Christian Book Reviews

Feast for Thieves: “A fun story about a war hero turning into a preacher” Really!

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Deb HaggertyJuly 20, 2015

Deb’s Dozen: “A fun story about a war hero turning into a preacher” Really!

“When it came to robbing the bank, we wasn’t polished or nothing. We just set the old truck’s hand brake and jigged out the side while the motor was running.” So begins Marcus Brotherton’s Feast for Thieves. Told in first person throughout, this is the story of ex-Sergeant “‘Rowdy’ Slater, the most incorrigible paratrooper in Dog Company during WWII.” Home from the war, unable to get a job, Rowdy, in desperation, agrees to help Crazy Ake with a bank robbery.

Unfortunately, when they came out of the bank with the money, the motor wasn’t running any more. As a result, they took off running, with the law close on their tails. To keep from getting shot, Rowdy jumps off a bridge into the river, the money in a gunnysack on his back.

Staying under long enough to feel safe, Rowdy attempts to surface only to find himself hung up on a tree—now he’s fighting for his life. As he says, “That’s when I heard him. I swore I did. The man spoke loud, although I couldn’t tell what direction his voice came … ‘Hey fella!’ … ‘You want to live?’ … I nodded my head and hoped a saving rope would soon follow. ‘Then find the good meal and eat your fill … swear you’ll do that?’ I nodded again. What a crazy thing for a man to say.” After that, the tree breaks loose, Rowdy is released from the tangles and shoots straight to the surface.

Rowdy buries the bag of money and sets out to get far away from Cut Eye, Texas, but somehow something won’t let him stay away. In order to get a meal, he goes into the Union Gospel Mission of Texas where he hears the preacher say, “You may be a murderer or a thief, but God’s Word declares there isn’t any sin that can’t be forgiven.” Preaching from Isaiah, the preacher says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.” Rowdy hears the words, acknowledges that they are speaking about him, asks the preacher if this is for real, and then gets thrown out without the meal for saying, “I’m saved! Let’s eat!”

But the words he heard in the river and at the mission resonate within him and he heads back, picks up the money, and goes to the sheriff’s office in Cut Eye to turn it and himself in. The sheriff tells Rowdy what he assumes went down and offers Rowdy a chance to stay out of jail: stay in Cut Eye for a year and be the preacher at the local church. And so begins the conversion of the rough, tough, hard-living ex-paratrooper into the town preacher.

You’ll chuckle all the way through the book as you read the situations in which Rowdy finds himself—the characters in his congregation—the scrapes he can’t keep himself out of. You’ll definitely enjoy reading his tale and will be rooting for him all the way! Feast is very entertaining and worth reading. Four stars.

To follow Rowdy on his journey, click here: Feast for Thieves: A Rowdy Slater Novel

I interviewed Marcus Brotherton last June at the International Christian Retail Show. Not knowing any of his background, I asked him how he came up with Rowdy’s story. He said he’d been interviewing WWII veterans for his non-fiction book on the original Band of Brothers. He heard about Wayne “Skinny” Sisk, who was also an incorrigible soldier. Sisk was witnessed to by his six-year-old niece, accepted Christ, turned his life around, and became a preacher. Rowdy Slater is modeled after Sisk although all the situations in Feast for Thieves are fictional.

I was curious about the title, Feast for Thieves, and asked Marcus how he came up with it. He mentioned reading Isaiah and being struck with the themes of mercy, grace, and love. He read about Jesus on the cross and His conversation with the two thieves—one accepted redemption, the other turned it down. He said that redemption gives us all a second chance. And then too, if we accept what Jesus offers, we will sit someday at the grandest feast of all.

When asked what he learned about himself writing this novel, he said there was a huge humility factor in writing fiction. Although the published author or coauthor of over twenty-five non-fiction books, he found fiction to be a whole different arena, requiring entirely new skills—almost starting over in a way.

Marcus’ father is a minister, his mother a journalist. Marcus went to both Multnomah, where he studied theology and journalism, and Talbot Seminary at Biola, where he earned a master’s degree in practical theology and writing. He served in the youth ministry for eight years, then worked at a newspaper, was a book editor, and moonlighted. He’s married to Mary Margaret—they have three children: a girl, twelve; a boy, seven; and a girl, two. Marcus enjoys working with WWII veterans and running.

