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  • Central Church book club
    
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Chance to win a block of books
  • Discover new Christian authors and books
• Book Review - It's Fine Should I Die by Kwang Choi
• Issues of the Heart: Counting the Cost
  
• Meditation Moment
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Central Church Book Club

When Debbie and I attended the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference at Central Church outside Memphis, I had an opportunity to pitch The Persistent Road to the church's book club administrator. I'm happy to say they chose it for their May meeting! I'll meet with them at the end of the month to field questions and discuss the book.

If you belong to a book club, I would love to connect with your club too. Please email me back to start a conversation. Because I am also the publisher, I can supply the books at a group rate.

Artificial Intelligence

I've participated in Heartprint Writers Group for years. We're a group of eclectic creatives out of Franklin, Tennessee who share the common bond of loving God and wanting to use our passion and gifts to bring glory and honor to Him.

Last month, I had the privilege of presenting to the group. When I discussed content with the organizer, she suggested I speak about some of the online tools I use to write, publish, and market Open Road Press books.

How could any presentation of tech tools not include artificial intelligence (AI)? But I understood it at only a surface level. After learning more about its capabilities at the writers conference I attended in March and digging deeper myself, it became clear it's a game-changer.

Most of us have benefited from AI without realizing it. Our phones work better because of it. I've even seen it embedded in other web-based tools I've been using.

AI is like having another person by your side who can assimilate an unlimited knowledge base in seconds and, as amazing as it sounds, apply reason to it. As a writer, it's like having an editor, albeit imperfect, with some skill in any editorial discipline. I can ask it questions ("prompts") and converse until I learn what I'm after.

How might this technology help an author? NOT by doing his work for him, because each of us has a voice, a personality, and a moral ethic. Instead it can help brainstorm ideas on characters, names, titles, or plot twists, create drafts of rote correspondence, summarize long passages, prepare draft ads, flesh out settings, etc. It's limited mostly by one's inability to ask good questions.

AI has its skeptics. Some people mistrust it; others think it's a threat to their livelihood (and, in some cases, it is), still others consider it downright evil. Like any innovation, it adds value when a prudent user manages it. But in the wrong hands, it will abet evil. I'm convinced it can make people from most walks of life more efficient with their time and talent if they learn how to use it.

Anyone using AI should read the terms and conditions carefully to understand how the service provider can use the data entered into its system. Users should also consider any limitations and disclosure requirements associated with its output.

AI needs guardrails for the common good, but those who don't use it will be left behind. Who today would walk from New York to Los Angeles when they can hop on a plane instead? (Or maybe a bicycle ;o)?

If you want try out AI, ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, or Microsoft's Copilot will get you started. Feel free to email me if I can answer any questions.

Inspirational Books Giveaway Contest

I’ve teamed up with 40+ authors to give away a big collection of Inspirational Fiction & NonFiction books to two lucky winners! And the grand prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader.

You can win my novel The Persistent Road, plus books from other authors who write from a Christian perspective.

Enter the giveaway by clicking here 👉 https://www.booksweeps.com/giveaway/inspirational-fiction-non-fiction-giveaway/

May Christian Fiction Bookstore

I've again joined hands with fellow authors to cross-promote our books in a virtual bookstore throughout the month of May. Scan the books at this website to discover new authors and their titles. Learn more here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/c...

My Take on It's Fine Should I Die

Does that title grab you? It's a bit unusual if not clunky, as is the English translation of the book.

But that is inconsequential.

The message comes through loud and clear.

If you live in North Korea and want to avoid a difficult life or a brutal demise, you'd better not entertain any Christian beliefs. Instead, pay homage to the head of the Kim dynasty. North Koreans are brainwashed to believe he is the only supreme being worthy of all praise and obedience.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ or want to consider His teachings, be prepared for a one-way trip to suffering and abuse at a camp designed to degrade, shame, and send a message to anyone else who dares to choose the same path, one that in most cases leads to death by starvation, disease, or murder.

One of the most powerful sections in the book contained articles from a prisoner who somehow managed to get out of one of these camps. He describes a pitiful existence, crammed into a small space in which prisoners had to interlock legs with one another to sleep. Sanitation was virtually nonexistent. Fleas were so prevalent that they covered everyone's body. The prisoners couldn't even yawn without ingesting them. Boiled corn kernels were the sole food every meal. The prisoners nursed each kernel to extract its maximum nutritional value, relieving themselves only once a week. The cell was without heat in the winter. Life there became a survival of the fittest. Some froze to death.

I can't imagine an existence like this. Think of the stench, the wailing, and the pain.

The author was a missionary from South Korea who relocated to China, where he recruited escapees from North Korea and supplied them with free room and board in exchange for teaching them Christianity. He trained them to become missionaries back in their homeland - clandestine missionaries if they hoped to survive.

The entire training operation in China also had to be run in secret. Mission centers moved frequently to stay one step ahead of authorities. If Chinese government officials discovered any Christian proselytizing, they would raid the center and eventually send the escapees back to North Korea, in effect sentencing them to suffering and death.

The North Korean government indoctrinates its citizens with outlandish claims about the West and Christianity that most people in the rest of the world know clearly to be false.

It's hard for me to relate to the life and the mindset of the escapees and the millions of oppressed people living in North Korea. Their leaders keep them in the dark and provide an inadequate backstop to prevent the socially disadvantaged from starving to death on the streets.

The book convicted me. If placed in similar circumstances, would I boldly stand up for faith in Christ when my life was at stake? I'm glad I'm not in their shoes.

A lesser form of persecution is encroaching on true believers in places like America, where freedom of religion has long been welcomed. But it pales in comparison to the danger and risk to North Korean believers, many of whom are martyred for their courageous stands.

What if we could imagine living in a dangerous place, where our next meal isn't a certainty, where incessant bombing destroys our comfortable life, or where our words and beliefs threaten our existence?

It's easy to say we believe in God when no negative consequences will result. Would we be so bold if it threatened our lives? Or our loved ones' lives?

If nothing else, considering the plight of oppressed people ought to summon a deep gratitude for how good we have things.

Ever so slightly, the sands of time have been shifting the ground on which we stand. And we're about to lose our balance if we haven't already. Where matters of faith were once widely respected, they no longer are by most people. The god of oneself is replacing the God of the Bible. Craziness has trumped common sense. And the trend continues.

Does faith expressed when it costs nothing have any staying power when the stakes increase? Is that kind of faith even faith at all?

Will you be willing to speak your mind when it isn't safe to? Will you be able to declare that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Consider the words of Jesus from the Book of Revelation:

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”

-Revelation 3:15-22 NLT

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

-Matthew 7:21 NLT

Order Your Copy Today!

If you've not yet picked up your copy of The Persistent Road, you can do so at these online booksellers.

Available in print, e-book, and audiobook formats.