Yearly Archives: 2012

Sunday Brunch – Does The Lord Speak To Us In Our Dreams? From The Blog Archives

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Photo courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti

This blog post is a repeat of an earlier blog post! Enjoy, and don’t forget to leave a comment! 🙂

Do you think that the Lord speaks to us in our dreams?

Last night, I had a vivid dream. I was at my parents’ house and some people that I knew in my childhood came to visit. They’d bought knick-knacks and cards and they were decorating our kitchen. The items that they were decorating with had to do with salvation and they were proclaiming to me that they were saved now. I had not thought of these people in decades, so, it was surprising that they showed up in my dream last night. Not sure why they came to mind? It’s possible that Jesus placed these people into my heart last night for a reason.

So, do you think the Lord can speak to us in our dreams? I know in the Old Testament, the Lord would speak to his followers with dreams, giving them important messages and advice. I’ve often wondered if there are others out there, who share a close, dream-like relationship with the Lord as the prophets in the Old Testament? Things appeared much different back then and the Lord seemed to speak more directly to his followers in the Old Testament.

Feel free to leave a comment about the bolded question above. It’d be interesting to hear your thoughts.

I also wanted to mention that Barbour Publishing has recently re-released my novel, Milk Money, in e-book format! It’s available for only $3.99!
Emily can’t keep running her dairy farm all alone. When her dad dies, Emily Cooper must work hard to save the family farm. She manages—until the day a CPA pulls in her driveway and announces he’s there to do an audit. Franklin Reese is appalled at the lack of interest the Cooper women have in the financial aspect of their livelihood, but he dives in, determined to help them learn. The further he looks into Mr. Cooper’s dealings, however, the more uncomfortable he becomes. Can he uncover the truth of the situation and still earn the love of the amazing Emily Cooper? Or will issues in Franklin’s own life keep them apart, even after the farm is taken care of?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

A Fragile Design By Tracie Peterson And Judith Miller

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A Fragile Design – Book #2 in the Bells Of Lowell series.

Bella Newberry flees from her home with the Shakers to seek out a new life in the town of Lowell. The Shakers think that marriage, sex, and pregnancy are sins, and she doesn’t feel that the Shakers’ beliefs match with God’s. With her Shaker friend Daughtie along, they arrive in Lowell to work in the mills. While Bella adjusts to her new life, she finds that Daughtie falters with living away from the Shakers. Daughtie misses her Shaker family and wonders if she’s made a mistake.

Meanwhile, Bella makes her stance known – she thinks that men and women are equal and that women should have the same opportunities as men. When she meets handsome womanizer Taylor Manning, she finds herself annoyed with him. He toys with women’s emotions and appears only to be seeking out his next conquest – Bella doesn’t want to be another conquest to Taylor. After all, she finds that she can’t trust men. Her father abandoned her as his daughter when they joined the Shakers, plus, Jesse, the man who was supposed to leave the Shaker village with her, failed to appear on their agreed-upon day and she was forced to travel alone with Daughtie.

While Bella works in the mills and tries to find better educational opportunities for the women in Lowell, a mystery shrouds the town. Women, mostly Irish women, are disappearing and nobody knows why. The police do nothing to find these women and you’re left wondering why these girls disappear. Since most are Irish, the case is not given much attention due to the prejudice against the Irish who live in the paddy camps.

This book was a feel-good, gentle, enjoyable read. I especially liked that Bella escaped from the Shaker village. I’m glad that she saw that the Shakers’ beliefs are not Christian. Also seeing her working in the mills is interesting, too. To see an entire group of women working for a company spinning fabric is a unique storyline during this time in history.

I reviewed the first book in this series here. There is still one more story to read from this series entitled These Tangled Threads. I will review that one sometime in the future.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I’ve Always Wanted To Write A Book…

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I hear that a lot when folks find out that I am an author. Usually, if the person is focusing on Christian Fiction, I’ll point them to ACFW. I just found out that ACFW has an informational video. You can see it here.

I also want to remind you that Milk Money is now available on Kindle for only $3.99. Read this sweet, inspirational story about a dairy farmer who falls in love with her accountant! 🙂

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Sunday Brunch – Manna!!

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Photo courtesy of stock.xchng

Can you imagine God providing Manna today, just like he did for the Israelites in the Old Testament?

Exodus 16:13-15,31
13 So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp,and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
….
31 And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Numbers 11:7-9
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. 9 And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

Can you imagine what that must’ve been like – finding food on the ground that was left directly by God’s hand? I just think it’s cool and so utterly amazing that it just blows my mind! I wish I could taste manna…I’ve often found myself curious about this bread-like food that came from heaven, initially sheltered beneath a layer of dew. I’ve seen frost on the ground a number of times, but, I can only imagine what it must’ve been like to go out and actually gather the frost-like substance which was actually bread that tasted like wafers made with honey…I enjoy the sweet, sticky taste of honey! They also made them into cakes…I wonder what how those manna honey cakes tasted? The Israelites ate this food for forty years until they came to a settled land.

