Fiction – historical, supernatural, inspirational

The Gospel is Salvation, …And So Much More

I came from a secular humanist family, so when I surrendered to Christ, attending church and reading the Bible was the start of a very long process of mind renewal. I realized I was a new creature but had no idea how to live it other than to try to do so in my own strength. Everywhere, teaching in Christian circles pointed in that direction, and today, most churches still do, but this is changing. I believe we will see a great and sweeping awakening to the truth of the gospel in Christian circles from today onward.

It took some years to realize the true gospel was that holiness comes not by effort but by surrender and rest. In self-defense, I read the Bible through a few times. I attended Bible school and seminary, investing much time in prayer and meditation. Eventually I was led to passages like Romans 5-8. There in the recesses of a small dorm room, I received the revelation that I was made righteous the moment He accepted me by faith in what He’d done at the cross. I grew ecstatic over the understanding that where sin abounds, grace SUPER abounds. Further, Ephesians and Hebrews made it clear that we have access to the very throne of grace, day or night! But it was hard to hold onto these wonderful revelations while still being subjected to the legalistic preaching that was all around me everywhere.

On top of this struggle to get my theology straight, I had a lot of worldly wisdom and knowledge to eject or, at least, reprioritize. Nevertheless, as the decades passed, I came to love the kingdom of God more than the kingdom of this world, and despite intense family pressures, I began to distinguish the differences. As I lived out what God’s word was teaching, I experienced glory and victory. To this day, more than 50 years after being saved, I continue in a lifestyle of 80-100% immersion, whether praying, reading and studying the Bible, or hearing the Word through apps.

Diligent fact-checking of every sermon and every experience by the standard of God’s word – and more specifically the Pauline revelation of grace – along with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, our great Teacher, have brought me from glory to glory and continue to do so. And while I am fed and inspired by several great preachers, shockingly, none have proven to be perfect. As long as they are conduits to a deeper walk with Christ, I continue to listen to them, yet one must always use discernment.

As I’ve delved deeper and deeper into God’s Word, His love has become more and more real. He’s brought me to greater and greater degrees of goodness and success in this life, and yet it pales in light of His presence and the anticipation of things to come.

Absolutely none of what I have now came by mental strategy. My mind has been a wonderful servant along this path, but I never make it my master. The secular world gives the mind the role of the master because it doesn’t acknowledge the spirit realm. We are spirits, we possess a soul and a body, both of which should be subject to our spirit. Once you realize this, and your spirit is brought alive by belief in and full surrender to Christ, you’ll never go back to letting the mind run things. It would be like being licensed to drive and owning a great car but using a tricycle to get around instead.

This is not a stance that sits well with the academic institutions where I once studied. It’s not popular anywhere, in fact. When asked to make a decision, the answer “Let me pray about it” will take most people aback. More acceptable is to say “Let me think about it.”

God made us in His image and also continually provides support and counsel, but in a society such as ours, and, frankly, for most of human history, this truth has been obfuscated. The great lies are that there is no living, caring God or if there is, he is not involved in every aspect of the affairs of men. The almost-ridiculous meme is that if there is a God at all, He takes a hands-off approach to His creation. As His kids, we are expected to figure it out for ourselves. He wrote a book. We are supposed to read it and extrapolate from there.

Even the founders of the Constitution understood that left to ourselves, corruption would set in. Checks and balances were established to prevent gross misuse of power, though they have proven inadequate and should be updated. Term limits would be a great start. However, I digress. The widespread ignorance of a present and loving God who will help in any situation, who can even offer marvelous ideas and powerful support for our earthly success – in relationships, health, career – has robbed us of our contentment, even our lives.

Thankfully, many believers know they have eternal life. They may stubbornly reject that God can do anything for them in other ways, obstinately insisting on living with illness, defeat, loss, confusion and strife, but they have what matters most, eternity. And if you believe that illness might be sent by God to teach you something, or even allowed by Him for that reason, my friend, you are woefully incorrect. I am not judging you. Like you, I had to get my theology straight.

