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reallifeChristianity
The Story of Jesus
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The Story of Jesus - Given to us by the Writers of Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Told one short story at a time by Alan Kelly.
reallifeChristianity
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Alan Kelly: Posted on Monday, May 30, 2011 9:28 AM
Many of you have asked me when I am going to write my next book and I have had quite a few different responses to that question. Who knows maybe someday I will but the truth is that for right now the message of this book is still what burns deep inside of me. I don’t know if it is the most well written book in the world and I know it has at least one typo (if there are more don’t tell me, ignorance is bliss), but it has the message I want everyone to hear. I want everyone in the world to read this book. I wrote “real life Christianity” so it could be a tool for you and everyone else to use to impact your life and your world. Over the course of time that it has been out I have discovered that this tool has several purposes. So I thought I would share those with you today. 1) It is for you. To increase your knowledge and help you understand the Bible and how to apply the Biblical principles to your life. It does not in any way replace the Bible but hopefully it leads you to the Bible and brings some understanding of how it all fits together. To show you that when you choose to live in obedience to God’s word, you put yourself in a position to live under God’s blessing in every part of your life. Then as you get life figured out and learn to make good choices, God can use you to impact the world around you. I also want you to be able to keep this book and read it through several times, highlight it, and then keep it as a reference to refer back to when you have questions. 2) Use it to share with your friends and family. Once we have accepted Jesus, the one thing we want more than anything else is for those closest to us to understand what we have and to accept it too. This book lays it all out for us in a very simple and easy to read format that everyone can understand. We have already seen some success in this area. When the mother of someone we know read the chapter about how sin has affected our lives and how we have been left empty and searching, she said, “I didn’t realize that was how everyone felt, I thought it was just me!” What an eye opening experience that was for her. Its not that everyone is just going to read this book and just accept it all immediately, but who knows, they might. At the very least though, it is another seed that is planted in their life and at the right time it will all come to fruition. 3) Give it to everyone you come in contact with. Keep some on hand to give away to people you talk to. We have heard a lot of talk about the rapture lately. We might not know when it is going to happen but it really is going to happen and for that very reason everyone needs to read this book. It not only lays out our Christian beliefs, it leads everyone who reads it to the plan of salvation. I have tried to make sure everyone I know gets a copy. It would be great if they would just read it when I give it to them, accept Jesus, have their life changed, and then be ready when that rapture comes. But maybe it will be sometime down the road when they pick it up and read it and then are open to accept Jesus. Or just maybe, they will be one of the many who are left behind when the rapture takes place and they would then open it up and read it to try and find out what just happened and would accept Jesus at that time. One lady, who considers herself an agnostic (whatever that is) read my book and thoroughly enjoyed it. She said it opened her eyes to things she had never thought of before and as she read it, she left little sticky notes all through the book. She hasn’t accepted Jesus yet, at least not that I know of, but it did plant that seed in her life and at some point in the future I know she will. If you have success stories of your own from sharing this book with others, then share those with all of us. They are great to hear and very encouraging. If you haven’t read “real life Christianity” yet, take the time right now to get your hands on a copy and read it. It is easy to read and understand and it doesn’t take very long to read it. My son-in-law read it in about 2 hours! It would probably take me more like 5 or 6. Not that I would normally sit down and read that much all in one day but I could if I wanted. I think if I took 30 minutes a day or so I bet I could read it in a week. Take the time now to read “real life Christianity” and then join me to use this book to help change our world. Please share, forward, or e-mail this message to all of your friends and everyone you know. Alan Kelly Real Life Christianity Galatians 6:9 |
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Alan Kelly: Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010 12:28 PM
A few days ago I got an e-mail from my marketing expert, Jim Miller, at Tate Publishing. I thought I would share part of it with you and ask all of you who have read my book to help me out doing what he suggested on Amazon.com. It will only take you a few minutes but I think it could have a huge impact. For those who haven’t read my book yet, you can preview the first 28 pages of the book there and the last few as well. After that, I’m sure you will want to purchase it while your there. You can get it as Kindle download too. Here is what Mr Miller had to say: "This month, I’ve got two tips, one for retail, one for niche. You’ve probably heard me say that nearly 70% of books are sold online. And who do you suppose gets the majority of that business? If you said Amazon, you get the prize. If you’ve ever been to Amazon.com, you know that they sell everything. They started with books, but they sell everything that can possibly be sold. How in the world do you make your book stand out among the millions of products they have available? Fortunately, Amazon has some handy tools that any enterprising author can use to increase the impulse buys that Amazon is so good at promoting. There are two in particular that will help people looking for books like yours to find yours: customer reviews and tags. Ask everyone you know who has read the book to go to Amazon.com and do these things. All they need is a user account with Amazon, and they can write a customer review of your book. In describing the book, they will naturally use key words that Amazon and other search engines will then associate with your book. You can make sure they naturally use them by identifying some key words and asking them to use those words in their review if they see fit. You’re not writing the review for them, but you’re helping them use key words. Where do you get those key words?
