‘Smoky Mountain Inspirational Novel Series’ now at Amazon in Paperback

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This week Book 1 of the Smoky Mountain Series took it’s place in the Paperback Inspirational Novel section of the Amazon book store.  I’m really happy to report that this first book of the series —Set Free To Love —  is now available at a new lower price — only $8.99.

It’s only a story — but when Private Detective Maddison Holt, Uncle Matt, Beth Hanover, and her young brother Lex get hold of your heart, you won’t feel like it’s just a story —– and you won’t want to miss picking up Book 2 of the series as soon as possible. The Smoky Mountain Series brings you stories where strong, loving, courageous characters meet the challenges of life with the power of God’s Word, and where true romance wins out over all.

Set Free To Love

As his vision suddenly blurred, Maddison realized he’d let it happen again. He swiped at his eyes with a thumb and forefinger, trying at the same time to pinch back more tears. He’d have to pull off the highway if he didn’t get better control of himself. The next moment, he could feel the anger boiling up from deep inside, needing an outlet. He’d swung back and forth like this relentlessly, between tears and anger for … how many weeks had it been now? Way too many … but then not really enough … not enough to dull the pain or answer any of the questions.

This first book in the Smoky Mountain Series follows private detective Maddison Holt’s journey from grief, guilt, and self-incrimination to a place where he is released from all of those burdens and able to freely give himself to loving and being loved. Order it here.

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Breaking the Mold

Some of the happiest hours of my life have been spent reading great inspirational fiction. But during the past couple of decades, I’ve noticed a trend in that genre that troubles me deeply – not to mention that it takes the fun out of reading inspirational romance and mystery novels. What I’ve been seeing is that nearly every major publishing house now has a mold into which they force every Christian novel – with characters that are carbon copies of scores of characters before them, and with a plot that requires characters to meet within a certain number of pages and to carry out specific types of actions within a certain number of chapters – and worst of all – with themes that carry the reader into the erroneous doctrines of man’s traditions rather than the pure Word of God.

I’ve failed to find one inspirational novel in the past several years that does not promote the erroneous belief that God is behind every single thing that happens in our lives and, therefore, is behind all of the trouble, afflictions, sickness, hurt, and heartache that we undergo. The doctrine that says God deliberately allows (sanctions) those things in our lives in order to teach us something or bring us into a more Christlike character is rampant throughout the Christian bookstore shelves. Now, let’s not beat around the bush: If God deliberately allows those evils when He has the power and the know-how to restrain them is exactly the same thing as His putting those things in our lives Himself. That teaching goes against everything Jesus Christ taught and lived.

I don’t intend this biographical vignette to be a major Bible lesson, but I will say here that the Word of God is extremely clear for the New Covenant believer that God says He is not in control of all things, and in fact He does not get His own way about a lot of things. He wants all men to be saved, but they will not be. Jesus taught us by His own personal example that God wants all the sick to be healed as well, because He never refused one sick person who came to Him for healing, and he sent out His disciples to visit the surrounding towns and to heal every sick person in those towns – announcing to them as they did so that they were experiencing the Kingdom of God in that deliverance and healing. He wanted the people in His own hometown to be healed as well, but His Word tell us clearly that He “could not” do any mighty miracles because of their unbelief.

God does not want us to suffer from sickness, deadly storms, earthquakes, accidents, or any number of other horrible destructive forces. But we experience them simply because we live in a cursed world where sin has opened the door to those things, and most of us do not yet have enough of a handle on God’s Word to be living every aspect of our lives according to it. But none of that is God’s plan for us. If it were, He wasted His breath when He breathed out Psalm 91 to the Psalmist and had it included in the canon of the Holy Bible.

So the Christian novels that promote the teaching that it is actually part of God’s will and plan for us to suffer the kinds of things Jesus delivered people from is simply another attempt by man to cop out of our personal responsibility to study and learn God’s Word for ourselves and then to believe it for ourselves. If we can blame God for all the problems we’re facing, we don’t have to take any responsibility for their cause or their cure either one. It’s convenient for the lazy believer, but it is a pack of lies about our God.

His Word also tells us clearly that He has given us His Word, His promises, and His Holy Spirit that will impart to us “all things pertaining to life and godliness” and will create into us the Divine nature of God. The teaching that problems, hardships, and heartaches create the Divine nature of Jesus Christ in us is a direct contradiction of God’s personal Word on the subject. Yet hundreds of inspirational novels that have lined the bookstore shelves for years now keep preaching that demonically inspired theme again and again.

So when the Lord called me to write inspirational novels, He called me to write stories that were true to His Word and that presented Him in the light of what Jesus showed us daily in His time with us on the earth. Jesus said He spoke only what the Father wanted Him to speak and He did only the works that the Father wanted Him to do. So I make every effort in my inspirational novels to show God doing exactly what Jesus did and said. And because He’s still the same “yesterday, today, and forever,” I show Him doing and saying the same things in the everyday lives of ordinary believers in the 21st century.

It’s past time for us to have some inspirational novels that don’t fit the molds. It’s time for stories that show us what it’s really like to live in the 21st century with a God who is just like Jesus Christ.

