Tests!

Being naive, I expected tests to end when school did. They didn’t.

Life is full of tests – and you don’t get a chance to write down the answers and change them if you decide they are wrong. You must live through your mistakes and learn from them. Thankfully, we have a study guide in the Bible when we remember to consult it and when we humble ourselves to follow the instructions.

To stay in the UK with my husband, I had to pass a “Life in the UK Test.” Some of the questions would be easy to people who grew up in the UK and are not confused by the fact that Elizabeth I was succeeded by her cousin James I of England, Wales & Ireland, but his title was James VI in Scotland. They would know that the longest distance on the mainland between John O’Groats & Land’s End is 870 miles. Me? I had to study.

Some UK residents probably don’t know some of the answers: Who was a famous Victorian engineer and what did he do? (Isambard Kingdom Brunel constructed railway bridges like the Clifton Suspension Bridge.) Who opened the first curry house in Britain; where was it and what year did it open? (Sake Dean Mahoment, 1810, London.)

What chance would there be of getting into Heaven if we had to answer questions first? What if we were ill and dying? We would be too sick to study and memorize enough answers to pass the test and make it into Heaven.

What if it took a lot of money to get to Heaven? There are people in many parts of the world who live in stick huts with no indoor plumbing, running water, furniture, or appliances. They don’t even have enough food. How would they pay?

What if it took being a champion on a sports team? How would people who are klutzy or handicapped get to Heaven?

God made entering Heaven so simple that anyone and everyone can do it. The Bible promises us that whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish but will have eternal life. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

God loves us. He wants us to live with us forever. So He made the requirement easy; just believe in Jesus, the Son of God.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Beach Bully

Chest extended and head tilted back in a haughty matter, Beach Bully suddenly assaulted another early morning beach stroller.

The peace of still water and wet sand exploded as the two seagulls flew at one another with beating wings and sharp beaks. Beach Bully had picked on a young gull, still clothed in grey fluff. Squawking, the gull’s sibling flew into the fray. United in their efforts, the two family members sent Beach Bully stalking away.

Beach Bully, with ruffled feathers and chest still extended, attacked a lone crow. The crow, being smaller, quickly flew away from the fight. Beach Bully strolled into a gathering of gulls that were socializing and feeding along the shore. Again, he selected a young grey gull for his attack. This time it was the baby’s angry parents that shrieked and dove at him until he flapped off down the beach away from the crowd.

Beach Bully stood on wet sand surveying his lonely kingdom. His chest deflated. His head sank down on his shoulders. Even in the animal world, bullies are not liked or tolerated.

Sadly, I know some human bullies who live in a world of isolation that they have built with their cruel, angry words and actions. I felt a bit sorry for Beach Bully. How could he learn kindness and friendship? Did he have an example to follow? What had made him that way? Did his parents abandon him when he was still too young to fend or himself? I will never know the answer to those questions, but I do know the solution for human bullies.

As with all problems needing solutions, the Bible holds the cure for human bullies. To have friends, we are told in Proverbs 18:24, we must prove ourselves to be friendly and worthy of being a friend. A friend loves at all times.

Jesus set a timeless example of friendship. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Then Jesus proved His friendship by dying for us so we can go to Heaven to be with Him.

Jesus is the Lord God of all creation. He is God’s Son. Even Jesus was not immune to bullies. They cursed Him, spit on Him, nailed Him to a cross to die. Every day since sin entered the world and Adam and Eve’s son Cain killed his brother Abel, there have always been bullies.

We can’t change a bully. Bullies must want to exchange their world of isolation for one of friendship and love. When they make the decision to change, God gives them a way in the form of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 records the results of bully transformation: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.”

We can bully-proof our worlds as much as possible by living the fruit of the Spirit and surrounding ourselves with Christian friends and praying for our enemies. Because sin still rules this world, that won’t be a one-hundred percent fix – but we will walk in love and joy and leave beach bullies behind to face their torment and make their decisions.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Injured

As I struggled to reach the top of a steep hill, a lovely tree captured my attention. It stood proudly straight and tall waving brightly green-clad arms against the sky. When I reached the crest of the hill, I saw the tree’s secret. Her trunk had been so badly cut, slashed and smashed at the bottom that a huge chunk of it had separated from the rest of the trunk and stood crumbling and decaying.

“How like us,” I thought. “Injured, severely injured with perhaps a part of us dead or in the process of dying. And, yet, like the tree – we keep standing. Like the tree – we keep growing. Like the tree – what doesn’t make us bitter makes us better and what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We are just like that lovely tree with our injured damaged parts hidden from the world by the showy part we don to fool others.”

