Hello all,

I've been gone for quite some time (dealing with some family issues). I have missed you! But I would like to share something exciting with you.

I mentioned on a thread some time ago that I was working on a book with my dad about God's character. It has been a long haul journey, but I'm excited to report that the book is done and will be released next week! Yay!

Knowing that there are so many here who value God's beautiful character, I wanted to make sure you were some of the first to find out about the book. You can get a little more information at www.freedomfighterbook.com, and you can also pre-order the book there if you want.

We will soon have the first chapter up for review on that website, but since it's not there yet, I will post it here so you may read it. If you know of others who are interested in the topic of God's character, I would be pleased if you would pass on the news to them!

Writing the book with my father has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. Spending part of every day immersed in the wonderful truth about God and how He has dealt with the Great Controversy has been such an incredible blessing!

If you decide to read the book, I would love to hear your feedback. It still blows my mind to think that even with all the wonderful things we know about God thus far, we will be learning ever more wonderful things throughout eternity!

Thanks for letting me share!

Love,
Kelley

CHAPTER ONE: The Universal War on Terror / Crisis in God's Creation


"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." --Dorothy Thompson


You live in a war zone.

No matter what continent you live on, no matter what country you’re from, no matter your nationality, religion, language, or race, you live on a battlefield. But this is no ordinary war. There are no bombs, bullets, tanks, or planes. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, this is an invisible war—a war being fought for the hearts and minds of God’s intelligent beings. This is a war of propaganda and fear. For centuries, God has been fighting a war on terror.


Imagine that you live in a small, isolated town. There is one doctor in this town, and he has just told you that you have an aggressive form of deadly cancer. Without treatment, you’ll be dead in a matter of weeks. Fortunately, he says he has a formula that will cure you and restore you to perfect health. In addition, he claims that if you take this treatment, you will live a long and prosperous life and never be sick again. There’s just one catch: his treatment contains cyanide.

Cyanide? you think. Isn’t that a deadly poison? Concerned, you question the doctor. You desperately want to be healthy, but it’s hard to believe that cyanide will help. The doctor assures you that everything will be just fine if you follow his instructions.

Would you drink the cyanide?

Wouldn’t your decision be based on whether you trusted the doctor or not? If you and the doctor were friends, you would trust him to help you. But what if you believed the doctor wanted to get rid of you? What if you’d heard a rumor that he was looking for a chance to kill you? Would you be willing to drink his cyanide treatment then?

I wouldn’t, and I’m willing to bet that you wouldn’t either. In fact, you might even question whether his diagnosis was true.


Trust. This is the issue at the center of the war that is raging in the universe. But this war is not about a doctor. It’s about God.

Can we trust God? This is the question at the heart of the universal war on terror. It’s a question God has been answering for many centuries. Maybe it seems like it should be an easy question to answer. But it has taken us a long time to reach a conclusion because we can’t see or think clearly. On this planet, our minds are clouded with something called “sin.”


Sin is a rebellious attitude that comes from distrusting God. It is like a disease. Just as cancer grows from a single cell into something that can destroy you, sin starts small and eventually gets big and ugly. If it isn’t healed, it will break our connection to God, the source of life. Breaking that connection leads to death.

When a lamp is unplugged, the light goes out. This is what happens to a person who has severed his connection with God. His life “goes out.” Sin is dangerous because it causes death. That’s why God warns us to stay away from it.


Our planet hasn’t always been full of sin. In fact, God created Earth to be a paradise. During creation week, he planted a beautiful garden—the Garden of Eden. Then, he created the first humans—Adam and Eve—and put them in the garden. Everything he made was perfect. God intended it to be that way forever.

Unfortunately, things didn’t stay perfect for very long. Sin entered our world through Adam and Eve. They “sinned” when they decided not to trust God.

God had asked them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree in the garden where they lived. They were free to eat from any other tree, but not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told them they would die if they ate the fruit of that tree.

One day, Eve met a serpent at that very tree who told her that she shouldn’t trust God. The serpent said God was a liar. The serpent said the fruit wasn’t deadly. In fact, the serpent told Eve that if she and Adam ate the fruit, they would be as powerful as God.

