Reality Calling Christian Speculative Fiction Review Award: Brad Francis

I am pleased to share this with visitors to this blog and those who follow my reviews.

I share my reviews with author and fellow reviewer, David Bergsland, of Reality Calling. 

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

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 short story, but more specifically, the criteria developed by David for Christian Spirit-Filled Speculative Fiction:

This includes everything mentioned in redemptive fiction, with the addition of what John the Baptist told us: That one was coming who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit instead of [or in addition to] the baptism of water for forgiveness. This baptism is what took place at Pentecost and was prophesied by the Lord to be a time when the disciples were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what we see in Acts 19, where Paul sees a lack in the believers because they had not received the Holy Spirit, but had only been baptized in the baptism of John. So, he baptizes them in the baptism of Jesus. The result is seen in verse six: “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” NASB

These believers are clearly born-again and have a deep hunger for scripture, but their relationship with the Lord is intimate. He speaks to them regularly by the Holy Spirit. They commonly, off-handedly, manifest the gifts of the spirit Paul lists in I Corinthians 12: 4-11—plus church for them is much closer to what Paul talked about in I Corinthians 14: 20-33.

Their entire life is based on their intimacy with the Lord, and following Him through direct guidance from Him

They are commonly persecuted or shunned by the religious and even many of the redemptive. Non-believers quickly come to love them, in many cases.

After reading this short story recently, I was encouraged and uplifted by his inclusion of elements of the Spirit-Filled Fiction criteria in his story, therefore, I gladly award a Spirit-Filled Fiction Award to: 

Brad Francis

for his short story,

The Book of the Harvest

View my review here 

THE BESTSELLING SHORT STORY THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS USED TO CHANGE HEARTS AND LIVES!

The Book of the Harvest is an "incredible book" about a man somewhere in the midst of eternity who begins to wonder what happened to those whose lives he had a chance to touch while on earth. His questions lead him to the discovery of a remarkable, heartbreaking book that opens his eyes to a truth that he would give anything to have known during his mortal life. If only it weren't too late...

Readers have called this short story "a wake-up call," inspired by the Holy Spirit." Many have said that the book has opened their eyes and left them determined to listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit, and to obey whatever He tells them. Don't read this story if you don't want to be changed!

Congratulations, Brad!