What if a humble tree is born into this world much like Jesus? It is chosen by God to reign over New York City in Rockefeller Plaza for the month of December. Then in the night, it is whisked away to a sawmill to be stripped of its branches and glory. Yet, in a miraculous way, it rises from the dead bringing new hope and life for others. The Christ-mas Tree Story, a picture book manuscript, shares the life of this quiet tree as it parallels the story of Jesus from his birth, entrance into Jerusalem, crucifixion, and finally His greatest triumph, resurrection from the dead. The beloved Rockefeller tree, like our Messiah, also reigns over the Christmas season. But it doesn't reach its true potential until it is milled into plywood and given to Habitat for Humanity. Each year, like a gift from God, a needy and deserving family is chosen to receive this tree to complete the wooden structure of their new home.

With our increasing knowledge of the cosmos, of which we are an integral part, it seems reasonable that we would want to expand our understanding of a Jesus through whom, as Christians believe, all things were made.

Armand, a retired physicist living in a retirement community, befriends a former tax collector, named Chris. Over a period of a few months, from a few weeks before Christmas till Easter of the following year, Armand, born into a non-practicing Jewish home, shares with Chris his roller coaster ride from being a non-believer to having a personal knowing of what he understands to be the cosmic Christ. Because Armand lost his wife to sickness and his legs in a car accident, he depends on other people, like Chris, to take him places. During these trips, in different coffee shops and during a few pretend visits to the moon, Armand and Chris—an antagonistic and embittered atheist—get into their verbal skirmishes. Chris’ wife, although easier to convince of certain beliefs, starts off, like her husband, with the conviction that religion is nothing but horse-feathers. In a humorous and entertaining way, wherein some of the weird laws of quantum mechanics are used to make a cosmic Christ more understandable, Armand tries to convince Chris and his wife there is more to life than meets the eye.

In Trees by the Living Water two teenagers and their mother in ancient Rome are sold into slavery to settle their father’s gambling debts. Thirteen-year-old Juliana and fifteen-year-old Lucius are bought by separate owners and taken to Israel while the mother remains in Rome, caring for the wife of a Vineyard keeper. The teens meet up two years later and run away together. During their escape, they meet Yeshua (Jesus), who tells them to go back to their owners, and they reluctantly do so. A blacksmith buys Juliana from her owner, sets her free and marries her. They meet up with Lucius’ former best friend Aemilii, now a Roman soldier, who helps them save and a year later they buy Lucius. Then they hear Yeshua is being crucified. They rush to Golgotha and discover Aemilii is the one nailing him to the cross. Heartsick, they witness the crucifixion. Aemilii is devastated when Yeshua forgives him.

Epilogue: The 4 of them try to escape the persecution of the Christians by returning to Rome, where they meet the imprisoned Apostle Paul, spend time hiding in the catacombs and are eventually martyred in the arena.

Imagine feeling mist from the Red Sea sprinkle your face as the waves are held back by the will of God.  Plagued with leprosy, would you have had the courage to seek out the Teacher who heals for a chance to be reunited with your wife and child? Terrorized by darkness and evil for most of your existence, how would it feel to be freed from demonic captivity? 

More than fairytales and greater than legend, the Word of God is a heroic masterpiece full of  daring feats, unbelievable battles and reckless romance. Stories Within The Story presents eighteen of those Biblical adventures from unique and exciting perspectives. Real people lived and breathed these astounding moments when God chased after the hearts of His people, but not all of them got to tell their part of The Story.

This is their chance.

What do you think it was like for Mary when no one believed her story about the angel’s visit? How did Joseph cope with his confusion and disappointment when Mary told him she was pregnant? What were their expectations about the birth? Why were they still in Bethlehem when the Magi came? Using the few clues that the Bible offers about Mary and Joseph and her insight into human behavior, the author weaves a tender story about the parents of Jesus and how they had to learn to lay aside their own understanding and expectations and rely totally upon God. Mary and Joseph emerge as powerful models for daily living for all who seek to be obedient to God’s plans and purposes for their lives even when it makes no sense to them.  

Desert Rose is a story that builds off of the conflict and recent upheaval in the Middle East, providing the personal viewpoint through the eyes of Dahlia, the story’s hero. She is the daughter of the country’s leader, Seljuk, who has tyrannically abused his own people and is assassinated at the hand of the successful resistance militia. Dahlia, daughter of evil leader Seljuk, faces the anger of her country’s people and the uncertainty of a country without established leadership. Simultaneously, hiding in exile among a Bedouin desert tribe, she hears of the mighty works of Yahweh. Hungry to learn more of this loving and personal God, she discovers that he has chosen to give her hope and a future. Can her country survive its inner conflict as the divided people seem bent on biting and devouring one another? Will Dahlia be forgiven for her father’s atrocities and will she ever be free of the pain and guilt that comes with learning just how far her father went to dominate the people he once loved? Will she find a man who is strong enough to accept her and the painful memories she carries and to help her find healing and restoration for the country she loves? In the fallout of her upside-down world, Dahlia seeks forgiveness, peace and hope for a better future—for herself and for the country her father’s harsh regime nearly destroyed. Through the storyline, I desire to re-introduce the gospel, the complete picture of a God that desires and pursues a personal relationship with His people.

