and practiced pathology at UCLA. Her training in forensics at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner is the subject of their first book, the memoir Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner.

T.J. Mitchell is a writer with an English degree from Harvard, and worked in the film industry before becoming a full-time stay-at-home dad. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner with his wife, Judy Melinek.

BOOK SUMMARY:

Wife and husband duo Dr. Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell first enthralled the book world with their runaway bestselling memoir Working Stiff—a fearless account of a young forensic pathologist’s “rookie season” as a NYC medical examiner. This winter, Dr. Melinek, now a prominent forensic pathologist in the Bay Area, once again joins forces with writer T.J. Mitchell to take their first stab at fiction.

The result: FIRST CUT (Hanover Square Press; Hardcover; January 7, 2020; $26.99)—a gritty and compelling crime debut about a hard-nosed San Francisco medical examiner who uncovers a dangerous conspiracy connecting the seedy underbelly of the city’s nefarious opioid traffickers and its ever-shifting terrain of tech startups.

Dr. Jessie Teska has made a chilling discovery. A suspected overdose case contains hints of something more sinister: a drug lord’s attempt at a murderous cover up. As more bodies land on her autopsy table, Jessie uncovers a constellation of deaths that point to an elaborate network of powerful criminals—on both sides of the law—that will do anything to keep things buried. But autopsy means “see for yourself,” and Jessie Teska won’t stop until she’s seen it all—even if it means the next corpse on the slab could be her own.

Excerpt

FIRST CUT / Melinek & Mitchell

FIRST CUT / Melinek & Mitchell

Los Angeles May

PROLOGUE

The dead woman on my table had pale blue eyes, long lashes, no mascara. She wore a thin rim of black liner on her lower lids but none on the upper. I inserted the twelve gauge needle just far enough that I could see its beveled tip through the pupil, then pulled the syringe plunger to aspirate a sample of vitreous fluid. That was the first intrusion I made on her corpse during Mary Catherine Walsh’s perfectly ordinary autopsy.

The external examination had been unremarkable. The decedent appeared to be in her midthirties, blond hair with dun roots, five foot four, 144 pounds. After checking her over and noting identifying marks (monochromatic professional tattoo of a Celtic knot on lower left flank, appendectomy scar on abdomen, well-healed stellate scar on right knee), I picked up a scalpel and sliced from each shoulder to the breastbone, and then all the way down her belly. I peeled back the layers of skin and fat on her torso—an ordinary amount, maybe a little on the chubby side—and opened the woman’s chest like a book.

I had made similar Y-incisions on 256 other bodies during my ten months as a forensic pathologist at the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, and this one was easy. No sign of trauma. Normal liver. Healthy lungs. There was nothing wrong with her heart. The only significant finding was the white, granular material of the gastric contents. In her stomach was a mass of semidigested pills.

When I opened her uterus, I found she’d been pregnant. I measured the fetus’s foot length and estimated its age at twelve weeks. The fetus appeared to have been viable. It was too young to determine sex.

I deposited the organs one by one at the end of the stainless-steel table. I had just cut into her scalp to start on the skull when Matt, the forensic investigator who had collected the body the day before, came in.

“Clean scene,” he reported, depositing the paperwork on my station. “Suicide.”

I asked him where he was going for lunch. Yogurt and a damn salad at his desk, he told me: bad cholesterol and a worried wife. I extended my condolences as he headed back out of the autopsy suite.

I scanned through Matt’s handwriting on the intake sheet and learned that the body had been found, stiff and cold, in a locked and secure room at the Los Angeles Omni hotel. The cleaning staff called the police. The ID came from the name on the credit card used to pay for the room, and was confirmed by fingerprint comparison with her driver’s license thumbprint. A handwritten note lay on the bed stand, a pill bottle in the trash. Nothing else. Matt was right: There was no mystery to the way Mary Walsh had died.

I hit the dictaphone’s toe trigger and pointed my mouth toward the microphone dangling over the table. “The body is identified by a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s tag attached to the right great toe, inscribed LACD-03226, Walsh, Mary Catherine…”

I broke the seal on the plastic evidence bag and pulled out the pill bottle. It was labeled OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, and it was empty.

