It’s almost Christmas.

 Winter break for public school students started last Friday.

 It’s almost Christmas.

 The shopping for gifts is winding down, the number of cards in the mail is slowing down and goody-baking is cranking up.

 It’s almost Christmas.

 Most houses have twinkling trees in the window.

 It’s almost Christmas.

 Final plans for travel to be with family are being finalized.

 It’s almost Christmas.

 And the almost that’s on everybody’s lips—whether from an excited 2nd-grader or an overwhelmed single mom or grandparents freshening the linens in the guest room or a military family aching for the missing one or a desperate Santa looking for a Zhu Zhu pet—carries with it a sense of anticipation. 

        We’re all looking forward to something for Christmas – even if we don’t quite know what it is. What name would you give the longings of your heart today?

 It’s almost Christmas.

 We lit the last of the four Advent candles in worship this morning.  All month long we have been reminded that Christmas marks the coming of the Messiah—Jesus, God’s Son and the Chosen One of the Ages.  He comes to bring us God-sized hope and peace and joy and love… and more.

 It’s almost Christmas.

 And on Christmas Eve, we’ll finally light the Christ-candle to represent the One who glows at the center of all our longings.  He alone satisfies our lack and precisely heals our brokenness.  He alone brings fullness of joy and indescribable peace right into the middle of our mess. He alone brings a love stronger than our rebel curses and mercy that outlasts both deaths and Death.  He alone promises a life that extends beyond the mists of right now

 It’s almost Christmas.

 On that night, we’ll whisper with wonder….” He’s here.”

 It’s almost Christmas.

I think we have discovered a new Christmas tradition.  I have previously mentioned the artistic beauty,  poetic thoughtfulness, theological richness and deep meaning of Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God.  This set of songs trace the gospel roots of the Incarnation and remind us of the wonders of the Babe in the manger.

          Last year for the first time, we saw Behold peformed live.  It was really good.  Last night, we saw it performed at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Peterson’s hometown– Nashville– with his close community of artists- friends.  It was incredible. Peterson, Jill Phillips, Andrew Gullahorn and Ben Shive are at the forefront of acoustic-driven, theologically rich Christian music.  They were joined by Brandon Heath, Leigh Nash and Sixpence None the Richer, Andrew Osenga and a couple of other guys from Caedmon’s Call, Ron Block and the fiddler from Union Station (Alison Krauss’ group), critically acclaimed folk singer Pierce Pettis and others, including a string quintet. 

        After leading the 1500 or so of us to sing ‘It is Well with My Soul”  Andrew began with a quote from the children’s Jesus Story-book Bible ( which I have reviewed here before) reminding us that all of Scripture points to Messiah and the cross, and revolves around Jesus.    Then came the full peformance of Behold.  It is interesting to hear the mood shift from performance (applause after every song) to worship and even hushed quiet as people considered the fulness of the realiy of Christmas. To end with the acapella singing of ” O Come, All Ye Faithful” and the “Doxology” was beautiful.  I can’t wait to go next year…

      There is a 10th anniversary recording and DVD available.  But until you get that, I’ll post as much as I can find here over the next few days. 

Gather ‘Round, Ye Children

Deliver Us

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Dear Tiger,

            I just wanted to write and tell you that over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been praying for you.  I have long admired your incredible skill as a golfer, your mental toughness and your commitment to education through your foundation.  You’ve been on my prayer list as a world-shaping personality for a long time. 

But, in light of recent events, I’ve been praying for you even more.  I can only imagine the levels of pain, hurt, confusion, anger, shame, failure, fear and pressure that you must be experiencing. Those emotions resulting from your actions are, I’m sure, multiplied even more for your wife Elin and your family.

I have to try to imagine your experience, because like most people in the world, I don’t know anything about you first-hand.  I have to rely on the statements you’ve made on your web site and then try to sift out the core truths from the sensationalistic voyeurism that marks so much of the press coverage of your current life situation.  I have to imagine because you live in a world of fame, wealth and privilege I will never know. I generally have to use both of my names and a driver’s license to identify myself, and can walk through the Wal-Mart three blocks from my house without being recognized!  You can’t… and I guess that’s what brings the longing for privacy and controlled access that you have so carefully cultivated. 

