It’s No Secret Giveaway with Rachel Olsen

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Pssst….

I have a secret!

A dear friend and fellow Proverbs 31 sister of mine, Rachel Olsen, is releasing her new book today.

You are gonna love it! Read on for an interview and giveaway with this fabulous writer, powerful teacher and gifted girlfriend! Here she is:

Rachel, as the editor of the Proverbs 31 Encouragement for Today devotions and a university professor, you have lots of experience in writing and editing, but this is your first full-blown solo book. What prompted you to write it?

One verse. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 13:11 there are secrets in the kingdom of God, and His followers can grasp them. That statement astounded me, and excited me. I was captured by the notion that God had secrets He was willing to share. I wanted to find out what they were.

I’d been operating with the assumption that the Bible was hard to understand, unless you were gifted to be a pastor or went to seminary. But in that passage Jesus said all you have to do is follow Him and He will supply the understanding. So I prayed for wisdom and dug into the Bible.  I’ve since realized God never hides truth from sincere seekers. In fact, He came to earth in the person of Jesus to ensure that we’d learn His secrets and understand His ways.

With this book I wanted to share twelve of the divine secrets I’ve found, so they can empower others’ lives just as they have empowered mine. And I included Bible study sections at the end of each chapter to get my readers digging into the Bible for themselves.

The book is titled It’s No Secret. Can you give us a glimpse into a few of the secret topics it covers?

Sure, Karen. I uncover the Secret to Responding to God, the Secret of Interdependence, the Secret of Handling Conflicts Biblically, the Secret of Living Generously, the Secret of Perfection in God’s Eyes, and the Secret to Growing Through Trials, just to name a handful. The whole list can be seen online in the table of contents when you “look inside this book” at Amazon.

To put it more succinctly, this book will help you:

* Overcome the competitive urges that leave you lonely

* Grow spiritually despite life’s setbacks

* Discover how to make what you give away ultimately return to you

*View rest not as a have-to, but as a get-to

*Handle conflicts and criticism with grace

*Relax unrealistic expectations in favor of emotional stability

*Discover a key to increased spiritual vitality

*Find adventure as you yield wholeheartedly to God

Your subtitle talks about revealing divine truths every woman should know. What importance does truth play in a girlfriend’s life?

Truth is crucial. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So it matters where you get your truth from. I hold to the conviction that if God created life, He alone gets to define it.  He is the Reality Maker. And His Word, the Bible, is our reliable source of truth. When we dig into it and follow it, our minds are renewed, our lives are transformed, and we grow in freedom.  I’m confident It’s No Secret contains biblical truth that can do that for you.

Jesus, by the way, is the Word Made Flesh –  He is truth in action! That’s why knowing truth always begins with following Him.

What is your greatest hope for gals out there who read your book?

My hope echoes the apostle Paul’s. I started the book with a blank page before the introduction with his words from Colossians 2:2-3, “I want them to have full confidence because they have complete understanding of God’s secret plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

My goal for my readers is that they would become God’s secret-keepers and His secret-revealers – that they would embrace the “secret way of living” revealed in the Bible and this book, and show others this empowering way to live as well.

You are offering a fabulous giveaway to our readers today. Tell us about it!

If you look at the cover of my book, you’ll see one of my favorite things: coffee! Specifically, I’m a decaf latte or frappe girl. :-) What I really wish I could do is meet each of my readers weekly for 12 weeks over cups of coffee and talk through the contents of our lives and of this book.  But I can’t do that – I don’t have that many frequent flier miles! So I’m offering the next best thing in a giveaway: a free copy of the book and a $10 Starbucks gift card.

Thanks Rachel, for stopping by to visit and share your secrets with us!!

My pleasure, Karen. I am praying for each and every reader of It’s No Secret to encounter something life changing between the pages of this book!

Okay, now for the giveaway: Leave a comment on this post that names the topic(s) in the book you are most interested in reading.  Or tell what drink you would order at the coffee shop if you could meet Rachel there. If you do both, your name will be entered twice!

This post will be left up until Friday morning when the winner will be announced and when we’ll have ANOTHER giveaway in conjunction with an Encouragement for Today devotion I’ll have running. It also involves a book and TWO gifts cards! See you then!

91 Comments

  1. I love that God entrusts His secrets to us, and I’m excited about how this book will help me to better understand that promise. If I were ordering at Starbucks, it would definitely be a Hazelnut Frappuccino! :)

    Thanks for this opportunity!

