Life Is a Faithwalk: Navigating Is Easier with Jesus

By Denise R. Solomon

Life is a Faithwalk is a book about... life! The joys and pains, the good and the bad. Life can be challenging, but it is easier with Jesus in our lives!

There are diverse stories to teach, offer insight, and strengthen our faith. Stories about admiring God's creations, personal testimonies of deliverances, sounding the alarm for end of the age prophecies unfolding now, and reminding us how important a relationship with Christ is.

This book is inspiring and reminds us of God's awesomeness and just how much He loves us. For life truly is a faith walk, and it really is easier when we let Jesus navigate us through it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512743975

Denise R. Solomon

Denise Solomon was born in Detroit, Michigan. She discovered her God-given talent for writing as a teenager, when her Pastor asked her to write an article for the church newsletter. Years later, she began publishing her monthly newsletter, Faithwalk. She has studied the Bible for many years and enjoys teaching about scriptures and their practical applications to everyday life. Her dentist often suggested she pull her newsletter stories together and write a book. When God blessed Denise with a very early retirement, she began on this journey. She enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and playing with her two dogs. She graduated from Cass Technical High School and the University of Michigan and worked for many years as a Financial Analyst. Most importantly, she is a Christian, a future resident of Heaven. One of her favorite scriptures is II Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. She says to all: Christ is coming back soon for all Christians. Get right, or get left.

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© 2016 Denise R. Solomon.

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 author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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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: 978-1-5127-4396-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4398-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4397-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016908646

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/16/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Alpha And Omega

God’s Electronic Calendar

A Life Without God

He’s Gone!

The Two Twins: Grace And Mercy

How Great Thou Art

Candy And Flowers

Make It Unhappen

God, Are You Sure?

What Kind Of Man Is This?

Where’s The Hammer?

Chapter 2 In The Beginning, God Created …

Polar Bears

My Dogs Talk To Me

A Bird: Sos

No Pushing!

This Old House

Lying On The Beach

Millions Of Miles Away

Chapter 3 The Bible: The Word Is The Final Word!

Just Like God Said

What A Stupid Idea!

A Giant Problem

La Torre De Babel

Where Shall I Go?

How To Live Your Life

Ain’t No Half Stepping!

While He Was Still Speaking

Once Upon A Time

Don’t Look Back!

Pick A Number

Chapter 4 You Dirty Devil!

You Dirty Liar!

Let’s Make A Deal

Know Your Enemy

I Sold My Soul To The Devil

Chapter 5 The Sin Of The Month Club

The Dirtiest Word

The Sin Of The Month Club: Working On Sunday

Sodom And Gomorrah

Is God Wrong?

Lose Weight Fast

What Are You Looking At?

Watch What You Say!

Stairway Down Below

Chapter 6 One Life To Live

A Parent’s Gift

1 + 1 = 2,099

I Need Money!

What Happened To My Money?

Let’s Pretend!

Cover Up!

God Has Told Us

I Love You!

Going To Divorce Court

Get A Compass!

September 11, 2001

Chapter 7 It’s All About Me!

I Asked My Father To Save My Father

Rip, Mommy

On Fire!

God Is In La!

Stormy Weather

God, Send Me An Angel

Have You Considered My Servant ___________ [Insert Your Name Here]?

The Young And The Restless

Good Job!

Chapter 8 The End Is The Beginning

The Final Judgment

What’s Going On Down There?

Knock, Knock!

Terror

Warning! Warning!

Chapter 9 Forever And Ever And Ever

Guilty!

Vanished!

Fire Insurance

It’s Easy To Go With Satan

Who Will Go With Satan?

Seems Like Forever!

The Final Count

Chapter 10 Let Us Hear The Conclusion Of The Matter

The Meaning Of Life

Acknowledgments

When I think of my faith-walk journey to writing this book, my thoughts lead to three very special men. When I was a teenager, my pastor, the late Odell Jones, asked me to write an article for our church’s newsletter. How did he know that he was leading me down a path to discover my God-given talent?