Still, in the event that you as a reader are interested, let’s consider just one aspect of Jesus, his title as Prince of Peace. As the Prince of Shalom, Jesus bestows all-encompassing wholeness, health, provision, joy and peace through His death and resurrection. Our Prince of Peace came to restore everything our Father gave us in the Garden, and more.

He said as much in many ways. “I have come that they may have life and have it more and more abundantly.” “I will give you streams of living water springing up to everlasting life.” “I am the light of the world.” the list of these statements of His is long. In fact, this principle is asserted so many times in the Old and New Testaments that it is one of the constants of Bible truth. Living in victory, for ourselves and our family, should be a bedrock of every Christian’s faith.

So why isn’t it? How has secular humanism managed to wrap its deceptive tendrils around our culture, even the believer’s psyche?

The fact that all the blessings of heaven come preternaturally and only in Jesus probably present the main stumbling block. After all, though believers may understand that Jesus is still alive, they know he’s seated at the Father’s throne someplace very very far away. And yet, wait, the Bible also says that He is within us. That sounds pretty intimately present to me.

I could go on with many other examples of why God in Christ designed it so that that He would live very intimately in our lives. I think of how Jesus explained, I am the vine, you are the branches. And yet, I know only too well how easy it is to be conditioned by the enemy’s propaganda, to be blind and unable to see what is real, to trade one’s blessing for a bowl of soup. To this day, there is a tiny corner of my heart where the seeds of skepticism will sometimes sprout, in the name of sophistication, or some old shame, or common sense. I will say that now it has gotten very easy to counteract them and pluck them out by the roots. I have memorized many scriptures for this purpose. I may be the last of all the world’s Christians, yet my faith has grown because I now have a track record where I have seen how living His way has racked up victory after victory. Not that there hasn’t been fierce opposition or setbacks. But greater has He proven to be, every time.

When you think about how a supernatural transfer of your sin onto Jesus was exactly how your salvation was accomplished, is it any more of a leap to believe that healing comes the same way, by His stripes, as Isaiah asserts? Or how about that the chastisement for your peace, your very mental health, was upon Him? Is it any more difficult to stand firmly on the truth that the Lord is like a shepherd who leads you to a place where you lack for nothing if you will listen to His voice?

We are all in different stages with our ability to use our faith. To those who may still be questioning, who haven’t completely shut down the possibility that God’s love is as good and powerful as any love can possibly be, I ask you to ask yourself what’s really stopping you from stepping out in faith and trusting His word? Have you perhaps allowed the world, a so-called scholar or a denomination that leaves out parts of the Bible, to dull your understanding? Has some wearisome opposition persuaded you that God can’t or won’t do what is needed or even desirable for you and your family? Perhaps you tell yourself that because it is a fallen world, great losses will come. I encourage you to learn more about what you have in Christ and how He has made a way where we can experience protection for ourselves and our loved ones. God is faithful. He does what He says, and He put all we need to know in the one Book He wrote (which by the way is earth’s all-time best seller). A good life is accessible to those who learn how to use it, His way.

Peace out

Lamb Duty

God’s word to mankind is a love letter, it’s a warning, a covenant document signed in the blood of His only Son. It is great literature, because what God does He always does with excellence. God’s love for His creation and His many messages for us earthlings shine forth in almost every page, as does His artistry. I think of the amazingly beautiful contrast between the grungy shepherds outside of Bethlehem where Jesus was born, and their visitation by a “vast host” of singing angels (NLT).

Now I’ve seen angels. Have you? I have seen them in my spirit, and lucid visions (the kind that appears before you like a movie, only it’s a living image). This is part of the wisdom gifts, some saints just “know,” some see, some both know and see, some hear, the method of perception varies but the result is the same – a transfer of information from God about your destiny and work on the earth, AND an encounter – the experience of God’s eternal heavenly kingdom in the now. This is explained further in I Cor 12 and 13, and revealed by example in the book of Acts as well as the gospels.

