APPOINTMENT IN JERUSALEM BY DEREK PRINCE

APPOINTMENT IN JERUSALEM BY DEREK PRINCE is the story of his first wife Lydia's search for the truth.  It is a wonderful story, all the more wonderful because it is true, and I can't tell you how many times I have read it!  It is so encouraging as it shows how the Lord draws a young woman to Himself, saves her, fills her with His Holy Spirit and leads her to a life of fulfillment and ministry in Jerusalem.  He reveals Himself to her as not only her Saviour but also her Healer, Protector and loving Friend.  
Lydia is a successful school teacher in Korsor, Denmark, with the prospect of marrying a colleague who seems perfect for her, but she is determined to search for what is lacking in her life.  She is very self conscious as she prays and asks the Lord to show her if He is real, and promises to follow Him if He is truly God. Jesus reveals Himself to her and her life changes from that moment.  She comes to love Him and His Word and spends hours in prayer as He leads her every step of the way.  Hers is a childlike faith.  We see how her obedience leads to her being shunned by most of her colleagues and even the Lutheran church, but her joy in her newfound faith sustains her.  As she yields to the Lord, the Holy Spirit becomes her constant companion.
She leaves Denmark and her family and her comfortable life to move to Jerusalem, which was not a particularly attractive place at the time, nor was it at all safe, especially for a young woman on her own.  She comes to love the great City and her people, and it is there that she experiences the Lord's protection, His leading and miracle power in great measure.  It is in Jerusalem that she rescues a sick Jewish baby called Tikva, who becomes everything to her.  She has given up the chance for a teaching career in Lebanon, which seems ideal, and then the Lord asks her give Tikva back to Him.  She feels like Abraham on Mount Moriah, but her obedience and faith are well rewarded.
This book shows that it is possible for anyone who is willing to search for the truth to come to know Him who is all Truth, and for those who are obedient to know His fullness in their lives.  I cannot recommend this book enough!!

THE GREAT DIVIDE BY DAVIS BUNN

THE GREAT DIVIDE is the first of Davis Bunn's novels that I ever read, and I have read it several times with great enjoyment.  It is a really good courtroom drama and very exciting.  The characters are well portrayed and the issues raised give one much food for thought.  We feel for Marcus Glenwood, once a lawyer in a huge firm with a wife and two children, who has now returned to his grandparents' Victorian manor on the "wrong side" of town after a devastating family tragedy.  He is restoring the house and working from there, and it is through Deacon Wilbur, an African-American pastor who is working for him that he hears of the plight of Gloria Hall who has disappeared in China. He also comes to know her parents and her best friend Kirsten and he is lovingly drawn in to the congregation of the church which he has been instrumental in saving.  He takes on New Horizons, who were after the church and cemetery land, and whose factories are selling sports clothes made in the sweatshops of China - Factory 101 being one of the most infamous.
Marcus' life is in danger from those who have no desire for their illegal and inhuman business practices to be brought out into the open.  The opposing lawyers hate him because he used to work for their firm and they take great delight in trying to destroy him. They attack his personal life. They use the fact that his wife divorced him after  their children were killed in an accident when he was driving, and the fact that, although he hadn't been drinking at the time, he definitely used to have a drinking problem.  Although the accident wasn't his fault, he blames himself.
We see how Marcus relates to the Halls, having recently lost his own precious children.  We see the contrast between his sophisticated, moneyed, wife, who can't  bring herself to forgive him when he goes to say how sorry he is, and the down to earth, compassionate and loving people that have become his friends.  He is gradually restored as he puts his life on the line to help these grieving people, who others were too scared to help because of the power and brutality of the opposition.
We are held in suspense throughout, and we meet many colourful characters as the story unfolds.  I can highly recommend this book.

