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

Run Through Pain

Sometimes, we just need to run through pain.

No one knows this better than best-selling Author Bruce Van Horn whose book “You CAN Go the Distance” contains great advice on how to run a marathon and how to run life – even when it involves running through pain. Bruce ran this year’s Boston Marathon just a year after cancer surgery. Prior to that, he recovered from depression, a knee injury and foot surgery.

God gave us the gift of pain as an early warning system when we are ill or injured and need to rest. But, sometimes, we need to run through pain.

Michael Jordon was cut from his high school basketball team. Albert Einstein never learned to talk until he was four and was told by a teacher, “You’ll never amount to anything.” Walt Disney was fired from his newspaper job for lacking imagination and not having original ideas. Dr. Seuss received 27 rejection slips on his first book. Oprah Winfrey was cut from a newscast because she was deemed “unfit” for television. All these famous failures ran through pain and found success on the other side.

I didn’t feel like running a couple of days ago. When I first grabbed up my weights and headed out the door, my right leg hurt so badly that I almost turned around. I walked nearly two blocks before I could get my leg to accept the full weight of my body and start running. When I finished running through the pain, I had covered five miles and my leg felt fine. It hasn’t hurt since.

On the way to our Monday Night Bible Study, I got a dog bite on the back of my hand. It drew blood. By the time we got to our fellowship group, my hand was so swollen that it looked like it had somehow inhaled a tennis ball cut in half. I received prayer and the swelling left instantly as if Someone had pricked the tennis ball with a needle and deflated it. Someone had. His name is Jesus and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is still in the healing business. What a great testimony to our group to pray and watch Jesus heal instantly. But for that testimony to be possible – I had to run through pain.

God created a perfect world and never planned for pain to be a part of it. When sin entered the world, it dragged a toolbox behind it filled with spiteful implements of torture: pain, illness, sickness, sorrow, anguish, disappointment, depression. Because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus to destroy those tools and give His followers victory.

But sometimes on the road to victory…we have to run through pain.

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

“Smite Them, LORD!”

It’s been a “Smite them, LORD!” kind of week.

I think the Lord is testing me on my most recent book, “Killer Conversations,” which is real, edgy, gritty, and addresses topics that can’t be turned into something sparkling and palatable like Jell-O. How can child abuse, child sexual abuse, rape and a serial killer be turned into comfort food? Nevertheless, Killer Conversations indisputably contains a strong Christian message…of not judging others.

The world celebrates Good Friday today. Jesus, who had never done anything wrong, was falsely accused. Jesus was whipped until His back was raw; had a crown of thorns pounded into His head; had His beard plucked out, and was spit upon, mocked and ridiculed. He was subjected to a bogus trial, found guilty, and nailed to a cross where He suffered horrendous agony before He died. Through it all, Jesus never fought back, never turned angry words against His tormenters. As He hung on the cross, Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do.”

Wow!

So after departing from my usual bouncy, fun, entertaining Miz Mike mystery-romance-suspense books (Bridge to Nowhere & Bridge Beyond Betrayal) to pen a book like “Killer Conversations,” it would seem that God decided to test me and see if I really believed and was willing to live the premise of the book: “There but for the grace of God go I.” Instead of saying that this week, I have wanted to say, “Smite them, Lord! They’ve been mean!”

We all face human-spun ugliness at times in our lives that make us lust for revenge. When that happens, we need to remember Jesus, our example. He could have called legions of angels to war against His enemies and save Him from death on the cross. Instead, He bowed down His head and died that our sins might be forgiven and we might live forever.

So my Good Friday message to myself is: “Forgive them, Lord. They know not what they do.”

Message to self: no more departure books like Killer Conversations. Go back to funny Miz Mike. Laughter is good for the soul. Besides; the testing is a lot easier!

http://goo.gl/wmLNDy

http://goo.gl/Qua7H0

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

Your Everlasting Love Card

Saturday is Valentines Day. Poor Charlie Brown is already sitting against his mailbox waiting for cards that never come.

