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Children of God:                   Conformed to the Life-Giving Cross  in Joy and Hope in Eternal Life

Book Three of 'He Heals the Broken Hearted' Trilogy

God has enabled Marina to move back to Scotland, and though He has provided a flat by the sea, He is still enabling her to complete promised icons, and continue with on-line work with women.  Yet He continues to encourage her to face and overcome her fears, in order to write.  

Come and walk with Marina on this journey of greater purification and renewed commitment to the Cross, through a purifying Heart and renewed mind.  Find your new Life, hidden in the surrender of your human self-protection - trusting in God to provide in all things.


'So many of us bear the sins of those who sinned against us. These can descend into darkness and dictate our lives with bitterness and fear. The answer, as Marina demonstrates, is to let go of our own inadequate methods of control so that Christ can "burrow" deep into our despair to create a place of springs where before we had only a valley of tears (Ps. 84:6).' Isobel North

what people say

Isobel North 





EXPLORE Book 3 of He Heals the Broken Hearted Trilogy

Children Of God: Conformed to the Life-Giving Cross in Joy and Hope in Eternal Life

This Book 3 draws us into the continuing story of God's work in 'Healing a Broken Heart'.

We are made aware of time ( diary dates and events), and prayers, poetry and conversations with God (journal entries). Also Marina includes reflections on how God has brought her to the readiness she is now aware of; and invites the Reader - in the present- to reflect on their own responses and reactions to the dilemma's she faces.

Marina is kept largely in solitude in the sea-side flat despite her desire for company but the morning waves, and daily input of birds blesses and feeds her.  She increasingly focusses on the Writing and on line-work building and encouraging faith and new awareness of the Truth of God’s Kingdom and Eternal Life. 

A year on He warns one Sunday, ‘I’m going to give you a New Heart’. And this happens on the way to church, through release of some destructive bitterness, and repentance that the pain behind this had not been brought to Him. A changed heart was the result. She was willingly and lovingly  re-committing whole-heartedly to the Body of Christ. After Liturgy, on her regular visit to her elderly friend, she found herself offering to move into the friend’s house to be her companion. Marina’s Spiritual Father gave them a blessing after 8 days trial. 

Truly I had a new heart. I was filled with tenderness and compassion; kindness and desire to Love her in Christ, poured out of me. I knew I needed to love her and pray for her to be prepared for death. God provided for her cry of the heart sooner than we anticipated. One Sunday (2 weeks before Christmas) she had 3 falls between 3pm and 8 pm leading to her admittance to hospital, eventually as an emergency. They found a severe brain haemorrhage because of which they expected she would die in 24 hours.

But God wanted her to die at peace, and through healing prayer, she was able to go through a week of reconciliation with family via WhatsApp audio messages and video call, and in-person visits from members of her church family. And yes she suffered trials on ‘end of life care’ but she never lost ‘her mind’ or her courage in Christ – she  simply turned more and more to His Presence and Trust in His Kingdom, and surrendered to the care of the nurses..

She died after I returned to her after church on the following Sunday. She was unutterably at peace- having had a peaceful night, and died in a peaceful sleep as if she had simply passed through a door that was open to her. A tiny breath was all I heard…. like a door closing quietly.’

Find how God provides for Marina in this bereavement and imminent homelessness....and see Him enabling the completion of not one book, but three, and providing her with Grace and courage to move for a second time to a flat of His choice. This book was completed on the morning of Resurrection, on Easter Sunday.  Each day a Cross and Resurrection, through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Characters

*        God as always is a Key 'Figure' - without beginning or end - undescribable - and uncontainable - 'yet everywhere Present and Filling all things'.  Yet by His Energies, His Word, His Purposes - (to Redeem our souls) - always findable to those who 'knock, seek and ask'. Through Christ the Lord,  the Son of God the Father,  we have an invitation to invite God into our hearts that His Life may set us free from all division, lovelessness and unwillingness to serve and bless, including our enemies.