“Accompanying the body is a sealed plastic bag with an empty prescription medication bottle. The name on the prescription label…”

I read the name but didn’t speak it. The hair started standing up on my neck. I looked down at my morning’s work—the splayed body, flecked with gore, the dissected womb tossed on a heap of other organs.

That can’t be, I told myself. It can’t.

On the clipboard underneath the case intake sheet I found a piece of hotel stationery sealed in another evidence bag. It was the suicide note, written in blue ink with a steady feminine hand. I skimmed it—then stopped, and went back.

I read it again.

I heard the clipboard land at my feet. I gripped the raised lip of my autopsy table. I held tight while the floor fell away.

FIRST CUT is available now at your local bookseller or online.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/35Hlis4

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/2NkOnDe

Books-a-Million: http://bit.ly/35FGIG4

In the Constitution of the United States of America, it is stated that we Americans have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But what is happiness? Is it the precious time that I spend with my children and grandchildren, trying to squeeze every moment that I can into the few days or weeks that I may have with them? Is it a phone call from a distant loved one, ending with the words, “love and miss you”? Is it a job that brings fulfillment and thus happiness? For many years, I have pursued happiness, only to find that what I have been seeking does not bring true or lasting happiness at all. As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “All is vanity.”

Image from pinterest.com

Whatever we pursue in our desire for happiness, unless God is in the center of it, it becomes meaningless. That is not to say that the time I spend with my grandchildren, for example, is worthless. But, like all else in life, it is fleeting and soon only a memory. So, unless happiness is a brief moment in life, this is not true happiness. Our pursuit of the eternal, of a relationship with our Heavenly Father, is what makes us truly happy.

Image from biblestudytools.com

Image from dailyverses.net

The pleasure that we get from spending time in the presence of God is lasting, not just a memory to savor, but a relationship that lasts in our hearts and minds and takes us through the valleys that will come in our lives. God is always there for us; He does not move nor change. People change. What makes us happy changes. I submit to you that happiness is fleeting, but the joy of the Lord, that which is a fruit of the spirit, is everlasting, something that becomes ingrained in our lives if we practice it daily. Did you catch that word? P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E! We have to practice being joyful, spending time with the Lord. We have to discipline ourselves to spend time with Him in order to partake of His joy. Discipline is not always easy, but it always brings good fruit, if we patiently persevere.

I read an article this morning from Dr. Denison that gave me cause to ponder today’s theme. Here is the article. I pray for the families of those lost in the horrible plan crash, that they will seek their joy in the arms of the Father of all comfort.

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/worried-passenger-called-her-husband-shortly-before-ukrainian-jet-crashed-trusting-gods-power-in-perilous-times/

Blessings to each of you for a day in which you take time to seek God’s face and true joy in His presence!

The Joy of the Lord

Have you ever thought what it means to you that God is merciful? I was pondering this truth yesterday and today after this was one of the Scriptures that I read.

Think about that one! The Lord is WAITING to show you mercy! I have done a lot of waiting in physician’s offices and it is no fun to wait. It’s like you never know when your name will be called, so you continue to listen intently. That’s what I imagine God is doing…listening intently for me to call on Him and cry out for His mercy. God, who always makes the right decisions for me, is delighted when I call on Him. And, bonus! Having put my trust in the Lord, I am a happier person for it!

God hears us and listens to us. We don’t have to wait until we are in trouble to call on Him. I call on Him daily, over and over again. I say things like, “Lord, give me wisdom, ” or “Lord, bless that person who was short-tempered with me. She must be having a bad day and needs your intervention,” or “Lord, keep that driver safe who is driving too fast and erratically. Grant that he/she may not harm himself/herself or others.” You see how it works. I am in a perpetual state of prayer. I start in the morning and end when I go to bed. For each challenge of life, there is a prayer to be sent to the Lord. In His mercy, He hears…He listens to my words and sends an answer.

Blessings to each of you, my dear readers and followers, for a day filled with talking to God. But, don’t forget to take time to listen! For He may have something important to speak to your heart today.