Interestingly, Marcus and his agent were at my table at the Christy Awards on Monday night of the show. Marcus was nominated in the First Novel category for Feast of Thieves. He was totally blown away when, in fact, they called his name! To learn more about Marcus, sign up for BookFun Magazine to read James Shupp’s article about him in the August issue. You can also check out his website, www.marcusbrotherton.com.

Christian Basics can Deliver Us from Evil on The Soul Journey Home

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Deb HaggertyJuly 20, 2015

Deb’s Dozen: Christian Basics can Deliver Us from Evil on The Soul Journey Home

I had the most delightful conversation last week with Kent and Katie Philpott, authors of a multitude of books. The three we covered in our interview were Christian Basics, Deliver Us from Evil, and The Soul Journey.

Christian Basics: Lessons, Debates, and Conversations is a just what the title suggests—a book on the basic tenets of Christianity—those facets which are non-negotiable if you want to be a Christian, those areas that are still debated among theologians, and things about which we can have a conversation, but which don’t really impact the issue of whether one is a Christian or not.

The book is a great reference book, is well-organized, and is well thought out. I asked Kent why he felt the need to write such a book at this particular time. He responded it was due to pastoral need. He has been the pastor of Miller Avenue Baptist Church in Mill City, CA, for thirty-one years (his wife and son also minister there). He found that he “all of a sudden” seemed to have a large group of new Christians who needed instruction in the basics—hence the book. He wished he’d had such a book at the beginning of his Christian walk.

Telling me a bit of his background, he said he’d been saved when he was twenty-one years old in a Southern Baptist church, but never understood the basic theologies; however, he has studied significantly to come up with his system of beliefs. From an Arminian beginning, he now considers himself a believer of moderate Reformed theology—not a one hundred percent follower of TULIP (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Preservation of the Saints), he has some problems with Total Depravity, but acknowledges that we are all totally dependent on God’s grace. He was particularly interested in two presentations in the America’s Awakening series: Zale Nettleton and Charles Finney. They debated the issue of conversion from opposite points of view. In fact, in 1985, Kent penned the book The Mystery of Conversion.

His favorite part of Christian Basics is the last section on intramural conversations. He chose ten areas that are “hot buttons” among Christians, but are not deal breakers. Topics like abortion, divorce, gifts of the Spirit, about which many have differing views.

I asked him what he learned about Kent writing the Basics book. He said he learned that theology is not something that is a simple presentation. He tried to keep in mind the audience he was addressing—which was not an audience of his peers. He realized that he was too complicated—and needed to learn how to present in a way that people could grasp at any level.

I recommend Christian Basics highly—a book everyone should have on their reference shelf. To purchase, click this link: Christian Basics: Lessons, Debates, and Conversations

The second book we discussed was Deliver Us from Evil: How Jesus Casts Out Demons Today. Kent told me he was involved in the Jesus People movement in 1967 in the San Francisco area. He saw so many people who were involved in cults, practitioners of Zen, Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the like. Many of these people had unwittingly become possessed by evil spirits. In 1973, Zondervan Publishing asked him to write a book on the topic, which was A Manual of Demonology and the Occult
.

After the book was published, he had people from all over the States and the world coming to him to be delivered. A church in San Francisco asked him to produce something they could give to their counselors as a resource to assist them in determining whether a person was demon-possessed or not. Deliver Us from Evil was the result.

I asked him if Christians can be demon-possessed and he replied that there is no really adequate answer: almost everyone who came to them to have demons cast out were Christians—one percent or less were non-believers. Kent has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in psychology (he wanted to be a high school counselor), which helps him to discern the problems those seeking help have. He stated quite firmly that issues such as schizophrenia and bi-polar are illnesses, not demonization. Demonization is real and any Christian can cast them out.

His view is that once a person has really become a Christian, they cannot be demonized. The people who come to him have usually been involved in something before like Tarot or Ouija boards or involvement with psychics or some other cultish activity. The other thing he sees is that people can be falsely converted but really weren’t at all. However, if someone comes to him and says they may have a demonic spirit, he doesn’t judge them but performs an exorcism. If they didn’t have a spirit, something else is bothering them that could be psychological. To purchase, click this link: Deliver Us from Evil: How Jesus Casts Out Demons Today

The Soul Journey: How Shamanism, Santeria, Wicca, and Charisma are Connected is the third book we discussed. He started studying this topic when a member of his congregation asked him to talk with her son who was being recruited into Santeria. He spent a couple of years studying the extant material about those religions and writing up his findings. (He has make videos of all his talks on the subject—many are posted on YouTube.)

