The New Covenant

Monday 5 December continued

In Luke 16:16 Jesus said: “The law and the prophets were until John.”

The Commentary says that “the ministry of John the Baptist signalled the great turning point in redemptive history.”  There are those who would base Christianity on the law and say that the keeping of the law, especially the Sabbath, is a requirement for salvation.  But Jesus repudiates this, as does Paul in all his epistles, in which he distinguishes between law and grace.

See Hebrews 8:13 especially in which Pauls says: “In that He says, ‘A new covenant’. He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

In 70AD when the temple was destroyed the old covenant did, in fact, vanish away. “He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” (Heb. 10:9)

Also, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” (v16)

epublishing consortium

Monday 5 December 2011 continued

Doing some more research on the Internet I found another promotion website: http://epublishingconsortium.com

I posted my book details and links there. Every little helps.

Solar Panel Panic!

Monday 05 December 2011

I recently had 12 Solar Panels installed on my roof.  I had planned to have them installed in February 2012 but the government decided to reduce the Feed in Tariff by 50% for installations registered after 12^th December 2011. So, a big panic in the Solar industry to get as many installations done as soon as possible before the deadline.

I sent off my registration documents by recorded delivery to EDF, my electricity supplier, but due to a lot of activity surrounding the erection of a new conservatory being done at the same time, I lost the recorded delivery receipt. More panic!

Now I have to phone EDF to see if they have received my application. I am not looking forward to it because I suspect it may be time-consuming and frustrating, as they are probably being inundated with hundreds of calls.

As I suspected I spent ages waiting on the phone to EDF. When they finally answered there was no trace of my application! More panic!

I had planned to send it again by special delivery but the man at the other end of the phone gave me an email address to send it to, so I scanned all the documents and sent them by email only to discover that I had missed one! More panic!

I scanned it and added it and sent it again. I hope I haven’t confused the issue and that my registration will go through OK! More panic at the thought that I have messed it up!

Temporary things

Sunday 04 December 2011 continued

Jesus says: “...whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

The Commentary says: “In contrast to the cares of the rich young ruler (18:22) Jesus does not say a disciple should sell all his possessions and give everything away. “

I have always wondered about this. If I was to sell all my possessions and give everything away then I would become one of the poor and an object requiring charity.

The Commentary continues: “His thought probably is that of a continual abandonment of things, yielding up the right of ownership or the desire to cling to things, rather than outright disposal of them. The disciple of Jesus may be given the use of things in trust, as a stewardship, but they are no longer his or her own.”

I am reminded of this Scripture: “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18)

AuthorsDen

Sunday 04 December 2011 continued

I spent a couple of hours searching the Internet for marketing ideas.

I found a link to a website called Authors Den which can be found at:

http://www.authorsden.com

This site has over 1 Million visitors a month of both readers and authors.

I created an author page on it, which you can see here:

http://www.authorsden.com/alanmoreton

Mrs. Tortoise cropped a picture of me and I uploaded it to Authors Den.

And I also added it to my LibraryThing Author page, which you can see here:

http://www.librarything.com/author/moretonmralan

I let some of my contacts on LibraryThing know about my picture on my author page

as they have not seen my image before. One said that I look just like an author!

I have now added it to my About the Author page on my website at:

www.the-tortoise.com

Two other ideas I got about marketing were:

1.      To create a free PDF with sample chapters from my books.

This is now available on my About the Author page at:

www.the-tortoise.com

2.      To write articles on writing, promotion publishing, etc.

I have decided not to implement this as I prefer to write fiction and memoir.

It's electrifying!

Sunday 04 December 2011 continued.

We have recently had a Conservatory built on the side of our house and the electrician came to fit the lights.

I was hoping for a nice, quiet, peaceful Sunday, but it was the only day he could come, but I knew I would regret it. Mrs. Tortoise laid into him as soon as he arrived about the position of the wiring for the lights, which was not symmetrically placed.

After about 30 minutes of wrangling I said we would mark out the positions of the lights and Mrs. Tortoise measured the distances between them to arrange them symmetrically.

The electrician had to cut new positions into the plaster and plasterboard to reroute the wiring.

If the positions had been properly measured out in the first instance he would not have needed to do it a second time.

After a stressful few hours with Mrs. Tortoise talking non-stop and in the electrician’s face the whole time, our Conservatory is now electrified and the lights look very attractive. They exude a warm glow, which Mrs. Tortoise said they would.

I had chosen some long, stainless steel encased lights, like lanterns, but Mrs. Tortoise put her little foot down and I had to return them and buy the lights of her choice, which are round and warm and glow like the sun. I have to admit that her choice was better than mine!

There's a moose aloose aboot this hoose!

Sunday 04 December 2011

I woke with a start in the night as Mrs. Tortoise walked into the bed post and cried out. She had been downstairs and had seen another mouse in the lounge. The last one was a month ago and we thought it had been a stray mouse that had been disturbed when we knocked down our outside shed in preparation for our new Conservatory we are having built.

She set the traps for it. I don’t know how they are getting in to the house as we have lived here for eight years and have never had a mouse problem before.

Mrs. Tortoise is convinced a colony have moved in and have set up a permanent home under the Welsh dresser!

Tales of The Tortoise

Every Wednesday and Sunday I plan to post Tales of The Tortoise, which will be an edited version of my daily diary detailing the trials and tribulations and triumphs of The Tortoise.

I hope you will follow The Tortoise and provide some comment and feedback.

Follow The Tortoise!

Slow and steady often wins the race! I have waited util my 65th year to publish my books because I didn't want to be an impoverished author. It always seemed to me that feeding my wife and children was a priority although I have always been in love with all things literary. Now that I am retired and have written five novels and a memoir, I am devoting all my spare time to writing and publishing my books.
I feel a great sense of satisfaction that I put my family above my own selfish desires but now that I have fulfilled my obligations to my family I can at last devote myself to the to publishing and marketing my books without feeling that I am depriving my family of the basic necessities and some of the luxuries of life!