You Can Believe It

By Jane Stanwood

Nellie Spencer, a widow of an air force officer, is happy to be settled in one place for the first time in twenty-five years. Now with her adult children living several states away, Nellie is looking forward to starting anew in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reading, writing her memoir, and sharing her love of God and His biblical truths with people nearby.

Nellie has the chance to meet one of her neighbors when Megan Porter stops by one day with a plate of cookies. As the two women begin to chat, Nellie soon reveals to Megan that she does not celebrate Christmas. Curious, Megan begins asking questions that quickly turn the conversation in a completely different direction as Nellie introduces Megan to the biblical truths she has been loyally following for years. While Megan peruses the Bible that Nellie provides her, she quietly wonders what her husband, Jack, would think of Nellies revelations. Later that day, Jack is about to find out. It is not long before the couple begins to question everything they have ever learned about the birth of Jesus, Christmas, and so much more.

You Can Believe It shares one womans journey to help others learn of her faith, her beliefs, and the truths she follows from the Church of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491718919

Jane Stanwood

Jane Stanwood has been a member of the Church of God for over forty years and diligently strives to live by God’s instructions. During her lengthy and varied career, she worked as a grocery clerk, chiropractor’s assistant, and hearing-aid dispenser. Jane, now in her nineties, lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her daughter.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 Jane Stanwood.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse LLC

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1892-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1891-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901324

iUniverse rev. date: 01/30/2014

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

This book is dedicated to all of the churches of God around the world.

Prologue

Nellie Spencer, a widow of an Air Force Officer, had moved into a three bedroom newly renovated house, in an older but well-kept neighborhood of Albuquerque a few days after Thanksgiving. She had yet to meet her neighbors, other than to share a hand wave the other morning when she went out to pick up the wrapped newspaper nearly buried in the snow on her driveway.

Nellie had shared the life of being a military family with her husband Adam and their two children for twenty-five years, and was happy to finally settle down in one place. Ten years of retired civilian life in several cities had added to the stress of so many military assignments and of course added to the turmoil the children had suffered with each move… changes of schools and loss of friendships.

She missed her children, both now married with children of their own living in Southern California. But, she looked forward to the quiet time of reading and possibly writing her memoirs. She was happy to have people nearby to share her love for God, and His biblical laws, called The Church of God, New Mexico.

It was a shocking revelation when Nellie discovered that the way she was living was not pleasing God, or honoring Him as she thought she was doing, by faithfully keeping the traditions of mankind’s holidays. Her attention had been aroused by some words coming from the TV that she had just turned on, over forty years ago. The speaker was refuting the celebrating of what he called pagan practices and was using biblical references to back up his remarks.

Nellie had been an ardently creative decorator for every month’s themes throughout the year. Now with her curiosity aroused. She searched in her bookcase for a copy of the Bible to check out the references the man was using to put the kibosh on the way people celebrate Christ’s birthday. She found a King James Version of the Holy Bible and began to read some verses she had never read before.

She could hardly believe that what she had always thought was correct is not the truth after all. Stunned, she decided to send for the free literature the announcer was offering. She’d read more of the Bible too… surely so many people can’t be wrong… and hadn’t her mother taught her how to observe all of mankind’s holidays? Time would tell. Nellie read copies of the The Plain Truth, The World Tomorrow and The Good News magazines, plus articles and pamphlets, sent out free of charge that had been offered by the Church of God speaker on her TV.

And, it wasn’t long before the proverbial light globe went on over Nellie’s head and she became convinced and converted to living God’s way that He designed for all of mankind to follow forever. (See Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16) Nellie was baptized, by full immersion following the example by Christ, within a year.

Her new way of living, her beliefs as her children call them, alienated her of course. They simply thought Mom had left the planet and won’t listen to reason anymore. But, the truth be known, it is the children who won’t listen to God. Nellie doesn’t claim to be a know it all preacher. She is simply trying to live according to God’s instructions. Her children refuse to even check out what she could suggest reading in their own Bibles.

Obviously, they don’t want to consider giving up their beloved way of doing things. Nellie understands their reluctance. She also knows that someday they will know the importance of living according to God’s way. Our country is in dire trouble due to mismanagement by its leaders and the removal of God in so many prominent places, schools and events country-wide… as well as the sanctioning of abortions