This is the best part. The key words you give people to use in their reviews can come from the tags of other books that are similar to yours. Tags are words that customers associate with your book. Anyone who is logged in can add one and/or “vote” for an existing one. Look up the books from 2 or 3 authors whose books are like yours and see what tags they have associated with them. (Once you get to the book page, scroll down until you see the section called “Tags Associated with This Book.” It’s below all the reviews.)
In addition to using them for reviews, you can ask people to add and vote for these key words as tags on your book. I recently looked up the most commonly used tag on a popular fantasy novel. It was “epic fantasy” with just 114 votes. Here’s the key question: do you have more than 114 friends willing to tag your book with the most commonly used tag for books similar to yours? If so, then Amazon’s computers will see your book as more strongly associated with that term than that popular book you just looked up. How does this matter? Initially, it doesn’t make a huge difference. But have you ever logged in to Amazon.com and seen a welcome screen? It will say, “Based on your recent searches, you might like these items”, and it lists various products Amazon has on their site. How does it make these associations? By comparing the tags on the things you’ve looked at to the tags on other things. The more closely the tags on your book resemble the books you looked up, the more likely your book will show up when people who bought that book (or the movie based on it, or the coffee mug with main character’s face on it or the T-shirt) log in to Amazon. Now people who are VERY interested in your genre will start seeing your book every time they come to Amazon. Then those people will start buying your book through Amazon. That’s when another nice little bit of magic happens. When people who have bought these other books also buy yours, your book will show up on those pages in the list titled “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”. Your name will also show up in the lists called “Customers Also Bought Items By” and “What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item”. At first it won’t be at the top of the list and people may have to click a link to find it, but the more people buy your book this way, the more likely it is to rise to the top. The best part about this is that it doesn’t cost anyone a dime. You can open an account with Amazon without buying anything. Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com have similar features on their sites, so you might be able to do the same things there. I haven’t done the research on them, so I don’t have any further details. You can at least have people write reviews there." So how does that sound? Can you do that for me? Here are some of the tag words I've seen: Christian, Christianity, Christian Living, gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, God, life-changing, applied theology. I'll be watching for your reviews (there should be several hundred), votes on tag words, and creative new ones. As always, I appreciate all your help. |
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Alan Kelly: Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2010 1:04 PM
Janice and I have started working on our new book. We are thinking about calling it "real life Christian Marriage". Here is the first page of the first chapter. Remember this is a very early rough draft. I'm sure many changes will be made before it is finally published but you'll get the idea. Let me know what you think. Does it make you want to keep reading? Chapter 1 Falling in Love Falling in love is very exciting. Nothing in the world matches the experience of two people meeting, feeling an attraction for each other, and then deciding to pursue a relationship together. That process is totally unique and is different in every circumstance. It could take place in an instant; it could take place over the course of several hours or days. It could also take months or even years. There are as many different experiences as there are couples in the world. That is part of the excitement. Your experience as a couple meeting and falling in love is totally unique to you. Nobody else did it quite like you did or is doing it quite like you are doing it. This falling in love experience is addicting. It’s intoxicating. It becomes an obsession. It consumes our thoughts. We hate the thought of being apart from each other and when we are forced to for whatever reason, we are constantly on the phone, or texting, or on Facebook, or however it is we stay in touch and we can’t wait to get back together again. When we’re in love, we will do whatever it takes to be together. We will even do things we wouldn’t normally do just so we can be with each other. Guys will go to the mall and actually enjoy shopping and sit there and hold a girl’s purse while she tries things on. He will go for walks on the beach, walks in the woods, and walks around town. He’ll sit and watch girl movies and might even go to the ballet, or a play, or to the symphony. Girls are the same; they’ll go fishing, and camping. They’ll go to action movies, to ball games, or go to the races. They might even sit and watch football on TV. During all this time together, couples are beginning to develop something that is going to be very important to their relationship as time passes. It’s called intimacy. In a truly intimate relationship we are free to allow someone else to get to know us for exactly who we are and