NSMinistries Faith Hope Love Honor Kinship

Home

• I am a Writer

  As a teenager I once wrote an article to 73 Magazine an Amateur Radio Magazine and a short time later I received a rejection letter (the first of many). While I was discouraged the desire to be a writer never left me yet for many years it lie locked away deep in my heart. Then many, many years later I found myself writing a very short story about a common house fly I affectionately name Sigmond. And the “writer seed” germinated once again. The idea for Sigmond was born one day at work when a fly found his way into my cup of coffee. My immediate response was to dump my coffee out and stomp on the devil who ruined a good cup of vending machine coffee (oops, sorry for lying about the coffee please remove the word good). So I picked up the cup and headed for the office door then I noticed the fly desperately trying to escape and suddenly I found myself having a compassion attack. Walking back into my office I carefully sat the cup down grabbed a pencil placed it in the coffee under the pesky fly and lifted it out of the “valley of the shadow of death” and carefully sat it down. Then several minutes later “Sigmond” flew off in search of another cup of coffee! Later my God given imagination my brief encounter with Sigmond in a new direction, a direction that would change my life’s journey. And I wrote a short story was about Sigmond flying through an open window at night and when sensing danger because of a house fire pestered the sleeping father of the home until he woke up so he could get his family to safety. The story ended with Sigmond going in search of another family to save. Which he did. And my desire to be a writer was resurrected. After writing the Sigmond stories I tried to get them published and after several rejection letters I decided to look for an agent. I quickly discovered agents come with a cost and because of financial limitations that was out. However, my good friend and encourager Sue White went to work and several days later another co-worker Dana Tatman presented me with five one-hundred dollar bills so I could hire an agent. Sue and Dana gave me the faith to believe in myself as a writer even though they were the only two. But as fate would have it the rejection letters kept coming. Then in 2000 the Holy Spirit hovered over my chaotic writing career and over the internet I met a woman named Denise Hood Owner of the Website Wingonaprayer.net and my writing career had a growth spurt. And Denise published for me a book titled “Journey Verses: the Collection” and she even had the famous artist Danny Hahlblohm do the cover art for me. And I thought I died and went to heaven! But my excitement was short-lived and Denise was gone and with her went my writing career.

• Psalm 107: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so...

    Part One… God’s Love Endures Forever Written by Gary Piper Note… One of the ways I pass the time away when sitting in my van waiting for someone is to read the bible I keep in my van. One day while waiting for my daughter-in-law Patty to come out of her workplace I was reading in the book of Psalms and began reading Psalms 107 and almost immediately its words pulled me into them and dared me to go deeper into them.     Psalms 107:1-3… “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” Note… What you are about to read is a written record of my inner struggle with the process of enduring therefore if it seems as if I seem to be wandering from one point to another please forgive me and “endure with me to the end. One of the first words that “grabs” me and will not let go is the word ENDURES. Many times while in a study group or in my writings, I will express my extreme dislike for the word. I attribute my dislike for it not only to impatience but for my desire to live a trouble free life. But guess what? Just as Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” there’s no such thing as a trouble free life. (John 16:33 ESV) And if Jesus’ words aren’t enough Peter adds his own experience. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14 ESV) However, having said when you sandwich it between “steadfast love ____ forever” the Psalmist is taking the word ENDURES to a different level because I understand it to be saying it is no longer me who is enduring but God out of his unconditional love for me endures all those time when I dishonor him through my inclination to separate myself from him. What the Psalmist is doing for me is to powerfully remind me that when “tribulation” and “fiery trials” rise up and envelope me it only makes things worse when I think I need to endure God when in actuality God is enduring me. Please notice that neither Jesus nor Peter indicate that God is the author of our “tribulation” and “fiery trials” what they are saying is those things are a natural aspect of not only living as Jesus lived but just plain old living as well. “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45 ESV) While God is not the author of “tribulation” and “fiery trials” when we endure God there is a strong possibility they will follow. We can go to the garden the night of Jesus’ arrest to see one possibility. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42 ESV) Yet because Jesus did endure God accepting the stuff that came with it three days later Jesus (and us) discovered the “fruit” of his enduring. However, it needs to be pointed out that enduring God does not always lead us into “the valley of the shadow of death” in fact perhaps it will take us out to “a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”