God loves us so much that He sent His own Son Jesus to die in our place. God does hear our prayers, He does answer our prayers. But God does not keep affliction from touching the lives of Christians. Psalm 119:67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I keep Your word.” Sometimes it takes a trial or affliction to open our ears to God.

Sometimes the injuries and hidden hurts we suffer shine a beauty on our lives that make us attractive to others and useful to God.

Our part is to trust God and keep standing.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Lasting

This is all that remains of Scotland’s Fortrose Cathedral, built in the 1300s as man’s effort to immortalize his relationship with Mighty God, the Creator of the universe. No doubt the person entombed expected to be equally honored and revered throughout the ages – but he is now merely a nameless relic of the past.

Out of all the books ever written, The Bible remains the best seller. A few books that have sold more than 100 million copies include The Tale of Two Cities and The Lord of the Rings. Other books considered best sellers include Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Black Beauty, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Harry Potter books. Has anyone read them all? Some of them used to be considered “classics” and were required reading in school. Not now.

Jesus died more than 2,000 years ago, then rose from the grave victorious and sent His Holy Spirit into the hearts and lives of His believers to empower them to serve Him. As a result, the vast majority of the most popular and trustworthy charity organizations in the world are run by Christians. To name just a few: World Vision, The Salvation Army, Bread for the World, Compassion and Wateraid.

As we build the fabric of our lives it is wise to question whether we are building for ease and comfort now, or building for eternity. Fortrose Cathedral was built with the finest stone available and by the best craftsman of its time. But only what is built on The Rock of Ages – Jesus Christ – will stand forever.

As a writer, I would love for my books to be remembered as life-changers. Yet, no matter how many books I write, none of them will ever rival the unchanging, living Word of God.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Dog in a Tree!

Dog in a tree talking to you? Nothing unusual if you are asleep and dreaming – it even makes sense!

Last night I dreamed about a room full of moving sandwiches. The sandwiches flew, tumbled about and prowled through the room at will. While I was dreaming, it seemed perfectly logical. My task in the dream was to protect the one sandwich that was wrapped in aluminum foil. As the sandwiches cavorted around the room, I kept my eyes fastened on the one in foil to make sure that the foil didn’t come off. Why? I have no idea – but it made sense in the dream.

Not that all dreams are nonsensical. I’ve had dreams in the past that came true. Those are frightening because it seems that they always come as warnings of impending death or danger – and there is nothing I can do to stop the event from happening.

The Bible records dreams as one method God uses to communicate with us. Using wisdom from God, both Joseph and Daniel interrupted dreams that saved lives and promoted them to positions of honor and authority.

There is nothing we can do to take control of the nonsensical dreams that perplex and entertain us during sleeping hours. Fortunately, God has given us waking-hour dreams to motivate us to change the world. Consider Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. His vision of a United States of America where freedom and equality walked hand-in-hand still resounds today and was named the top American speech of the 20^th Century.

Dreams do come true and dreams can change the world. Waking dreams are visions in walking shoes and working clothes. They are attainable – but only if we strive for them. As an author, I know this well. My dream to write books has never wavered or changed since I first dreamed it fifty years ago. Achieving that dream, however, has meant constantly striving and working toward it even in the face of bitter disappointment and disillusionment.

Not everyone dreams of becoming an author or writing books (which is good because the market is crowded!) Some dream of owning their own businesses, owning their own homes, becoming missionaries, traveling around the world on a bicycle. Different dreams – but all with the same measure of possibility and attainment. First step: put on the hiking boots and work clothes and prepare for a long journey!

Jesus did not leave us bereft when it comes to achieving our dreams. He said both, “With God all things are possible,” and “Nothing is impossible with God.”

So dream big and reach high. You can do it! Now, if you will excuse me – I’m going to look for that foil-wrapped sandwich and make sure it is still wrapped…

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_d

Bloom Where God Has Planted You

A clump of yellow primroses on a rock cliff caught my eyes today when I was walking. Flowers cheerfully blooming where God had planted them in spite of the improbable and impossible-looking location.

We Christians should take a note from God’s creation and bloom cheerfully where God has planted us. There are no perfect places on this earth and there are no perfect people in this life. Everyone has problems. Everyone has storms. Sometimes, the blame is on us. We make bad choices and suffer the consequences. Sometimes, a storm hits unexpectedly – sent by an enemy intending destruction. Sometimes, God sends a storm to teach us to push our roots of faith deeper into Him.

