Category Archives: i Writing Years

My Growth: Prophecy, Purity, Prayer

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While I was busy writing books, I was also engaged in activities to bolster my spiritual growth. I think it was just after my divorce, about 1991, I heard about these local, yearly prophecy conferences. There was usually three or four speakers and the conference lasted all day long. Each speaker was different, but they all had a message on bible prophecy. A few years later another much larger, yearly prophecy conference began, which was organized by Jan Markel. She also featured a weekly radio program with a special guest. That was especially helpful to me, and it also encouraged me to read and study prophecy subjects and passages on my own. Eventually, I became confident enough to push forward with a book: Biblical Evidence of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. I found out first hand that you learn more from your own personal study than by just listening to a message.

Another area of my life that I started working on was the area of my sexual purity. The year was 2003. I heard about this event called National Coalition for Purity Rally from a flier that I received in the mail. And so, I decided to check it out. The main speaker was quite dynamic and he made the bold claim that anyone could master their own purity. They defined purity in three ways: no pornography, no sexual fantasy, and no masturbation. Well, since I could use help in all those areas I decided to join. I signed up for their boot camp, which was followed by weekly purity platoons. Surprisingly, right away I felt a new spiritual power help me in all areas of purity.  The power I was convinced came from the Holy Spirit moving through the unified prayers of all the guys in the group, as well as from the Scriptures we were learning and memorizing. It was dynamic.  I stayed with that group for about ten years. I have to admit that I am not as pure as I once was, but at least I know that with enough prayer power and with sufficient quality time in the word, it is possible to achieve any level of purity that I set my heart to.

A third area of growth in my life has been in the area of prayer—group prayer as well as personal prayer. It is important to have your own personal, private, daily prayer time—mine is in the morning; but I sense the most powerful prayer results come in group prayer when you are praying together in agreement and in unity. The devil will constantly try to break up your prayer group, but fight against him. Find ways to pray together. I look for every opportunity available. These days small groups have been so helpful to me, especially in the area of prayer.

My Next Book: After the Rapture

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Almost immediately after I published Biblical Evidence of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, I began working on my next book, After the Rapture: What Happens On Earth and In Heaven After the Rapture. I am almost finished with the book. I only have a little bit of the last chapter left and the introduction—I always leave the intro until last. I am so excited to get this book published. I think it is my best writing.  It flowed off my pen more than the previous books, and without much rewriting or editing. Also, it is more controversial, and allows for more guesswork. In other words, I go beyond what the Scripture gives us. I start with the Scriptures and then I make a good, educated guess at how things will play out. I put my imagination to work.

Okay, here is a rundown of the book, chapter by chapter. I begin in just three or four pages, describing what it will be like just before the Rapture. Much of it is what is going on right now: false prophets, evil, wars, famine, and lawlessness.

I outlined the book in two parts, part one is On Earth After the Rapture, in ten chapters; and part Two is In Heaven After the Rapture, in just two chapters. I begin the first chapter by describing what I think will be the immediate effects of the Rapture. I go fast and furious through this chapter, first describing automobile and airplane accidents, but I also talk about people’s fears and panic and grief and rioting. We know all about rioting, but it will be much worse than what we are experiencing now.

In chapter two I will talk about the different theories that will emerge as to why so many people have disappeared—especially in the more Christian countries like Kenya and the United States (and a few others). Of course, this is all guesswork on my part; but some ideas have already been expressed in writing. New Agers have written much on this. Here I delve into some very bizarre things such as alien abductions and parallel dimensions.

In chapter tree I discuss the probable collapses; economic, institutional, government and moral.

In chapter four through eight I write on the rise of a new global government, a new global religion, and the Antichrist. Many, I am aware, think that these things will not happen until the Tribulation period, but I argue that they will begin to happen in the period between the Rapture and the Tribulation, which is why I think that that period could be as long as ten years. It will be a very tumultuous time, seeing so much evil; yet for some, a very exciting time seeing so many changes take place all under the banner of unity (a false unity)—a world unified government and a world unified religion.