But now, it must feel like that world has been turned upside down and inside out.  Everything nailed down is coming loose.  You have even chosen to step away from the PGA Tour for an “indefinite period”. Since the age of three, golf has been the constant of your life. Now the constant is gone.  That must be terrifying. So, I am praying for you.

What am I praying?  I’m praying that you will be able to continue and deepen the process you said you’ve begun. You said, “After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.”

The key to this whole thing is in the third word: soul. Make no mistake: ultimately, this is not about golf and your legacy as one of the greatest players in history.  It’s not about your economic impact on the PGA Tour. It’s not about the sponsors and whether or not they will maintain a relationship with you as their spokesman.  It’s not about answering questions on Oprah or satisfying the occasionally insufferable Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated and a hundred ESPN wannabes. If I may be so bold, it’s not even ultimately about saving your marriage.

Ultimately, this whole thing is about your soul. 

That’s probably what you’d expect somebody like me to say, but hear me out. Your soul is the most important thing about you. It’s the core of your being. It is the essence of “Tiger” beyond your public image, beyond “Eldred” that your mom and dad named you, and probably well beyond who you think you are.   Your soul is who God created you to be. God is the source of your soul’s life.

And that’s the missing reality in all the billions of words of analysis that have been spilled about you in the past two weeks: God. Over all these years, I’ve never heard any mention of your faith, or religion or spirituality.  Maybe that’s just something else you’ve kept private, but if ever you need to deal with God, this is the time.  You’ll never become a “better husband, father and person” apart from getting the realities of God and your soul straight.

I know that maybe God is the last person want to deal with right now. Your gut instinct is that God is not pleased with infidelity. (You’re right, it’s one of the Top Ten) You used the word ‘transgressions” in an earlier statement, so you know that morally, you have stepped across a boundary line into penalty territory.  You probably figure that you feel bad enough about it already, so why pile more guilt on top of it all by dealing with God?  You know, better than anybody else, that you messed up and that you’re messed up.  

So…welcome to the human race.  All of us (including me) have messed up and stepped across God’s boundary lines. All of us (including me) are messed up at the soul level.  God calls our mess “sin”.  Call it infidelity, pride, greed, lack of compassion, anger, lying, pornography, selfishness or a million other names. It’s all sin.

The only difference is that our messed-up-ness just doesn’t make headlines around the world like yours.  And in spite of what our sex-obsessed culture thinks, your transgressions before God are no worse than the sin of the most obscure person in Kentucky or Thailand or Sweden.   Your sin is deadly serious, but it’s not unique.  So, I really do wish some folks would get off their high horse of moral outrage over you, and stop acting as if this sort of sin is so unbelievable. Sin is who we are as human beings.

Now, let’s get back to the soul issue.  Sin infects the soul—including yours.  The infection is deadly; it kills the soul because it blocks us from our source of life – God.  That sin-infection requires a cure that only God can provide.  But you have to know you’re sick before you will seek a cure.

Here’s a different way to look at your painful situation, Tiger.  Could it be that the discovery of the affairs, the rapid crumbling of your carefully crafted public image, the horrible tensions with Elin, the removal from the world of golf have all been what one person called ‘ a severe mercy”?  Could it be that God is using all of this pain to drive you to Himself for the cure?  Could it be that God has been incredibly patient and decided He could wait no longer to get your soul to the remedy?

It could be, because God is incredibly kind – even when his kindness feels harsh.  One part of the Bible asks a tough question: “Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Rom.2:4)  It is very kind of God to press you in by these hard days, so that you’re drawn to repent.   That’s more than just confession of wrong.  To repent means to fundamentally change your direction, your priorities, your affections, your thoughts away from self and towards God.  It’s a big deal.  Could it be that all this is designed to bring Tiger to the end of Tiger?

That may be the most loving thing God could do for you. Why would I say that?  Because your soul is so much bigger than you have been thinking.  Your soul is bigger than golf and becoming a legend.  It is more precious than the billion-plus dollars your accountants say you’re worth.  Your soul holds the potential for more profound adventure than your competitive juices can fill.   Your soul has deeper longings that no amount of sexual escapades will ever satisfy.  Your soul is built for God and anything other than that will leave you flat, empty and dying.

