 |
| C. Kevin Thompson |
“Prayer changes things.”
There is no place in Scripture where this phrase has more meaning than here in Deuteronomy and where it actually happened in the books of Exodus and Numbers.
This passage is a retelling by Moses to the next generation of Israelites about what happened to their forefathers. Moses explains why their forefathers were formed into a nation, and what God wanted to accomplish through them. He also explains who their forefathers were as a nation in relationship to God. He then goes on to describe their present state of affairs and where they were about to go.
Into the Promised Land.
However, if it wasn’t for Moses praying for their forefathers—twice—the nation Israel would look very different and maybe even have a different name. “Toast” is the one that readily comes to mind, for God was going to wipe out Israel on two separate occasions and make Moses into a great nation in its place. They could have been the Sons of Moses instead of the Sons of Abraham.
One of the two times Moses prays occurs in Exodus 32. Aaron and the Israelites created the Golden Calf, and God had made up His mind to destroy Israel for their disobedience. However, after Moses prayed and asked God to turn from His fierce anger, verse 14 says that God relented and did not bring disaster on the people like He threatened.
Then in Numbers 14, the nation Israel rebelled against God again. When Joshua and Caleb came back from their exploration of the Promised Land and stated that the land could be won, the people did not believe them. Instead, the people believed the other spies who had said that there was no hope for Israel. The people began to grumble against Moses and Aaron, and began that tired song and dance of “If only we had died in Egypt!” So, in verse 12, God says that He is going to strike them down with a plague and destroy them. However, Moses prays for the people again, much like he did in Exodus 32, telling God that if He destroys the nation Israel, then the Egyptians will believe that He was not capable of delivering the people completely. So, for a second time, God answers Moses’s prayer and relents.
For a lesser person, God’s offer might have been a proposal he couldn’t refuse. “I could replace Abraham? My descendants would be named instead of Isaac and Jacob?” In essence, Moses’s response would have been in total compliance with God’s wrath being exacted against the nation Israel so that he could rise to prominence. Instead, Moses prayed for mercy. He reminded God of His promise to Abraham in so many words, and how it would look in the eyes of the Egyptians and others if He killed Israel in the desert.
So, God spared their forefathers. He did alter the plan, though, as sin always has consequences, even if God relents from His initial plan. As a result, instead of total annihilation, God made the nation Israel wander in the desert for forty years until every last man alive in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14 passed away.
As writers, do our prayer lives change anything? Do we even have one? Or does writing, pitching our stories, marketing our books, and all the other stuff writers are supposed to do eat up all our time?
We, as Christian writers, always want our writing to affect people for God. How much more so would that be if our prayer life matched our writing life? Not that we pray to manipulate God into more sales, like some genie in a bottle. I’m talking about deepening that relationship so that God’s heart and character flow through our words, reaching readers in ways no one else can.
Moses had a very close relationship with God, wouldn’t you say? And his prayers changed the course of history for a nation. His writings, inspired by the Holy Spirit, change lives every day, even now. Therefore, one could say we mirror Moses more than we may have thought previously.
And in light of our world’s current panic with the Coronavirus, surely our prayers can make a difference.
And maybe, possibly, change the direction of a nation that fears the unknown because they do not believe in the unseen (cf. Heb. 11:1).
As writers, do our prayer lives change anything? Do we even have one? #seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @CKevinThompson
We, as Christian writers, always want our writing to affect people for God. How much more so would that be if our prayer life matched our writing life?
#seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @CKevinThompson
#seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @CKevinThompson
Moses had a very close relationship with God, and his prayers changed the course of history for a nation. #seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @CKevinThompson
The Letters
 |
| The Letters |
THE WORLD IS A CRAZY PLACE
WHEN THE LIVING ARE DEAD
AND THE DEAD ARE ALIVE.
Rachel Hamar—a Manhattan bank teller—lives nothing close to a Manhattan lifestyle. Residing in Washington Heights, NY, the only thing keeping her in The Big Apple is her mother—a long-time patient in a local psychiatric hospital. It’s December 2014, and the twentieth anniversary of her high school sweetheart’s tragic death. She’s not sure how much more heartache she can endure, especially after being told earlier in the day she no longer has a job at the bank. A casualty of downsizing.
In the midst of spiraling depression, Rachel receives a mysterious letter in the mail. When she opens it, she becomes cautious and skeptical of its contents and discards it as a mistake, concluding it’s simply addressed incorrectly or a postal worker’s faux pas in the midst of a busy Christmas season. But another letter arrives the next day. And another the day after that. Before long, she is in possession of several letters. Each one more puzzling than the last.
Thinking that someone may be playing a cruel game, she contacts the police, and this propels Rachel and the two detectives into one of the most bizarre cases they’ve ever encountered. Is it a friend’s cruel joke? Is it some stalker’s perverse idea of manipulation? Or is it something more?
C. KEVIN THOMPSON is a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a kid at heart. Often referred to as “crazy” by his grandchildren, it’s only because he is. He’s a writer. Need he say more?
The second edition of his award-winning debut novel, The Serpent’s Grasp, is now available! The first four books of his Blake Meyer Thriller series are out as well. Book 1, 30 Days Hath Revenge, Book 2, Triple Time, Book 3, The Tide of Times, and Book 4, When the Clock Strikes Fourteen, are now available! Book 5, A Pulse of Time, is coming Memorial Day 2020! And, his newest standalone novel, The Letters, is now available in both e-book and paperback!
Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, NCIS, Criminal Minds, BBC shows Broadchurch, Shetland, Hinterland, and Wallander, loves anything to do with Star Trek and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic too. But you will never catch him wearing a deerstalker. Ever.
Website: www.ckevinthompson.com/
Kevin’s Writer’s Blog: www.ckevinthompson.blogspot.com/
Facebook: C. Kevin Thompson – Author Fan Page
Twitter: @CKevinThompson
Instagram: ckevinthompson
Pinterest: ckevinthompsonauthor
ACFW Fiction Finder: https://www.fictionfinder.com/author/detail/595
Christian Authors Network: https://christianauthorsnetwork.com/c-kevinthompson/
Goodreads: C. Kevin Thompson
BookBub: C. Kevin Thompson
