Here it is the middle of August and this blogger is just getting around to posting the July 2023 Newsletter for the IN SEASON Lifestyle.
Time keeps slipping up on me! Maybe that is because I’m so concerned with keeping God’s calendar and observing His times. I sometimes get distracted from the ordinary routine things in life. Every day doesn’t have to be a celebration though. I definitely think God meant for us to be paying attention to all times and seasons, and sometimes it is amazing how much those ordinary days teach us.
CELEBRATING THE ORDINARY
However; because of that fact, this Newsletter will never be ordinary or routine. God has given us something to celebrate almost every day of the year.
August is going to bring us into preparation days for The Fall Holy Days. The season is going to be full and have exciting days full of opportunities to learn more of our destiny here on planet earth. There will be many stories of how we are all learning to live into that purpose.
It was so nice to have the little lull of ordinary time in the month of July. This gave us time to catch our breath. At least we had time to do that AFTER our Independence Day celebrations in America.
SEASONS – INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATIONS
I hope your July 4th brought you reasons to celebrate the nation called America and all of the possibilities that are still out there in our nation’s future.
Some days look bleak I know, but with God anything is possible. We have to keep hoping and believing and living out God’s will daily to bring us back to who we are supposed to be as a nation.
Here is a review of what we posted for you in July for Independence Day thoughts:
I hope you are loving the way we like to summarize all of our seasonal articles at the end of each month. You don’t have to search through pages of blogposts to find your favorite seasonal subjects.
COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY
The other busy activity in July was our every-Thursday on-line bible study we have named COME AS A CHILD. You don’t have to BE a child to participate; just bring THE HEART of a child with you.
This study began to trapse through The Book of Judges and the weekly bible study lessons have been full of untypical heroes and heroines so far.
I hope you are enjoying each of the stories of these characters who acted as judges in the times when Israel was without a king to lead them. The whole idea was for them to simply be “One Nation Under God” as they settled down in The Holy Land.
You know they had to be humans though, and like most humans they began to look for a human leader instead of just trusting God. That is the downfall of all of us in the end. If we put our faith in men instead of God, we will never move forward. When the whole nation rises up to trust in God and shows that trust through obedience to God’s ways of living daily; that is when you will see a nation step into true freedom and godly justice.
It is another thought to aspire to during each year as we focus on the best ways to celebrate our independence.
So here is a summary of our July COME AS A CHILD bible study lessons:
If you missed any of these lessons, here is your chance to review and catch up. Enjoy!
WHAT I’M READING
I’m hoping to find a few hours to post some new book reviews before the summer ends. This has been an interesting reading season for me. I’ve been studying the changes that our country (America) is going through right now.
Two books have helped me a lot. The first book is called DARK FUTURE by Glen Beck. If you haven’t read it yet; I hightly recommend you do. It isn’t easy reading because it is a about a very complicated subject. Disgest it slowly and carefully.
The other book is YOU WILL OWN NOTHING by Carol Roth. She gives some real eye-opening observations in this book. I’m just getting started with the reading of it, and can’t wait to hear her suggestions as to what we can do to change things.
From a totally different subject and more on the fictional line; I’m also excited about having purchased Rachel Houck’s newest fiction publication called THE BEST SUMMER OF OUR LIVES.
Her love stories are a perfect way to escape and relax during these hot summer days. I will be taking her book with me to The Feast of Tabernacles and using some of my leisure down-time with the family to catch up on this novel.
Another book in another different category of reading is a book called A YEAR WITHOUT THE GROCERY STORE by Karen Morris. She is giving out great advice for acquiring, organizing and storing food for your family. I’ve just begun to dive into her many valuable suggesitons.
There are rumours circulating among the culture that food storage will become necessary in the days to come. I hope the rumors aren’t true, but it never hurts to be prepared. I’ll let you know what I learn from this reading session soon.
