Holy people, that's what we are. It's important to be clear about this word 'holy', because it's often misunderstood. It doesn't mean perfect, it doesn't mean sinless and it doesn't mean better than everyone else. It means 'set apart', people who were chosen and invited to be part of God's family. Not because of anything special they'd done to earn it, but because God loved them and wanted them. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're holy and set apart too. He loves you and wants you in His family. It's a wonderful privilege, but it's not exclusive, and open to all. The only requirement for joining, the only way to be holy, is to say yes to God through Jesus.
Miscellaneous Musings
Here you’ll find posts on all sorts of topics that don’t obviously fit into any of my main categories. Come and explore.
Philippians: Context and Background
I’m writing about Philippians to help people understand the context of its famous verses and to discover some of its less well-known treasures. There's a lot of Philippians that's comparatively unfamiliar, lots of teaching that doesn't work quite so well on a fridge magnet or card but which is still hugely helpful to us in our walk with Jesus. Let's walk some of those less-trodden paths together, you and me.
Philippians
A quick announcement to tell you about a new devotional series coming soon on the Book of Philippians. Join me soon for a journey through this fantastic book.
Sequel Dreams
In November 2019, returning home from the launch event for my first book, I had the feeling that life would never be the same again. Three years on, here are some reflections on how that has, and has not, proved true.
Sequel Dreams
In November 2019, returning home from the launch event for my first book, I had the feeling that life would never be the same again. Three years on, here are some reflections on how that has, and has not, proved true.
That launch event for the Call of the Mountain, my first book to get published, was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was the culmination of half a lifetime of working towards my dream of becoming a published author. I’m even more proud now to be the author of three published books, the Call of the Mountain, Rite of Passage and Power Unimaginable combining to form the Oron Amular trilogy. It’s wonderful to have them out there, to have had so many positive reviews and to know that they’ve been enjoyed by hundreds of people. I’ve had a lot of good…
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Resilience
Resilience was my word of the year for 2022. Little did I know, when I chose it just before Christmas last year, how apt and timely it would prove to be. 2022 was a year in which we all needed to be resilient. It was challenging in so many ways. Here's what I've learnt about resilience over the last year...
Being There When We’re Needed
Let’s be there for our friends. Friendships can only grow when we invest time. And people will only ask for help if they feel confident that we will listen and make time for them. We can all get better at this. And while none of us can master this overnight, we can all start making little adjustments, building better habits and recalibrating our mindset on all of this. Let's be there for each other when we need it.
How to Write a Book (Part 3)
Third in a three-part series: How to Write a Book. Peek behind the curtain with me as I reveal some author secrets.
This post is the third and final part in a short series about how I write my books. I covered inspiration and imagineering in part 1, and planning and writing in part 2. Now, in part 3, I will conclude by talking about editing, re-writing and supporting material. I hope you enjoy it.
5) Editing
If you manage to complete a whole first draft, no matter how long it takes, then you can progress to the editing stage. Don’t be tempted to try and do this earlier, while you’re still writing. Premature editing kills books. Get your whole book written, and then edit it. This is when you put aside the passionate imaginative side of yourself and allow the hard-headed critic to come to the fore. Now that you’re no longer in the throes of prose, you can go back and critique it. It’s still creative, but it’s…
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How to Write a Book (Part 2)
Second in a three-part series: How to Write a Book. Peek behind the curtain with me as I reveal some author secrets.
This post is the second in a short series about how to write a book – or at least, how I write books. In part 1, I discussed inspiration and imagineering. Now I pick up with the planning and writing stages. I hope you enjoy it.
3) Planning
You can’t imagineer forever. After a while imagineering starts to mutate into procrastination, and before I get to that point, I must transition into planning mode. This is where I work things out and start to impose some order and structure onto my ideas. I don’t plan out every single detail – that would be both tedious and impractical – but I do need to pin down the basic structure, timeline and main character arcs.
Everyone knows a story has a beginning, a middle and an end, but that’s only the basic scaffolding. How do I transition from one to the…
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How to Write a Book (Part 1)
First in a three-part series: How to Write a Book. Peek behind the curtain with me as I reveal some author secrets.
When people find out I’ve written a book, they usually have lots of questions. How did you do that? Where do you start? How does it all come together? To those who struggle with writing, the idea of writing a book always seems miraculous. It’s the same for me when I think of how people fix car engines, paint huge canvasses or produce amazing music. What’s incredible for some comes naturally to others.
When I published my books, I got a lot of those same questions, and more. Now, having published three books and starting to write more, those questions are more relevant than ever. For those who are curious about how an author goes about the process, let me give you a peek behind the curtain. I’ll be revealing a few secrets in a short series of posts. Welcome to Author Secrets.
First off, I’ll be tackling how to…
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What have we learnt that we mustn’t waste?
What have we learnt that we mustn't waste? Reflecting on two years of the pandemic.
MJH Musings 