If you are one who sees, you know that it comes when you are seeking Jesus. When I’ve seen angels, my focus isn’t on having a vision or dream, it’s on learning new truth from Him, communing in His presence, and worshipping Him. I can honestly say with all the dreams and visions I’ve had, I have never sought a single one. Many were highly unexpected.

The visitation of the angels to the shepherds is a form of lucid vision. The Bethlehem sheepfolds, where the angels showed up on the night of Jesus’ birth, were the source of the perfect lambs presented for sacrifice at the Temple a few miles away in Jerusalem. The keeping of such sheep was not just a part of the food chain or Jewish garment industry, it was a sacred office held by Jewish ministers, probably Levites. To them was entrusted the protection of these sheep and perfection of their lambs. According to the law, one tiny blemish on their lamb meant a person’s sins were not completely covered, leaving an opening for wrath to enter their life during the ensuing year. The perfect lamb’s blood was required in place of theirs. It was a prototype of Jesus, though His blood not only covers but takes away sin for all time. No need for yearly sacrifice.

Lambing duty for the Temple was esteemed, though it was lowly. Not as lowly as a private shepherd because it was still apart of the Levitical priesthood. But lowly, nevertheless. It was like doing toilet cleaning at your church. Or more appropriately, like watching the babies in the church nursery, for hours and hours. It was an honor, but it was low in the hierarchy of Jewish politics and power.

Yet it wasn’t to the Levitical priests in the Temple that the angels appeared. Look what happens when you do what God leads you to do, no matter how humble, especially in His house, the local church.

These humble, grungy shepherds were the first to see Jesus after His birth! You know they were special, their heart was for the house of the Lord in ways others weren’t. They had agreed to dedicate their lives to helping the faithful bring a worthy offering to God. They had been willing to submit to this call assigned to them. How appropriate and wonderful that they were blessed to be given a front-row seat on the advent of God’s next covenant offering, Jesus, the final Lamb of a far better covenant!

Would they have understood the significance of the newborn savior? They sure as heaven knew something big was happening in the Kingdom of God and on earth. Evidence suggests they were actually trained men who knew the ancient scriptures, the law and the prophets and the poetry books, they had read of the mystery of God’s plan to put a “new heart” into His people. They had lots of time under the sunny blue and starry night sky to meditate on the prophecies, and, being Jewish students of the law, had probably discussed it with each other.

One lone angel showed up first (Luke 2:8-20). This advance scout had a radiant glory that was probably like 10 nuclear bombs going off at the same time, in terms of its brightness. The shepherds were utterly terrified, even before the angel was joined by an army of angels. God’s heavenly host! They sang the transcendent song thanking God and celebrating His gift in Jesus, while the shepherds marveled and quaked.

There must have been a reassurance imparted to them. For clearly, the shepherds moved from fear to faith, hope, joy and eager anticipation. This is what happens any time we turn from the natural understanding of things to the spiritual one. They were refreshed by their experience, and when it was over, they said, ‘let’s go and see what’s just gone down in Bethlehem that they were singing about’. They had the energy and enthusiasm to travel what was probably about 6 miles to the city in the wee hours of the night, to search for and find the newborn Messiah.

Whether they knew what they were seeing or not, our Abba God certainly knew. Who better to rejoice with than those who tended the original sacrificial lambs?

If you are feeling a call to lamb duty or some other form of humble job at your church, don’t despise it. One eminent pastor started out cleaning toilets at his church, and did so for six years before he was promoted to greeter. His preaching was eventually known worldwide. Whatever you do, as you do what you are called to do, you will receive a crown of glory in heaven which eventually will be all of our home if we are in Christ. Start somewhere and stay connected with a church or body of believers where you can find good teaching and fellowship. God promises that you will flourish by committing your time and energy to your church. You may even get visited by angels (but don’t look for them, look for Jesus!).