A host of folks never get Valentines cards. I know. I used to be one. Fortunately for the card-less of this world, God has already written a Love Card for every single person, and it’s redeemable every day of the week and not just on special occasions.

Some U.S. stores carry huge Valentines cards. Big or small, no card could ever contain the world’s greatest love story. There have been great movies and television shows celebrating the power of love. They fall short of recording the world’s greatest love story. Authors write romances and sprinkle romance into books – but the language of love is never complete in these books no matter how peerless the writing.

The world’s greatest love story is found in only one Book, the Christian Bible. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this; that a person lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends.” Then Jesus proved it by dying on the cross in our place and purchasing Heaven for us. Unequaled love that cannot be matched in any card, movie, television program, or book. The greatest love story the world has ever known.

God created us. He has always loved us. Before Jesus was born, Jeremiah 31:3 carried this promise from God: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; with loving kindness have I drawn you.”

God’s Love card is not new.

Probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible is 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.”

God’s Love Card is for everyone. No matter how many or few Valentine cards you get – even if they add up to zero – do not despair. You are so loved that Jesus stretched out His arms and died for you. And that much love would never fit into a card.

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

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.

Where is “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men”?

With Christmas nearly here, some look at the evil pervading the world and ask, “If Jesus is real, where is peace? Where is goodwill to men?”

We’ve given it away. Oh, not just those of us alive today – it started a long time ago. But when we don’t hold our ground and stand up for Jesus, we let the peace and goodness that we should be guarding slip away.

The Bible says, “In the beginning God created…He made man in His own image…male and female created He them.” We’ve let “intellectuals” sell us the theory of evolution and the big bang. We’ve given away our unique human creation status and gone down to romp with the apes and frogs. If we’re animals – why behave at a higher level – like humans?

We’ve allowed “intellectuals” to make us doubt that God is real. If there is no God, there is no absolute right or wrong. Everyone is free to embrace what they consider to be in their own best interests regardless of whether it is “legal” or harmful to others.

We’ve allowed schools and nations to celebrate “Santa” on Jesus’ Birthday. We’ve allowed them to celebrate eggs and bunnies on Easter instead of the Son of God Who died for the sins of the world and rose again to prove that He holds the keys to life and death and can secure eternity for us.

We murder unborn children and make it legal by changing labels: the children God created in the womb who are gifts from Him are called “fetuses.” Murdering them is called “abortion” or “terminating the pregnancy.”

The Bible teaches that a man and woman marry and become one flesh for life. We’ve replaced that with – if you get tired of each other, get a divorce. The Bible warns against sex outside of marriage. We glory in it…and suffer the diseases and heartbreaks that come with it.

God told us to live the Bible and teach it to our children diligently so they will live it too. Instead, we’ve rolled it out on a cutting board like a paper dressmaking pattern and cut it into comfortable shapes and sizes to wear for our individual lifestyles.

God gave us the gift of freedom of choice. We’ve abused that gift by deliberately choosing wrong and by calling evil good and good evil.

Someday, Jesus will return. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that He is Lord. Then there will be peace on earth. Lions will eat straw. Wolves and lambs will lay down together in peace. Children will play with venomous snakes and not be bitten. Peace and goodwill will reign and rule.

Until then, we need to put peace on earth and goodwill to men into practice in our daily lives and not blame Jesus if we don’t see it in the rest of the world. Someday, we will.

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

Broken…

Broken, shattered, splintered, smashed, disintegrated, destroyed – my exploded world on November 17 last year when my son USMC Major Luke Parker died in a plane crash at age 37.

A newspaper reporter interviewed me about my newest Christian mystery-romance-suspense book, Bridge Beyond Betrayal. “I see that the book is dedicated to your son and includes the prophetic poem he wrote a year before his death. You seem to have been close to your son. How did you get over losing him?” she asked.

I haven’t. I didn’t. I won’t. Memories play over in my mind like a DVD with no off switch. His smile. He always had a smile – even in photos his buddies took of him in war zones.