Curt Landry has blessed us with a beautiful book about FALL FEASTS. That is the official title of his short, well written, beautifully illustrated book. Our blog offers many articles about the biblical concepts of the Fall Feast of the Lord too. I’m excited to be reading about these subjects from another well-seasoned author/ministry.
There are new books out by Sean Dietrich that are on my wish list of books to order soon. I’m also wanting to read Jonathan Cahn’s new book called The Josiah Manifesto; The Ancient Mystery and Guide for The End Times. Right now I’m not sure when I’ll finish up the others I’ve mentioned in order to make it to these; but you can bet on the fact that I won’t let them escape my focus as soon as I can get the time to review them too.
So little time; so much to read!
If time allows I’ll be giving you all book reports on any and all of these books in the future.
WHAT I’M WRITING
Another thing that happened in July is I shared my own publishing story through a blog post. The article explained how publishing two books during a pandemic went for me. I hope you enjoyed reading those details, and I hope people are still interested in purchasing both books about THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS.
Actually; I’m taking a poll. If you or someone you know would be interested in participating in a three day conference teaching from these two books; please send an email message to our publishing company – Wordcastle Publications LLC at wordcastlepublications@gmail.com.
We are deciding whether to make this service available to anyone interested in the future. It would be local to those who can make it to Birmingham, Alabama and most likely happen on a long weekend. If you are interested please let us know. We will keep you updated on our progress if you inform us through the publishing company’s above e-mail.
NEW PUBLICATIONS COMING SOON
We love that our blog follows the seasons of God’s calendar. There are about a million updates we need to do to our ALL MY DAYS CALENDAR Topics, and we are working on those.
We are sorry to be so far behind on this section of the blog at such a critical point in time with the Fall Holy Days coming; but we have been working on summarizing a lot of that calendar into two new paperback publications that you can purchase and enjoy without having to look up the daily devotions on the blog.
The first seasonal publication coming out in August is called: CHRISTIAN MEDITATIONS FOR ELUL. It is a beautiful devotional book written by the author of this blog (Gail Landgraf.) There is a devotional message for each of the 29 days of the Hebraic month of Elul. You will love the illustrations also.
After meditating on the 29 days of the month of Elul, we will come to The Ten Days of Awe, which happen right before the annual Fall Holy Days of The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement and The Feast of Tabernacles. The second seasonal book we will be publishing in August is called THE TEN DAYS OF AWE FOR CHRISTIANS.
Inside the pages of this book are devotional readings for all of the ten days leading up to The Feast of Trumpets. You will love the daily messages which will help prepare your heart for the upcoming holy seasons this fall. This book shares some lovely illustrations pertinent to the season we are going through.
Be watching Amazon.com to order either or both of these books. Our blog posts in August will keep you aware of the day they are available to order. That date is just around the corner. We actually wanted to have them available to you by August 1st, but we are running behind schedule.
PUBLICATION PLANS FOR EXODUS TO FREEDOM
One more BIG publication we are editing at the moment is called EXODUS TO FREEDOM.
This amazing book is about ready to go to the publishers for the last proofing. Our desire is to have it available for purchase some time in September. You will want to be reading it prior to The Spring Holy Days of 2024. It will prepare your heart with amazing facts from the book of Exodus.
Keep checking our blog for the exact dates of the publication of EXODUS TO FREEDOM. This book is a summary of all of our studies from the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY on Exodus. Our study’s thoughts and discoveries have been expanded upon by the author. The book is full of ways to compare today’s world to the times of the Exodus. We will actually walk you through your own type of spiritual exodus to freedom by the time the book ends.
One exciting feature about this book is that each chapter has questions at the end which are geared to help you think further and go deeper. This makes EXODUS TO FREEDOM a great resource for small group studies. Information about this book launch and the date of publication are coming soon.
So keep following the blogposts on into the rest of August because we are going to be posting many updates and seasonal articles for you. Fall is our favorite subject. You can expect the end of August, September and October to be exciting times for reading The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog.
See you there!
Gail Landgraf/Editor/Writer/Blogger/Publisher/The IN SEASON Lifestyle