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God. Ps 92:13

On Writing a Sequel

The good news is the sequel to my novel Hope’s Motel is well underway. What’s interesting is how the process is different from writing the first one.

My how time flies! Hard to believe it’s been six years since the publication of my debut novel, but here we are. Graduation from nursing school and entering that new career surely contributed to the delay. These landmarks show the way along the path of trusting the Lord, listening in prayer and doing/obeying the instructions by His Holy Spirit.

All of this has brought growth. And another novel, not to mention. From this vantage point, I am receiving ideas for the sequel. As my readers should know by now, I write what I am led to write, not what my soul’s creativity shows me. In this way, God harnesses the creativity He has put in me for His purposes.

Confirmation has come forth. The astounding accuracy of the prophetic tone of my second novel is one example, which not only predicted much of what happened in 2020 but also was rushed (by the Holy Spirit) for publication in 2019.

So it is that I’m noticing how God is weaving my current WIP into the times. A new movie featuring the wonderful brother in the Lord, Jim Cazaviel, is telling the world about human trafficking, sending this issue into high relief on the world’s list of concerns (as it should be). My sequel is featuring this theme, as well, has been for months before we could know how important the theme would become this year.

But what I want to talk about is the process of writing this book. No longer plagued by doubts or anxiety about my ability to complete a novel, I find myself confident in the face of the many obstacles which are encountered in telling a full novel story. I’ve been here before, and God has always provided. I know I’ll have the answer to plot tangles and character glitches. It’ll be good once God and I co-write this thing. I say this after seeing it starting to take shape.

The sequel, I’ve come to realize after much prayer, will be different in one salient aspect: It will no longer be exclusively told from the first person.

First person writing was new for me when I wrote Hope’s Motel. The issue with it was how to tell a story involving lots of other characters without switching into their heads. This is what we know as point of view, by the way, affectionately called POV in writer’s jargon. With Hope’s, there was always a way to get the story across by putting Hope where she could tell it from her perspective. Dialogue filled in where her own understanding was not enough.

In the sequel, for which I still have no working title, I will delve into the point of view of the other characters. This is really different. There will be whole chapters dedicated to another character’s thoughts and actions. I’m not sure how much this will change the character of the book. I do believe it will give depth to it.

What I am sure of though is that the book’s tone will match the first one: The beautiful perspective of a life of faith, lived in full confidence of God’s love and His leading, without fear, and without compromise with the world’s confusion and drama. Because, after all, it’s Hope’s sequel.

One snippet which may or may not make the cut into the novel describes how Hope has been doing all this time. I don’t wish to give a spoiler but as you readers know, she is now a married lady, very happily, too. She has also grown.

God gives you a dream. Like a suit or a dress that’s been tailored just for you that hangs in your bedroom. You look it over, deciding whether you want to wear it, admiring it, thinking maybe it’s too much, or maybe it’s not enough. After awhile, though, you try it on and you love the fit. You love how it moves with you. Pretty soon you are calling it yours. But really, it was God’s dream to start. Now it’s both your dream, God’s and yours, because God has shared it with you. He knows you can fulfill it, in fact, He’s created you with all the potential for it from your inception. So when God gives a dream, and it becomes yours, He touches it with fire and your whole being lights up with it. It becomes yours just as if it always was. God is good like that. He shares. Soon the dream is carrying you as much as you carry it. It can carry you through all the world’s love and all the world’s sorrow, until you understand you are free. Yet, like the horse that needs no bit or bridle, your heart returns again and again to serve the will of the master, the dispenser of every good dream.

Hope is back.

The world is confusing. Hope has it sorted out.

