My Little Book on Prayer
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If you’re looking for a book packed with amazing stories of answered prayer, this isn’t the book for you. If you’re wanting advice on how to get what you want from God through prayer, don’t waste time with this book. But, if you want some help with understanding the connection between prayer and living in a transformational relationship with God, you have come to the right place.
This book is a mixture of autobiography and teaching on prayer, which makes it a little hard to describe. It’s where my life’s story has taken me down unexpected paths, which have taught me about God. They have also taught me about different forms of prayer, which have pointed me towards God.
This isn’t a triumphalist book. There are some answers to prayer in my story, but mostly my prayers went unanswered. But having passed through many years of seeking answers, I have found that my life has been shaped and moulded by prayer. So, instead of God giving me what I have wanted, he’s been using prayer to make me into who he has wanted me to be, and that’s what this book is about.
You can find it for sale in the United Kingdom on Amazon.co.uk.
*************Yesterday was an Ordinary Day
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One day my eleven year old son asked me what will it be like when Jesus returns. As I thought about that question, a story came to mind, so I wrote it down. When I finished writing it I had to decide what to do with it. My son had read it and enjoyed it, but would anyone else enjoy the story? So I decided to make the story available via Amazon, using their self publishing software.
Richard is a Christian in his thirties. He lives a normal life, working as an Executive in a marketing company and being an active member of his local church. Then, one morning, he hears the news that a strange star-like object has appeared in the sky. But is this a previously unknown natural phenomena, or could it be the end of the world as he knew it? Christians and non-Christians were divided over it, and Richard had questions too. Was he ready to leave this world behind? Was he willing to tell his work colleagues that time might be running out? Why were so many people heading towards Jerusalem?
“As I gazed up, I started noticing lights shooting across the sky, sometimes straight and at other times zigzagging. Most of these lights were very high up, and they were fascinating to watch. My immediate thought was ‘angels’. Although they were too far away to make out what they looked like in detail, they gave off a huge amount of light. I watched these angels going about their business for several minutes before I heard the sound of a horn. It sounded a long way off, and I first thought it was a car horn, but it went on and on. Then I realised it sounded more like a trumpet than a car horn. But it was just one note, which was slowly getting louder. I remembered the angels in the book of Revelation blowing their trumpets. Their job was to get everyone’s attention to what was happening…as if the time had come.”
You can find it for sale in the United Kingdom on Amazon.co.uk.
I know that there will be those who will not like my portrayal of Jesus’ second coming because it does not fit the idea that they already have of how it will happen. I don’t claim with any certainty that I have got it right. These are just my ideas, written in the hope that they might challenge some people and bring comfort to others. If you want to share your thoughts with me, please use this address: jonathan (at) writersbloke.org. Thanks.
On the other hand, if you really like the story, please consider letting your friends and family know about it…perhaps through Facebook or whatever.
*************Book One: The Little World of Wordsworth
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One Summer, around the time of the Covid-19 crises, we were going on holiday to Cornwall and we called in to see my wife’s cousin and his wife. We had to sit on a bench in their garden and talk through an open window to stay safe. Somehow, the subject of hedgehogs came up, and they announced that they had two hedgehogs in their garden to which they had given the names Wordsworth and Aunt Beryl. From that conversation came this book. It’s intended for children, but also for adults to enjoy reading to their children.
When Wordsworth goes into hibernation for the Winter he assumes everything will be the same in the garden when he wakes up. But when he awakens he finds that so much in the garden, where he has spent his whole life up until now, has changed. This is rather worrying for a little hedgehog like Wordsworth, so he goes in search of Aunt Beryl. She’ll know what to make of all this change in the garden. But there comes a time when Aunt Beryl is no longer there, and Wordsworth has to make a decision on his own…should he stay or should he go?
You can find it for sale in the United Kingdom on Amazon.co.uk.
*************Book Two: Wordsworth and the Grand Expedition
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With people telling me how much they enjoyed the first Wordsworth book, I started thinking about a second one. In the second book, a chance encounter in a vet’s waiting room leaves Wordsworth smitten with love for a hedgehog called Edith, and shaken by the news that a hedgehog who looks very much like his long-lost mother, Sally, lives in the same hedgehog community as Edith. For these two reasons, Wordsworth decides an expedition is needed to go and find these two hedgehogs. But first he and Aunt Beryl need to find their way out of the compound of the Rescue Centre…but can they escape?
You can find it for sale in the United Kingdom on Amazon.co.uk.
*************Book Three: Wordsworth and the Three Races
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Wordsworth returns for a third book. The story begins with Claire, who created the hedgehog Rescue Centre, joining the East Dilsbury cycling club. Through that she becomes friends with Desmond, and enters the annual Dilsbury cycle race. The race excites the hedgehogs in the Rescue Centre, along with other animals who watch it beneath a large roadside bush. After it, there is much debate amongst the animals over which one of them is the fastest. Wordsworth suggests that the two animals that think they’re the fastest, the squirrel and the hare, should have their own race to decide the answer to this question. But the race doesn’t end as expected, and there is a good deal of ill-feeling between the supporters of the squirrel and the hare. Along comes Aunt Beryl to sort things out, and she proposes another race.
You can find it for sale in the United Kingdom on Amazon.co.uk.