have faith that we are still going to be liked and even loved anyway. In this early stage of our relationship we don’t necessarily allow everything about us to be known all at once, but we do begin to reveal ourselves little by little over the course of time. Sometimes we let our partner in on things about us on purpose, other times we get caught in embarrassing situations that let them get a glimpse of who we really are when no one is looking. We try not to let everything out about us and each thing that is revealed is kind of a test to see if our partner is still going to except us for who we are or reject us when they find out what we are really like. We are always amazed when we have found someone who really does like us and accepts us just the way we are. We will still be cautious with how much we disclose about ourselves and it will take many years and many circumstances for us to reveal our true character. |
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Alan Kelly: Posted on Monday, November 08, 2010 4:30 PM
Did you all enjoy church yesterday? I sure did. If any of you have not made the decision to make church a part of your life, you are really missing out. It is part of God’s plan to help us survive in this world. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:24, 25 (NLT) In the world we live in, we are pretty much under the constant bombardment of bad news and negativity. Everywhere we go we are faced with testing and the temptation to get involved with things we shouldn’t. Why not make up your mind to at least once a week, go somewhere with a positive and encouraging atmosphere to help us counter all that negativity we face the rest of the time. If you are not part of a church body then go now and find one that fits you. Look for one where the music is exciting and full of energy. And one where the preaching is also exciting and full of energy. What makes it exciting is that it takes the Word of God and explains how it applies to your everyday real life. If it is dry and dead and feels religious, don’t bother, you probably won’t find God there anyway. God is not into religion, he is into you. And he wants to be part of your life and to make your life better than you could possibly imagine. When you go to church you should find out how to make the changes that will make your life better. Better at marriage, better at raising your kids, better at work, better at play, just better at life. That is what serving God and being part of a church family is really all about. Yesterday morning out pastor taught us about "Overcoming a Spirit of Infirmity". Last night his message was “Just Say No to Discouragement”. Both very uplifting and encouraging messages that tell me that God wants nothing but the best for my life and nothing but the best for your life too. And the music was the same, high energy and very uplifting and encouraging. See what you’re missing. Church is very fun! |
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Alan Kelly: Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 3:34 PM
I've noticed quite a few people have been reading my blog posts. I really appreciate that. Now what I am waiting for is for someone to comment on them. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your opinions. Let me know when I'm right on things but for sure let me know when I'm off base too. I know when you've read my posts you have had thoughts and opinions. I would love to hear them and so would everyone else. Let's get some good conversations going. Remember when you post on a blog you don't have to use your real name. Make something up, no one will ever know who you are and you can post whatever you want. That is part of what gives blogs so much power, the anonymity gives people a lot of freedom. I would love to have questions too. I know there are things you wonder about. Things about religion, politics, Christianity, church, marriage, family, why people believe the things they do. I know a few things, and I know some places to look and people to ask for answers. Or I could just make up an answer. I could ask Janice. Or Jamie, he knows everything. . |
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Posted on Monday, November 01, 2010 4:03 PM
It’s a good thing our self esteem and sense of well being is not wrapped up in the success of our local sports teams. That plus all the rain we've had lately would make this a pretty depressing place. Then if you add in our local or even national politics, oh my goodness, we don’t even want to go there. The exciting thing is, we have God on our side and no matter what else is going on, that makes life pretty awesome. The Bible says, “If God is for us then who can be against us?” The answer to that is: nothing and nobody. No matter what the circumstances of life say. Did you know circumstances lie? They say, “Life is hard,” “I’m not feeling well,” “I’m depressed,” “I can’t afford it.” “Nobody cares,” “I’m in this alone.” All lies, every one of these plus the thousands of others you hear every day. All lies. Don’t you realize God is on your side? Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” In another place he said, “Remember, I will be with always, even until the end of the world.” So don’t forget it. Don’t let yourself get down. Talk to those circumstances; tell them what liars they are. Then get into God’s word and find out who you really are and what great things God has in mind for you. Here’s what God thinks about you: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) |
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