The Author and Finisher

Years ago, when I was struggling against self-sabotaging fears about the worth of my writing and my ability to finish a novel, I labored in prayer. I wasn’t interested in marketing in the sense of gaining the most sales possible. If that were my sole aim, I’d have chosen different content. I wanted to be sure that God was really calling me to this endeavor. Writing is big in my family, my father was a writer and editor, then a publicist, who made his living with words. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t merely doing something that came naturally.

Sounds pretty pretentious to think one can hear from God on specific matters, I suppose, especially on the bland, secularized diet most religious institutions feed people. There may be homey stories that make us feel good about ourselves, perhaps teaching on morality and ethics, the ten commandments and maybe the two that Jesus gave on loving God and each other. But God’s will is better understood as a relationship demanding total surrender which transforms the heart, which in turn leads us to turn toward goodness, and delivers us from deeds of the dark. In His Presence we rejoice in His grace, we walk by faith, giving secondary consideration to what we see, feel, and hear. We develop our spiritual sixth sense.

Psalm 19 gives wonderful insight into hearing from God. “Day to day utters speech, and night to night reveals knowledge,” it states, further explaining that the voice of God which is always ready to reveal more to us is speaking in a universal language: “There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

Further, God is capable of tailoring His utterance to each heart. God has a specific will for each of us, a plan which can be discerned, a path which has many turns and twists but in which we have His imminent guidance. Check out John 16:13, Jer 29:11, Jn 10:27; the many examples of Paul in the book of Acts including Acts 18:9-11. “Oh, that’s just for Paul, Peter and John, and Jeremiath was a prophet, they were all special.” Yes, they were, but the word of God is clear that we, too can have the same closeness with God, albeit unique missions.

“And let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” (NKJV)

This is one of the verses which I have prayerfully adapted to my writing. Appropriating Jesus as the Author and the Finisher of my books, I write what He’s shown me to write. Every part of the process is subject to Him, to the best of my ability (it’s always going to be through me as the imperfect filter and the lens). It’s my job as an author to keep consulting with Him, and in this He is ever faithful. I know I will always have a ways to go in hearing accurately and fully, but at least I’ve left!

I wonder what scriptures Paul was leaning on as he ministered with Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus? What did he mutter to himself as he was making a tent? Surely his letters are full of the utterances of God for the new covenant. We know what the verses were that were flowing through David, as they are documented in the Psalms, Chronicles, Kings, and by Solomon in Proverbs.

My verse is not a formula, some mantra I began to say before and after every writing session. It is a meditation of the heart. As I meditated on its truth while writing, God spoke to me through it. He showed me how to write, led me to resources I could learn from, gave counsel on how to budget my time, advised on character, plot and dialogue. God is an awesome writer. Just look at the bible!

This is not meant to imply that my books have the validity of scripture. No one may add or take away from the canon that makes up the law and the prophets, or the writings of the new testament which emerged from them after the life and finished work of Jesus the Christ.

Gathering it firmly in my mind the truth that Jesus is the author and finisher of my novels has helped me to rest in His guiding hand over my writing sessions. I want only to communicate how this has allowed me to co-create with joy, in a rich flow of His Spirit. As revisions mounted in number, I had to place my faith all the more on the great Finisher that the story would one day be done. And eventually, with each piece of fiction, there has come a time when I knew that it was ready.

Christmas Kittens and Writing Fiction

Like most believers who write, whether fiction, non-fiction, blogs, books, articles, I write because I have a spiritual mandate, an inner urge so forceful, I dare not deny it. I write because the Holy Spirit inspires me to think big. But thinking big is secondary to the mandate.

My books are developing a following today, in this world, even without much marketing on my part. However, I also enjoy my career, my “day job” in the medical field, and unless I am led to stop and write full time, I’ll do both.

It’s true that I am a creative and that writing gives me an outlet for that continually bubbling newness rising up from where soul and spirit entwines with God’s. It’s a magnificent challenge to write well, one I’ll spend a lifetime working toward and never achieving to my full satisfaction, I’m almost sure. But it’s a challenge worth the investment of joyous, painstaking hours adding up to a good chunk of my life.

