Desperate Pastor's Wives, Patsy Volume VI, and Giveaway 4

I posted about the book “Desperate Pastor’s Wives” that I couldn’t resist the title.  I checked it out at a little branch library I don’t stop at much anymore.  I was not familiar with the set up in this particular library and was in a hurry and came out of the library with 4 books, 3 of which were Christian fiction.  Christian fiction is not one of my favorite genres.  There are exceptions, any story taken from the Bible and made into a novel intrigues me.  As long as the account stays true to the Scripture and the author adds in the details, I’m fascinated.  I realize that may not be what really happened, but I love reading it as a story with more details.This book was about 4 pastor’s wives in a little town, all from different denominations, and was about their lives and their problems and their relationships with God.  Here is the reason I don’t like Christian fiction.  By the end of the book they had a need, whether spiritually, materially, or physically, had a God moment where their life turned around, and by “the end” God had fixed everything.  Don’t know about you, but in the last 278 pages of my life, God has not tied everything up in a nice little “and they lived happily ever after”.After finishing the third book late yesterday afternoon, I was more discouraged than ever.  I know I am in God’s hand, I know I should pray and believe he knows best and will do best, I know all this is true.  I just think these books may be wrong, based on my life, and I wondered why I had to check these out.  (I don’t believe much in chance, after 41 years I have pretty much seen a purpose for just about everything that has happened in my life. Except Glamour magazine.  I don’t think God is in that, I just love fashion).  Why couldn’t I have picked up the new Richard North Patterson political thriller?  Or surely there is a new Joel Rosenberg end times/middle East/political thriller out that I haven’t read yet? At the end of the evening yesterday, I realized something.  Several times in my life I have been through hard times, and at the end of that trial and that period in my life, God did wrap it all up.  So if Patsy, Volumes I-V are complete and had a God ending, maybe Volume IV isn’t done yet.  This isn’t the way life is going to stay, God still is working in the problems and trials we are facing.  And when Volume VI is over and Volume VII starts, it may cover 1 year of my life, or maybe 40.  But when it gets to the end, God will have done what he needed to do in my life, and I will look back over it and see that he completed what was started, he didn’t leave me hanging even though it did feel like that at times.  I think God led me to these books and through the discouragement of everything be neatly wrapped up to show me that I need to wait for him.  Romans 5:3-5 says “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”  I love verse 5.   (I will be writing more about building endurance and using these Scriptures again, aren’t they great)?Read on for….Give away #4The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas(From the book jacket) A Roman solder, Marcellus, wins Christ’s robe as a gambling prize.  He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene’s robe, a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity.  Set against the vividly drawn background of ancient Rome, this is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption.If you read my blog, I know you like words, so you should like this giveaway.  I will be giving away a copy of this book.  I loved it.  I was fortunate to have checked it out from the library the month before Easter, so I was able to hear this story at the time we were celebrating a risen Savior.  This is one of the stories I talked about above where someone has added to an account from the Scripture, and all it did was make me love Jesus even more.If you haven’t read it, here’s your chance to win it.  Enter to win by leaving a comment.  If you can’t leave a comment, e-mail me at patsybaker@rocketmail.com and reference  the blog giveaway, and I’ll make sure you are included.