In chapter nine I talk about the Ezekiel Invasion (from Ezekiel 38-39). Many place this war during the Tribulation, but I see it happening just before the Tribulation, and I give my reasons.

Chapter ten covers the very exciting topic of the third temple. I discuss here how all the articles are already made and ready for use. I discuss the building progress but also the obstacles of the progress.

Then in chapter eleven I begin part two on what transpires in heaven after the Rapture. Here I point out that we will first face the Bema, which is when all we who have been raptured will be judged according to our works, whether good or bad.

The last chapter is on the Marriage of the Lamb, our marriage to Christ. Many will disagree with me here, but I argue that our marriage to Christ will be patterned after the typical Jewish wedding. And the reason for their disagreement is because it will set forth a biblical proof of the Rapture.

Now in a typical Jewish wedding ritual, after the groom establishes the marriage covenant with the bride, he then returns to his father’s house to prepare a place for the bride, but promises that he will soon come again to get her and take her to be with him in his father’s house. 

The key biblical passage here is John 14:2-3, where Jesus tells His disciples, “I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” This passage, as you can see, follows the pattern of the Jewish wedding, and it is unmistakably, also what happens at the Rapture of the church.

Well, like I said, I am not quite finished with the book, but I will be very soon. I anticipate it to be published maybe by Christmas, 2020.

My Writing: Rewriting and Writing More

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I’m not sure exactly what I expected in terms of sales for my books. I thought that I would get some sales, at least for my e-books that I was selling on the Lulu website for just two or three dollars. But nothing! —for months and months. Finely, I decided to make them free. That way at least people wouldn’t have the excuse of not being able to afford them. Well, right away people were starting to order the free e-books. And I felt better, because now the books were at least getting out there.

I know there is a lot more I could do to sell my books, but I hate that part of it—the marketing part, which takes money, something I don’t have. But maybe someday. In the meantime, I will just keep writing. My first project was to rewrite, or edit my prayer books. After reading a few chapters I realized there was so many things I could improve on—ways to make the writing better, clearer. My mom told me that I repeat myself a lot. She was right. My roommate James also mentioned that I use the words thus, therefore and hence far too much. He was right too. Then I found a book by William Zinsser entitled On Writing Well. I learned so much from his book about how not to be so wordy, to say things in less words. So anyway, I went over my book (and that also included my six smaller books), and in just about every paragraph I found something to change. Basically, the content remained the same, I just did some editing that made it read better. It took about a year.

After that I was eager to move on to my next project. I chose the subject of bible prophecy. That entire field has intrigued me for many years, and I really wanted to write a book about it, particularly on the subject of the rapture of the church. I have been a big proponent of the pre-tribulation rapture, and I was ready to lay out the biblical evidence for that view. Even before doing any work on the subject I decided that the title of the book would be, Biblical Evidence of a Pre-tribulation Rapture.

The book was outlined in four parts. In part one, in four chapters I lay out the ground work for the rapture. I describe it from key Scripture passages, including from Daniel 9:24-27. I also talk about Israel and the church, particularly the false teaching of replacement theology.

In part two, I decided to take a detour from the rapture study and look briefly at the kingdom of God—the Millennium. I thought it would be good for the reader to get the big picture of what God would be doing in the future, especially for the Jews. That was a great study. In fact, I got so into it that I decided to make a separate book from it, which I entitled The Coming Millennial Kingdom. Wow! What a detour that was. So, what I did for part two was to just write an abbreviated version of that book.

Part three is basically a bible study of all the Scripture verses of both the rapture and the second coming, which I refer to as two phases of His coming. The first phase is the rapture, and the second phase is His second coming to the earth to set up His kingdom. I concluded from the study that there are 29 verses that refer to the rapture, and 34 verses that refer to the second coming. I also found 16 characteristics of the rapture and 16 characteristics of the second coming. I remember that I thought it was so profound to find 16 characteristics for each phase of His coming.