LION OF BABYLON BY DAVIS BUNN

 LION OF BABYLON BY DAVIS BUNN is very interesting, and a "must read" for those who are interested in Iraq and Iran and the plight of Christians in the Middle East.  It is a story of trust between different nationalities and beliefs, and of Christian love and compassion between believers of different backgrounds and traditions.  
Marc Royce is asked by Ambassador Walton to go into Iraq to look for Alex Baird, who has gone missing with two other Americans and an Iraqi pastor.  It is believed they have been kidnapped.  Alex Baird is his best friend, who helped him go on living when his wife had a stroke and died months later.  It is a dangerous mission but Marc is determined to get Alex out alive.  When he gets to Iran he finds that there are also children missing, and he and Sameh, a Christian lawyer who is most concerned about the missing children, and has been asked by Hassan to find his kidnapped son, build up a special relationship of trust.  Sameh welcomes Marc into his family, and his wife, niece, and her daughter, become very fond of Marc as well.  Sameh is a courteous man who loves his country and wants to make a difference.  He dreams of an Iraq where those of different Muslim sects work together with the Christians to make a better Iran.  He is amazed at this American, Marc, who has such compassion for  foreign children who he does not even know! 
Both the U.S. and Iraqi governments are afraid that if the Christian element gets involved in trying to solve the kidnapping of Alex Baird and his companions - all Christians - they will complicate an already explosive situation in the Middle East.  The moderate Muslims want to walk hand in hand with the Americans in order to make a better Iraq.  The Iranian leaders, on the other hand, are trying to cause discord amongst the Iraqis in order to be able to control a weak Iraqi government.  It is an exciting and well written story with a lot of Scriptural truth.

WONDERLAND CREEK BY LYNN AUSTIN

WONDERLAND CREEK by LYNN AUSTIN takes place during the Depression in America.  Alice Ripley, a pastor's daughter who lives with her parents in a small town, is a librarian who lives her life vicariously through the characters in the novels she reads.  She is devastated when her boyfriend, Gordon, breaks up with her for reading a novel during a memorial service (he is the son of the undertaker and is following in his father's footsteps) and when she loses her job at the library due to cutbacks.  She feels her life is over, but has no idea what is in store for her when she leaves the safety of home and sets off for Acorn, Kentucky, to take books that she has collected to the library there for distribution to the people who live in isolated areas.
Although she is horrified at the conditions in Acorn, and her living conditions in the library are extremely primitive, she gradually comes to love the people she interacts with there and realizes that at last she is living her own life instead of living in the pages of the novels she reads.  She has one adventure after another, is exhausted and terrified a great deal of the time, has to learn to cook, plant a vegetable garden and ride a horse, amongst other things.  The intrigue and danger she encounters are such that she knows that no-one at home will believe that she is telling the truth about her life in Acorn when she gets back.  There is mystery, attempted murder, missing treasure and even romance with a charming fiddle player - all the ingredients she would expect to find in a really good novel, only this time she is living it instead of reading about it!
Through Lillie, the ancient black woman who has brought Mack up and now lives at the library with him, she learns what true Christianity is - a relationship with Jesus and not a list of rules to follow.  She comes to realize that when we are in the Lord's hands He leads and guides us according to the plans He has for our lives and we don't have to try and "fix" everything ourselves.  
She loves books, and is thrilled to be able to take books to people in outlying areas, some of whom can't even read.  What starts out as a "do good" operation of collecting books for the less fortunate, leads to adventure and a life lived to the full. She comes to see what is really important in life, and is ashamed of the self-centredness and self-pity she indulged in when her life, as she knew it, was over.      
The colourful characters she comes to know, including Lillie's horse Belle, all play a part in her growth as a person.  She feels responsible for Lillie, Mack and June Ann, and knows she cannot go home until the mystery of who shot Mack is resolved. 
The novel is well-written and exciting and the characters are well portrayed.  There is humour and love and a good Christian message. 

THE TWELFTH IMAM & THE TEHRAN INITIATIVE BY JOEL C. ROSENBERG

THE TWELFTH IMAM & THE TEHRAN INITIATIVE by JOEL C. ROSENBERG can be read as stand alone novels, but I suggest that you will get more out of them if you read them one after the other.  These two books are very interesting as they are full of end time prophecy, both Christian and Muslim, politics - Middle Eastern, American and Jewish - and they take place mostly in Iran, America and Israel.

