Author Archives: Janet Sketchley

About Janet Sketchley

Janet Sketchley is an Atlantic Canadian writer whose Redemption’s Edge Christian suspense novels have each been finalists in The Word Awards. She's also the author of the devotional collection, A Year of Tenacity. Janet blogs about faith and books. She loves Jesus and her family, and enjoys reading, worship music, and tea. Fans of Christian suspense are invited to join her writing journey through her monthly newsletter: bit.ly/JanetSketchleyNews.

A Jesus Prayer Day

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When [blind Bartimaeus] heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Mark 10:47-48, NIV*

Into the middle of busy schedules and global crises, Monday brought the news that a young boy in our community had taken his life. He was maybe 15, 16?

How do you pray for something like this? There are words: “comfort the family, send them caring support, help his friends….”

I did some of that, but the need just felt too big. But I remembered reading about the Jesus Prayer in an online-only bonus article in Faith Today.

The NIV has eight references to a people crying out variations of “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Trusting that the Holy Spirit intercedes when we don’t know how to pray, I gave Him the burden by repeating “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy.” Mercy toward family, friends, He knew best.

The peace surprised me, but it shouldn’t. I’d stopped trying to carry—and fix—the problem, and given it to the Master Healer and Builder.

Today I found two excellent links on the history and effectiveness of the Jesus Prayer at the Orthodox Prayer and Concentric Net sites.

The exact wording of the Jesus Prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It’s meant for more than forgiveness, for any kind of need. The “sinner” part is to remind us how powerless we are to help ourselves.

With all that’s going on in the world, near and far, we’re pretty helpless. Item 24 in my new gratitude journal is “Thank You for giving me the Jesus Prayer for when I’d need it.”

And thank You for Your great mercy, poured out in our lives. Open the grieving to receive it. Open us all to see our need of it. And I praise and thank You, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, that You don’t leave us as orphans in this world. That You care, and that You give the peace of Christ.

∞

A song that comforts me in hurt is from the group Fee: “The Arms that Hold the Universe”.

Review: Yesterday’s Tomorrow, by Catherine West

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Yesterday’s Tomorrow, by Catherine West (OakTara, 2011)

It’s 1967. Journalist Kristin Taylor defies convention and flies to Vietnam to take up her father’s legacy of reporting from the war zone. She lands an assignment with a US-based paper and begins producing a string of high-quality articles. Her editor pairs her with Luke Maddox, a photographer with a painful past—and whom she suspects of working for the CIA.

Sparks fly between Kristin and Luke from their first meeting (he nearly shoots her) but so does an attraction that’s hard to ignore. Problem is, Luke’s still grieving for his wife and daughter. And Kristin’s on a mission that leaves no time for personal flings.

Luke’s driver and best friend is a Black soldier named Jonno, who developed asthma after he reached Vietnam but refuses to accept a discharge to go home. The banter between Luke, Kristin and Jonno is fast, funny and sometimes poignant. Jonno gives us a peek into the level of racial oppression going on in the US in the late 60’s.

Catherine West has written a strong debut novel, rich in the sights and sounds of the exotic Vietnam locales. She does a superb job of conveying Kristin and friends’ reaction to the horrors of the war without overloading the reader. And she provides places of respite, like the Saigon orphanage run by a missionary couple who befriend both Kristin and Luke.

The characters are real, and readers can feel their hurts. Yesterday’s Tomorrow is a compelling read that kept pulling me back when I needed to put it down. There’s a strong romantic element, but there’s also a lot of action. With point of view roles shared by Kristin and Luke, I think this is a novel both women and men will enjoy.

Bermuda-based Catherine West is a member of Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers, and is a founding member of International Christian Fiction Writers. You can learn more about her at her website, or check out her blog about writing and life. Click here for my interview with Catherine West.

Marching Forward

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I don’t know what time of year our local writers’ group began, or how many months I attended before guilt made me write something: just a short letter to the editor of our local newspaper.

The group, bless their hearts, praised me as if I’d written a feature article. I started listening to my thoughts—and to God—a little better and writing inspirational and personal experience essays.

Got my first rejection letter—and a positive one at that—on my birthday one May.

When a novel started brewing, I resisted for a year before giving in. My earliest dated notes for that manuscript are from March 1994. That means I’ve lived with some of these characters for 17 years now, ignoring the long gestation period. No wonder we have cake every March!

Three years ago, again in March, God nudged me into this blog. It’s been a great way to meet some new friends in the faith, and I need to publicly say that not once has He not provided the input for a weekly devotional. He is faithful.