These stories are based on Biblical incidents or themes, yet they are retold in new ways--sometimes with humour or with a surprising twist--to bring aspects of the original stories to life. Our over-familiarity with the biblical narratives often means that they lose their power to influence and change our lives. The stories fail to shock and challenge us, and consequently we have inadvertently tamed the text. As the great storyteller C. S. Lewis reminds us, Aslan, the lion of Narnia, is not tame – but he is good!

Our preconceived ideas about the Bible provide a lens through which we read and understand Scripture. If these stories prove to be thought-provoking, it may be that our ‘lens’ is being questioned, rather than what the Bible itself says. It is because of this that I hope faithful followers of Jesus, as well as those who are intrigued by him – but as yet are not passionate about him – will find these stories interesting and engaging.

Confronting evil in WW II Berlin – would shy, 15-year-old Liddy learn from Christian martyrs doing it in her very midst – from Bonhoeffer, whose letters her father smuggled out of prison, to Father Kolbe, who offered his life for another at Auschwitz?

Or would she be consumed by the ultimate mistake – revealing to Nazi police officer, Keppler, that her boyfriend, Marek, a worker at their family bakery and printer for the underground, might be Jewish? He is arrested, and she, devastated, would question her own worth and God’s unconditional love.

Liddy bounces back, and summons the courage to try to resurrect the faith of Keppler, who resents the loss of key family members. She spars with him, and tensions rise as each relishes the battle. With the backdrop of air raids and spies intent on betrayal, Liddy fights for Marek’s release and works with other historical Christian figures as the underground confronts evil. When her young brother’s bus is hit by a bomb, Liddy and Keppler work to save him. But who would learn the most from the Christian martyrs of the day in this coming of age story? Just what role would God’s unconditional love take?

TREASURE – 113,856 words

 Everybody dreams of finding lost treasure as reflected in stories from Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ to Neal Stephenson’s ‘Cryptonomicon’, from ‘National Treasure’ to ‘Indiana Jones’. Our passions for adventure are never higher than when searching for something of value that is lost.

 My novel ‘Treasure’ takes unique advantage of this. It combines romance with tense spiritual warfare while maintaining the classic Stevenson narrative.

Here, a young Christian couple’s idyllic Caribbean vacation becomes two weeks of suspense, danger and high adventure when they are drawn into the quest of ancient, sunken, demonic temple artifacts.  

 I am an Evangelical Christian baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit. I write from a wide range of life experiences. I live with my wife and daughter, our dog and our cat.

Jake had lived and worked all his life in the large shadow of his famous detective father, Jedidiah Jezreel. Making a name for himself in the private eye world of the first century was tough, especially when he was having to live up to the reputation of his father. But one day his big chance came. A client. A wealthy and influential client. The case - investigate a dangerous rebel from Galilee, named Jesus of Nazareth. All of Jake's investigative savvy would be needed to "get the goods" on this charlatan from Nazareth, who was stirring up trouble in the north country of Israel. Will Jake's investigation find enough evidence to bring down Jesus of Nazareth and stop the rebel's revolt? Or will Jake be the one caught up in the throes of his own investigation? Only a mock trial, a bloody cross, and a vacant tomb would provide the final conclusion.

Can you imagine what it was like to be a poor shepherd and have an angel suddenly appear and declare that Jesus, the Savior, has been born?  Or what it was like to hear 10,000 times 10,000 angels burst forth in exuberant song over Jesus’ birth?  Have you ever wondered how Mary felt when she had to tell Joseph she was pregnant and he turned away from her, ready to break the engagement?  Or how hard it was for Joseph to believe Mary’s child was the Son of God and to endure the insults of family and friends?  Have you tried to imagine what it must have felt like for Simeon to hold the Son of God in his arms?  Have you pictured in your mind’s eye the courage it took for the Magi to follow the star and offer their costly gifts to a mere toddler?  Enter the world—the thoughts, the feelings, the fears, and the awesome moments—of the main characters in the Nativity.  See God’s amazing love and care for the human race through new eyes.

“On a cold winter’s night when the heavens almost seemed to reach down and touch the earth, a child was born in a stable . . . and many miles away, as her last kitten struggled into the world, the Great Cat Who Is Bast saw the star and wondered.”

 A Cat Out of Egypt is a luminous story of God’s love and human faith, told by Miw, an Egyptian temple cat born under the Christ Child’s star, who adopts the child Yeshua in his journey home from Egypt. An Egyptian priestess fleeing temple corruption and a powerful Nabataean caravan leader join Miw in protecting Yeshua and his family from dark forces hoping to destroy the child before he can reach his homeland.

 A stand-alone prequel to The Gospel According to Yeshua’s Cat, A Cat Out of Egypt is both a breath-taking adventure along the Nabataean caravan routes between Egypt and Petra, and an insightful look at the ways Yeshua’s early years in Egypt might have provided experiences that helped him become the man he was destined to be.