The Twelfth Imam starts in Iran with Charles and Claire Harper escaping Iran during the student uprising of 1979 and taking Dr Mohammed Shirazi and his wife with them.  David Shirazi and Marseille Harper meet when their fathers take them on an annual fishing trip in September 2001.  Claire Harper is killed in the 911 disaster and it affects both families very badly.  We follow David and Marseille's story through both books.
David goes through a rough patch, but he is recruited by the CIA due to the fact that he is an Iranian and speaks the language fluently.  He is a very patriotic American citizen and is thrilled to be serving his country in this way, and he also feels that he will be avenging the death of Marseille's mother.
The Iranians have built nine nuclear warheads, and have detonated one, causing an earthquake.  The Americans send out their agents, David Shirazi, who goes by the name Reza Tabrizi, and Eva Fischer, who have been told to find out where the warheads are and all they can about the situation.  David goes in as a German businessman selling state of the art phones to the Iranian Government.  These phones can actually be tapped by American intelligence, but the Iranians believe David when he assures them that they are absolutely secure.
David finds out as much as he can about the Twelfth Imam, and is sent by the head of Iran Telecom to an expert on the subject, Dr Alireza Birjandi.  Dr Birjandi is a secret follower of Jesus Christ, and he shows David the truth and urges him to accept Him as his Saviour.  However it isn't until David is going through all kinds of life threatening situations that he eventually surrenders his life to Christ.
The Twelfth Imam comes onto the scene, performing all kinds of "signs and wonders" and successfully drawing most of the Middle Eastern countries into the Caliphate, an autocratic Shia Muslim body ruled by him.  He radiates terror and expects absolute obedience.  He makes no secret of his hatred of the Jews and the Americans, but pretends that he is a man of peace!  He has the American president completely duped.
David saves the lives of the Malik family and helps them defect to America.  Najjar Malik is  the top physicist in the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran after his father in law is murdered.  Najjar wasn't aware that his father in law was in fact producing warheads and that Iran was going to use these weapons to annihilate first the Jews and then the Americans.  The Lord appears to him and to his wife and mother in law at the same time, although they are not in the same place, and he is miraculously delivered from those who are hunting him down. Once in America, he bravely and illegally leaves the safe house where he is staying and goes to two radio stations to tell the world what is happening in Iran and to tell his beloved Iranians that the Twelfth Imam is an imposter and that they should follow the One True God, before it is too late.  Many followers of Islam are converted to Christianity when they hear him speak to them in Farsi and other Middle Eastern languages.
The Tehran Initiative is the name given by the Iranians to their plan to wipe out Israel and America.  In this second book we see the world on the brink of war. The Americans are afraid that the Israelis will strike against Iran first in order to stop a second Holocaust, and the Israelis are disappointed in the non-committal attitude of the American president, who is more interested in not rocking the boat in order to make sure of an extra term in office. There is also the problem of the escalating oil price. David is upset that he is putting his life on the line getting information for the American government, and nothing is being done with it. 
He has to keep his cover and is not allowed to tell anyone that he works for the CIA, but he tells his father in confidence as his mother is dying of cancer and he feels awful that he has to give so many excuses as to why he can't stay with his parents at this very difficult time.  To his amazement and great relief his father is very proud of him and gives him his blessing.
He is sent back to Iran after a brief visit to his mother and father and an even briefer one with Marseille, his childhood sweetheart.  All hell is about to break loose in the Middle East and David bravely goes through torture and danger in order to stop the destruction that could be caused by Iran's nuclear warheads being loosed upon Israel and the rest of the world.  
The story is well told and is full of scriptural truth.  We are kept in suspense all the way, wondering when war will break out and who will strike first.  It is action packed and full of intrigue. We get an insight into the rise of the Antichrist and the struggle that will take place in the last days.  I feel that although these books are works of fiction they should be read by anyone who takes freedom seriously, and also by those of us who take Christianity seriously, who realize the importance of Israel and the Jewish people in God's plan for mankind, and who are interested in End Times prophecy.

