Our Books
by DAVID THATCHER WILSON
An Eastern Shore Sketchbook
AN EASTERN SHORE SKETCHBOOK is a loving look at the lower Eastern Shore of Virginia. For those who live there or have visited there, you’ll recognize many of the people and places. For those who have not, I hope you will be able to read the SKETCHBOOK, find amusement and enjoyment in its reflections, and perhaps transfer some of that to memories deeply seated in your minds of your special place. So much has changed on the Eastern Shore over the years. And yet everything remains the same. That’s the beauty of The Eastern Shore, at least the Lower Shore. It is a way of life that has been proven by time and tradition. It shows that you can be surrounded by the manic bustle of modern life, but still remain gentle and genteel. It shows that there can be things more important than a dollar – like history and tradition and manners and civility and friends and a tried and true way of country life. Those of us who look to the Lower Shore as an anchor or normalcy in our frantic rat race lives can only pray that the forces of development (development does not necessarily equal progress) and the quest for the almighty dollar do not ultimately destroy what for now is such a joy.
MUSINGS
Is every day in your life just a humdrum bore? MUSINGS helps you see beyond the commonplace and more fully appreciate and enjoy all that surrounds you. It is not preachy. It is not sectarian. It is just one person’s MUSINGS about the things he sees every day. Why should you read it? Hopefully it will enable you to actually see, rather than just look.
UP FROM THE DEPTHS
We were experienced. We were careful. It wasn’t enough. --from UP FROM THE DEPTHS A mini-memoir about a dive trip gone wrong, and the resulting aftermath of hospitals, paralysis, and hope.
MONASTIC EVANGELICALISM
WARNINGS: This is a very short book. I am not an eminent theologian. But I think that it does give Christian readers something interesting to think about.
While studying prayer, and especially contemplative prayer, I became interested in the concept of the monastic life. What a wonderful life, totally immersed in spiritual things during all your waking hours — living a life of prayer and contemplation.
Think about the possibility or practicality of living a monastic-type life while being an evangelical Christian. An “evangelical monk” — a paradox?
Monastic evangelicalism is living an evangelical God-centered life, dedicating all that you do secularly to the sacred Lord, even as you live in and interact with the world.
THE DEMON SERIES
EZKEEL IN THE BEGINNING
Satan. According to a 2007 Gallup Poll 70% of Americans believe that Satan, the Devil, is real. Another poll revealed that 42 percent believe people are occasionally possessed by the devil and a full majority, 51 percent, said people can be possessed by the devil or some other evil spirit. “Some other evil spirit.” That’s called “a demon.”
Do you wonder where demons come from? EZKEEL IN THE BEGINNING is the prequel to The Demon Series, but it is Biblically-based fiction that will answer that question for you.
SCAM
“Americans gave $410 billion to charities in 2017.” Giving to international charities was $22.97 billion, 6% of all donations.
—Nonprofits Source, Bethesda, MD
In the abject poverty of Haiti all that Daniel wanted was serve his little group of followers, at first in his mountainous home village and later in the slum of Cite Soleil. He didn’t seek fame or fortune, only fulfillment. But when his worship unleashes a lwa, or Vodou spirit, he is led to dreams of bigger and better — a church and, later, an orphanage all paid for and supported by donations from American congregations.
What Daniel doesn’t know is that his lwa is actually Ezkeel, an ancient fallen angel. Ezkeel tutors him into scamming monies from American churches for the development of his church in Cite Soleil and later subscription-financed orphanages. What his donors don’t know is that the church touted to them as an outpost of Christianity in the midst of crushing poverty is actually a Vodou temple, and the many children they are paying monthly subscriptions to support . . . don’t exist.
THE EXQUISITE CORPSE
Northampton County, like so many rural areas, is still strongly ruled by Bible-believing Christians. One of the benefits of rural life has always been that the corrupting influence of the big city, with its humanists and moral relativism, was far enough removed that it tends not to taint their society. Satan finds it easy to make inroads in metropolitan areas. There, he has the pseudo-intelligentsia to work with and do his labor for him. When convinced of their own excellence and intelligence, people’s minds are relatively easy to twist inward and away from a spiritual leader. Really, they do the evil one’s work for him. All he has to do was a little poke here, and a little direction there, and they merrily race along in any direction that feeds their egos and avarice, and leave a judgmental God far behind.
It isn’t as easy in rural areas, and that’s why Ezkeel and his kind have been sent to work directly and intimately with these folks. His goal is to influence people by directing their minds to abandon their long-held traditions and beliefs — beliefs based on Judeo-Christian teachings — and accept the more liberal New Age beliefs that eschewed an established God who established right and wrong, and instead made everything relative. Ezkeel is an expert at this, having labored in this field for years, and he was having a ball in Eastville. These chumps were so malleable. Whispering suggestions, gently pushing, quietly suggesting and watching them grab the thought and take off with it was a real pleasure.
COMING SOON -- THE CHERRYSTONE CREEK MYSTERIES by EMMA JACKSON
BY J. R. MOLINA
MUSINGS FROM THE HEIGHTS
“Words matter. So, it was only normal that I would turn to books when I started to contemplate the ultimate questions of life. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do I live now and not in another era? What am I here for? Is there a cosmic design to my existence? What is the purpose of my life? If my life has purpose and design, what is its end? Is there an afterlife? The questions came as I traversed a difficult time as a young adult. Through a personal crisis of self-doubt, I gravitated from having book knowledge about God to an indolent type of agnosticism, bordering on atheism.” Have these questions been answered to the author’s satisfaction? Yes, to the extent that he feels confident to share through personal story, inspirational accounts and challenging moments passed through a filter of practical spirituality. No adventure of discovery can be greater than knowing how we personally fit in the big picture of God’s grand plan. Let the Adventure begin!