Years later, when I was attending another church, my late pastor Herbert Hinkle asked me to start a newsletter. How did he know I was a writer? I distributed more than two hundred copies per month of my monthly newsletter, Faithwalk.

Among those on my mailing list was my dentist, Dr. Bobby Echols. Once or twice a year, he’d casually ask, Solomon, when are you going to put your wonderful articles together into a book?

One step led to another, and another, and another.

Thanks to all.

CHAPTER 1

Alpha and Omega

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It all starts and ends with God. On this faith walk, we must begin with the most important observation: God is amazing!

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

God’s Electronic Calendar

We are so busy these days! We juggle work, family, and church activities. We have to carve out time for shopping, eating, doing housework, and going to the gym. Even if we get up early or stay up late, we still often find that we are buried under the things on our to-do list. We are so busy, and we are so stressed out. We need an eighth day added to our week! Maybe we can stay up half the night and survive on just a few hours of sleep every night.

In this age of electronics and computers, we have smartphones to keep us organized. We glance at them to determine our availability and also to check off completed items. We add meetings, appointments, and important family information like birthdays and anniversary dates. Most smartphones and electronic calendars also include a phone book section to store important numbers and addresses.

God is God, so He doesn’t need any gizmos to stay on track. But what if He used an electronic calendar like we did? Not only would it beep when it was time to raise the sun in each of the time zones on the planet, but also He’d have to keep on schedule for watering the flowers, trees, and grass. He’d have notes to visit the various countries to birth the new babies and animals each day. He’d have to make sure the wild animals ate, the rivers continued to flow into the oceans, and the stars stayed up in the sky. He’d have a checklist to make sure He completed the many tasks of the day: healing people, answering prayers, saving folks, granting peace and mercy, and healing grief and hurt.

His greatness reminds us that He is completely in control. As the Devil gets busier in these last days, do not fret or lose hope. It’s supposed to happen like this! Hopefully the Devil’s activities will spur unbelievers to get saved. For God is patient and long-suffering. He does not want any of His children to spend eternity with the Devil. But ultimately it is their choice. God doesn’t need a checklist, and He doesn’t use Post-it Notes to remind Himself of His duties. He is God. End of story.

A Life without God

We all know that God is sovereign and omnipotent. We all know He made the heavens and the earth. We know He loved us so much that He sent His only Son from heaven to the earth to die for our sins, and we know that He raised Jesus from the dead. But what if we know all about this and still do not make the ultimate step of accepting Jesus as our Savior and living our lives for God?

We believers often talk about the many blessings that God gives to those who believe in and follow Him. Well, let’s look at an opposite example. Let’s look at a man back in Bible times who knew about God and His greatness. He saw what God did, and he even believed in God. But this man went his whole life without committing to God—not until the end. Let’s see what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar.

King Nebuchadnezzar was a great ruler over Babylon. Although a sinner, he saw and even acknowledged God’s greatness. The king had Daniel, one of God’s own, in his employment at the palace. He had a very strange dream, and no one in the kingdom could interpret its meaning—no one, that is, except God’s own, Daniel. Read the entire account in Daniel 2. Through his relationship with Daniel, the king began to learn about God, His rules, and His greatness. But we see that the king still didn’t serve Daniel’s living God.

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned all people to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. (Daniel 3:1–7)

The Bible then goes on to recount the story of the three Hebrew boys who did not worship the image, and whom God saved after they were thrown into the furnace. (Read the entire third chapter of Daniel for this account.)

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, Certainly, O king. He said, Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the son of God. Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here! So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:24–30)

Again, even though the king saw God’s greatness, he didn’t serve Him. God gave him another dream, and this one, which Daniel interpreted, delivered very bad news.

This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. Your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that God rules. Therefore, O king, accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue. (Daniel 4:24–27)

Did Nebuchadnezzar turn to God after this warning? No! So what happened?

All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. (Daniel 4:28–33)

Well, I am happy to report that after all the drama and trauma, the king finally came around. He finally figured out that God is in control. Hopefully you have figured that out too. Read the king’s own words:

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures