#SaturdaySpotlight is on LoRee Peery & Shelter in the Night ~ Worship through Verse Vol. 1

Good Morning and Welcome,

Today's guest has been a regular since I started this feature and I am SO please to bring her back! Thank you, LoRee for dropping by with your new book today. Tell us about it...

Thanks, Pam. Writing any kind of poetry was never on my creative agenda.

Rather than dealing with the pandemic lockdown in 2020, I dealt with months of shoulder pain. I had a reverse replacement in June of 2020. The surgeon also did repair on a broken acromion (the flat bone connected to the clavicle) that forms the top curve. I found out later the pins were just “floating.:” So that part of the operation hadn’t worked, and I needed surgery again three months later.

I often awoke in the wee hours around three a.m. with my Bible turned to the Psalms. Psalm 91:1 says He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

He definitely proved to be my Shelter in the Night, thus the name for the first of four journals that I filled during those months.

Those months weren’t the first that I’ve called various waiting places over the years. The conclusion I’ve reached is that what touches my life is according to God’s time, and I’m not meant to ask why. For whatever reason, to build character, patience, or perseverance, that waiting period happened in 2020.

Due to the pain that woke me, I spent those wee hours of many sleepless nights reading my Bible and followed God’s Word by pouring out my frustration and praise through what I called LoRee’s modern-day psalms. Lamentations turned to praise, all with adoration for the Lord God who calls me His daughter, and I filled four journals.

The other titles in the series are Looking Beyond Self, Gratitude for All Moments, and Finding Peace and Strength.

Wow, LoRee, isn't it amazing how beauty comes from ashes? Tell us more please...

Yeah, God's purpose and plan never ceases to amaze me! Read on...

Blurb: Do you ever awaken in the middle of the night, beset by thought of the worries of the day? Do you ever awaken with the feeling that God wants you to pray for someone or some thing? Do you pray, flounder in your prayer or immediately fall back to sleep?

Through the verses of Shelter in the Night, volume 1 in the Worship through Verse devotionals, the author pours out sorrows and joys much like the Old Testament psalmists. Whether you need shelter or reassurance, this collection can bring peace, hope, and solace.

Excerpt

Psalm 127:3

Children are a heritage from the LORD,

offspring a reward from him.

The Master Healer

Where is my faith?

I’m shaking inside, Lord

Sick to my stomach

“All” I can do is pray

You’ve blessed me

With fourteen grandchildren

One was injured today

On the football field

You knew beforehand

He belongs to You

Be with my son and his wife

Be their comfort and strength

May we all turn to You

And receive calm and peace

You are the only Source

Of ease and healing

You’ve settled me down

Reach my family with Your Spirit.

Beautiful, LoRee! Tell us more about yourself and how we can find you...

Sure, here is my "official" bio and links to connect with me!

Nebraska author LoRee Peery is a country woman who writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. 

She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. The book of her heart, Touches of Time based on her father’s unsolved homicide, resulted in personal relief. She is who she is by the grace of God, and has expressed that wonder in four volumes of devotional poetry.

LoRee has been blessed to live in the country most of her life and sometimes agrees with.

Connect with her through her Website, or on Facebook. Find all of her books on Amazon or at Pelican Book Group.

You can also find LoRee's previous visits to our blog HERE, friends!

Meanwhile, be sure to check out our Featured Author Page and Featured Books (in the sidebar).

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT

#WednesdayWordswithFriends Welcomes LoRee Peery!

Good Morning Friends,

I returned home Sunday from Nacogdoches and back into my normal routine. Been steadily proofing, pruning and tweaking Kyleigh's Cowboy and I'm excited to get the final files uploaded this week. More on that later. Our guest today is no stranger to our blog, so please welcome LoRee Peery back as she shares with us some thoughts on heaven....

Heaven is My Home

Peas isn’t here—only the pod. Peas shelled out and went to God. 

–written on a tombstone in England.

Have you ever been in situations where, “I don’t belong here” came to mind? After all, one of Christ’s promises is found in John 14:2 where He tells us He left earth to prepare a mansion for us in heaven.

Rejoice! The victory over life and death on earth was won. I look forward to my heavenly dwelling place, where I’ll sing and shout in my Lord’s presence. Just imagine a city with streets of gold (see Revelation 21), and rather than sun high in the sky, light spreads from the Son of God. 

I can only imagine. There will be no more pain or sorrow in heaven. I’ll meet Old and New Testaments saints. There will be a reunion with loved ones. Possible surprises over some people I know who will be there. Heaven is where any earthly crowns we accumulate are for His glory. The image in my mind of heaven sets my focus on Jesus, rather than things of earth.

The opening lines of a hymn from childhood have run through my thoughts as I write. “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home.” In my Christmas novella, Christmas House, Pepper’s childhood home was a storage unit. Her family ignored holidays. As an adult, Pepper decided to decorate her first cottage home for Christmas year-round.

Imagine that. Christmas decorations in every room for twelve months. In the story, Pepper doesn’t know the real Christmas story until she’s introduced to Christians. The owner of miniature donkeys is a believer, as well as Foxx, the hero. Foxx invites Pepper to a church service where she hears the full gospel message.

Her spirit is awakened as understanding blooms. I’ve never been so bold as a novelist with the message of salvation. Before long, the real meaning of Christmas unfolds in Pepper’s heart. Her life blossoms while at the same time, Foxx is dealt a life-changing blow. But those chapters flow to the reader’s heart and reveal how Pepper and Foxx overcome. They, like us, look forward to lives in God’s hands.

My individual chapter on earth is backstory in God’s story of my life. He’s prepared for me an eternal home in heaven. God’s Word assures me that life here is but a breath. A vapor. A whisper on the wind. Heaven is my inheritance. Ephesians 1:4 assures me that God chose me before the creation of the world. Just imagine!

Change Your Mind

This land is not

My eternal home

A heart set on heaven

Is a heart set apart

My God is with me,

A spiritual connection

His Word transforms

My way of thinking

God is the only Truth―

Acceptable, good, perfect

I place my thoughts

On heavenly themes

My eternal home

Sets earth as backstory.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you (Psalm 73:25). I can’t conclude without the comfort found at the end of Psalm 23…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I know my eternal home is in heaven. Do you know beyond a doubt where yours will be?

Thank you, Pam, for allowing me to visit Words with Friends. May all of you enjoy fall and the coming holidays as you, too, look forward to heavenly homes.

Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series launched her releases, and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, was a personal relief. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author.

Connect with LoRee: www.loreepeery.com

https://www.facebook.com/LoReePeery

Find her publications at Pelican http://tinyurl.com/kwz9enk

And Amazon https://www.amazon.com/LoRee-Peery/e/B004UAGL2W/ref

Catch up on LoRee's previous visits HERE and check out LoRee's 2022 Christmas Extravaganza novella, Christmas House to be released on Oct. 14th!

Pepper Rainwater has just bought the first real home she' s ever had, and she' s decorating and celebrating Christmas with everything she has. The neighbor' s miniature donkeys and meeting Foxx interrupt her life. Can she turn from all she' d been taught and trust strangers?

A startling discovery after his father' s death forces Foxx Haven to face an unknown past. His life has been a lie. He' s distracted from work for the first time— by his heritage and his new neighbor. Can he fight his attraction to an unbeliever and discover his new life chapter at the same time?

Miniature donkeys and learning about Christ have a profound impact on Pepper. But God has a mighty work to bring her hurting soul and Foxx' s new perspective into alignment. Can hope override hurting souls and enable a happily-ever-after?

What beautiful sentiments, LoRee! Thank YOU for sharing and good luck and God's blessings with your new book!

Hope you enjoyed today's post, Friends and that you'll check back each week for Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight. 

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT

#WednesdayWordswithFriends Welcomes @LoreePeery LoRee Peery!

Good Morning Friends and Welcome!

It's been a crazy, full week for me and the running won't stop until after Memorial Day, therefore I'm only going to give you a brief rundown before letting LoRee take over the blog today.

Sunday I went to my great-niece's birthday/graduation party, Monday went to my granddaughter's awards ceremony, Tuesday granddaughter's graduation ceremony. This morning I'm attending my grandson's awards ceremony. Tomorrow I'm going to the Annual Law Enforcement Memorial Service for Iowa PD to honor Terry then going to my great-niece's graduation that evening. Friday I get a day of rest. Saturday is Bayou Writer's group meeting and my granddaughter's graduation party then on Sunday or Monday I'm going to Sam Rayburn Lake for a few days, driving back on Thursday for grandson's birthday on Friday (27th) then back to the lake until Sunday (30th) after which I'll go to my daughter's house for a few days since they will be out of town. 

Yeah...I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but don't worry, Saturday Spotlight will still go on and this week's guest is Barbara Britton so even if I'm crazy busy, y'all stop by and browse.

Now, onto our guest.... Take it away LoRee....

Worship through Verse

Most of us hear the word worship and think of singing during a church service. Not particularly so. We don’t need a location to seek the Lord. Worship happens anywhere that involves spirit and truth.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks (John 4:23 NIV).

“In spirit,” means submission of the human spirit, according to verse 24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” In order to worship the One True God, a person must have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Once we repent and acknowledge our need for a Savior, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are able to worship in spirit and in truth.

As His children, God is with us in the Spirit no matter what time of day or night we call on Him. By worshiping Him through reading the truth of His Word, the Bible, He works through me. I can’t write a thing that honors Him unless I admit I need His help.

No “me, me, me”

  But Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

    He’s worthy of all …

All my love

  All my energy

    All my worship.

My last visit here on a Wednesday, I talked about a journal of modern-day verse that I penned, “Worship through Verse.” I cherish the pictures of my volume on coffee tables I’ve seen where loved ones worship in their living rooms or at their kitchen tables, using those verses as a devotional to supplement worship.

In other words, we can worship anywhere and at any time, as long as we worship in the Spirit and in truth.

Psalm 95:5-6

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Country Worship

God’s breath on the breeze

Kisses my soul, my spirit

Dirt beneath my feet

Reminds me God made Adam

The heavenly sky above me

Is where Jesus will appear

The songs of earth and sky

Made by God’s holy breath

My soul soars in praise

What an awesome God is He

I thank God I’m a country girl

Where I’m free to sing out loud

Heart and breath on the breeze

Heart and voice free to worship.

Psalm 100:2 reads: Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series launched her releases, and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, was a personal relief. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author. Connect with LoRee: www.loreepeery.com 

https://www.facebook.com/LoReePeery 

Find her publications at Pelican Book Group http://tinyurl.com/kwz9enk 

And Amazon https://www.amazon.com/LoRee-Peery/e/B004UAGL2W/ref 

LoRee's novel, Touches of Time is based on her father's unsolved murder of April, 1975. LoRee fictionalized the story, and solved the cold case on paper. Get your copy HERE and check out LoRee's previous posts HERE.

Wow, what lovely verse you've shared with us, LoRee! We certainly thank you and wish you the best of luck and God's blessings as you continue penning words of praise and worship to our Lord!

Hope you enjoyed the post, friends. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter (which goes out tomorrow, do so because I'm doing something special for my subscribers.

Until next time take care a be blessed!

PamT