WHAT SHE LEFT FOR ME BY TRACIE PETERSON

WHAT SHE LEFT FOR ME by TRACIE PETERSON is a novel about relationships, restoration and reconciliation.  It is a story about choices people make and how these choices affect others.  There is a message of hope in hopeless situations, of forgiveness given and received, and of the light of Christ dispelling the darkness of the past.  It is a well written book, full of scriptural truth, and the characters are very real.
Eleanor was brought up in a commune with hippie parents who were convinced that the world was against them and that they had true freedom and happiness in their sordid surroundings and questionable lifestyle.  Eleanor's father was a doctor and her mother a drug addict.  She was taken away by the police to live with foster parents, who were harsh and condemning, and then her aunt Taffy and her husband Cal found her in juvenile detention when she was fourteen and took her to live with them.  They were wealthy and spared nothing in trying to give her a good life to make up for all she had gone through.  
Eleanor never opens up to anyone and is determined to never be let down again by people she has trusted, having been sexually abused as a child by her father and then raped when she was grown up.  Her daughter Jana is the result of her rape and Eleanor brings her up without any show of affection, in fact she treats her very harshly and gives the impression that she wished Jana had never been born.  Actually, she is trying to protect her daughter from being taken advantage of as she was, and wants her to grow up strong, not needing anyone.  She never realized she was hurting Jana, she thought she was protecting her. The circumstances of Jana's birth are kept as Eleanor's secret, and she is full of guilt and unforgiveness.  She blames God for not taking care of her and for letting all these bad things happen to her.  
Aunt Taffy is quite the opposite, although she has had her share of sadness.  She is full of life and love, rather eccentric but totally sold out to the Lord.  She has a childlikeness that draws people to her, but she is also very wise and caring.  She has a large house and is very well off, and she loves to spend her money on others.  She is delighted when Eleanor comes to live with her, and even more delighted when Jana moves in as well.  She has never been allowed to have anything to do with Jana.
Jana's husband Rob, a pastor, runs off with his secretary and then is murdered by the secretary's husband.  Jana feels very let down as he takes all her money and valuables and she comes to Taffy's house with nothing.  She would never have come to her mother for help, but she has no other option.  She is pregnant, much to her mother's horror and Taffy's delight.  She is terrified that she will become the same kind of mother as her mother has been.
Jana feels that God has let her down as He should have kept her safe in her marriage.  She realizes that her idea of God came from Rob, and sees in hindsight that Rob became less interested in her when she started coming closer to God herself in prayer and Bible reading.  Both she and Eleanor eventually realize that it is no good blaming other people for what goes wrong and definitely no good blaming God, who has given man free choice.  Both Eleanor and Jana come to the end of themselves and come to the Lord for forgiveness and new life. They see that God does not see any one sin as worse than another.  The cleansing that comes from the truth is amazing and both Jana and Eleanor come to know the Lord personally.  They find out that Taffy has known all along who Jana's father is and that she has total peace with the past.  They see that the Lord can bring good out of all circumstances, and that their coming to live together and Jana's pregnancy have led to the ugliness of the past being brought out into the open and dealt with.
Jana and Eleanor become close when the truth is out and when Eleanor finally trusts enough to love again.  She has been afraid to love and has lived a cold, dark life.  She bemoans the fact that she and Jana were never close, but Jana tells her that it is never too late with the Lord.
It is significant that Eleanor, who helped her father deliver babies in his commune clinic, delivers Jana's baby at home, ably helped by aunt Taffy, and that Jana calls her daughter Meira, which is Hebrew for light!

SHADOW IN SERENITY BY TERRI BLACKSTOCK

SHADOW IN SERENITY by TERRI BLACKSTOCK is the story of an ex con artist, Carny, and Logan Brisco, who has all the characteristics of a con man, and the people of the peaceful town of Serenity.

Carny grew up with her con artist parents going from one carnival to another, helping them ply their trade from an early age.  She breaks away from carnival life and moves to Serenity where she gets married and has a son, Jason.  Her husband dies and she lives happily in Serenity surrounded by loving friends.  She is especially close to her in-laws and is very worried when they fall prey to Logan's charm and join the other citizens of Serenity, investing their life savings in the multi-billion dollar amusement park he is promising to build.

Carny found peace in Serenity when she gave her life to Christ and put her old life of petty crime behind her, but the people in the little town feel she is overly suspicious of Logan because of her shaky upbringing.

Carny is a pilot and owns a small airfield.  She gives flying lessons and rides a Harley and has an adventurous spirit.  She is totally devoted to her son and they are very close.

Logan loses his mother at the age of five, never knew his father, and lived in foster homes until he ran away.  He had learnt how to swindle his opponents at pool from his last foster "father" and was plying his trade when he was taken in by a big time swindler called Montague.  Their scams got bigger and bigger and when Montague died he carried on alone.  

Logan has done his homework well and he knows that the citizens of Serenity have fallen on hard times and the town needs an injection of capital.  He gets them all excited about how much money their investments into his company, King Enterprises, are going to be worth one day.

Carny is desperate to uncover the scam, but he is very clever and has his past well covered up.  When he isn't acting there is something almost lovable about him and she is quite confused about her feelings for him.  Things are made more difficult by his friendship with Jason.

The characters in this book are very real and the theme is an interesting one.  Are we going to see Logan exposed and run out of town, or is he going to come clean and allow the Lord to make something good out of his life?  Is Carny over-reacting because of her childhood, or is the Lord going to use her in bringing Logan to the truth?  Are the people of Serenity going to rub off onto Logan, or is he going to ruin them and go on to his next scam?  I can highly recommend this book.