  • Marina continues to acknowledge her need and desire for the Lord, to whom she looks for guidance and purification.  Back in Scotland she knows the sense of being 'held' in her humanity while seeking to live for the Grace she is given and invited to. She is still working through old wounds and fear. She willingly surrenders her will at every revelation or clarification that she is still held by fear or false self interest.
  • Jean is an old 'prayer-partner' of Marina's from many years ago, who has been getting increasingly frail since Marina had been away.  Jean continues to ask the Lord to be with her and strengthen her in all her ways and is faithful in continuing to pray and read His Word. Since Marina's return to Edinburgh she has welcomed Marina's weekly visits, mainly been after church on a Sunday. Jaen and an ex- lodger (Yin) prayed weekly on Skype and had been praying for help for Jean.
  • All characters in the book are part of the picture.Yet there are people around the time of Jean's death and afterwards who were key in enabling that unfolding to happen in harmony. V and Jean's Power of Attorney played supportive roles which changed over the months. And Yin appeared in person, briefly, after Jean's death.

The story unfolding

  • No-one image of God ever suffices. We see a God of tenderness providing for Marina's needs for 'play', 'beauty' and safety.  We see His desire to fulfil through her all she is called to be and do as He leads her on to new levels of writing and purity in HIm. And we see His Love for His faithful servant Jean who was 'losing heart' because of the heavy cross she bore. God saw her need for a 'Simon of Cyrene'.  We see a God of mercy and Grace who also gives us free will.
  • We see the different facets of humanity being unified and challenged into new growth through purification by the Holy Spirit (both in Marina and Jean) ....so we see the Holy Spirit communicating, and working to bring the dark to the Light.
  • The construction of the narrative give a sense of 'the God who was, and is and is to come' as the Reader is invited into the narrative of a broken-heart becoming a wounded healer.
  • As Marina surrenders she increasingly finds the Truth of the Hidden Heart. She experiences the Joy and Hope 'hidden in Christ in God' when change brings more release, and increasing TRUST in God the Father. 'All manner of things will be well'.

Trusting the Way and the Movement of the Holy Spirit

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/173927914X?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_2&storeType=ebooks

Want To Know More?

Come and listen to the Book Launch recording:

Hear more of the 'story' ,

-the internal changes,

-and the Promise of God to Marina..... 

And hear what others have said.....

Watch the Video now:


A Rainbow over the Firth of Forth
Chapter 1 -

Rooted and Grounded in Love – Part One

Wednesday October 13th, 2021

I had arrived in Scotland to the flat given by God!  A six-hour drive had passed, despite the rain, without stress. Most boxes had arrived in the right room for unpacking, after the careful labelling back in Kinston, and the diligent work of the furniture removers.  My over-arching feeling as I stood in the new flat, was of unutterable gratitude. 

And at the same time I was aware that God was upholding me. My work for Him for the next week at least, was to focus on making the flat habitable and workable.  That first night I got my box-bed made up and went early to bed.

Over the next week I walked in wonderment from room to room – feeling SOOO blessed to have room to be alive in the gifts He had given….and so blessed to have the living room and my studio/bedroom overlooking the sea.   (AT times at high tide when I looked out of the left-hand window of the living room, it looked as if we were IN the sea.) 

critics corner

What others said about Book 1 , Book 2 & Book 3

T

Book 1 'Treasures of Darkness:'

These are the spiritual memoirs of a soul who has never ceased to be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, a Christian who has been battling in the waves of the rough sea of this life with only one guiding star and destination: our Lord Jesus Christ….. her writings are not the result of contemplation alone; they are also the fruits of prayer and experience forged in the furnace of trials which the Lord permits to come to those whom He loves.

.. read it as the frank confession of a soul who would sacrifice all she has to keep the ‘’pearl of great price’’ and who is humble enough to be willing to listen and be a disciple for the rest of her life."       

 Bishop Raphael of Ilion

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Book 2 - 'Your Will be Done':  

The pages are full of Scriptures, poetry, prayers and intimate conversations with the Lord, and in this as well as the events is the blessing.   I was blessed by reading those words, being reminded of things I knew, comforted by them and constantly reminded of God’s mercy, grace, compassion and His love.  I want to know more about Jabez and his prayer. .......

. ..... There is the challenge to take up the Cross and follow Him in obedience.  That is the huge challenge of the book.

The invitation extended by Christ to do so was not given to Marina alone, or to those who wish to live a monastic life.  It is an invitation extended to every Christian.  It is the kernel of this book  and it is its biggest and most profound challenge.... Stephen Gellaitry

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Book 3 'Children of God'

So many of us bear the sins of those who sinned against us. These can descend into darkness and dictate our lives with bitterness and fear. The answer, as Marina demonstrates, is to let go of our own inadequate methods of control so that Christ can "burrow" deep into our despair to create a place of springs where before we had only a valley of tears

(Ps. 84:6). Isobel North

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