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Book 1 of Smoky Mountain Series: Only $1.99 during June

Detective Maddison Holt is a man who loves God, but after facing a tragic loss, and accepting the guilt for causing that tragedy, he finds himself doubting both God and himself. Grief, guilt, and self-condemnation are keeping him from being free to love or even receive love from the woman the Lord wants to bless him with for the rest of his life. His journey into the truth that can set him free and give him another chance to love is the story you’ll find in SET FREE TO LOVE.

But Maddison’s story is just the beginning. Because once you get Maddison and Beth on their way to a happily-ever-after, you’ll find that several of the other characters in Book # 1 wanted a book of their own as well. And so the series grows. Four books currently make up the Smoky Mountain family of novels — each with its own hero who faces a challenge that only God’s love and power can overcome. There are more to come, and, hopefully, once you read Maddison’s story, you’ll want to read them all.

SET FREE TO LOVE went on sale yesterday at the Kindle store on Amazon.com. For the rest of June, you can purchase it for only $1.99. Check it out. And if you don’t have a Kindle, no problem. Amazon has a free Kindle app for any device you use. You can download it right from the page where you order SET FREE TO LOVE.

 

 

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Hurray! ‘Quiver’ Is On Sale Now: $.99

A Quiver Full of Arrows, one of my most recent inspirational digital novels is now on sale for only $.99.

The sale lasts for 72 hours —
All day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

If you’re looking for a wholesome story with captivating characters that will melt your heart —  if you’re looking for a story that reminds you God cares about and has solutions for our everyday problems in our everyday lives — if you’re looking for a story that has a slightly surprising, but well-deserved happy ending — then this is the book for you.

On Tuesday, the price increases to $1.99 — which is still a pretty good deal.

Then on Friday, the book goes back to it’s regular price of $2.99

You can read a description of the story and get more information by visiting the book’s page at Amazon’s Kindle Store.

And if you don’t have a Kindle or an iPad or iPhone, you can download a free app from Amazon that will let you use your desktop or laptop as an e-reader.

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Inspirational Novel Series Has Something for Everyone

The Smoky Mountain Series of inspirational novels has something for everyone. Each book follows the story of its main character as he learns to trust God and use His Word to win over the enormous challenges and struggles of life.

Each book also offers an element of romance because, let’s be real: romance is a very, very big part of life. Successful romance brings joy and completion. Unfulfilled romance causes confusion and despair. The longing for romance stirs up eagerness and hope. Unexpected romance brings surprise and excitement. Loss of romance produces pain and heartbreak. Whatever the affect of romance in our lives, it definitely plays a part at some point.

And the third element in each of these novels is family. As readers of the series, you will meet a whole community of family and friends who share their lives as they learn to overcome life’s problems with the power of God’s Word and who experience romance the way God intended it to be. This ever-increasing extended family of delightful, true-to-life characters will encourage your faith and your own commitment to living every part of life by God’s Word.

In Book # 1 – Set Free To Love – meet private detective Maddison Holt, who is so bound by grief, guilt, and self-incrimination that he feels unfit to love or to enjoy the gift of a woman’s love when the Lord offers it to him. His only hope is in learning to trust God’s Word anew and dig out of it the truths that will set him free. But freedom comes with its own challenges, and he must learn even more about using God’s Word to maintain his victory.

In Book # 2 – Cameron’s Rib – meet pastor Cameron McDaniels, who believes he has found the one woman who is the answer to his prayer for a helpmate. But she is still mourning the death of her former fiance and is afraid to love again. Cameron’s efforts to relieve her fears with his own love are not enough, and he must learn to fight the battle for her deliverance with God’s Word. Travel with this captivating couple from Illinois to Tennessee to Honduras and back as they find their answers and their victory.

Book # 3 – Repaired By Love – introduces Lionel Butler, an auto-mechanic and business owner, who has caused many a girl’s heart to flutter, but he never even notices because he’s convinced he’s destined to be a bad husband and father. His future looks bleak and hopeless. And because he’s convinced he can never believe in God, he feels he has nowhere to turn for help — until one woman of God touches his heart enough to soften it and open it to Jesus Christ.

Book # 4 – Jonah’s Song – introduces Cameron’s brother, Professor Jonah McDaniels — violinist, composer, conductor — who discovers love late in life and struggles with giving a place to his feelings. But after learning to set his heart free, he is suddenly faced with new, unexpected challenges in his life that threaten his new-found freedom and his long-awaited chance for happiness.

Book # 5 – This Fire In My Heart – is still in progress. It follows the story of Maddison Holt’s life-long friend, Cherokee minister Thomas Blaze of God Ross, as he faces his own challenges and discovers his own answers in the Holy Book as well. We’ll save any details of Book # 5 for later.

Each main character in the series faces situations that are impossible in the natural, but God has a plan. God always has a plan. And if we will just believe Him and throw our whole being into cooperating with Him, He will lead us to victory. So come read the stories of Maddison, Cameron, Lionel, Jonah, and Blaze, and let God’s great plan for restoring their lives inspire and encourage your own heart and life as well.

The Smoky Mountain Series is now coming to the Kindle Store on Amazon.com. Book # 1 is available at this link, and Book # 2 will be online in one week, with Books 3 and 4 following close behind. So power up that Kindle, Nook, laptop, iPad, or iPhone. Download your copy of the first book today. Then sit back, prop up your feet, take a sip of fresh-brewed coffee, and let the happy experience begin.

(Books 1-4 are also available in print at some bookstores and from the publisher’s website. They will be available in print on Amazon as well in the near future.)

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