How does God both cure and satisfy a soul?  With Himself, and specifically with His Son, Jesus Christ.  That’s really another letter for another day, but you just need to know this: “God shows His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  In the middle of your messed-up-ness, not your all-togetherness, God loves you. Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin—so you could be fully forgiven (for everything!) and have a clean slate to start over.  That forgiveness comes free, not because you perform. You simply trust your soul—the essence of the real you—to Jesus.

And there’s even more. Jesus promises that everyone who comes to Him by repentance and faith will have His forever life. His powerful life will flow through you and change you from the inside out, from the soul into your attitudes, thoughts, actions, self-control, relationships, decisions and more.  On your own, you can’t change you, Tiger. Nobody can. But with His power, you can really become “a better husband, father and person.”

That’s why the life and message of Jesus is called the gospel– which means good news.  Like nothing else, it remedies the mess within us, changes the world around us—including our relationships– and gives us hope for all our tomorrows.

So, I’m praying for you, Tiger, and for the soul work you’re doing.  I’m praying that you and Elin will repair your relationship and that you’ll enjoy a long and happy marriage together.  Know that a whole bunch of us out here are pulling for you, no matter if we ever see you on a golf course again.  

 Grace and hope,

    david

Like everybody else, I am in the middle of living an intriguing story with a rather unlikely title:  “My Life”.

My story, like yours, has all the elements of a good story:  a narrative arc with potential for deep meaning and adventure that flows through the constant interplay of ordinary moments, tension and resolution.   As the chapters unfold, there is beauty and horror, relationships and solitude, romance and conflict, faith and doubt, plans and surprises, indescribable weariness and uncommon strength, mystery and imagination and heroics and fear and….more. It’s astonishingly rich.

But that’s not all.  My life story is set within a much larger one: God’s redemptive Story that encompasses every second of human history and eternity.  The span of my life is a sliver in a large narrative that centers around the display of God’s glory in His Son, Jesus, and the full implications of His gospel, His purposes and His reign.  Nothing happens outside the Story.

Sometimes, I can follow my story within the Story.  In other words, it’s comfortable.  I have a pretty good idea of what is going on, and can see at least some of what the Lord is doing in and around me.  Those are the “normal” chapters.

But then, there are chapters in the story that make no sense whatsoever.  It’s like you turned the page and everything shifted: plot, setting, characters, language, genre—all different.  One day, the story is a sweet romance tinged with joy, shared dreams, transparent hearts, nurtured faith and lots of laughter.  Turn the page and it’s a horror tale with pain, dark corners, shadow people, nagging doubts and whispered curses. That’s just inside me—not to mention others in the story with me.  And I’m a pastor!

Here’s the thing: my father God is the author who holds the pen that is writing in both chapters. “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Ps.139:16)  “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28) All the good stuff—promotions, one true love, dreams fulfilled, deep contentment–and all the negative twists in my story—failure, sickness, hopes crushed and unanswerable questions—are under His loving, sovereign, providential care.

I don’t know how—and certainly not why- but My Father is on both sides.  He is in both the tensions and the resolutions of my story, for His glory and my good. The chapters are good.

I have been in a chapter of pain, shadows and doubts for awhile.  It has been hard to live this: hard on the heart and hard on faith. It has felt like an unrelentingly bruising dead-end. But it pressed me to the cross, the empty tomb and the throne unlike anything else could have.  It shaped my soul—permanently.  It reminded me that I am often clueless and desperately dependent on Jesus. That I am broken and still loved.  That I am free.  And that is good, but no less difficult to live.

But yesterday, my Father’s merciful hand turned the page to a fresh new chapter in my life.  The faith-family (no my faith-family) at Highland Baptist Church in Shelbyville, KY invited me to serve as their lead pastor.  I accepted, with joy and a deeply humbled heart. 

I don’t know where the story goes next.  I never do, really. But the sun has broken through the clouds. Hope is rising.  The rhythms of this dance are at once familiar and exhilaratingly fresh.  Laughter is just around the corner.  And mostly, my Jesus is already there and He is beckoning me to follow Him into tomorrow.

I’ve got a feeling this chapter of “My Life” is going to be good.