After losing everything he had on earth including his health through no fault of his own, Job was able to declare that after God had tried him – he would come forth as gold. Job claimed victory over the storms in his life and God rewarded him.

My two favorite Bible verses are: In everything give thanks and All things work together for good to those who love the Lord. These are victory-winning verses.

Thinking about those lovely primroses today reminded me of my two most recently published books, “Killer Conversations,” and “Bridge to Xanadu.” The characters in both of these books walked through storms. Instead of blooming where he was planted, the main character in “Killer Conversations” became a serial killer. Texas Miz Mike in “Bridge to Xanadu” learned to bloom where she was planted even when it was a totally new and unexpected place in her zany life.

My books are fiction, mostly mystery-romance-suspense although “Killer Conversations” is a psychological suspense. However, I’ve been through some of the same storms in my life that these characters have weathered in words. With the help of Jesus, I’ve learned to bloom where God has planted me. It’s been a hard lesson at times. Sometimes my roots have nearly slipped out of the Rock of faith holding them. Thankfully, Jesus is the Friend who sticks closer than a sibling and He never lets go, never leaves us, never forsakes us.

If your roots feel dry and unprotected during whatever problem or storm you are facing, stick them back into the Rock and bloom cheerfully. Your heavenly reward will exceed any possible earthly riches and God’s accounting is both perfect and eternal.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Seagull Sex & Romance Writing

Living as close to the water as we do it is impossible to get through spring without realizing that seagulls like sex. The males beat wings of love over the females crying in coarse ecstasy while the females add their own chortles of joy.

God invented sex. It’s biblical. Song of Solomon is a marriage manual for sex. “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me that lies all night between my breasts…Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether…Your lips, O my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue…Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.”

Since my favorite genre as a writer is mystery-romance-suspense, I’m thankful God created sex. It’s a gift He gave humans to glue their marriages together and keep them intact through difficult circumstances. God’s perfect plan for marriage is presented in the Bible: a man and woman leave their parents, become one flesh, and stick together until death parts them. Marriage doesn’t always follow the guidelines – but God’s plan always works best. Sex helps.

God’s gifts should be revered and valued, not re-gifted or treated as cheap bubble machine ornaments to be given away, tossed or trampled. Sex matters. God intends it to be a gift that a husband and wife open after the marriage ceremony. That’s why my Christian mystery-romance-suspense books are fun, entertaining, clean, safe reads.

My sexiest and most enticing hero in the Texas Miz Mike series thus far is likely Native American Indian Chief Alan Bitterroot. Readers will discover passion, love, and amazing adventure and suspense in “Bridge to Xanadu.” They will also discover two Christian characters facing the ultimate temptation to open the sex gift – with our without marriage. Do they?

Sex is good. It’s not “dirty” or “shameful.” Christians are like seagulls. They enjoy sex. Good thing – because it keeps romance writers working!

From finding a dead body in the dumpster at the sheriff’s office to being straddled by a knife-welding rapist and serial killer, Texas Miz Mike is back in her most gripping and humorous mystery-romance-suspense ever, “Bridge to Xanadu.”

Oh – and did I mention that “Bridge to Xanadu” puts Mike on a collision course with her newest hero and tests them both to see how they will handle the temptation to open the sex gift early?

http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Xanadu-Miz-Mike-Book-ebook/dp/B00WFC67V2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429593376&sr=1-1&keywords=bridge+to+xanadu+stephanie+parker+mckean

qid=1429593376&sr=1-1&keywords=bridge+to+xanadu+stephanie+parker+mckean

Bye-Bye Baby

Spring is here! Folks are thinking about flowers and babies. Appeals arrive daily to save badger babies, elephant babies, endangered species, whales, dolphins…even trees.

The majority of people who rescue stray dogs and cats; scream for laws to free whales and circus animals; demand a stop to the slaughter of badgers and dolphins – are okay with killing unborn humans. Defenseless little boys and girls – especially girls and especially black. Abortion is murder. It stops a beating heart.

It is ironic that it is illegal to kill baby eagles, but it is legal to kill unborn children who are created in the image of God.

Some of the same people who run campaigns to save trees, go green to save the planet, and give personhood status to chimpanzees say that parents should get to decide whether their children live – right up to the time of birth.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution promises every person the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unborn children are defenseless victims of a political system that listens to the green color of money rather than the agonized shrieks of the country’s most defenseless citizens who are ripped apart inside the womb and flushed down the toilet.

Unborn children are not a part of their mother’s bodies. They have their own DNA from conception. Life begins at conception. Unborn children have beating hearts at 21 days; fingerprints at nine weeks; can feel pain at 10 weeks; smile at 12 weeks; and are fully male or female at 16 weeks.

