James Leonard Johnson

This physical/spiritual true adventure begins with a choice - a brief life as a cripple, or the "givens" of a radical, quadruple open heart by-pass. "My walk to the edge of eternity, then, is a story of my own record of the years of frantic and often frenetic activity for the Kingdom, a punishment God never intended for me. It is a story of my own 'spiritual workaholic' life, the affliction that is already burning out uncounted thousands of Christians. This accounting is intended to offer evidence that 'death has no sting.' God is there, very close. The front porch of glory is but one short step up. The passage from the 'lower' to the 'upper' floor is not painful. What is over there is beyond any man's power to describe fully. And hell, based on the brief glimpse I had, is also beyond comprehension and full articulation. God gave me both visions, and I have tried to report them accurately, with awe, not embellishment." What is told here may encourage some soul caught in the bewilderment of life's values to know that all things are in His hands.… (meer)

****** MILD SPOILER ALERT ******

I read very little Christian fiction. The thrillers (and this is one) tend to have a problem with 'Deus Ex Machina'. Generally, right at the end of the book, something miraculous happens allowing the hero to win. While this is good for Christian faith, it tends to make for a bad novel in my opinion.

This book is different. It's set in Israel about the 1970's and Sebastian is a Christian minister who has been average to below average at practically everything in his life. The small plane he and a few other people are flying in is crash landed in the Negev desert. Rescue is unlikely anytime soon and there may be a terrorist sabotaging everything. Sebastian is forced in to leading the group and despite all odds manages to stumble along to surviving. Even he is unsure whether they managed by the skin of their teeth or if God was extremely subtle in guiding them. To me, this uncertainty is what makes the book as good as it is.… (meer)