In part four I show why the rapture must come before the tribulation. First, I give 19 reasons why the pre-tribulation view is the correct view. Then in the last chapter I look at four conflicting views and offer my rebuttal. The four views are: the partial rapture theory, the mid-tribulation rapture theory, the pre-wrath rapture theory, and the post-tribulation rapture theory.

At first, I admit that I was a little afraid of doing this study, thinking that my view in my mind would be weakened. But the reverse was true. I was able to very easily bring a good rebuttal to each and every point. None of their views hold any water. I found that the only view that is biblically correct is the Pre-Tribulation view.

My Writing: Smaller Books, Self-Publishing

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These books can be seen on my Lulu website.

Even before I had completed writing Prayer A to Z, I was contemplating also putting the entire work together as six smaller books. I had gotten some comments about how large the book was and so I began to think that people might be more willing to purchase it as a series of smaller books. So, I began the process.

First, I started brainstorming on possible book titles. I needed six titles that would take in all of the topics I had in Prayer A to Z—forty-three topics, plus the five chapters on all the prayers of the bible. It didn’t take too long. After only a few hours I came up with six book titles: Basics of Prayer, Purpose of Prayer, Principles of Prayer, Joy of Prayer, Service of Prayer, and Zenith of Prayer. The next step was to fit all 43 topics, plus the prayers of the bible, under one of those six titles. And since the titles were quite general, it was an easy process. I just went through each topic and picked the book title that fit best. It was like a puzzle, and I love puzzles.

Somewhere along the line I met Preacherwin. That was (is) his blog name (he is a preacher in a church in Pennsylvania). His name is Win. At least that’s what he calls himself. I can’t remember how it all happened. I think it was when I was impressed with some of his blogging. Well, anyway, he found out that I was interested in getting my prayer books published and he recommended Lulu, a publishing company that would assist me in publishing my own work; and they would print and bind it for me at a very low cost. So, essentially, I would be a self-publisher with Lulu’s help. And they would also give me my own book website.

Well, I was kind of interested; but I became much more interested when I saw all of Win’s books that he had published through Lulu. From then on, we began emailing each other—mostly, I was emailing him with my questions. And he was so willing to help.

My first book project was Basics of Prayer. Win kept telling me that all I had to do was to go on to Lulu’s web site and they would walk me through the entire publishing process. So, one day I mustered up the nerve to do it. It was kind of scary but also adventurous. Let’s see, first I had to choose what size of book I wanted (I chose 6 by 9), then what kind of a cover I wanted: hard cover or paperback, then what would be the title.  After that I had to download a pdf version of the book to them. I found out that that was the hardest part, because they had certain requirement—a list of them. On my first try my download was rejected. What a downer. I emailed Win. Help! Eventually, with Win’s encouragement and after a few adjustments, my download was accepted.

Next, they gave me an ISBN number and a bar graph. And the last step was to do a book cover. I could either let Lulu do it for me—I just had to send them a picture of myself and a picture to go on the cover; or, I could design it myself. Win encouraged me to do it all myself, and he helped me. I’m glad I did it that way. It was harder, but it looked so much better.

After I published Basics of Prayer, I went on to the next book, Purpose of Prayer, and then the next one, and the next, until they were all published, all six books. They were all published in 2011. After that I began working on Prayer A to Z. That took me a little longer, but finally got it published in 2013.

10 Uses for Prayer A to Z

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It took me about 20 years to finally finish writing Prayer A to Z (from 1992 to 2012). I won’t bore you with any of the details here. It would be too long even to try to summarize it. But if you will go to my blog, https://studyingprayer.com/, you will see not only a summary, but sections of the book itself. Most of the book is on the blog site—in short excerpts with just a few extra comments. I’ve gotten some very nice blog comments, and I have a suspicion that many have ordered the book, either the hard copy or the pdf free eBook version. Thanks to all who did.