Have you ever been curious about Manna? Can you imagine the Lord performing such a miracle today? Please share your thoughts with a comment!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Saturday Matinee – Inception – From The Blog Archives

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Inception – A Movie Review by Cecelia Dowdy

***NOTE – THIS IS A REPEAT OF AN OLD BLOG POST!

Can you imagine, being in the midst of a dream, and not knowing if you were asleep or awake? What would you do in that situation?

I saw this movie last summer with my husband and all I can say about it is you have to pay attention.

One thing I didn’t like was that they used the Lord’s name in vain a lot and that didn’t set too well with me.

I did find the story intriguing, especially since they had the dreams in four layers, a dream within a dream within a dream…

Cobb just wants to see his kids again, and he can’t go home because he’s WANTED. He’s a professional dreamer and he can get information about others via their subconscious – in their dreams. A project comes along, a very intriguing and difficult project involving the subconscious and if he’s able to complete this project successfully, he’ll be able to go home to his kids, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. In this project, instead of stealing secrets imbedded in the subconscious mind, he’s supposed to plant an idea into someone’s mind – Cobb needs to cause the breakup of a huge conglomerate if he wants to abandon his fugitive lifestyle and go home.

It’s kind of cool to see people dreaming and how they see their longings in their subconscious mind. It’s also kind of weird to see the dream and then to see others “interrupt” your dream since they’re not supposed to be in that private part of your mind.

This is definitely a guy flick. I could imagine that a lot of females wouldn’t care for this movie. I enjoyed the action in the movie, but, I must warn you, there is a lot of violence in this flick. The special effects were amazing and I really got caught up in the story.

Can you imagine being caught in a dream for fifty+ years? Frightening! Dreams and reality become muddled and then it messes with your mind.

This movie was very deep and, like I said, you need to pay attention to every word or you might miss something.

Seeing this movie reminded me about the fascination I’ve always had with dreams. When I was in high school, I wrote a paper about dreams and the subconscious mind. In the book of Daniel, God speaks to others through their dreams and He provided vivid messages while Pharoah was asleep.

It’s hard for me to talk about this movie further without giving spoilers. If you’ve seen this movie, I’d like to know what you thought about it. I’d like to see it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I think I got the whole story, but I’ll admit that this was one of the most intense movies that I’ve seen in recent years.

So, have you seen this movie? If so, did you like it? Also, if you were in the midst of a dream and not sure if you were asleep or awake, what would you do?
~Cecelia Dowdy~

Milk Money – Now Available On Kindle!

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My novel, Milk Money, is now available on Kindle! Other outlets that it can be found is eChristian.com, CBD.com, kobobooks.com, Apple’s iBookstore, and ebookstore.sony.com. Out of all of the books that I’ve had published, this one is my personal favorite! If you read it, let me know if you liked it!

Emily can’t keep running her dairy farm all alone. When her dad dies, Emily Cooper must work hard to save the family farm. She manages—until the day a CPA pulls in her driveway and announces he’s there to do an audit. Franklin Reese is appalled at the lack of interest the Cooper women have in the financial aspect of their livelihood, but he dives in, determined to help them learn. The further he looks into Mr. Cooper’s dealings, however, the more uncomfortable he becomes. Can he uncover the truth of the situation and still earn the love of the amazing Emily Cooper? Or will issues in Franklin’s own life keep them apart, even after the farm is taken care of?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Dave Ramsey – Financial Peace University

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Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey

Have you ever participated in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University? If so, what’d you think about it?

Ok, I’m actually reviewing a non-fiction title for the first time in ages. My husband decided we needed to read this book together in order to get our finances in order. Initially, he wanted to do Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University through our church. I told hubby that I didn’t have time to attend Ramsey’s FPU and I could already give him a rundown of some of the items that Ramsey would cover both in the University and in his book. It turns out I was pretty accurate.

I thought this book gave good, practical, Christian advice about managing your finances. A lot of the material I was familiar with because, back in my earlier days, I was deep in debt and I used my highly practical mind to get myself out. A lot of the things that I did to get my finances in order back then were covered in Ramsey’s book. He talks about creating a Debt Snowball where you list all your debts and then pay off the ones with the lowest balances first. He also covers other topics such as savings, mutual funds, retirement accounts, etc.

My finances were in order until I got married and we had a child. Things just got kind of haywire and I didn’t give finances the attention they deserved as I did in my earlier/single years.

A lot of the stuff in this book was familiar to me bacause I have a degree in Finance and I work in the accounting/finance field. I don’t really talk about that much on this blog since my passion is fiction writing.