  2. I’d be interested in reading about the “Secrets to Handling Conflict Biblically.”

    And since we are heading into fall I’d definitely have to order the Pumpkin Spice Latte. :-)

    Kristen

  3. I would love to read * Discover how to make what you give away ultimately return to you. Sounds like an awesome book!

    My current fave at Starbucks is the Caramel Frappucino. It changes frequently!

  4. I read the first chapter and want to read this book!!! I’m really interesting in reading :

    *View rest not as a have-to, but as a get-to

    *Handle conflicts and criticism with grace

    If I went to Starbucks I would get a Grande Sugar Free Vanilla Latte… YUM!

  5. Definately “Handling conflicts with Grace” because this has been an extremely challenging year for me filled with many conflicts. Apparently God is trying to teach me something.

    Since it is close to fall, the pumpkin spice latte with an extra shot of espresso.

  6. The topics that intrigue me the most are
    *Overcome the competitive urges that leave you lonely
    *Handle conflicts and criticism with grace
    *Discover a key to increased spiritual vitality

    I have been struggling with finding joy, losing the loneliness and am really looking forward to reading this book!

  7. Relax unrealistic expectations in favor of emotional stability is a topic I think many women would be very interested in growing towards, myself included. :)

    And now that it’s back, a Pumpkin Spice latte, skim milk, no whip. YUMMY!

  8. The topic of REST and resting in Him who equips us to do the many things He has called us to, has been on my mind/heart as of late. What a peaceful place to be…resting in my Savior! I’m a Frappe kind of girl, too!

  9. O what i wonderful book!!!
    All of the topics sound “just like what I need to hear”
    Thanks so much for sharing this awesome “gift” with your sisters in Christ!

  10. Definitely viewing rest not as a have-to but a get-to… I’ve been wrestling with that lately!

    I would order a white chocolate mocha, the largest I could get, full caffeine! ;)

  11. The things I would like to learn the most about would be:

    Overcome the competitive urges that leave you lonely

    Grow spiritually despite life’s setbacks

    Handle conflicts and criticism with grace

    Relax unrealistic expectations in favor of emotional stability

    Find adventure as you yield wholeheartedly to God

    Basically, the whole book I guess! :-)

    My favorite Starbucks drink is a Vanilla Cream (which is hazelnut and french vanilla) Frappuccino – low fat with whip.

    Danette

  12. I actually went to your website Rachael and read the first chapter, awesome. The following topics are of great interest: Growing spiritually and how to handle conflicts and criticism with grace. Oh , I long to have peace in the midst of hard times and let others words or actions just roll off my back. Oh yes, I love vanilla latte!

  13. All the topics are of interest to me, but especially growing spiritually despite life’s setbacks. When all is said and done, nothing matters more than my personal relationship with God and my spiritual growth. I think that’s the basis for everything else. If I could meet Rachel in a coffee shop, I know I would read the menu in its entirety and take a very long time before finally ordering some coffee drink with sweet flavoring like caramel or chocolate. :)

  14. Viewing rest not as a have-to, but a get to would be the greatest topic of interest closely followed by “overcoming competitive urges that leave you lonely.” The rest looks great, too! Looking forward to sharing this study with my group at church!

    Since relationships are such a big thing to me, having coffee without Rachel is such a bummer. But, my favorite coffee if I had the opportunity to sit with her a while would be…decaf mocha light frappachino with soy and a dollop of whip!

  15. There are so many topics that interest me. I would say the reading about handling conflicts biblically would be near the top!

    If I could meet Rachel for coffee, I would order a carmel macchiato (with skim milk of course)!

  16. I would love to read about the Secret of Handling Conflicts Biblically.

    If I could meet Rachel in a coffee shop, I would order a Vanilla Latte.

  17. Handle conflicts and criticism with grace. Actually, this book would be helpful to read for all of the areas mentioned.

  18. Handle Conflicts and Criticism With Grace!!! I am so looking forward to this topic-I am married to a man who wants absolutely nothing to do with my faith, so conflicts and criticism are a daily thing. We all deal with conflict but this one is close to home for me. Let me see…I would love to curl up with this book and a skinny vanilla iced latte…or a peppermint white mocha…I guess it would depend on whether or not I’m calorie counting that day…probably the mocha!

  19. “Perfection in God’s Eyes” is what I am interested in reading.

    My order would be a Light Java Chip Frappe minus the whip.

    So looking forward to this book!

  20. I would like to read: *Relax unrealistic expectations in favor of emotional stability. Boy, can my expectations be UNREALISTIC.

    I would like to order a chai tea at a coffee shop.

    Sounds like a great book!!!

    Joanne
    [email protected]

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