A few months before his twelfth harvest, a shepherd boy fights imaginary giants and dreams of adventure. His father, a master potter, instills a hope the Star Namer, whose stories are written in the stars, watches over them. Rumors of invasion by a horde of Hebrews rocks their world as refugees stream by, fleeing the mysterious desert wanderers. Keshub helps market pottery in Jerusalem and discovers the unspeakable secret of the Amorite king’s power over his people, helps rescue the king’s unloved son from the jaws of Molech and a bereaved young mother from the king’s harem. // The Hebrew invaders are a day’s walk away on the other side of the un-crossable flooded Jordan River. Keshub gets an inside view of Jericho marketing pottery and a bird’s eye view of the enemy camp as a spy for Gibeon on the ridge above Jericho. When the enemy crosses the un-crossable and conquers the unconquerable city with a shout, Keshub’s father understands they are not dealing with mere men and looks to the Star Namer for wisdom. Relying on an ancient family curse, he and Keshub confront the Hebrews and beg a treaty, not knowing if they will live or die. 

(Working Title: Allie’s Journey)

Allie is like many teens.  She struggles with feelings of inadequacy and wonders how she fits into the world.  An especially stressful morning pushes her to run away from school and seek peace at the carousel.  Unusual things happen, and she finds herself in another world where she’ll have to decide who she’ll trust.  An encounter with a strange man leads her to follow the Legend of the Guardian.  Allie is trusted with a special bracelet, and her job is to change the pearls from black to white.  To do that, she’s going to have to face some of the lies she’s been told back home.   Instead of believing she’s not good enough, pretty enough, or brave enough, she has to choose to believe the truth: that no matter what the world tells her, she’ll always be valued by God.  Allie doesn’t just have to fight against the lies she’s believed for so long, she also has to fight against the evil plaguing the land.  Both sides are willing to fight for what they want, and Allie wonders if she’ll ever make it home.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse release World War III without forewarning and one-fourth of the world’s population dies in a matter of hours or days, just as the Bible foretells in Revelation 6:1–8. The world’s superpowers collapse in a heartbeat. Western Europe remains mostly intact, however, and the United Nations soon proposes a seven-year peace treaty between Israel and her enemies.  

Jeff and Lisa Taylor, in their home near Columbus, Ohio, are stunned to learn that half of the population of the United States and much of the nation’s infrastructure have been destroyed in the missile attacks. Is this the end times prophesied in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible? What lies ahead for the Taylors, their two children, and their relatives in Israel?

         My purposes are to stimulate interest in prophecy and encourage study, so that the generations who are living as the prophesied events unfold do not find themselves unprepared.

To study the Biblical prophecies that are my basis for picturing the events found in a particular chapter, check the special section in the back of the book for the Bible references.  

At what point did entrusting Israel’s fate to a fourteen-year-old shepherd sound like a good idea?

David, the eighth son of Jesse, hates sheep, making his life as a shepherd the definition of miserable. He spends his days dreaming of revolution against the Philistines, the hygiene-adverse barbarians who have terrorized Israel for generations. Yet when Samuel, their country’s last and final seer, anoints David to be Israel’s protector, he might as well have commanded the boy to dig up Mount Horeb with a garden hoe. “Root out the traitor within our nation, or watch your family and hometown burn,” a near impossible mission for the fourteen-year-old shepherd who has never left the lands of his tribe.

David’s quest steers him toward pivotal, albeit hazardous to his long-term health, tasks: slaying a lion without so much as a flint knife, challenging an actual giant to a duel, and serving the most dangerous creature in all of Israel, the Mad King Saul.

His mission culminates with an epic standoff against the traitor, with Israel’s fate hanging in the balance.

This is not your Sunday school David.

David. Tyrants and Traitors is a fantastical retelling of King David, geared to young adults.

A dark past is back to haunt her.

Now a new Christian, Zoe is facing her deepest darkest secrets in a search to find forgiveness, meaning, love and most of all...

a forever Home!

The remnants of her family life is in shambles and she finds security with Mrs. Abigail. But, the death of her father rocks her world, shattered. She is taken by the State. Tossed from house to house in the foster care system, will she keep her eyes set on the one who saved her from the miry clay?

The drive to run tempts her soul, while she desperately holds back her former, sinful self.

Turning her back, can she face not giving her unborn baby a proper home and a solid future? 

Looking forward can she face the grey, with the dark pains that stole her innosence and confront the past with forgiveness? 

Only time, love and an unchanging God can tell...

(Working Title: I am Malchus)

Malchus (named in John’s gospel), the high priest’s slave, famous for the encounter in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested, tells his story.

As the personal servant of Caiaphas, Malchus hears, along with others in Jerusalem, the reports of a miracle-working prophet in the Galilee.  When that prophet threatens the temple by clearing the money-changers and the animal-sellers, the high priests are compelled to act.

Malchus observes the intrigues of the high priestly family as they collaborate with Pontius Pilate in the effort to have Jesus crucified. Claudia Procula, Pilate’s wife, and her personal servant (who has captured Malchus’ heart) are his unlikely allies in the effort to stop the unlawful proceedings.

That effort fails and when he is Instructed to arrest Jesus, Malchus is conflicted...for the one he is sent to arrest has already arrested his heart.

Malchus, who has spent his life seeking release from slavery, finds freedom in an unexpected way as he is forced to acknowledge the one who provides ultimate freedom.

