An Apopka native has written a 60-day devotional based on the Book of John from the Bible, which many Christians recommend as the starting point for anyone studying the Bible.

“Catching Sparks,” by Beth Forsberg, will be released on Sunday, March 1. Pre-orders are being taken on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as the website of the Christian book publisher, Maitland-based Xulon Press.

Writing “Catching Sparks” was a journey for Forsberg, who moved back to her native Apopka with her family in 2005 after 25 years of being away. She was first inspired to write several devotionals, compiled them in a book around 2008, and pitched it to various companies.

Not seeing any breakthrough in her pitching, Forsberg shelved the manuscript but still continued her devotional writing. In this way, she launched two blogs: A Carpenter’s Apprentice and A Sawdust Trail. The latter is still up and running at www.asawdustrail.wordpress.com. She even posted biblical verses on social media.

“I just started writing these devotionals when I was still inspired,” Forsberg said. “Really, I never did much with them. I just had them on my blog.”

It was while attending a conference on small business with her daughter in Nashville, Tenn. that inspired Forsberg to again attempt getting a devotional book published. At the time, the Book of John was “kind of on my heart” Forsberg said.

Forsberg spent a year writing “Catching Sparks,” going through the Book of John and posting brief devotionals on Instagram while keeping track of the verses that “jumped out at me,” she said. In the end, she wrote 63 but decided to use 60 of them – one for each day, equivalent to two months.

“I would ponder the verse, I would walk around with the verse on my phone, I would think about it, and when I felt inspired, sit down and write something about the verse,” she said. “That’s kind of how it came to be. It took me a year to put it together.”

Written by John the Apostle, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, many Christians recommend the Book of John as the starting point for Bible study because it “is written to both document Jesus’s life and reveal the depth of God’s love for mankind,” Forsberg said.

Forsberg lives in Apopka with her husband Lyle. She earned her bachelor of science in elementary education from Middle Tennessee State University in 1989. She has taught in public school, a private tutoring center, and home school, as well as well as ballet and jazz dance classes at a studio in Texas and many ladies’ Bible study classes over the years. 

To connect with Forsberg, visit her Facebook author page.

The full story appears on page 4A in the Friday, February 28, issue of The Apopka Chief. Subscribe today!