New Blog

I want to introduce a new kid on the blogging block. Her name is Michele. I met her at a writer's conference in June, and she is a delightful lady. I know the Lord will bless many through her blog. Please visit her when you can. You will find her at http://atheartlevel.blogspot.com/

Cut The Strings

Where Is God When Your Daughter Leaves Home?
I hoped I would never have to ask that question even though I already knew the answer. He’s right there with you. As a mother of three daughters, I prayed they would stay rooted in their Christian faith throughout their lives. When our youngest daughter chose to turn her back on her faith and walk away from God, my husband and I faced one of the most difficult and painful times of our lives.

Questions plagued us. What had we done wrong? How had we failed our daughter? Had we treated her differently as the youngest? What would become of her as she deliberately pursued a dangerous and addictive lifestyle? Would our prodigal daughter be able to hear God’s voice as she wandered far from the One who loves her with an everlasting love?

I’ve been a Christian for many years and have learned from experience that God is always with us no matter what circumstances we are going through. During these years when my heart was broken time and time again, His Word became my anchor in the raging storm. Spending time in His presence strengthened my faith and brought peace to my heart.

When I asked my questions He reminded me of His unfailing love for our daughter and assured me that He was at work in her life. Even when I pray and see nothing happening or things get worse? I asked. Yes, even then, He whispered.

Several years later, God impressed me to share our story as an encouragement to the many hurting parents who are sitting in our pews. When I mentioned it to my daughter, she told me she felt God urging her to do the same. Together we prayed that God would use this story for His glory. Our prayer is for parents and teens to read this story of forgiveness, grace and redemption together and be strengthened in their faith.

CUT THE STRINGS is the true story of a mother who experienced the agony of watching her daughter walk away from everything right and good, ending up in a life of degradation and shame while each of them lived in their own reality.

It is also the story of a daughter’s desperate search for a life of fulfillment and acceptance who found herself instead chained in a prison of emptiness, addictions and despair.

Best of all, it is a story about GOD, the one who relentlessly pursued a willful young woman, protected her life, and sustained a family through it all.


CUT THE STRINGS is now available at Chapters and at Emmaus Family Books.

Book signings:

Emmaus Family Books, Peterborough, Ontario

Saturday September 11th 1-3 pm

Chapters, Peterborough, Ontario

Saturday October 16th 1-3 pm


Sharon Cavers

Higher and Higher...............

It's Sunday again! This morning with my church group we had a wonderful discussion around trees, plants, and other living things. We talked about how God gives life to even the tiniest seeds, and provides the soil, sun and rain that they require to grow up out of the ground, and bear fruit and flowers.

Bill and Ethel talked about how they had found a quaint motel on their weekend getaway last week. It was located on the water, and on that Sunday morning they had sat looking out over the water, at the horizon in the distance. In the forest that was there, they noticed one tree that stood out from the rest, due to its great height. Ethel remarked how it seemed to be reaching up to the sky, and how all plant life did the same. It's as though they reach up to heaven, knowing that is where their life comes from.

Bill mentioned how some seeds even remain dormant for many years, till just the right time when they spring to life. I then mentioned how I had just seen a portion of a film the day before that explained how in Death Valley, the hottest place on earth, there is still rainfall that causes new life to cover ground that was formerly parched and barren. And in that place, seeds that have been dead for 20 or 30 years will sprout with the rainfall, resulting in beautiful foliage.

We talked about how like dormant, dead seeds our hearts are, until the Holy Spirit comes and waters them, and brings them to life. They are dead in trespasses and sins, unable to grow in grace or holiness, or bear fruit for God. But once Holy Spirit regenerates us, we are just like those plants growing up from seeds, and those mighty oaks that devlop from tiny acorns. Just as they reach up to the sky, toward the sun and the rain, we reach out to our Saviour, our Father, and the Holy Spirit. We are fed and watered, and grow deep roots, being rooted and grounded in love and grace.

The Christian life is one of looking up. We fix our eyes on Jesus, set our minds on things above, and keep looking up for our redemption that is drawing near. Our hearts turn away from sin and self, and toward God, just as plants turn to face the sun, needing its warmth and bright rays to grow. Increasingly, we think less of our own selves, and more of Christ. He has become to us "wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30b) We have been blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." (Eph. 1:3) Knowing that we are citizens of Heaven, and that we are strangers, aliens here on earth, we realize more and more that our lives here are but for an instant, compared to the eternity we will spend in Glory.

Nature displays God's amazing creativity, and we can draw many lessons from the wide variety of species with whom we co-exist. I never grow weary of meditating on God's providential care for all of His creation, and how He is made known through it to all of mankind. May He speak to you through His handiwork today!

God's Next Move (?)

Today I spent a couple of hours at Value Village. It's like a "Goodwill" Store, and sells every kind of second hand clothing and household items that you could imagine. It's not hard to lose total track of time there, as you wander from aisle to aisle, seeking those bargain prices. My friend Deb calls it being "sucked into the Value Village Vortex." (She is a fellow VV Boutique Junkie.)

As I usually do when I am in there, I perused the used books for a while. One that I particularly noticed was titled "The Next Move of God." It seemed a fairly presumptuous title to me. Kind of sounded as if the author imagined that he had an inside scoop on what God might be up to next. To be fair, I should have at least leafed through it before making any judgements regarding its content. But we do often hear writers and preachers speak of God's "next" or "new" move. And today, after seeing that book title, I began to think about the idea that God was making certain "moves", new or otherwise.

Hasn't God always been "moving", from the beginning, from the time He created the heavens and the earth, and His Spirit "was moving over the surface of the waters?" (Genesis 1:2) He is continually working out His plans and purposes, dealing with mankind in judgement, or mercy, always according to His holy, all wise nature. Always moving, always sovereignly in charge, He never slumbers or sleeps.

Does He ever do a "new" thing? I suppose He does things that we haven't personally seen or experienced before. But I wonder, is it just our modern day thirst for something "new and improved" that makes us think that God is always planning some new, amazing "thing" that He has never done before? Preachers, writers, speakers are often predicting the next thing He might do, or explaining what He is currently doing. But is He really doing anything "new"? Does He need to? What He has been doing, all along, has been effective, more effective than we will know in this life. Maybe the difference is that, from time to time, people are simply responding to Him in a greater way.

We seem to love change. We love to label "movements", even within the Church: the Charismatic movement, the Shepherding movement, the House Church movement...the list goes on. Certainly God may be involved in these things, but isn't He simply acting according the continuum of the plans He has made from eternity? He calls, He saves, He leads, He enables. He stirs our hearts to love Him, and gives us a vision of His own heart. He is the Maestro, the Master Planner, our Great Teacher, wooing us along, bending our will to His own. Is He on the move? Always. Can we predict what He might do next? I think for the most part, He chooses to reveal just enough to us to allow us to take that one next step, leaving the results up to Him.

My hope and prayer is that I will stay close enough to hear His whispers, follow His leading, and stay in step with what He might be doing in the world around me. I'm so thankful that even when we are lagging behind, He will continue to work, to move in our hearts, completing that good work that He started.