| Into the Desert The First Ralph Moon, Christian Detective Novel |
| Excerpt from Ralph Moon |
| "...When we prayed, we asked Jesus to come into your heart and live. We asked God, the Father, to take control of your life. The feeling that you had, and not all have emotional experiences, was the Holy Spirit taking possession of and residing in you. "...When we commit our lives to God three things will happen: First, God will work in us. Second, God will work through us. Third, God will work for us. When you asked God to forgive your sins, God forgave your sins. When you asked Jesus to come into your life, Jesus came into your life. From that point forward you became a new creation. As we move forward as this new creation, the old things in our lives will pass away, and the Holy Spirit will guide us into the will of God and the plan that God has, from the foundations of time, had for us. This is the beginning. This is how God works in us. That is not to say that we will no longer have problems. But, as it says in the episl\tle of James, we should consider it pure joy, whenever we face trials of many kinds, because the testing of our faith develops perseverance...that means patience. That patience, in turn, must finish its work so that we as Christians may become mature, Godly people, lacking nothing... "...When we begin this journey, if you will, and make no mistake, it is a journey; we have little knowledge of God and how He works, and I might add, no wisdom. But James goes on to say that if any of us lack wisdom, we should ask God for wisdom, and He will give generously without finding fault. God will give us all that we ask for. Asking God for help is easy, but sometimes accepting God's help is hard. "When you were in the world as with me, we would try to do what we considered the right thing, but this was always guided by self-interest. Now, as Christians, we must set ourselves aside and allow God's interests to be predominant. Setting one's self to the side is about the hardest thing you will ever be asked to do by God. We must have faith that what God says, God will do." |
| ISBN: 1-60474-693-9 |
| In Apache Junction, Arizona, the decade that would change the world forever begins - the sixties. Young Scott Doyle, a lover of the desert and his youthful imagination, receives a beautiful white German Shepherd, Scout, from his father as an early birthday gift. In addition to Scout, Scott receives the friendship of a heroic veteran Marine - sergeant - turned - detective, Sergeant Ralph Moon, the person responsible for training Scout for military use. Along with the friendship comes everything from chicken thieves to murder, romance, and mystery in the small town. Scott discovers just how powerful his newfound faith in God can be, and how, through Jesus Christ, wonderful things can happen. As the murder mystery unravels, the lives of the young man, the sergeant, and a multitude of others are changed forever. |
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| Excerpt from Scott Doyle |
| "Okay,...Have you ever watched Roy Rogers, or Gene Autry, or The Range Rider, or maybe he Red Rider, on TV? Okay. Jesus is like the guys those heroes play... "...Have you read the Gospels about Jesus and how he lived?... ."..The Westerns always start with a town in trouble - sometimes a bank robbery or a gang of outlaws, something. Then the hero shows up and the people of the town give him a big welcome because he's he answer to all of their problems. The hero goes about investigating and talking to everyone, and the whole town is behind him. Then he confronts the gad guys, usually a town leader like the richest guy in town, or something. After that, he starts getting shot at and ambushed and all sorts of troubles start happening. Finally, it comes to a showdown with the hero and the gang. Which never turns out good for the hero. There is usually a horse chase or a big brawl or something and the hero is left for dead, but he really isn't. Then he gets his strength back and when he's well, the hero finds the only ones hat still believe he's a good guy are usually a sidekick or the damsel in distress, and he goes after the bad guys again. And even though they told lies about him and made everyone in town believe the hero was really the bad guy, he finally triumphs over the villains. And, well, everyone lives happily ever after... "...Jerusalem was in trouble - really the whole nation of Israel. The bad guys in that case were the Romans, like the rich ranch owners in some Westerns. And then there were the Sanhedrin, like the greedy bankers in the Westerns. They were the Jews that ruled over the people. They are like the gang of outlaws. The people of Jerusalem were really happy when Jesus showed up and began fixing things, by healing people and making he blind see, and stuff like that. All of the people loved what he was doing. Then the bad stuff started happening. The Sanhedrin started ambushing him with questions. They would gang up on him and try to prove to the people that he wasn't really a good guy, but they never could. Jesus was the perfect hero. He was the perfect man. Then, when the Sanhedrin couldn't get rid of him they went to the rich ranch owner for help - the Romans. That was Pilate, the Roman boss. They all ganged up on Jesus and crucified him. They left him for dead, and just like in the movies, everyone in town (Jerusalem), thought he was a bad guy after all, except of course his sidekicks, the Disciples. Then, after Jesus was resurrected, just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, or Gene Autry and Andy Devine at the end of their movies, he found all of his sidekicks, and they ended up proving the bad guys were wrong all the time. That's how Christianity got started. The Disciples went out and told the whole world about Jesus." |