The Great Pretender is a work of inspirational fiction that aims to ignite the philosophical debate surrounding the existence of God through a tale of star-crossed lovers amid a journey of self-discovery, philosophical debate, and familial strife. Through every twist and turn, the story confronts the reader’s preconceived notions that often keep us from recognizing truth.

The story weaves together two of history’s great narratives: a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tale amidst a debate that pins God’s existence versus human existentialism. Nathan, the son of a world-renowned atheist and postmodern philosopher turned cultural sensation, finds himself entangled in a youthful identity crisis. His quest for freedom from a nonsensical life and his father’s sphere of influence takes him to picturesque Charleston, South Carolina. He meets Kate, the daughter of a Christian minister, and falls in love with her vivacious nature and spirit. Their opposing worldviews collide, forcing Nathan to come to terms with his questions of life, love and faith.

The inevitable meeting of their fathers is Nathan’s worst nightmare come true. Nathan’s father challenges a well known Christian apologist to a televised debate regarding the existence and influence of God. The apologist becomes ill and asks Kate’s father to take his place. While they argue the tenets of evolutionary theory versus belief and faith in God, Nathan and Kate’s love and commitment to each other are challenged, prompting an internal debate that forces Nathan to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Nathan soon learns that finding himself hinges on losing everything he holds dear.

Danya, an independent-minded young woman, grows up in the village of Nazareth early in the first century and seeks an answer to her question, "For what purpose was I created?" At the age of thirteen, she witnesses an insurrection in Galilee led by the charismatic Judah ben Hezekiah. Though she thinks God's will for her is to join this movement to free her people from Roman domination, social restrictions and family tragedies snuff out that dream. Danya and her widowed father are forced to flee to Jerusalem to escape the inevitable Roman retaliation for Hezekiah's revolt. In Jerusalem, Danya's life changes forever when her father is mistakenly identified as a revolutionary conspirator and executed. She becomes the property of her older brother Chuza, the Chief Steward of Herod Archelaus.

This fast paced, in-the-moment story follows Danya's experiences as marriage, motherhood, illness, and widowhood complicate and deepen her understanding of herself, her God, and the times in which she lives. Her story is tightly interwoven with the political, religious, and cultural conflicts of the tumultuous world of early first century Palestine, the years of the Roman occupation immediately preceding the public life of Jesus (4 BCE to 16 CE). By the time of her death at the early age of thirty-three, Danya comes to understand her life as a spiritual journey, one which has moved her, step by step, closer to the God who has been at her side all along. Danya's search for a meaningful life, though unique to her world, is both universal and contemporary.

While excavating her grandmother’s home, a property filled to the brim after years of hoarding, Lila Hubbard unearths a box of letters that contain mysterious family history, and an unlikely heirloom is stolen. Lila must choose whether to run or begin a hunt for real treasure.

Can one warrior defeat an empire?

The year is 68.

The Roman empire teeters on chaos as civil war looms. 

Lucius, the disillusioned warrior, and Tychon, his brother, leave the battlefields of Judea on a quest to rescue Lucius’ wife from Nero’s murderous rampage.

Lucius takes prisoner scores of Christian believers, and their leaders, to exchange for his beloved wife Julia.  He has fought for the Empire for decades in the cold and wet battlefields of Britannia and Gaul. Now he must fight against the Empire as it seeks to imprison and kill his wife, who has converted to this new religion.

The storms and cataclysms that erupt during his journey mirror his growing disquiet at turning over these good people to certain death. And can the growing love of his brother for one of the young women in chains survive the violence ahead?

From the sunny cities of Ephesus and Corinth to the filthy and treacherous streets of Rome, long buried hatreds resurface and vie with newfound hope and love for each of the brothers. The prisoners include the most important leaders of the infant religion: Timothy, Barnabas, Lydia, Apollos and the wife of Pontius Pilate, Claudia Procula. At Rome, as he searches, Lucius learns he is not just the pursuer but also the pursued. An infamous figure from the past seeks Lucius’ death, even as one of his Christian prisoners seeks his redemption.

The battle is underway, for his family and for his soul.

This book is an historical novel based on a true story. It is about the author's great-great grandfather, James Scott, who lived a fascinating life during the 1800s.  He is one of many men who carried the Gospel of Christ into the Indiana wilderness in the mid 1800s.

In 1910 his grandson, Hamilton Mercer of Greensburg, Indiana, wrote an article about James Scott, which was published in the Christian Standard. The author has taken that article, studied the history behind the facts, and has written this book.

What made America great?  It was men like James Scott of whom God used to preach the “simple” Gospel, securing the ‘freedoms,’ which have been handed down to us today.   God help us, if we ever forget that fact.

The name “Alana” means beautiful.  But what makes a person beautiful?  During a date with her daddy, Alana discovers the answer to this question.   

Daddy’s Beautiful Sunshine is a picture story book written for preschool and elementary-aged girls (ages 4-9). From a biblical perspective, this story defines inner beauty and also encourages fathers to spend quality time with their daughters.  Parents, pastors and counselors can use this book to explain God’s definition of true beauty.  In addition to promoting strong father/daughter relationships and positive self-esteem, giving to others with no thought of receiving (character building), city life, and helping the poor (servanthood) are several other themes portrayed in Daddy’s Beautiful Sunshine.  
 