Since March seems to be the month for significant writing beginnings for me (not that I’d turn one down in, say, September) it feels appropriate to choose now to join the Christians keeping gratitude journals.

Not lists of positive things, but lists acknowledging that those things are gifts from God who loves us. Lists that accept the gifts and thank the Giver.

I’ll add a thank-you to Ann Voskamp, whose lyrical book, One Thousand Gifts, convinced me to give this gratitude journal idea a try.

I won’t post a weekly list, but here are the first gifts I’ve recorded (resisting the urge to play catch-up for the ones in my memory):

Bright, white seagull in a clear blue sky.
Spring sunshine.
Dancing candle flames—and the little girl who shared them with me.
Expansive stillness moment in my spirit.
Michael Tait singing “Glorious”.
Sparkles on my journal cover—and that it was waiting on my shelf for this purpose.
Fluffy black cat nestled on the back deck.
Sun stripe bright on green moss on the willow branch.
Small brown sparrow in the bare, brown hedge branches.

10. White-gold sun disc behind translucent clouds.

Thank You, God!

Pray Before Giving

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Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling.’”
2 Samuel 7:5-6, NIV*

King David’s desire to build a temple for God came from a good heart. He wanted to honour God, not to live in an elaborate palace while God’s dwelling was a tent.

David loved God, and God had given him so much. I wonder if David saw a chance to do something for Him as a gift. Good heart, good idea, wrong timing.

We get love-born impulses too, to do things for God or for others. These verses remind me we need to pray before acting.

God may want us to bless Him with our hearts’ attitudes but to not act—or to not act yet. In His plan, timing matters.

Sometimes the very things we long to do for others are the things that would undermine what God is doing in their hearts. Oswald Chambers says, “It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s order for others.” (“What is that to Thee?” Nov. 15)

Father God, we want to give back to You out of the love You’ve given us. Impress on our hearts how best to please You—and how to show love to those around us. Help us to always come first to You for wisdom. Make us sensitive to Your prompting to act or to not act. Keep us in the centre of Your will.

∞

The gift God wants most is our hearts. Here’s my favourite Third Day song: “Offering.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpRAOS_rv7w

Review: More Questions than Answers, by Eleanor Shepherd

[Book source: my personal library. A version of this review first appeared in Faith Today Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011.]

Lent

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The calendar is leaving me behind again. This past Wednesday—Ash Wednesday—I suddenly realized, “Lent is beginning.”

Full marks for observation?

I grew up in a denomination that didn’t put much emphasis on Lent, and I sure didn’t learn much about it from watching childhood friends give up chocolate or candy.

But if we look at fasting, which is what the “giving up for Lent” really is, there’s value in that. It’s not a mindless ritual that lets you diet a bit so you can eat a larger chocolate bunny.

It’s not giving something up in penance, maybe not even to show devotion. It’s abstaining from something—or adding in something—to make more room for God in our lives. To get closer to Him.

Ash Wednesday… and I was wishing I’d seen it coming, had put thought and prayer into discovering what I might do to better make room for myKing.

But He’s been planting seeds all along. Showing me how noisy it is in my mind. Wooing me with wistful thoughts of silence. Of silence with Him.

So it’s my intent to take a few minutes’ deliberate quiet with Him each day. Maybe over tea. And whenever I catch myself humming or making gratuitous noise, I will take that as a reminder to quiet my spirit and turn my thoughts toward Him.

They’ll be this child’s special moments with her Papa. My version of a Lenten fast.

Not We Ourselves

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Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100:3, NIV*

When life gets busy, responsibilities crowd, do you feel pressure to keep pace, to meet every demand on your own? Like Moses, when the people in the desert complained again about thirst and he cried, “Must we bring you water out of this rock?”

God told him to speak to the rock, but Moses was so angry he struck it—twice—and although the water came, Moses lost his chance to enter the Promised Land. (Numbers 20:1-13 tells the whole story.)

After all Moses’ obedience, this seems a trifling thing, yet it was clearly a big deal to God. I think it’s because of the “Must we” that took responsibility—and therefore credit—for the miracle.

Moses hardly intended it that way, but that’s how it came out. And sometimes that’s how I feel when the pressure’s on and there’s not enough of me to go around. I forget there’s enough of God.

Somehow today’s one verse from a short psalm puts it all back in perspective for me. I’m not the real authority. Everything does not rest on me, no matter how it feels. (A footnote in the NIV says and we are his can be translated and not we ourselves. “It is he who made us, and not we ourselves” – that makes it even clearer.)