Each day during Advent, open your heart to the overwhelming, huge majesty of our Creator God through these photographs  from the Hubble Space telescope.  Then be stunned into silence all over again with this simply profound truth: 

” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–which means, “God with us.”  (Matt.1:22-23)

Advent has begun, inviting us to wait and watch for the coming of Jesus, the Christ.  We enter again into the agony of hearts aching under the weight of this world’s deep longings—and Hope to be fully satisfied. 

We carefully track with the Peace of the Prince who comes into our brokenness and battles bearing the promise of His shalom—wholeness, reconciliation and healing.

We allow our hearts to rise for the real Joy that suffuses ordinary moments with heaven’s laughter and redeems our midnight tears for another morning.

We stand again at the manger, wide-eyed at the mystery of the Babe– Immanuel, “God with us”—and sense again the wonder that we are deeply, passionately, inexplicably delighted in by forever Love.

It’s all gospel. Good news. The presents and the trees and the lights and the bows and the carols and the cards and the stockings and the cookies for the mailman and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life” and a child’s bright eyes on Santa’s lap and worship services and family moments.  

The whole Advent season leading to Christmas is all gospel, tinged with wonder.

 For the past few years, the beginning of the Advent season has also marked the beginning of the battle cry from Christian culture warriors.

You know the drill.  Somebody gets all in a lather over store clerks wishing people “happy holidays” or as in Kentucky, calling a Christmas tree a “holiday tree.”  Buttons are worn and bumper stickers are placed and “sign this and pass it on if you believe in Christmas” petitions are circulated on the internet.

And now,  Focus on the Family has actually developed a web site called Stand for Christmas.  The basic idea is that costumers can log on and rank various businesses as “Christmas-friendly”, Christmas-negligent” or “Christmas-offensive”. There’s a constantly updated percentage for each category listed for dozens of businesses, and as soon as someone sends their comments, an e-mail is automatically generated to the business itself.

Part of the web site states:

“’Tis the season to expose folly! In our country which was founded with the ideal of providing religious liberty, we can encourage genuine mutual respect amid diversity without denying the prominent place Christmas holds both here and worldwide. Our commonsense appeal is not to encourage retailers to be exclusive but to be more inclusive by notably featuring the word Christmas….StandForChristmas.com puts you in the driver’s seat! And I believe retailers will take note of how consumers are rating their Christmas shopping experiences. Christmas is not only a memorable family time, it is the season in which we celebrate God’s greatest gift to man. Christ is the centerpiece of our holiday season. Help us encourage the many retailers who are doing it well and urge those who censor the word “Christmas” to change their approach!”

OK.  But…really? Is this the primary thing that those of us who have received the gospel gift want to broadcast during this season? 

Zach Nielson sums up some of my thoughts:

Why are we expecting non-believers to ascribe to something that means nothing to them? Does this help us promote the true meaning of Christmas? Why would we expect any different? I don’t get it.

Whether unbelievers use the words Happy Holidays or Christmas is of little consequence as to their understanding of the Gospel. In my view, this kind of stuff only hurts our mission to communicate the truth of the Gospel. If you think people using the word Christmas somehow makes our materialistic holiday extravaganza more pure you are probably not paying attention very well. Boycotting secular businesses that do not exhibit the kind of behavior that we think they should is the last thing that an unbelieving world needs to see.

The main question this website asks is, “How Christmas Friendly Are Retailers?” What does retail have to do with the essence of Christmas anyway? Obviously, the true meaning of Christmas is very important to us and we want to teach our kids the meaning of Christmas, but that is not going to be found in any retail store, no matter how “Christmas friendly” they are.

Let’s say that the CEO of Best Buy somehow stumbles upon this website and he happens to be a hard-core Christian skeptic. Do you think that this kind of a website is a helpful Christian witness for him? I doubt it. It serves the opposite goal. If we want people to cherish Christmas the path to seeing that accomplished is not paved with boycotts and angry comment sections on a public website.

Do we expect our unbelieving Muslim friends to acknowledge Christmas? Do we expect our unbelieving Hindu friends to acknowledge Christmas? Do we have unbelieving friends? Isn’t this just a subtle (or not so subtle) form of legalism?

 For a Baptist, there are questions of religious liberty and freedom of conscience at play here.  Yes, we want all people to recognize the central reality of Jesus to our year-end celebrations.  But we can’t mandate that or force it on a secular culture.  That’s not the way a gift of grace works. That’s not the way witness or mission works, for we are called to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15) 

Again, I ask: is this really what we want to be known for at Christmas?  Just like the Disney boycotts and the values voter drives, suddenly the conversation becomes about what we are against, rather than what we are for.