Today our religious views within the Christian tradition are under severe attack by the unethical forces of evil. Big institutions are lining up to destroy Christ’s followers freedom to actively believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The adversaries are big government, big corporations, big media, big education, and big principalities that identify themselves as progressives. They are guided by an anti-Christ worldview that has combined to declare war against Body of Christ and freedom of religion in America. This attack is on Americans personal ability to openly hold fast to religious beliefs, have a religious conscience, worship as we choose and teach biblical values to our children. The secular progressives are politically winning and inflicting painful civil sanctions against Christians, their businesses, and clergy. They are focused on systematically destroying every symbol of Christ in the public square in America today. This book is the process we Christians need to follow to combat this war on Christ!

(Working title: His Amazing Grace)

     Twelve-year-old Gabriel Clayborn sings praise and worship music at church to glorify God and to please his mother.  He's been praying for her to get over a lingering sickness she says is nothing but a summer cold.  When she is diagnosed with lung cancer, Gabriel vows to never sing God's praises again; after she dies he becomes an angry teenage rock and roller.

     His band, Anxtgnostic, experiences some success.  But it isn't a good thing.  The rock lifestyle pulls Gabriel farther away from God.  When he learns that Christy Leah, his childhood sweetheart has died, Gabriel's simmering anger erupts into a violent episode that lands him in prison.  While incarcerated Gabriel meets a mysterious man (angel?) who tries to help him.  Gabriel is less than receptive, but seeds of change are planted.

     After prison Gabriel continues to struggle with his demons until forced to decide either to cling to his pain and anger or to open himself to love and redemption.  Gabriel chooses Jesus.  The story's happy ending is enhanced when Gabriel discovers Christy is still alive.

This novel imagines that the beloved biblical character Nicodemus was the brash young scribe who told Herod that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem.  Years later, still saddled with guilt over the slaughter of that town's children, elderly Nicodemus is visited by John the Apostle, who seeks insight to help him write his Gospel.  John arrives just months before the Romans destoy the Temple and murder Nicoodemus's daughter, Anna.  As John takes Nicodemus and his granddaughter as refugees to Ephesus, he develops the opening lines and general theme for his Gospel.  Nicodemus finds what he needs to forgive the Romans and at last find peace with God through the forgiveness of his own sin.

Nicodemus is the first book in the Founders Series.

Anna is a teenaged shepherdess living in 1^st-century Galilee, not far from the towns of Chorazin and Capernaum.  She is recently betrothed to a man from a neighboring farm.  Anna is looking after her family’s flock of sheep in the hill country, but her entire life is about to be upended.  She learns just how quickly life can change through a progression of events which begin with her escape from a man who would do her harm, lead to her making a sin offering at the temple in Jerusalem, and culminate in her being invited by Rabbi Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus) to study and travel with him and his other disciples.  This is a love story: Anna gets married to the handsome “boy next door.”  First and foremost, however, this is the love story of a person and the God who made her. 

One of the most enigmatic passages of Scripture is the account in Matthew 27:52-53 of a miracle that occurred at Jesus’ death: “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (ESV).

Though an affirmation of the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection for the future of believers, this passage raises many questions. Who were those saints? Why were they chosen? What happened to them after they were raised?

Out of the Tombs tells the fictional story of one of those saints, a young man named Zev bar Simeon, a carpenter in first-century Jericho. Zev witnesses the healing of blind Bartimaeus, and hearing rumors that Yeshua may be the Messiah, decides to follow him to Jerusalem to determine for himself if the rumors are true. On the way he is murdered, and his body is found and buried in a pauper’s tomb near Jerusalem. When he is raised, he enters the city, finds refuge with an innkeeper, learns of Yeshua’s death and resurrection, finds true love, and wrestles with matters of vengeance and forgiveness toward his murderer. Ultimately, Zev seeks to find God’s purpose for giving him new life.

Ex Dove is an illustrated message of hope to women in a crisis of suffering. It is in the form of a fictional story told to a young daughter of Job. Although the character, Ex Dove, is a young daughter of Job in the story, she represents to the author every daughter--young or old, from any nation--that will eventually find herself in a crisis of suffering. While the story and characters are fictional, there is nothing fictional about the truths one can discover from Ex Dove.  The illustrations are phenonmenal and give a beautiful visual to concepts that are not easy to grasp.  

Frustrated, Pastor Don finds himself slowly suffocating in a church where people are more interested in the homemade delicacies of potluck dinners than in changing the world. If only he could see their hearts, he could make a difference. One night after an exasperating Bible study, Don cries out to the Lord, asking for the ability to see the hearts of people. God the Father sends the Revealer, a human embodiment of the Holy Spirit, to spend a week with Don. The Revealer leads and guides Don through monumental discoveries of the heart. Don laughs, cries, and is broken as he sees the core of other’s souls. At the end, Don’s own heart is revealed to him. Don’s relationship with the Revealer is applicable and available for all, and those who read this book will have a strong desire to know this Revealer. When we are able to understand each other’s hearts, we will grow closer.

