Excerpt Of Book Taken From The Preface:I never thought I would ever write a book especially a work of fiction.
In fact, I never thought I would write anything other than my name and maybe my
date of birth. Growing up I didn’t like school and would attempt to skip
whenever possible. As I got older, I also got into my fair share of trouble.
Eventually I dropped out of high school, did many unwise, ungodly, and unsavory
things. I did have moments of clarity. As an example, I went back to school and
received my GED. I did try to live a moral life on occasion, but would end up
slipping back into sinful and destructive behaviors. It wasn’t until I became a
Christian that things in my life really began to change. Being forgiven and set
free from sin radically changes one’s life.
It wasn’t long after I
gave my life to Christ that I had this hunger for the Word of God and desired
to tell as many people as possible about Jesus. Within a year – and with the
encouragement of Ian McGuiggan, the evangelist who studied with me and
eventually baptized my wife and me into Christ – I began taking courses through
Sunset International Bible Institute while also beginning to preach on
occasion. It was a slow process for me, but eventually I earned an Associate in
Biblical Studies and went on to complete the Bachelor of Biblical Studies. I
felt compelled to further my training and decided to pursue an MA in biblical
or theological studies. The guy who hated school was now enrolling in seminary
for a Master of Arts. Who would have believed this?
I originally intended to
work on a Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies but was intrigued
by the Master of Arts in Christian and Classical Studies that was being
offered. I eventually enrolled in the MACCS program from Knox Theological
Seminary.
The education I received
at Knox was eye-opening to say the least. I never read any of the Great Books
of the Western World, works such as Plato’s Republic, the City of God by
Augustine, Machiavelli’s The Prince, or Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
Knox had such an important impact on my growth and thinking, much more than I
could have imagined. It was during my time at Knox that I met Steve Jeck who I
eventually nicknamed “Barnabas” (the son of encouragement). What an amazing
man! He guided me through my time at Knox like Virgil guiding Dante in The
Divine Comedy. He was far more to me than a teacher. He was my mentor.
After I graduated from
Knox, I applied to Liberty University to work on my doctorate in Christian
Leadership/Ministry Leadership. Did I mention that I hated school growing up
and that I dropped out of high school? The things that God does in a person’s
life are amazing.
After I completed my
doctorate, I began thinking about writing. The reality is that I had begun
writing The Long Road Home while I was still at Knox. The poetic imagination
had gotten ahold of me, but for various reasons the story went dormant for a
while. Every so often I would pull it out and type a few words. Then back into
the vault it went.
I finally decided to
post a rough draft of the story, a few paragraphs at a time on my Facebook page
and to my surprise, there were a few people who enjoyed reading it. That was
the final push I needed to rework it and edit it for publication.
I hope that you, the reader, find in this book a story
that is at the same time old and familiar as well as new. If you know the
Bible, you will likely pick up on some biblical themes and the story of The
Prodigal Son that was taken from the Gospel of Luke. And if you have read some
of the great works of the Western canon, you will likely find shadows and
echoes from some of those works as well.
My ultimate goal in
all of this is to glorify Jesus who is the world’s only Savior. This story is
one of redemption that I pray points you to the ultimate redeemer, Jesus
Christ. We have all fallen short of the glory of God and need to be rescued. We
could never save ourselves, but the good news is that Jesus died for you and
me, and in Him, we have redemption and a new life.
You can purchase the softcover or Kindle versions HERE
