Excited to Introduce My New Book!!!

Have you ever wished for a place to keep track of all your essential oils?

This is it! Keep track of purchase dates, brands, blends, what you have used for what issue, who you have shared your oils with and much more.
Included is a handy dilution chart and classification chart. I've even included a few recipes and given ample room for you to write down your own.

Here is the Table of Contents:

Single Oils-

• You will have plenty of room to catalog your single oils 

Blends-

• Here you can catalog your commercial blends & those you make yourself

Family and Friends-

• Keep a record of who you give oils to and for what purpose

Recipes-

• A few recipes are already here, plus lots of room to add your own

Wish List-

• Make a wish!

References-

• Dilution chart, classification chart, and a few web resources

Click on the photo above to go to the distribution page where you can view a preview of the first page of each section mentioned here.

Price is $8.99 plus S/H  All orders are taken care of through Lulu.com.

Book Review: Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic

I've been reading Nick Vujicic's book "Life Without Limits".  He has obviously overcome much in his life without arms or legs.  He has proved that one can live a victorious, exciting life in spite of the circumstances of one's life.  He is a contagiously enthusiastic person and very inspiring if you are looking for inspiration.

He is open about the fact that he is a Christian and he comes from a Christian back ground.  So I was expecting that his book would point me to Scripture and to Christ through out. He does talk about God and trusting Him. But I found very little Scripture reference. This was disappointing to me.

He spends much time boosting up our self worth and telling us that we are worthy of God's love and we should love ourselves so that we can get past our shortcomings and show love to others.

Scripture doesn't teach us that.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
(NKJV) 

It teaches us that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners and showed his love for us in spite of our unworthiness.

 Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We were totally, wholly unworthy of God's love but He loved us in spite of our unworthiness and sent His Son to save us.  It is only by Christ's cleansing blood that we are worthy of God's love. 

Nick says that  "Life can be cruel. People can be thoughtless or just plain mean. So you must be able to look inside for strength, and when that inner strength fails, you can always look above, to God, the ultimate source of strength and love."   We should look to God above FIRST not as a last resort.


I am a fan of Nick simply because he is an example of someone who has not just sat, soaked and soured in his circumstances but has got out there and proved you can do something with your life even with the worst of circumstances.  He leaves no excuses for us to sit around in self pity.  He says the choices you make determine the quality of the life you lead.

You will enjoy this book. You will laugh and you will cry.  You will be motivated to change your attitude.  And you will be encouraged to keep God in the picture.  Nick's enthusiasm is contagious. The book just lacks Scriptural basis.

Book Review: The Mormon Menace: The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite

Reading this book brought home to me the truth of the following quote from Blaise Pascal. He said,
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

John D. Lee was executed for the murders done at Mountain Meadows but he was only one of a whole list of men who were involved in this crime.

Why he was singled out to take the blame for the whole thing, is beyond me.  What is sad in this whole things, besides the fact that innocent blood was shed, is that John D. Lee went to his grave maintaining his innocence in this horrible deed because he was acting out of a zeal and fervor for God and sincerely believed that his superiors in the church who order him to take the lives of these people were speaking as God's mouth piece and therefore what he did was not wrong because he believed God commanded it.

Blaise Pascal's statement that "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." certainly rings true in this book. It is a chilling book to read especially when you realize the extent of evil men will go to in the name of obedience to God.

Tabletalk Magazine

Our family has been blessed by the daily devotionals in this magazine.  It also has some very thought provoking articles as well.  I am curious to read some article in the August issue that just came in the mail. Here is a sample of some titles:
"The Unholy Pursuit of God in Moby Dick"
"Law, Grace and Redemption in Les Miserables"
"Good and Evil in The Lord of the Rings"
"Truths and Lies in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus"
If you check this website in August, they may post some of these articles that you can read for free.  I can't be sure though. You never know what articles they will post from the magazine.

Christian Thumbnails: A Survey of the Core Beliefs of Christianity [Paperback]

I was able to download this book free from Amazon Kindle a few weeks ago, but it has since disappeared.  However it is available in paperback.  This little book has been a pleasure to read.  It is written in a concise easy to read manner.  It has been a blessing and a comfort to me to review these things.  I think you will find it equally so.

Book Review: The Pastor's Wife

I just finished reading the novel, "The Pastor's Wife" on my Kindle.  It's about a young woman and man who marry and move to a small town where he is to be a pastor.  He gets so wrapped up in the church that he never has time for his wife.  She feels the pressure to "perform" in certain ways so the congregation doesn't get wrong ideas. She also feels that she is expected to be involved in and even run a lot of ministries within the church related to women and children.

Even the parsonage doesn't really feel like her own home because the people from the congregation donated all the furnishings and decorations.  Her husband won't let her replace any of it because someone might get their feelings hurt.

One day she becomes ill and her husband isn't there for her when she needs him most.  She ultimately leaves him and moves back to CA to be with her parents.  He is hurt and doesn't understand what happened.

The rest of the story tells how they were brought back together and by a woman's last will and testament, but does it work to mend their relationship?  You'll have to read the story to find out.!