I can trust in God, because He is good. His love endures forever. (Click that link and you’ll see the NIV declares this phrase 41 times.)

Renewed perspective gives me a quietness and a confidence—from a psalm that tells us to shout to God.

Father, forgive me for getting distracted and relying on myself. You are God, and greatly to be praised. Help me trust You not to overload me with more than You want to accomplish through me. Help me stick with what You give and not to ignore it and try to do my own thing—or to cram my own interests in there with what You say is enough. You’re the Shepherd, I’m the sheep. And You are the Good Shepherd. Keep me close to Your side.

∞

Here’s a good, soul-quieting song from Steven Curtis Chapman: “Be Still and Know.”

Review: Intervention, by Terri Blackstock

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Intervention, by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan, 2009)

Single mother Barbara Covington has tried everything to get her teen daughter Emily off drugs. Now she’s sunk a fortune into a last-chance effort with a professional interventionist. But when the interventionist is murdered, Emily disappears—and becomes the prime suspect.

Barbara and her 14-year-old son Lance believe Emily is innocent. Not trusting detective Kent Harlan to have Emily’s best interests at heart, Barbara chases down half-seen clues, putting her own life in danger and potentially compromising the investigation.

Now Kent has to divide his attention between finding the missing girl and keeping her mother safe.

Bestselling author Terri Blackstock always delivers a page-turning read. Intervention begins as a straightforward missing-person mystery. When readers finally meet the antagonist, he’s a different kind of villain: real and dangerous, but not a creepy psycho. The suspense is strong, and the story satisfies. It also gives readers a better understanding and compassion for addicts and their families.

Published in 2009, Intervention is the first in a series of addiction-related suspense novels. The sequel, Vicious Cycle, is available now.

There’s an interesting interview with Terri Blackstock that opens with the video trailer for Intervention and shares the personal story that prompted the novel. It’s about ten minutes long. If you don’t have time for that right now, here’s the video trailer to Intervention. Or click here to read a sample of Intervention.

Focusing Prayer

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A recent post at Under the Cover of Prayer asked, “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?”

It’s worth reading the whole article (the link is in the title). What has come back to me repeatedly this week stems from this quote:

I could take a few moments and ask for direction and inspiration. Before I start to make dinner I could take a moment and ask for help in achieving a balanced tasty meal. Before I go to tap dancing lessons I could stop and focus my mind on God, asking for calmness and the ability to recall the steps and do my best.

Am I flipping from activity to activity without stopping to thank God, to seek His favour and ask for the Holy Spirit to be present as I go about each task? (read the full post: “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?“)

Most of my mornings begin with an informal prayer committing the day (and my loved ones) to God’s care and leading, and it’s understood that God is God and whatever I do is open to His leading.

But, like Jan asks in quote above, how often do I consciously stop and commit my current activity to Him? Submit it to Him? Acknowledge His right to direct, shape… or interrupt it?

If I’m writing, working on homework for a course, driving, attending a funeral, preparing a meal… those are just some of the times the question has come up. Each time, I’ve stopped for a quick prayer.

It’s probably not bringing anything into better alignment, but it’s reminding me Who’s leading, and that whatever it is I’m doing needs to be seen as service to Him.

I think these short commitment-prayers will make me more able to see God’s gifts, to see His love for us and to show it to others. And they’ll remind me to listen for His opinions rather than formulating my own.

What do you think?

Intentional Worship

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Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:19a-20, NIV*

I’m learning that when our congregation is singing a song I dislike (there are a few) I need to remember the song isn’t for me. It’s for God, and He presumably likes it—if it’s sung from worshipping hearts. If I choose to focus on what I don’t like about it, that’s not worship. If I give it my best for His sake, it is.

Sunday morning we were singing songs I appreciate, but I wasn’t feeling as well as usual and just wasn’t connecting. God, being good, helped me see that pushing through to intentionally sing and praise was perhaps a better offering than on a regular Sunday when the praise comes easier.

It’s a declaration that God’s worship-worthiness is constant and doesn’t depend on my fluctuating feelings. I think prayer is the same way. Whatever state we’re in when we come aside to pray, let us take good courage, be firm in our faith, and commit the needs and praises to our God Who is able and who cares for us. It’s about Him, after all.

Father, thank You for Your patient teaching and nurture that draw us closer to Your heart. Teach us to worship in spirit and in truth, with thanksgiving, for Your glory.

∞

“Blessed Be Your Name,” by Matt Redman, is a contemporary classic declaration of worship and prayer in the good and in the bad. It’s sung here by Tree63.