Now in this post I will list all of the 52 chapters so you can get a good overview of the book. Then I will give you ten suggested uses of the book other than just reading it through.

All 52 Chapters of PRAYER A TO Z

  1. Answers to Prayer
  2. Aroma of Prayer
  3. Authority of Prayer
  4. Burden in Prayer
  5. Confidence in Prayer
  6. Definition of Prayer
  7. Desire of Prayer
  8. Earnestness in Prayer
  9. Evangelism and Prayer
  10. Failure in Prayer
  11. Faith and Prayer
  12. Fasting and Prayer
  13. Forgiveness and Prayer
  14. God’s Idea Prayer
  15. Holiness and Prayer
  16. Holy Spirit and Prayer
  17. How to Pray, Part 1
  18. How to Pray, Part 2
  19. Importunity in Prayer
  20. Intercession, Part 1
  21. Intercession, Part 2
  22. Intercession, Part 3
  23. Jesus Name
  24. Kneeling in Prayer
  25. Length of Prayer
  26. Ministry of Prayer
  27. Necessity of Prayer
  28. Obedience of Prayer
  29. Possibilities of Prayer
  30. Power of Prayer
  31. Praise and Prayer
  32. Praise and Prayer
  33. Prayerlessness
  34. Quietness of Prayer, Part 1
  35. Quietness of Prayer, Part 2
  36. Quietness of Prayer, Part 3
  37. Quietness of Prayer, Part 4
  38. Revival and Prayer
  39. Specific Prayer
  40. Survey of Prayer, Part 1
  41. Survey of Prayer, Part 2
  42. Survey of Prayer, Part 3
  43. Survey of Prayer, Part 4
  44. Survey of Prayer, part 5
  45. Travail in Prayer
  46. United Prayer
  47. Vigilance in Prayer
  48. Vigilance in Prayer
  49. Word and Prayer
  50. Xanadu
  51. Yielding in Prayer
  52. Zenith of Prayer

Ten Uses for Prayer A to Z

1. I suggest not reading it through as a regular book. The book is more like a textbook on the broad subject of prayer. But if you insist on reading it through, take your time and set some reading goals. You may even find it helpful to take some notes as you read in terms of application so you don’t get lost in the weeks.

2. Sunday School teachers or Bible School Teachers to use it as a text book for a class on prayer.

3. Use it as a comprehensive personal or group study on prayer. Its 52 chapters would make an excellent weekly year-long study. But some would prefer to lengthen it to a two-year study. Two pages of reading a day would take you through the book in two years.

4. Use it as a source book. It’s a great book to have handy setting on your shelf for any questions that may come up. The alphabetical table of contents will be helpful.

5. Use the pdf version as a good concordance. I have found that the pdf version is very helpful to look up key words or scripture references anywhere in the text. It is especially helpful if you are studying a particular prayer subject and want to see all the places in the book it has been mentioned. I offer the pdf version free.

6. Use for daily devotional reading. Besides your daily bible reading, Prayer A to Z may stimulate some good devotional thoughts.

7. Use as a character study. I would begin by using the pdf version to look up all the occurances of a particular character, like Moses or Daniel. You could also go to chapters 40 through 44 and check out the prayers of those characters.

8. Use it to study all the prayers of the bible from chapters 40 through 44.

9. Use it to start a prayer ministry. A good start would be to read chapter 26 in this book.

10. Use to improve your prayer life. Start by reading chapter 1 on Answers to prayer, then read any other chapter you see that you think would be helpful.

My Writing: My Progression, My Ritual

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As soon as I had all my topics decided on, the next step in the process of writing my book Prayer A to Z was easy. I just took one topic (a chapter) at a time, did whatever reading and bible study I thought was sufficient for that topic, and went from there. I always highlighted important material as I read, took some notes, and then made an outline.