The period:      Early first century

The place:        Palestine

The teacher Yeshua of Nazareth travels throughout Palestine, performing miraculous healings and preaching a controversial message—that in him, the Kingdom of God has arrived. Some Jewish religious leaders are outraged by his blasphemous claims and growing popularity, and they plot to have him eliminated through Prefect Pilate. Meanwhile, two of Yeshua’s disciples conspire with an underground resistance movement to spearhead a violent revolt that will be triggered by Yeshua’s arrest. Aware of the bitter, simmering resentment against Roman rule in Jerusalem, Tribune Lucius Ocella prepares to act swiftly and mercilessly at any sign of rebellion, and he seeks advice from Yosef from Arimathea—is the teacher from Galilee a threat to Roman rule? How should he advise the already unpopular Prefect Pilate? Powerful but conflicting interests hurtle along different trajectories to converge with explosive consequences when Yeshua triumphantly enters Jerusalem for the feast of Pesach.

In this immersive experience, you will walk with Yeshua and his disciples through Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Learn how his teachings, life, and death fulfill Scriptural prophecy, and discover how the revelation vision of the Apostle John depicts the fulfillment through Yeshua of God’s vast plan for the redemption of humankind.

Pulitzer-nominated author Kent Gramm and nature photographer Chris Heisey take readers on a journey through the Old Testament in the voices and images of animals, birds, reptiles, butterflies, flowers, and even a few humans. This entirely unique book provides new, thought-provoking, and entertaining points of view on biblical passages and personalities from Genesis through Malachi. Individual readers, students, and church study groups will find their ideas on God, human nature, and creation challenged, informed, and enlightened. Nature's Bible is timely and urgent, as it deals theologically with mass extinction, climate change, and the environmental crisis. But the issues are spoken accessibly, through voices that readers both young and old can identify with, and to which readers informed and uninformed can relate.

There are several fleeting, minor characters that populate the New Testament.  This book takes four of them--the rich young man, the widow and her mite, the centurion Cornelius and the woman caught in adultery and fleshes out fictional narratives for each of them which are woven into the fabric of the actual New Testament narrative. Engaging these four unique stories will hopefully lead the reader to enjoy the actual Biblical narrative with fresh insight.  Jacob’s story is about choosing between God and money.  Sarah’s story is about believing in Jesus’ power to heal.  Cornelius’ story is about coming to faith even in the face of a questionable past.  And Miriam’s story is about both physical and moral restoration with the ensuing genuine commitment to live out a deep-seated personal faith in Christ.

A collection of fictional short stories reflecting particular moments of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation from a new, original and unique perspective; creating one master thread showcasing God’s love and plan for His children (i.e. the story of Cain and Abel, is told through the perspective of Eve).  Love's Narrative provides these unique angles:

- Presents three themes in every story: God’s breath, God’s plan, and His children asking “Why me?”

- Shows how prevalent each theme is from Genesis to Revelation.

- Focuses on unique perspectives of the Biblical stories. For example, Job is told through a conversation between God and Satan.

- Presents compelling biblical reasons why keeping one’s faith and trust in God is so difficult through pain. 

- Presents how God’s plan and love triumphs over any pain one may feel in life.

- Demonstrates how closely the Old Testament and New Testament are connected.

- Answers the ever long question of “why me?" "Why do I have to feel pain?"  "Why isn’t God helping me?"  "Why is God allowing this?"  "Why do I not feel God’s love?"  

The novel IRAS OF THE EMPIRE tells the story of one woman’s quest for the source of power and peace in a dangerous world. A servant enjoys privilege in the household of Pontius Pilate, but the villas and palaces of Caesarea, Jerusalem, and Jericho are no refuge from the casual brutality of the empire and the capricious dance of power between the spirits and the priesthood, the prophet and the king. Entangled in tragedy, secrets, and murder, Iras yearns for true power and strikes out to find its source. She seeks the remnant of her family in Meroe, the Nubian capital rivalled only by Alexandria in its splendor; there she discovers her father’s mother, a pantheon of goddesses and queens, love, leprosy, and betrayal. In time, Iras marries a successful silversmith in Ephesus, but the peaceful life she finally built is imperiled by a new religion catching fire. Is it salvation or a threat to her marriage, her wealth, and the goddess she serves?  Iras’s past collides with her future, and she faces a life-altering decision as the tension between the silversmiths and the defenders of the one true God erupts into the riot at Ephesus.

Faith and Drama contains twenty-seven short plays and seven dramatic readings that were originally performed as part of a Christian theater ministry in the Middle East. The actors are young people in their twenties and thirties. They, like most of the audience, are second-generation believers. They did not have the option growing up of attending Sunday school and summer camp, as they are minority believers in a country that is 99.2 percent Muslim. So even though these are short plays, they are written to have an impact. Every piece is Scripture based. The goal is to entertain, but more importantly to teach, convict, and change behavior. As citizens of the Kingdom of God our response to day-to-day circumstances should not be informed strictly by family, culture, or national identity, but on who we are in Christ. Most of the plays are two to six minutes in length so they can fit into larger events such as church services, youth meetings, summer camps, retreats, conferences, and special events.