What if we win a few skirmishes here and force a college student or a single mom working a second job at minimum wage to say, ”Merry Christmas”?  What if we make people say the right words because it’s what we want to hear to make us feel better about our culture—but they miss encountering His promise of hope, peace, joy and love.  They may mouth the words of our desired Christmas story—but their hearts may miss the gospel altogether.  

This marks the Advent season with a selfish silliness that obscures the wonder of the gospel that is the whole point of Christmas in the first place. 

            Our community’s experience of Christmas wonder or Christmas silliness doesn’t rest with people who do not claim him, but with those who are His.  So this Advent, be stunned at Immanuel again—whisper, giggle, weep, sigh and sing. And make sure some far-from-God people are right next to you when the wonder comes near.

            It occurs to me this morning that no two Thanksgiving Days are identical.  The menu for the meal may be the same.  The place settings and traditions may be the same.  But the thanksgiving itself is always unique, because the year that precedes it is unique.  Thanksgiving is a reflective, responsive day that draws its energy from the twists and turns of our story over the past year.

            So this year, I am grateful for the sustaining mercies of the Lord that have carried us through one of the toughest years of our life. “Sustaining” signals images of rich depth for us. 

There have been days when our souls despaired of life itself—and the Father came with resurrection life to sustain us. 

Some days immersed us under waves of weeping and seemingly senseless grief, but somehow, the Father has siphoned those tears into His bottle and sustained us to keep looking for the joy that comes in the morning.

Many days have been lonely, and the Father has sustained us by the quiet assurance of His presence.

Sometimes, we have been just plain scared—and the Lord has sustained us with the embrace of the Spirit, and enough Light for one more step into the dark.

Other times, we have been confused and angry—even with God—and He has sustained us by His living and unchanging word (especially in the Psalms) that gave us a vocabulary for lamenting faith.

Some parts of our story  have tempted us to wonder about the Father’s love. Almost as soon as that whisper hit the ears of our hearts, we were sustained by some reminder of the gospel of a bloody cross, an empty tomb and a glorious throne—and knew that Love had not faltered.

The Father has sustained our minds, hearts and lives through this year. And it is certainly not because we deserved it or earned it.

His sustaining is all mercy.

Mercy that arises from His heart. 

Mercy simply because He is good.

 How has He brought the mercies to us?  In more ways than we can name and more than we know, but certainly…

+ through friends who hung close (you know who you are).

+ through the Word in the Bible, a lifeline for our souls.

+ through a network of pray-ers pleading before the throne on our behalf.

+ through sleep and rest–especially naps. (Preschoolers are onto something!).

+ through unexpected laughter.

+ through phone calls, conversations, cards or e-mails that came at just the right moment.

+ through opportunities to keep a hand in ministry.

+ through books and writing and songs.

+ through our family’s shared faith and enjoying my wife’s stubborn trust and the full circle of being encouraged by my son’s faith.

+…and more.

 So, thank you, Father. You are good! 

We have made it to this day only by your sustaining mercies.

            World-class cellist Alban Gerhardt has a weird, even odd habit.  He both practices and performs while wearing earplugs.

Now, a keen sense of hearing would seem essential for a musician at this level.  Tuning and intonation depend on good hearing. So does tempo and rhythm, dynamics and an awareness of the nuanced interplay with other musicians. 

            But Berg sees the earplugs as essential, and insists that that he can no longer perform without them.  So, why does a passionate musician purposely inhibit his hearing?  He recently described three reasons:

            + “it’s easier to focus because I shut out everything else.”

             + “When everything else is blocked out, I don’t get as overwhelmed by the sound of the orchestra.”

            + “the sound I hear is so unfulfilling, it’s more challenging to do something musically.”

            One commenter observed that it was a fascinating concept: to force yourself to limit what you hear, so you dig deeper to express what you are feeling.

            We live in a phenomenally noisy world. There’s television (turned on an average of 7 hours per day in most homes), radio (in the car), I-Pods and background music in the stores, not to mention everyday noises like sirens, machinery, the back-up alarm of a dump truck, the dull roar of the factory or another workplace or the Wal-Mart rumble.