Yet, there’s more! Writing is more than a way to express and develop creatively.

The truth is, that as much as I do believe my books are meant for today’s generation, my overwhelming sense with my first two novels is that they will serve future generations, as well. Spontaneously, it comes to me at times that my books will be read by people through the rise and fall of nations, by souls who are groping for a true understanding of the gospel in the end times. I see them stumbling upon my books, finding the living God and hope amidst a deep descending darkness, and then circulating them to their friends.

Already my books have sparked new faith in a number of people. And those are just the ones I know about. It’s hard to find the real gospel in these times, in any time, truly. I know that I have, but because I have, I know how difficult the challenge can be. I write in a way that will allow people to find it.

Another aspect of writing for me is to respond to the need for enjoyable, quality entertainment, especially among God-fearing people. How often have you come to the end of a long week, wanting only to sit and watch a good movie, listen to a podcast or read a good book, only to find the pickings are bare? All too often you’ve opened a book or a movie that promises action and/or romance of real intellectual and inspirational substance, only to find it leads your mind and heart into places you’d rather not go, places not even worth going. Suddenly you’re living in someone else’s anxious nightmare and all you wanted was a a little recreation! If you aren’t careful, many stories will take you from feeling fine to being depressed and hopeless. Quite the opposite of what quality entertainment should accomplish.

Good entertainment should inspire us to dream, not crush us. It might contain sad truths about this world, but in the end, quality entertainment enlightens and in so doing, it uplifts.

We need as many great movies and novels as we can get. Schindler’s List and The Passion, God’s Not Dead, Fireproof and The War Room, Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Killing Fields, Snow Falling on Cedars, all are blockbuster hits because they enlighten as well as uplift. Stephen Baldwin has been making some very interesting, offbeat films which carry extremely powerful messages for people of faith. There’s always room for a well-done, quality movie, book or podcast that lets us relax without turning away from God, but rather turns us toward Him. If not turning us directly to God, a good story might also turn us to a greater appreciation of our purpose and our worth. Stories like It’s A Wonderful Life show us the dark and light side of life but in the end help us realize that each of us has value when we light the place we live in. We could also argue that NCIS and Rocky do that for us, too.

My writing is for the hungry ones, the thirsty ones, to let them know that there is a banquet they can enjoy in real life, and where to find it.

A simpler way of putting is to compare writing with rescuing kittens. I have two tiny kittens in my home right now. I am fostering them for the humane society, getting them ready for their forever homes. They are coming along nicely and they are going to make great pets. (photo below) From me they have learned how to enjoy being in someone’s lap, how to be careful with their claws, how to use a litter box, how a human can play with them, how to come when called (to the degree that cats ever do that!). Both of them were quite wild when I got them and they have made phenomenal progress. They are being imprinted with my love and prayers, with the peace, joy and TLC I give them. All this they will take with them for the rest of their lives, as a gift I am giving to those who will own them, long after these little furballs have forgotten my scent or my voice.

In the same way, our spirits can be imprinted with the personality and character of Charles Dickens or an Agatha Christie by reading their books, though we will never know them this side of heaven, and even if they were alive today, we would probably not have the opportunity to become more than superficially acquainted with them. My books, and every book worth reading, really, are like rescued kittens, sharing what I hope is the better part of me in common with the Creator of us all, for the delight and well-being and solace of the family here on planet Earth.

Marriage (for singles)

by Danyelle Wolfe Read

There tends to be a romance in my stories. Sometimes it’s central, sometimes it’s part of other aspects which are driving the story. I portray love in such a way as to bring back the joy of it. As one who has practiced therapy for couples and families, I create realistic love relationships. The romances in my books are anything but fluffy. They are possible. The characters are not idealized, they are flawed. I emphasize their chemistry over their physicality (there is a difference).

To find the person who really cares for us is a blessing, going back to the first man and woman in Eden.