 What if Jesus wrote Sci-Fi is a book of ten stand-alone parables. It transports you to kingdoms at war, a spaceship in crisis, and a crazy skydiving guru, all while teaching Biblical lessons. It is complete at approximately 30,000 words including scriptures and study questions, and perfect for a weekly bible study. The parables will entertain readers while presenting challenging questions. Do you just read the map or also walk the territory? Can the King find enough willing soldiers in time to save his city? Is cashing a free check work or belief? The Map and the territory, the first parable, enters a world where a country reveres the founders' brilliantly detailed map. The map shows the continent's vast territory and urges all citizens to cross the river and experience this beautiful land, though few do. Only a select group still travel into the wild territory while the rest merely learn about the map. The parable presents the balance of understanding the bible, the map, and living it out in real life, the territory. The following nine parables each explore another area of the map and territory in a fun story. The stories are modern, fun, and sometimes set in other worlds. They are meant to appeal to a wide range of readers, teachers, and disciples and to challenge their Christian faith.

What begins as a simple dream escalates into a fascinating journey aboard the Ecclesia Express, a train like no other that transports passengers to Calvary and then ultimately to the Shining City. This story is told in the spirit of Pilgrim’s Progress as it captures one person’s quest in first coming to faith in The Prince of Peace and then continuing on to the promised world to come. The unique feature of this story is the fellow passengers on board. It is likely that many readers will know some of them, for they are the composers of the hymns and spiritual songs that have inspired generations of believers. The wonder of this work is that it may not be a dream at all.  

In Tiberias, the capital of Galilee, a young woman, Miriam, struggles to free her wealthy father, Benjamin, who has been imprisoned by Antipas. His crime? Refusing to destroy the only written scroll of the Nazarene's words from Seven Springs. Parosh, the head of the local Pharisees, who failed in his plotting against this new teacher that day, is instead targeting those like Miriam and her father, who are supporting the teacher with their readings of his words and spreading the story of the Pharisees’ defeat. The powerful religious leader won’t be satisfied until their scroll is destroyed and Miriam and her father are dead. A disgraced alcoholic, Daniel, who was trained by Parosh and owes him a life debt, has negotiated an agreement with the palace on behalf of Miriam, an agreement saving himself from debt slavery to Parosh and freeing Miriam’s father from prison. Before honoring that agreement, however, Miriam has arranged one last reading of the Seven Springs scroll, a reading with others who played key roles there and interacted with the Nazarene and the Pharisees. Their combined memories shed new light on what was secretly taking place that day, starting a series of events that will reshape Roman and Judean politics and change the course of our world.

The purpose of writing about the Apostle Peter is simple!  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and the Apostle Peter was no exception. After all, he denied knowing Jesus three times right before the crucifixion. But God!  By the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter overcame his past to become a critical leader in the first-century church. Just like Peter, we all have the same opportunity to overcome our sinful past and work in powerful ways on behalf of the Kingdom of God. While no one knows Simon Peter’s life prior to meeting Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, my novel provides a unique picture of Simon as a young, arrogant man with no direction in life, except making a meager living by fishing. Certainly, Simon Peter’s walk with Jesus is well-documented, but this story provides added fictional insights into Peter’s character prior to meeting Jesus and joining him as one of the twelve disciples. Readers will be able to examine the life of one of the Bible’s greatest characters.  And Simon Peter was a character!  As a result, they can apply the same biblical principles to have a compelling impact on this world, just as St. Peter had two thousand years ago.

Growing up in small town Mason, South Carolina, Mazelle Dorcas Jacobs struggles to live a life approved by God and man. The man she is most concerned about pleasing is her father, Pastor Max Jacobs, aka Poppa, whose conservative views have Mazelle questioning right vs. wrong on a daily basis. The fifteen-year-old teenager constantly applies the do’s and don’ts of life to people she meets during a time when the Vietnam war, the Beatles, and free love were cultural phenomena’s. Her biblical guideline is the Ten Commandments. With compassion and humor, Mazelle uses the principles as she encounters situations with church members, people at the grocery store, her science teacher, and the neighbor next door. Her best friend and rebel, Clover, believes there is more to life than always following the rules. A major turn of events happens when Pastor Max informs the family they are moving to Zimbabwe, Africa for an extended missionary stay. This unexpected journey, to a country with a different language and cultural views, has Mazelle reassessing life values in light of the commandments and her father’s biblical teachings.  As Mazelle searches for answers, she finds humanity at its finest.

Following the crucifixion of Yeshua the Nazarene, all Jerusalem is abuzz with fear and confusion.  His disciples are in hiding. Jewish leaders worry that his followers will steal his body and then make miraculous claims. Roman authorities flex their muscles to keep the peace. And the women who supported Yeshua's ministry, the women who remained all day at Golgotha witnessing the agonizing death of their Promised One, the women who did not hide, what about them? During the 48 hours following his crucifixion, these women and others who were among his followers, gather at a cottage in Jerusalem's lower city, seeking comfort or reassurance, or simply someone else who shares their grief. As women often do after a tragedy, these Yeshua followers bring food to share along with personal stories about their encounters with him. In their grief, they tell how Yeshua healed and helped and drew them in as he spread his message about the coming of the Kingdom of God. What can they do now that all is lost?