            How can you hear yourself think in the middle of all that noise?  Even more important, how can you hear God speak in the middle of all that noise? Jesus made it clear that a primary key to enjoying his abundant life is to listen and hear his voice. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) He consistently urges his disciples to “consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18)

            In other words, the only way we can make the music Jesus composed for us before we took one breath and dance the life that Jesus intends is by listening to hear Him.  But in such a noisy world…how? 

            Alban Gerhardt has the key: it’s in the earplugs. Not the little tablets that you place in your ear canal, but the intentional choice to insert earplugs that limit the amount of noise that envelopes your life and your soul. 

            For centuries, Christians have embraced the spiritual discipline or habit of silence. To limit the amount of aural input from the outside world for the express purpose of clearing space in the soul to more clearly hear our Savior’s voice. 

It will mean less television—most of which has trivial, white-bread, nutritionally-deficient content.  It will mean turning off the I-Pod and the radio: Beyonce or Chris Tomlin can wait.  It will mean agreeing that so much that the world screams is astonishingly empty and soul-unfulfilling.  It will mean becoming so unsatisfied with that, and enamored with the life-giving wonder of what God says through His living, written word (Heb.4:12), by the prompting of His Spirit and through Jesus, the Word made flesh, who has the words of eternal life.”(Jn.6:68). And it will mean time—time reallocated and time captured to listen to the Savior.

  It means making your world more quiet so His voice—even the slightest whisper, “still, small voice”, or “thin silence” (1 Kings 19:12) – will roar. 

And here’s the paradox: as the world gets quieter and His voice gets louder, we will also sense the rhythm of His heartbeat that presses us deeper into the brokenness, pain and mess of that same world.  

         Hearing His voice is the only way to live a life that changes the world.

            If we want to live, we have to listen. 

            If we want to listen, we have to get quiet.

              New Moon, the latest movie installment from the teen vampire saga by Stephanie Myers, opens tonight.  Teen girls and their mothers everywhere are lined up to swoon over  Edward or Jacob, and cheer for Bella.   Maybe it’s a guy thing, but I simply don’t understand.

            Publisher’s Weekly announced that Christians have jumped on the vampire bandwagon.  I shouldn’t be surprised, because in our insulated subculture, we tend to mimic anything that sells in the broader culture; slap a little nice Christian patina on anything and it flies off the shelves at Lifeway.   Of course, that presents a major  problem when we try to engage the world with the claim that we have a unique, distinctive gospel. 

        Now, let’s put those two items in the blender.  Tim Challies, an often intense and deeply theological  blogger and book reviewer, gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in weeks today, when he proposed what he calls “the ultimate Chrisian novel”:

Cassidy: Amish Vampiress of the Tribulation

That’s right. It’s an Amish novel; it’s a vampire novel; it’s an end-times novel. It’s the best of all worlds.

Here is the back cover text:

He is handsome. He is romantic. He is Amish.

Twenty-three year old Cassidy lives a simple life in the Amish countryside of Lancaster County. Simple, that is, until Slade Byler moves into the old Lapp farm. Cassidy finds herself irresistibly drawn to the handsome Slade; but she fears to share the secret that she alone knows. For Cassidy is an immortal, a princess in the long line of ancient Amish vampires. Will Slade’s love grow cold when he learns this great secret? Can she give to him a heart that does not beat?

Meanwhile, the strength of the Antichrist grows as he consolidates his power and seeks to destroy the peace-loving people of Pennsylvania. A blossoming romance unfolds between Cassidy and Slade as the world around them changes forever. They must fight to stay alive, they must fight to keep their forbidden love a secret, but, as Amish, they must not fight at all.

In this irresistible tale of intrigue and adventure, set against global upheaval, the bonnet meets the cape in a story sure to span the ages.

    The sample chapter here contains this classic exchange:

Her heart stirred with love for the brave, brave man before her, Cassidy pushed her bonnet away from her eyes and moved to kiss Slade. As they came together she felt the smooth, clean-shavenness of his upper lip against her own. She ran her fingers through his magnificent beard. “Oh Slade! What can your buggy do against the forces of the Antichrist?”

“I don’t know. But I will think of something.”

“You must. You simply must.”

Makes your heart flutter, huh?