Finishing 1st Draft Today - prasise to God

      I am finishing the 1st draft of the book today. Praise to God, for He gave me all the inspiration for the novel. At times, it has been a voyage on rough seas. At times, it has been a voyage on calm seas. But God has always left his door open to give me inspiration.

      The novel's characters are employed by our Lord, but are hardly pristine. The cast does not spend every moment locked away in solitude beseeching God to smite the evil militia groups. Actually, they spend a great deal of their time studying and training. Working with God, He gently directs us to action. Action that, at times, may be in the form of study or physical workings. He uses the spiritual gifts that He gives to us. But - they never go anywhere without prayer. Their studies have large measures of God's word mixed in, for their training is based on God's word. Even Samuel has his "oops" moments.

     A quote that I carry with me, always, from Alan Redpath, "The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime." We all have our failings in our quest for sainthood. The key is to never give up. When you fall, turn to God, and ask for help to stand again. He loves us all, and wants to lose none of us. The book demonstrates several of the most unlikely people that give their life to Christ. They do this through Christians that live their lives as a living, loving example of Jesus Christ. In other words, they want some of what you got. Jesus wasn't stupid. He knew what grabbed people, attracted them. Let's use this technique that is proven to work so well in disciple gathering.

      Hopefully, this novel will encourage service to God, which is service to your fellow humans. If it inspires just one person to serve God, then it has accomplished its goal. The shepherd leaves his sheep to save just one sheep who has gone astray. God, through faith in Jesus Christ, offers us eternal life. He offers us eternal life because he asks us to serve him, on this earth, even to worldly death. Martyrs were not just in Roman times, in the Colosseum, Christians are being martyred around the world every day. 

Colossians 3:2-3

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

 

 

    

THE TEAM SMELLS A RAT IN CHAPTER 17, LEADING TO A LONG-SOUGHT KILLER

      The Team smells a rat in chapter 17. Everything is not always as it seems.Long-sought killer finds he is nothing but hype compared to God. An exciting chapter full of twists and turns. An unlikely band of counterfeits become a national treasure, and The Team gives them their approval. God gives Mabior what he thought he would never find, and what he does at that point is awe-inspiring. 

     If we really look deep into life, we find that God turns evil into good for his purposes. We discover that everybody and everything is at God's beck and call. This is the underlying basis of chapter 17. We should look at evil as bad, but, at the same time, we should understand that God will use it for his will, his good. As I near the finish line of this book, it is up to God what he chooses to do with it. I just know that I love serving God, and writing is one of the ways that I am capable of serving God. It is His will, not mine.

 

 

  

JOHN NEWTON

Listen to God!

      I was a little upset today. I was repairing a toilet and that stupid inanimate object would not do as I commanded. After I won a hard-fought battle, I began to wonder; does God ever get angry at us for not doing as he commands us? Of course, he does. Surely, he thinks as my earthly father did, "Do you think I tell you to do this just to hear my head rattle?" Only when I had children of my own, did I fully understand the meaning behind that. He meant that he has many more years of experience than I do and quit asking why every time he tells me to do something, so listen up, son. Same goes for God, listen up, son - and while you're at it, quit asking me why and quit talking to inanimate objects. It is the same thing people are doing in their worship of idols.

     I do all this griping and complaining about a simple repair as our brothers and sisters in prisons around the world are facing nothing but imprisonment, torture, and death just for their Christian beliefs. I must improve my vision.  

     I attempt, very poorly at times, to listen to God as I am writing. I write for God and for God alone. His glory is my goal, my satisfaction, my reward.

Passage from Chapter 16

 

     General Iverson intervened at that point, "Frank, this is your first time working with The Team or any group such as this. I'm sure it is quite an eye-opener. I think you'll find them up to the task at hand. Frank, when WCPN gave this most difficult task to JJ and Mark, my son, they were asked what kind of men they would be looking for. Mark answered, 'I speak for both of us when I quote David Livingstone, 'If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.' And we , JJ and I, will demand of them to do it all for God and God alone.' Now, sir, you know exactly who and what these men before you are." The Team just stared intently at Frank.

      My feeling is that Jesus asked the same of the Disciples. It gives me goosebumps to think of someone asking for this kind of dedication and commitment. Martin Luther King said, "A man who believes in nothing worth dying for, is a life not worth living." That may be one of the present-day society's problems: Society teaches us, whether on purpose or by unthinking example, to believe in nothing worth dying for, only being served.