Devotions for the Hungry Heart: Chasing Jesus Six Days from Sunday by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, © 2018

Look what's arrived at the Lane Hill House mailbox!! All ready for your 2018 devotional too! Shellie Rushing Tomlinson's "Devotions for the Hungry Heart."

Don't miss out on day one! Ready for delivery now at your favorite bookseller!

Shellie has even added in a dozen recipes; a snippet in case you missed her cookbook, "Hungry Is a Mighty Fine Sauce." This is available for purchase too! So, run right down and pick up both of them ~ or from your easy chair, order online, if you don't have a local bookstore. Either way, you will have shared readings and enJ*O*Yment before you.

He satisfies the thirsty

and fills the hungry

with good things.

Psalm 107:9

Begin your new year with Shellie's new storytelling devotional. You can read straight through for each new day (there is a ribbon bookmark to keep your place), or jump around and hope you don't miss one! In the back are Scripture references and page to go to read a corresponding sharing. This little hardcover book will be handy to have nearby.

Here are a couple posts so you get an idea of what's inside!

~*~

WEEK ONE

THURSDAY

A Hungry Heart Is Celebrating

I see hearts all around me. I've seen them in big puffy, white clouds, and I've seen them in the knots of old oak trees. I've seen them drawn into the scales of a fish and outlined on the back of an insect. I can trace this fascination to the earliest days of writing a book called Heart Wide Open, and I've never gotten over it, and I'm okay with that. I hope I never do.
   I once mentioned this heart thing to my oldest grandson. He was six at the time. We were walking across a parking lot holding hands when I pulled him to a stop and showed him a heart formed from the mortar of the pavement at our feet. "God shows me those," I told Grant. "He knows I like to see them, so He shows them to me. It's like a little note from heaven right in the middle of the day. When I see it, I think about how much God loves us, and I have a little party in my own heart."
   My next trip to Houston to see the "Grand Boys of Texas" featured a sweet surprise. I learned that Grant Thomas had become a heart seeker in his own right. And he was good at it! Grant showed me all kinds of hearts around his house, and his mommy said he'd been showing her hearts all around Humble. Of course, the hearts have been there all the time. Grant is just now seeing them because he's just now looking for them and expecting to find them.
   While I am unapologetically guilty when it comes to over-sharing grandchildren stories, I offer this tale to share a deeper truth I've discovered about pursuing God. If we walk in this world demanding special visions or revelations from God that He might prove His existence to us, we seldom find the evidence of God we're after. However, if we abandon such egocentric demands and focus instead on looking for God and celebrating Him in our unspectacular everyday lives, we find that He is all around us and He has been here all the time.

"[God] made from one man every nation

of mankind ... that they would seek God, if perhaps

they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is

not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and

move and exist, as even some of your own poets

have said, 'For we also are His children.'"

ACTS 17:26–28

~*~

WEEK TWO

MONDAY

A Hungry Heart Is Surrendered

We have a lovely lakeside walking trail here in my hometown. I particularly enjoy walking it in the late evenings, as the natural light of day is closing and the ornamental streetlamps begin to glow. Not long ago, I was walking along this path when the message of a small sign posted beside the trail arrested my thoughts, WALK AT YOUR OWN RISK.
   I knew the purpose behind the sign was to ward off potential personal injury claims, but as the caution began looping in my mind, my thoughts turned to their application for our Christian walk.
   I took a picture of the sign that day to remind myself, and anyone else who chooses to listen, that to follow Christ is not merely to risk our lives; it is to lose them. So I've been thinking: perhaps we should add a similar caution to our church signs. Something like, "FOLLOW JESUS AT YOUR OWN RISK. DETAILS INSIDE." You might say, "But Shellie, that kind of message isn't exactly a big draw." I would agree, at least not to those interested in adding Jesus to their lives instead of surrendering all they are to all He is.
   On the other hand, those who truly laid down their lives at the foot of the cross would actually find them! And that means our churches wouldn't be full of people saddle sore from riding the fence and road weary from wondering why their Christian experience falls so short of what the church has advertised, when walking through life with Jesus Christ is anything but boring.
   When we die daily to walk with the God-man, we soon discover that His presence is worth every single step. How's that for a sign worth posting?

"Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;

but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

MATTHEW 16:25

~*~

As you can tell, I enJ*O*Y anything Shellie. I listen to her hour Monday radio program, where she sometimes has a studio guest, and during the second segment she invites an author to share their book over an on-air phone call. I was introduced to Shellie through her book and study, Heart Wide Open, that our Thursday morning Bible study did together.

Shellie shares real and loves the Lord. Join in this 20-week Devotions for the Hungry Heart. You will be glad you did! Fill up the longing He has placed there for more of Him. Jesus fills the longing heart. Let's get started!

I'm excited about coming alongside you and sharing six traits that I've discovered over the years that stir my appetite for a God-sized feast. ~ Shellie



***Thank you, Shellie, for your sharings! This review was written in my own words. No other compensation was received.***