Eve believed the serpent. She believed God had been lying to her. She decided she wanted to be as powerful as God. So, she took matters into her own hands and ate the fruit.

When she took some of the fruit to her husband, Adam, he was shocked. He was sure Eve had done the wrong thing by eating the fruit. He believed she was going to die because she had eaten it, and he couldn’t bear to live without her. So, Adam also decided not to trust God. He took matters into his own hands, and he ate the fruit.


Adam and Eve’s choice to distrust God immediately led to fear. After they ate the fruit, they hid from God when he came walking through the garden looking for them. After God found them and asked Adam why he was hiding, Adam admitted that he was afraid.

Like a genetic disease, Adam and Eve passed on this distrust and fear of God to their children. And their children passed it on to their children. And so it has continued down through the ages. This fear of God has infected the gene pool of the human race. It affects every person who has ever been born.

God wants to restore our trust in him so we won’t be afraid of him anymore. That’s why he’s fighting this war on terror. The “terror” God is fighting against is our fear of him! For centuries, he has been laying out all the evidence for us. He wants us to make an informed decision about whether or not we can trust him.

The enemy in this war claims that God is someone to be afraid of. Adam and Eve believed the enemy and went on the run. We’ve been on the run from God ever since.

Great start Kelley! I'll sign up for one. May God bless your book sales and may those who read it be blessed and come to understand God even better!

Cherie

Thanks Cherie! My prayer is that people might catch a fresh glimpse of God.

Hey, welcome back! And that is indeed an excellent start. Keep us posted! And I'll take a peek at your web site too.

Mark

Thanks Mark, it's good to be back. I have enjoyed reading your comments on CAG during my hiatus.

I've been pretty scarce on CAG myself. But glad you enjoyed what little I did say.

Would you be willing to share the "outline" (at least the chapter progression) for the book? Or is that getting too deep into it beforehand?

Mark

I would be pleased to share the outline of the book. I will list the chapter titles/sub-titles, and I guess you can ask questions if you have any. Perhaps a few words of explanation would help at the outset.

The overall premise of the book is that God wins His case in court (the war) because of who He is. So the book begins by outlining the war -- what it is, how it began, its essence. Then, the book moves into a discussion of how the war is fought and won, mainly by exploring some of the many character traits of God. (certainly not an exhaustive list!) At the end of the book, there is a brief discussion of our world and why it looks like it does right now (devoid of the image of God).

Here's the Table of Contents:

Part One: The War

1. The Universal War on Terror: Crisis in God’s Creation
2. Star Wars: The Beginning of the War
3. Battlefield Earth: The War Continues

Part Two: The Solution

4. If You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen ‘Em All: God’s Oneness
5. Life Preserver: God’s Immortality
6. Reality Show: God’s Honesty

7. Higher Power: God’s Omnipotence
8. Heads or Tails: God’s Humility
9. O Holy Knight: God’s Holiness

10. The Deity is in the Details: God’s Orderliness
11. What’s Love Got to Do With It: God’s Love
12. Man’s Best Friend: God’s Friendship

13. Giving It All He’s Got: God’s Giving
14. Show Business: God’s Truth-in-Advertising
15. God Must Be Odd, ‘Cuz He Never Gets Even: God’s Forgiveness

16. Look Who’s Stalking: God’s Initiation
17. Heaven Can Wait: God’s Patience
18. On Guard: God’s Protectiveness

19. Frequently Asked Questions: God’s Self-Assurance
20. Unconditional Surrender: God’s Wrath
21. Keeping Our Options Open: God’s Commitment to Freedom

22. Happily Ever After: The End of the War

Appendix: A Picture of Sin
____

Thanks for asking!

Hi Kelley!

I think this is waaaay cool - Who published your book and how long did it take you to write? Authoring is no easy feat - all the details involved so my hat's off to you.

I will be praying that this little book about God's beautiful character go out far and wide.

Can it be purchased on Amazon.com?

Peace All Ways!

ps


I love your outline and the titles - very clever play on words!

-Stacie