An Intriguing Harvest Moon Look-See

For the last several years I've had the privilege to work alongside several outstanding authors over at Vinspire Publishing. One of my fellow author friends has a book out that might be just the thing for that perfect October read.  How could anyone resist "a crumbling tombstone ... a life cut too short ... and a grave best left undisturbed"? Yes, a visit to an abandoned cemetery with Caretaker John Riley should entice us all to want to open the pages of Beguiling by Nolan Carlson.

Author Nolan Carlson is married and the father of four grown children and five grandchildren. He has served in the military and also in the public school system as a teacher and counselor for twenty-four years. Also a business owner for twenty years, he has been a professional writer for twenty-nine years and has had many young adult books published. His goal is to provide wholesome and entertaining material for young adults. To date, he has had fourteen books published.

Let's take a peek together at what we might find between the covers.

Beguiling

by

Nolan Carlson 

A crumbling tombstone…a life cut too short…and a grave best left undisturbed

Taking care of an abandoned cemetery isn’t everyone’s idea of summer fun, but for John Riley, it means money in his pocket and plenty of time for baseball and his girlfriend. Admittedly, it’s a little boring…until he discovers a crumbling tombstone outside of the cemetery fence. Though his instincts tell him to leave it alone, John wants to learn more about the sixteen-year-old girl who died in 1925.

His obsession grows as the days pass. He’s spending 

 more time with the grave than he is his girlfriend, but he can’t walk away. And when he hears flirtatious laughter coming from beneath the soil, enchanted.

When a ghost takes the shape of a lovely young girl, John is drawn to her. She connects to his soul, and he can’t imagine not loving her. But he doesn’t recognize the evil beneath the possessive, beguiling creature who claims to love him in return.  

Check out more about Nolan Carlson. 

http://www.nolancarlson.com/   

http://www.vinspirepublishing.com/#!carlson-nolan/c1tgx. 

http://amzn.to/1KmEAk9 

A Romantic at Heart

Her Romance of Redemption

Intreat me not to leave thee…

Ruth 1:16b

I just finished refreshing my way through the Book of RUTH after a long absence from that portion of the Bible.  

You remember Ruth and Boaz. Their story became a beautiful romance of redemption. I believe Ruth is one of the most beautiful love stories God gave us in His Word. 

     

Naturally as a romantic at heart, iI see this book as a treasure  of pure fine gold written between the lines that reaches deep into a person’s heart.  

    

Boaz  the hero in this story was  a man of honor—a man who greatly loved the Lord God. He served God with all of his heart.  He was the type of hero I would jump at the chance to grab onto if I were the heroine in any book.  

     

Boaz was not a priest. He did not have a big ministry. But he did love the Lord and it showed by everything he did in his life. The way Boaz represented his family was respected by everyone. He stood for what he believed in. 

     

Boaz was several years senior to Ruth, our heroine, but this didn't matter to God. God chose to bring this handsome couple together in the most, lovely way and for very special reason. 

God would know that Ruth could bring a fresh sparkle to Boaz’s life. Boaz brought to our young Ruth a life a joy and refreshing.       

     

We learn at the beginning of this story that Ruth had lost her husband. She desperately needed solidarity from another area, so she went with her deceased husband's mother to a different place to get it.  Unlike her sister-in-law who turned back, she moved forward to the unknown.  She could have easily turned around and gone the other way…but Ruth chose the better way.

     

Ruth, in her serene quietness, listened to the spirit speak to her heart. She became obedient to God's call in her life. Because of her obedience when Boaz entered the picture, she soon recognized she had chosen God's better way. 

     

I loved the part in this book where Boaz spotted Ruth the first time. From the minute Boaz saw her, and she him, and because of their deference to the will of God, the Lord with a smile knew He could fulfill the plan He had for them both. Love was in the making.

God in His infinite wisdom obviously knew what would happen. He wanted Ruth to leave the land she came from and go to a distant land where she could come upon Boaz and where he would come upon her. If she hadn’t been obedient,  it might have changed the entire course of history.

    

There are so many loving details to this story a person can discover by reading about this woman.  I saw love at first sight to name one. I  learned that a person if she's willing can leave the norm and the routine things of the world  in order to fulfill the will of God even if it means she might not know where it will lead. 

Ruth did this. Would I be willing?

     

Not only did Ruth and Boaz eventually become one together in marriage, Ruth became great grandmother to the famous King David, who by lineage takes us right down to our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. 

What a great example both Boaz and Ruth were to me. Look at what  can happen with  obedience and willingness to trust the Lord in all things.

Ruth wasn't afraid to listen to the voice of God. God blessed her with a good man and with a future that would go down in history. Ruth was as an example of what is truly a Romance of Redemption making her a part of the heritage of the of the coming Messiah. 

I wonder sometimes if God finds me a woman of obedience. I ask myself often how much I listen to Him when He tries to speak to me. My quick read through the  Book of Ruth this morning helped me to take a much closer look at myself.