I am pleased to share this with visitors to this blog and those who follow my reviews.
Reality Calling has as its vision to,
.....provide resources for the Christian author, vetted books for readers, anointed materials to share with the Kingdom and the world, and a book review site with reviews from trusted reviewers.
Technical support and mentoring for Christian self-publishers is found in our companion site: The Skilled Workman. There you will also find Writing In InDesign Producing Books, the book on the best method to self-publish on a professional level.
Our twin focus is first to encourage authors to participate in the final harvest as we prepare for the Coming of our King. It’s a glorious time to be alive and the Lord is looking for authors to help Him save all possible before the Wrath which is to come falls on the Earth.
Second, we also need and serve readers, and commenters, both to help us stay on track, and to share these resources with their friends and acquaintances. As authors and creators, we must stay attached to the Head, Jesus, as well as the readers we serve. For having a call from God necessarily means we serve those we are given. Our readers are our flock with whom we are called minister. Jesus told us we will be held to account for everything we say [or write]. We take that seriously.
As a major part of this vision, I believe that the Kingdom needs more authors willing to lay it all on the line and share books containing the reality of the Christian life. We need books which go beyond mentions of church and vague faith statements. We really need books which share the reality of the power available to believers to bring love, joy, and healing to a world desperately needing hope. The darkness we see in the world today is but the birth pangs of the coming Kingdom on Earth. That’s our glorious hope. God, the Father of us all, is coming to live with us forever in an earth designed for us to share. Alleluia!
Evolving from this, David felt that authors needed to be encouraged and awarded for their efforts in writing according to what he outlined in the above paragraph. In conjunction with him, we have instigated the,
Reality Calling Christian Speculative
Fiction Review Awards
Fiction Review Awards
There are five awards: (click on their title for more information)
- Christian Redemptive Speculative Fiction
- Christian Redemptive Romances Fiction
- Christian Spirit-Filled Speculative Fiction
- Christian Spirit-Filled Romance Fiction
- Christian Religious Fiction
These awards are based on A Spiritual System for Rating Books written by David Bergsland (Click on the title for a free copy).
The purpose of this post is to award an author whose story I have reviewed recently that meets many of the previously mentioned criteria in his novel, but more specifically, the criteria developed by David for Christian Religious Fiction:
The purpose of this post is to award an author whose story I have reviewed recently that meets many of the previously mentioned criteria in his novel, but more specifically, the criteria developed by David for Christian Religious Fiction:
These are books which have characters who openly talk about God, the Messiah, and a Holy Spirit. The Messiah has died to pay the deserved penalty of sin in an individual. Believing in the Messiah provides forgiveness for sin. The Holy Spirit or God has little or no direct interaction with the daily lives of the characters—although faith is in operation and God controls the outcome of events which are prayed for by the characters.
The church, or group of believers, is the authority on faith and doctrine. The Gospel is accurately portrayed. Believers are fit into the Church or group. Salvation is found through preaching and/or liturgy. Spiritual wisdom is dispensed by the clergy or wise men and women in the group of believers. The Scriptures are very helpful, if available, but are not seen as the ultimate authority. The Messiah is seen in and revealed by the individuals in the group and the group itself.
After reading this novel recently, I was encouraged and uplifted by his inclusion of elements of the Religious Fiction criteria in his story, therefore, I gladly award a Religious Fiction Award to:
Richard Mark Huffman
More than a thousand years have passed since man’s exile from Eden’s garden. The earth is cursed, humans scrape meager livings from the soil, and legendary beasts roam the wilderness. When a fearsome leviathan threatens his homelands, Noah must find a way to defeat the monster. Desperate to discover its weakness, he journeys to seek the aid of the half-angel giants called the Nephilim. Meanwhile, the angelic Watchers known as the Grigori have seized the great city of Enoch, and their powerful leader has become obsessed with Noah's bride-to-be. Friendships and faith are tested, and Noah is thrust into the middle of an impossible revolution against the fallen Grigori. His Nephilim comrades must choose whether to fight on the side of humanity or the angels, and their decision may mean the difference between the earth's salvation … or its annihilation.