At first my idea was to make the chapters short—about two typed pages. I was still using the material as an insert in the church bulletin, so I didn’t want it to be too long. Eventually, after about the first ten chapters, I changed my mind about the length. I could see that there was much more I could write on each topic. So, I made a big decision to go back and re-write all that I did before moving on. Now, instead of each chapter taking only a couple days to write, it took sometimes a couple weeks—or more. But it was what I wanted and it looked better. More importantly, I was sure that it was what God wanted; and more and more I regarded the entire project as His.

I remember so clearly those early days of the writing.  I didn’t have a computer yet, so I just used my typewriter, and then I managed to persuade the church secretary to go over it (retype it) using her computer. She didn’t seem to mind, and at the time, it was for the church. After a few years though she was no longer the secretary and I decided I needed to get a computer. What a difference that made.

Most writers spend hours at a time writing. Not me. I had a full-time painting business with employees, and I had to be to work by at least 8 A.M. So, I chose to write early before I went off to work, and for only about 20 minutes at the most. I would usually do my bible reading and prayer first, and then tag on the writing. It worked well that way; and since I rarely missed my morning devotions, I hardly ever missed my writing time. It became my regular morning ritual—or an extension of my devotional time. And though some days it was hard to get into, after each writing session I felt a sense of peace and accomplishment. And it helped to set a good tone for the work day.

I kept that same ritual for as long as it took me to write my first book (20 years), and even a few years after that. Now however, since I am semi-retired, things are a little different.  I still have my quiet time in the morning, but I prefer to do my writing at a separate time. For my more technical writing, it is always easier to be near my computer, because I do so much of the research on the computer. But for the writing I am doing at this present time, which is my own story, I find it easier for me to go to a restraint and write while drinking my coffee. I also—as I am doing at this very moment—like to sit in my truck under the shade of a tree, with a coffee or water. I found a place at a park and ride location where there are several shade trees, and I hear the noise of the highway just 50 yards away. Some may regard that nose as annoying, but I’ve gotten used to it and is even kind of soothing—a good noise for writing.

How My Writing Adventure Began

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At my desk. I generally always write everything out long hand first.

 My writing adventure began about 1992, while I was attending Majestic Oaks Community Church. At the beginning, I was immersing myself in many books on prayer for the purpose of prayer ministry for the church. And I was content to read just the books I had on my shelves which I had collected over the years. Later, when I was thinking about the possibility of writing a book on prayer and when I was trying to put an outline together, I found that I had to look elsewhere for more books. The place that I looked most was at the Bethel Seminary library. I wasn’t a student there, but when I told them that I needed books for a book I was writing, they agreed to get me a library card. 

I remember so well when the idea came to me about writing a book. I had recently moved into a place as a renter, and I remember lazily laying on my bed day dreaming of future possibilities of a book. I admit that my first thought was that maybe I could actually make some money on a book. But then, I also thought of just using a book to bring a good teaching to people on prayer. I concluded that I could kill two birds with one stone. Why not. So, I committed it to prayer and immediately began forming an outline. From the start of my reading on prayer, I had the desire to look at prayer from every possible angle, and to read especially from all the prayer experts and great scholars. So, I continued to go with that idea in developing my outline.

First, I scanned through all the books I had and jotted down all the possible prayer topics I could write on. I came up with over 70 topics. Too many. Then I had a great idea. If I could put them all in alphabetical order, I could entitle the book, Prayer A to Z. That would give me only 26 topics, but I could always have more than one topic under the same letter. Eventually, I managed to get all my topics in alphabetical order and also narrow the count down to just over 50. Then I got another idea. If I could come up with exactly 52 topics (chapters), that would give me a great year-long study of prayer, studying one chapter a week. I settled on that idea. It was all set. Now, all I needed to do was put it together—write the book.

I have heard from more than one Christian publishing company that authors should never brag about how their book was designed by God. And I can see their point. But just between you and me, I definitely got the impression in seeing how my book came together so easily, that God had a part in it. Yes, I do feel that God wanted me to write the book and that He definitely helped me put it together.

This is my first book, Prayer A to Z. It was published in 2013.