So, have you ever participated in Ramsey’s Financial Peace University? If so, what’d you think about it?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

The Baker’s Wife By Erin Healy

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The Baker’s Wife by Erin Healy

How would you feel if you were unfairly kicked out of your church, due to false information given by one of your congregation members?

That’s what happens in The Baker’s Wife.

This was an intriguing, unusual and enjoyable read. Audrey and her husband, Geoff, are now running a bakery in their town. Due to a scandalous event, Geoff has been unfairly removed from his role as pastor of his church. Audrey and Geoff open a bakery to make a living. Due to the chain of events, their son, Ed, has lost his college scholarship and is now forced to live at home with his parents, assisting them in the bakery.

Jack, a bitter, demented police officer still holds Geoff’s family in contempt – he mistakenly blames Geoff for “supporting” Jack’s daughter, Miralee’s, abortion. When Jack’s wife, Julie, mysteriously vanishes, and Audrey is at the scene of the accident, Jack mistakenly accuses Geoff’s family for “kidnapping” his wife. Jack’s vengenace consumes him and he takes matters into his own hands – he’s desperate to find his wife and he makes some drastic decisions that result in a traumatic experience for Audrey’s family.

Audrey has a strange holy gift – she can feel the emotions and physical illnesses of certain people. She discovers that she has a connection to Jack’s wife, Julie. She finds that she has to call upon this gift to help locate Jack’s wife when Jack resorts to even more insane measures to make her family suffer.

This novel also has another interesting secondary character, Diane, who’s in her early forties and has just been released from prison. When she returns to her hometown, she finds herself suddenly enmeshed with Geoff’s and Audrey’s bakery while she tries to solve her own problems. She’s determined to find a diamond necklace that was instrumental in landing her into prison for 20+ years.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. The suspense factor was high and it was the first book I’ve ever read by Erin Healy. I also enjoyed reading about the daily life in a bakery…kinda made me want to don an apron and bake a few loaves of fresh, tasty bread!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Sunday Brunch – The Bible And The Weather – From The Blog Archives

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Note: this is from my 2009 blog archives. I never located this scripture, so I’m assuming it’s an old wives’ tale?

Do you remember, less than one week ago, I blogged about a snow storm in my area, and they closed my job on Monday, March 2, 2009 because of the snow accumulation?

Six days later it’s warm and sunny, around seventy-five degrees, and I’m sitting out on the deck with my family grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken!

My question is, isn’t there a scripture referencing a sign about the end-times where the weather is mixed up and that you can’t tell the seasons apart anymore? I was glancing through my Bible, looking for this scripture, but came up empty, yet, I thought I’d read it at some point! I searched the internet and found the same question posted on this website. But, according to this site, I don’t know what I’m talking about!

So, blog readers, am I confusing said scripture with something else? Does this scripture exist? The first person to give me the scripture I’m looking for will get a free book(s). Or, if you think I’m confused, just let me know! I’ll continue searching for the scripture myself. I want to say I read it in either Revelations or somewhere in the Gospels? Also, I’m not sure if it’s a full verse, or just a few lines of one verse?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

A Treasure Revealed By Pamela Griffin

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A Treasure Revealed

A Treasure Revealed is also one of the stories included in the Silver Mountains anthology.

This is an enjoyable historical romance that deals with sibling rivalry. Clay is bitter – he finds it hard to forgive his brother Derek for leaving him when he was a youngster. Derek was not around when their mother died, and as a result, Clay has had some rough times, trying to make it own his own as a youngster, since he’d been abandoned by both Derek and his father. Also, it appears that Derek also tried to strike it rich on his own by taking their father’s treasure map and looking for their deceased father’s silver mine.

When Clay finds Meagan wandering in the dessert, he’s very puzzled by the frazzled, injured woman who doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on. Her hands have been burned, and he wonders what’s happened to her. He brings her back to Derek’s wife, an Indian named Linda who can help Meagan to heal. Now forced to deal with his deceitful brother, Clay doesn’t think he can find it in his heart to forgive his sibling.

While Meagan is given medical care by Derek’s wife, Linda, she must face her own demons. She’s partially lost her memory, and wonders what has become of her family. Clay is smitten with beautiful Meagan. Meagan is illiterate, and Clay reads the Bible to her. Both Clay and Meagan deal with their attraction as they learn about God and salvation.

This is a Heartsong that I had lying around my house. I picked it up the other day and I was immediately hooked into the story. I think I really enjoyed watching the story unfold because a family is divided over a silver mine. This was a realistic conflict since families are often divided by money matters. It’s also a short, sweet story that you’ll be able to finish in a few hours. Overall, I thought the author did a superb job with the setting, the characters, and the plot.

~Cecelia Dowdy~