What manner of man was James, brother of Jesus? What do you know about an important person who is mentioned less than a dozen times in Scripture, yet is pivotal in the life of the early church? This biblical novel gives personality to James and at the same time remains true to Scripture.  A walk with James, as the head of the church in Jerusalem to the martyred end of his life, allows a colorful and faithful look at his personality and character. A fictional family of his own draws the reader into James’s daily life and struggles, both with the problems of the fledgling church and his own, for which he seeks answers.  Amusing and heartwarming events of his adoptive family open a window into the life and heart of James and his desire for all believers to live the Christian life as he had set forth in his epistle.  The story illuminates the warm, generous, and loving character of James that is only hinted at in that letter. How did James’s legacy of love and obedience affect the life of the early church and the family he has acquired, and how will that legacy affect you?

(Working Title: A Message of Life and Death: An Allegory of Missionary Foundations) There’s a message that must be delivered. A message from the Prince himself. It’s Ke’u’s job to deliver it. And now the Prince is dead…or is he? Ke’u longs for his life to have purpose. But that search for purpose has left him wracked with guilt and fear. The Prince had known everything, and now Ke’u can’t understand why he’s been chosen. But he knows he must go. He sets out on a journey with his friends Marty and Drift to deliver the message to a mysterious group of people. Along the way they’ll meet many different people who will help them, the kinds of people the King himself likes to use to deliver his messages, including the Fish Guy, the old Law Professor, and a girl who might not be all that she seems to be. In the end, Ke’u will realize that the message he’s been asked to deliver is the same one he needs to keep reminding himself of in order to learn what he needs to effectively deliver it. And when he does, he’ll discover what the true purpose of his life really is.

Brief Description – The Inn on Jericho Road   The Inn on Jericho Road is a scripture-based imagined story of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. It illuminates the impact of an encounter with Jesus, exemplified by His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, and how this message of love, ‘Living Water’, is passed on from one individual to another. A Samaritan merchant travels to marketplaces along the Jordan River. On this journey, he is unaware that he is days behind Jesus, on route to the Jordan, during Jesus’ final month of ministry, culminating on Calvary Hill. Throughout his travels, the merchant has been hearing and refusing to believe stories of Jesus’ ministry – until he has an encounter with Jesus, witnesses His teaching and feeding of the crowd. In spite of what he has seen, he thinks: “It’s just a trick.” His resistance weakens after a conversation with a disciple of Jesus. Now, what he has seen and heard occupies his mind as he travels. When he encounters a victim of robbery laying near death on Jericho Road, he recalls Jesus’ words: "Love one another," and he reacts, taking the man to a simple inn. In the course of healing the victim, the merchant shares his experience with the innkeeper, the niece and the robbery victim. Each overcome their judgement of one another and are changed by Jesus' message of love -- love shared even in the rustic confines of a remote inn.

Mephibosheth lived around the beginning of the 10th Century BC. His father was Jonathan, a great friend of the future King David and the grandson of King Saul. When his grandfather and father died in battle, the shock was so great that the little boy of five years old was dropped by his caregiver rendering him crippled in both feet. His family fled in fear to a remote village called Lo Debar. Eventually, King David remembered his covenant with Jonathan and restored Mephibosheth to Jerusalem, where he lived in the palace. Very little is known of Mephibosheth from Biblical history. We know that he lived during the rise of the new city of Jerusalem, lived in the palace of David, and undoubtedly witnessed the building of Solomon’s Temple. He would have known of David’s adultery with Bathsheba, his songs and psalms, and the challenges to his power from his son Absalom and others. How did this man, falling from prince to pauper, from able-bodied to a cripple, then restored to the king’s palace, navigate such a turbulent journey? This is the imagined story of Mephibosheth’s life and times. A life overcoming disappointment with courage, hope, and faith.

YESHUA is the tetralogy dedicated to the story of Jesus. Written after a long process of exegetical, historical and spiritual study, the tetralogy recounts the life of Jesus starting from his birth, going through the two and a half years shared with his disciples, and ending with his death: from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from the manger to the tomb, from the revelation made to Miriam to the one addressed to each of us. Through the language of the historical novel, the author retraces step by step the story of Jesus; he does so by reserving a particular sensitivity towards the human and psychological aspects of the protagonists, leading the reader to empathize with the same doubts and weaknesses of the disciples, to identify with their expectations and their falls, to marvel at the bending of the normal natural order, to kneel, with amazement and confusion in their eyes, before the mystery of Heaven made earth. These four novels will take the reader from the dusty streets of Galilee to the golden rooms of Jerusalem, from the nets cast in the lake of Tiberias to the blood spilled on the temple altar; they will lead the reader to empathize with the same doubts and weaknesses of the disciples, to empathize with their expectations and their downfalls, to marvel at the bending of the normal natural order, to kneel, with amazement and confusion in their eyes, before the mystery of heaven made earth. The tetralogy: Yeshua. The kingdom Yeshua. The flee. Yeshua. The birth. Yeshua. The passion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiAFkBhiiEQ&t=1s