Kent found that most of the material written about these areas by Christians are just attacks. He felt that an explanation of what these religions are and what is involved might be the best way to keep a person from going into one of them. He told me that in his area of California, in the area around his church, there are more atheists than Christians, more Buddhists than Christians, more Wiccans than Christians, more Shamans than Christians. In fact, Shamanism is the underlying foundation of the North American Indian faiths and also most of the Eastern religions.

In doing his research for The Soul Journey, he talked to Reb Anderson—a world-renowned Zen Master. Reb told him he encounters both benign and malevolent spirits in his trance state and that only the most sophisticated and trained can resist the influence of evil spirits. The problem is the trance state most of these religions encourage their followers to attain—once in a trance, the person can be approached by both good and evil spirits—the person speaking to them may not be God, but Satan.

The Philpotts see The Soul Journey as targeted toward non-Christians—to try to reach people and warn them of the dangers of getting involved. Use the link to purchase: The Soul Journey: How Shamanism, Santeria, Wicca, and Charisma are Connected

Asked what his readers might not know about him, he chuckled and said he’d spent thirty years at San Quentin as a volunteer and eighteen years as a baseball coach. He loves baseball!

If you’re interested in delving into these areas more deeply, Kent and Katie publish an online blog called Earthen Vessel Journal—they get about 2500-3500 visitors each month. About half the articles are on Santeria and Wicca. His website is: http://kentphilpott.com/

What You Don’t Know Can Kill You – Trial Run by Thomas Locke

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Deb HaggertyJuly 19, 2015

Deb’s Dozen: Quantum physics wunderkind, business maven. Out-of-body experiences gone wrong. Are they redeemable?

Thomas Locke’s new series, Fault Lines, begins with a prequel, Double Edge, and then continues with Trial Run. The back cover says, “What you don’t know can kill you.” Despite the cover come-on, I must admit that the beginning of the novel did not hook me. The first few chapters are confusing until Locke gets all the characters introduced and the backstory told. Once we can figure out who the good guys and the bad guys are and what is at stake, the story takes on a life of its own and draws the reader in.

Locke is smart to introduce one of the main characters, Trent Major, as a troubled but brilliant scientist in quantum physics, who is “given” an algorithm that will revolutionize game theory. Any gamer who picks up the book is going to read further to see what happens in the game world. Trent’s partner in “crime” is Shane Schearer, a business maven working on her advanced degree, but bored out of her skull. They make the perfect foils to play the rest of the novel against.

Enter good guy, Dr. Gabriela Speciale (you know she’s special because of her last name), who is trying to create and control out-of-body-experiences that go beyond the normal boundaries of space and time. And Charlie Hazard, the bodyguard/God figure in the series and an ex-special forces guy Gabriela has hired to protect her and her scientists from all “hazards.”

Next enter the bad guys … Kevin Henley, who is employed by one of those “mysterious” ultra-secret government organizations, and Reese Clawson, a security expert who also has the ability to run human consciousness experiments like Gabriela, but whose goal is to control and destroy the opposition.

How they all interrelate, how they operate, the experiments they perform and succeed or fail at, is the stuff of the future come to the present. Locke obviously has a fascination with quantum physics as parts of the processes are described in mind-numbing detail—at least to those of us with a non-technical brain. I liked the byplay among the characters. I liked the theme of rescue and redemption that plays throughout the novel. I did not like the ending—too many strings left untied as an obvious hook to the next book in the series, as yet unnamed, coming the summer of 2016. A generous four stars.

To purchase Trial Run, click here: Trial Run (Fault Lines Book #1)

Thomas Locke is the pseudonym for Davis Bunn, “the award-winning novelist with total worldwide sales of seven million copies. His work has been published in twenty languages, and critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. As Thomas Locke, Davis is also the author of Emissary [an excellent five-star fantasy].” To learn more, or to download Double Edge, go to www.tlocke.com.