To make the “choice” of abortion palatable (babies are given no choice), different labels are applied. A baby is a “fetus.” Murder is “abortion.” Pregnancy is “terminated.” The Bible says that God forms a child in the womb and calls him or her into His purpose. Abortion has murdered generations of unique God-created individuals. Some might have found a cure for cancer, invented safe traffic-hopping cars, found the key to ending world poverty, or built a system of lasting world peace. We will never know. We do know that a dearth of children living to become productive, working adults is undermining tax and retirement programs.

The real horror is that abortion is murder. God will not hold a country guiltless for slaying innocent children. Labels don’t change facts; they play to emotions. If it’s not a baby, the woman is not pregnant. A woman’s right to choice ends at her body; the baby is NOT her body.

Smell flowers, enjoy spring. Pretend babies are trees and save them.

Read “Love’s Beating Heart” and let it sing into your spring.

goo.gl/9TQsK5

http://goo.gl/wmLNDy

Is a book about a Serial Killer a good Valentines’s Day read?

Yikes! Why would someone equate a book about a serial killer to Valentine’s Day? I won’t answer that question. It’s better if the answer comes from readers of the Christian psychological suspense thriller, “Killer Conversations.”

Without argument, the Christian Bible contains the greatest love story ever told. No author could pen a more inspirational love story. Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this – than a man lay down his life for his friends. I am your friends.” Then Jesus died.

God wrote a Love Card for all ages in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

No matter how many or how few Valentine’s Day cards you received on February 14, God has already given you a Love Card that is for today, every day, and all eternity. No human-crafted earthly creation can beat that!

Back to the serial killer question. A synopsis of “Killer Conversations:” He walks a lot and is a loner. She pegs him as a serial killer. People in the small Scottish village don’t believe her. They attribute her suspicions to a “writer’s imagination.”

Then there’s a new murder.

She stalks him looking for evidence. He stalks her to find out if she has evidence. When the two collide, it’s in a deadly life and death struggle.

Texan Kevyn Skye Lamar’s quest to find a story and write the “Great American Novel” may end up with her as the serial killer’s next victim. What a tragedy that would be after she has finally found love. And…she wonders…do serial killers go to Heaven?

No, I didn’t answer the question about why “Killer Conversations” is a good book for Valentine’s Day. To do that, I would have to add a spoiler. I never give away the twists and thrills that make for good reading.As encouragement, “Killer Conversations” made it to Amazon UK’s top 100 best sellers’ list within hours of its release!

U.S. http://goo.gl/HkXYc0 or U.K. http://goo.gl/Qua7H0

Proof…You Really Are What You Eat

Whoever said, “You are what you eat,” had it right. Our rough collie, Angel Joy, is a living testament.

Angel Joy developed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). For nearly a year, life at our house was miserable. Angel Joy’s stomach made runaway train sounds at night. She woke me up repeatedly to take her outside because of constant diarrhea. After each trip outside, she had to be cleaned up before we went back to bed. She lost stamina and energy. Our daytime walks decreased in length. A few times I picked up the fifty-pound dog and carried her part of the way back. Every few days, I had to cook chicken and rice for her. She had pills and tube medicine to take three times a day.

Because it took so long to diagnose and the vet wasn’t completely assured that IBS was Angel Joy’s only problem, expensive and time-consuming medical procedures were planned that would require us to take her nearly 200 miles away. As a stop-gap measure, the vet put Angel Joy on a gastro intestinal dog food. For treats, she could have cooked chicken – nothing else.

Even the vet was amazed at the result. For the first time in nearly a year, we slept through the night. Angel Joy re-gained the weight she had lost and recovered the joy reflected in her name. Walks lengthened as her energy and stamina returned. Anything Angel Joy eats – other than the special diet food and cooked chicken – causes a return of IBS symptoms, even something as seemingly insignificant as one fry that drops on the floor.

There is a spiritual parallel to this. Proverbs 23:7 says that as we think in our heart, so we become. Jesus said it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person, not what goes into the mouth, because we speak from what is stored in our hearts.

The cliché, “Garbage in, garbage out,” is as true as “You are what you eat.” We become what we allow to pass through the physical gateways of our body, our eyes and ears. Whatever we read, whatever we watch on television or movies, whatever we hear – all these build us into what we become.

The Bible provides a reliable filter for spiritual health, “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there in anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8.

Guarding physical and spiritual health in 2015 builds us for now and eternity.