Having grown up in a pastor's home, I can easily see how a pastor can become so tied up in his work that his wife and children take a back seat to everything else.  Thankfully that wasn't the case with my situation. At least it didn't feel that way.  I also can see how a pastor's wife can feel pressured to be involved in all sorts of ministries of the church simply because she is the pastor's wife.  As a pastor's kid, I felt that pressure, so I know my mother had to feel it too.  I also know the pressure of having to be and act certain ways so the congregation doesn't get wrong ideas.

I think the author portrayed the pressures of the pastor and his wife very accurately.  Sadly, some pastor's wives have left their husbands either because they simply couldn't hack the pressure and/or their husband had no time to spend with them so they found a man who did.

This book points up the need for us to be in prayer for our pastors, their wives and children.  We need to pray that they will be able to balance the demands of the church with the demands of home and family and that they will have the courage to set boundaries between the two if necessary to keep their marriages and families in tact.

Kindle Book: The Pastor's Wife

I was able to get this kindle book on a limited time free offering, so I downloaded it and began reading. It is a Christian Novel and so far very well written.  Now I see it is $9.49 to download.

It's about Maura who married a man and they moved to a small town where he became an assistant pastor.  Nothing about her life turns out the way she expected it to be and her husband becomes so busy with the church she is often left home alone.

She eventually leaves him and returns home where her ailing father requires her care and she takes over his coffee shop business.

A woman dies in her estranged husband's church and in the will she offers an old rundown theater to the to the assistant pastor's wife (she had wanted to restore it when she lived there) and a large contribution to the church with the stipulation that they can have it  on two conditions.  1. She must return home and live with her husband for 6 months and 2. She must arrange for the church to hold one of their church plays there before she commences to run the place as a business to make money.

So, I am at the point where the pastor's wife has moved back home and is trying acclimate herself to the community and living with her husband again.  Will things be different between them this time or will he be the same as before?  Can they make it work?  These are questions in my mind.

Book Review: You're Only Old Once

This is a great book! I love it!

Book Review: Table Talk Magazine

We are subscribers to this monthly magazine. It is put out by Ligonier Ministries by R.C. Sproul.

It has thought provoking articles and daily devotional readings.  We use the devotional readings for our family time in the evenings before bed.  They are always very spiritually challenging.  Right now they are going through the book of Colossians.

This publication is from a Presbyterian theological point of view, so there are a few things that we don't agree with, such as infant baptism, but that is not focused on very often in these magazines.

Book Review: Rose Book of Bible Charts Volume 2

I bought this book some time ago and I love it.  I'm the type of person who likes to have all facts down in an easy to read chart.  This is what this book does for you.

Here are the charts you will find inside this book:

Bible Translations Comparison
Why Trust the Bible?
The Gospels: "Lost" & Found
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Reformation Time Lines
What Has Christianity Done for the World?
Genesis Time Line
Women of the Bible: Old Testament
Heroes of the Old Testament
The Ten Commandments
Christ in the Old Testament
Names of Jesus
Christ in the Passover
Women of the New Testament
The Life of the Apostle Paul
Names of the Holy Spirit
Following Jesus
The Lord's Prayer
The Beatitudes
Bible Promises for Hope and Courage
Where to Find Favorite Bible Verses
Knowing God's Will
Worldviews Comparisons
Christianity & Eastern Religions
Christianity, Cults & the Occult
10 Q & A on Atheism & Agnosticism
10 Q & A on Magic, Spells & Divination
10 Q & A on Jehovah's Witnesses
10 Q & A on Mormonism
10 Keys to Witnessing to Cults

Marsha's Musings: Separation of the Binder Twins

Last night in "Gifted Hands" I read the chapters about how Dr. Carson separated the Binder Twins.  Actually, as he points out, it wasn't just him.  He had a team of 70 medical people that were involved.  I was amazed at the level of organization they had for this procedure.

They had planning meetings for five months before the surgery.  They did three "dress rehearsals" where they simulated where all the equipment would be, where each person would stand, and how they would handle the expected and unexpected aspects of the surgery.  They had a huge wall timer for one part of the surgery.  They had to lower the babies body temperatures to 68 degrees and stop their hearts & circulation so they could do one particular procedure. They had exactly one hour to do this in, otherwise brain damage and damage to other body tissues would take place. 

It was just amazing to me to read how this whole thing went.  They did encounter problems along the way, but they were able to overcome them.  Dr. Carson said he prayed a lot through this surgery. He gives God the glory for the good outcome.

Book Review: Holes by Louis Sachar

Our family recently watched the DVD based on the book Holes by Louis Sachar. Unfortunately, the movie left a lot of holes for us to fill in because it was so scratched up it kept freezing and we had to skip parts.

So to fill in the holes, I checked the book out at the library and read it. It was a great story. The movie, as far as what we were able to see of it, was fairly close to the book. There were a few areas that the movie deviated from the book, but not anything too big.

It's a great story of a friendship that develops between two boys who are stuck at a camp for delinquent boys. Stanley was there because of a crime he did not commit. As it turns out, Zero was there because he stole a pair of tennis shoes, but he also was the boy who committed the crime that Stanley was accused of.

There are a lot of puzzles and clues interwoven in the story that the reader begins to put together as the story progresses. It's a fun, easy story to read. But the friendship that develops between Zero and Stanley is heart warming. Stanley takes the rap several times for things the other boys should have been punished for. Everything seems to be against him, but by the end of the story, all things work out well for both him and Zero.