His faith; praying for a truck as a four-year-old because we were without transportation and I lacked enough faith to pray – the Lord gave us a truck the next day. The time the truck got stranded in the Nevada desert and Luke prayed, then insisted that the man who came out of nowhere to help us was an angel. I disputed that. Until we attempted to take a thank you card and some home-baked cookies to our rescuer. We never found him, nor did we find a house, a driveway, or even a dirt trail that explained how he had reached us.

His kindness. Luke’s animal rescues included a one-legged raven; a three-legged dog; a one-eyed possum; and a mentally challenged possum that lived in the closet and used a litter box because it wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to get out the open door. His people rescues. The way Luke stood up to bigger and older students who bullied younger students.

His determination. From starting out in life with hearing loss, a speech impediment and learning disabilities, Luke went on to learn and excel at everything that he wanted to do; playing a trumpet, playing a piano, scuba diving, rock climbing, training horses, flying airplanes, restoring WWII jeeps. He got a college degree in spite of his weakness in math. He went into the US Marine Corps as enlisted and worked his way up to major.

I’m most proud of Luke because his men in Iraq wrote in the newsletter that they respected his Christian example and added, “No matter what we do, we can’t make Captain Parker curse – not even when we hide his gun.”

I’m most proud of Luke for refusing to drink with other recruits in basic training. Already drunk, they threatened him with a knife. He crawled into his bunk, pulled the sheet over his head and ignored them. When he woke up in the morning, his mattress was slashed all around his body.

I’m most proud of Luke for the worn, highlighted, underlined Bible that went everywhere with him.

I’m most proud of my son for walking with God. And because he walked with God, I know he is not dead. He left the USMC to report to duty in Heaven under his Commander for all eternity – Jesus.

So, no, newspaper lady – I’m not over losing my wonderful son. But I will not sorrow like those with no hope because I know Luke lives still and I will see him again. Jesus is in the business of fixing the broken and restoring wholeness to shattered lives and hearts.

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

The good in Goodbye

One Meredith Wilson song in the 1962 film “The Music Man,” starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones, is “Sincere.” Singing it, The Buffalo Bills lament, “where is the sin in sincere, what is good in goodbye?”

Goodbyes can be good.

This is the time of year in Fortrose-Rosemarkie, Scotland, when adult seagulls say goodbye to their young. Hearing the frantic, anxious calls of the abandoned youngsters rips my heart. The baby seagulls don’t understand why parents that have so lovingly cared for them suddenly leave and ignore their agonized cries. Big, fluffy, grey baby gulls walk along the edge of the water and sit on rooftops calling their absent parents. But this time, no matter how gut-wrenching the cries – the parents don’t respond.

I wonder if it is as hard on the parents to ignore the hurt cries of their young as it is on me. If so, they ignore the sharp, biting heart pains and distance themselves – using the wisdom God instilled in them – so the babies will be forced to exercise the feeding and flying skills that the parents have so diligently taught them. If they continued to care for their babies, the babies would continue to live on handouts and never learn self-sufficiency. A winged example of the popular cliché “tough love.”

All parents experience the hurt and learn the benefits of goodbyes when their children are still young. Goodbyes are a part of sending children to school to learn, sending them to visit grandparents and friends, sending them to summer camps…sending them away to universities, jobs, and distant locations. Without the goodbyes, children would never grow into their full potential and learn God’s will for their lives. Goodbyes can be good – but they still hurt.

The longest, hardest goodbye is when someone we love “dies.” It’s been nearly a year since my wonderful, talented son, USMC Major Luke Parker, “died” to this world. Perhaps my deep inner hurt and emptiness magnifies the anguished cries of the baby seagulls and makes me hypersensitive.

Everyone who has ever said goodbye to a loved one who departed from this world, however, has an advantage over those confused, lonely baby gulls. If we are Christians, we know that the separation is temporary. We will join our loved ones again in Heaven with Jesus lighting the way. What an awesome comfort! Death is not an end, it’s the doorway into eternity and the beginning of living a life without pain and loss.

As for the gulls…they are forced to use the life skills they have been taught. They will pass them on to their youngsters. But will they ever see their parents again? I hope so. I really hope so.

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