BOOK REVIEW - "FRACTURED, FRAGMENT 01" (DARK TRENCH SHADOW SERIES, BOOK 3 OF 4) BY KERRY NIETZ

 What is the greatest danger facing Threadbare the debugger? Anti-tech terrorists threatening to destroy the status quo? A sadistic representative determined to enforce the status quo? Or his girl-friend Damali, which is the opposite of a debugger's status quo?

After a multi-year break working on other series and a stand-alone, Kerry Nietz returns with book 3 of his Dark Trench Shadow Series with "Fractured, Fragment One." At the time of review, "Fractured, Fragment Two" is published and available. In his acknowledgements, Nietz mentioned that when he was writing the latest installment of the Dark Trench Shadow Series it was getting to long for one book, so he divided it up into two parts.

Nietz's first novel was "A Star Curiously Singing," the beginning of the  three part DarkTrench Saga. Later, he introduced the DarkTrench Shadow series, which starts at the same point of time the earlier series did, but took a divergent route with some of the same characters, and ends before DarkTrench Saga does. If you haven't read any of his Dark Trench books, my suggestion would be to read the first two DarkTrench novels ("A Star Curiously Singing" and "The Superlative Stream," and then read the DarkTrench Shadow Series ("Frayed," Fraught," and "Fractured" both Fragment 1 and Fragment 2), and then conclude with "Freeheads," the last of the DarkTrench Saga.

For those unfamiliar, the DarkTrench stories fall into the distopian category, a world where the planet is under Sharia Law and a part of the populace are debuggers, with head implants. The books are full of plot twists, as well as interesting characters.

I highly recommend all of Nietz's books. I've read 14 of his novels (I'll be starting Fractured, Fragment 2 in a couple of days), his autobiographic "Fox Tales," and "Just Dumb Enough," a collaboration by the March Lords, including Nietz. 

BOOK REVIEW - "I WISH YOU JESUS: THE LIFE & MUSIC OF SCOTT WESLEY BROWN" BY KEITH MANLEY WITH SCOTT WESLEY BROWN

 My adult life has been blessed by listening to Scott Wesley Brown. Many of his songs have been a constant encouragement like "Learning To Live Like Jesus," "Keep the Son In Your Eyes," "Within His Joy," "Look What God Is Doing," and "He Will Carry You." Some leave me feeling back I've just hearing a sermon, such as "This Little Child" and "Yeshua Hamachiah." And my favorite Scott Wesley song (and in the top ten of my all time favorite songs, quite possibly the top five), "Out on a Limb" is a superb motivator.

Likewise "I Wish You Jesus," the authorized biography by Keith Manley with Scott Wesley Brown, accomplishes some of those things as it goes through Scott's life. I found myself encouraged and motivated reading this book I didn't know he was involved with CCM since the Jesus Music Days, that he worked with important people in the formation of Christian music like Larry Norman and Gary Paxton, and was part of Sparrow Records when it started. It also shares his heart for missions, including several trips to places around the world, including behind the iron curtain before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and once having his guitar confiscated by the KGB.

There were a few weaknesses with the book. It seems like he has too many "This really impacted Scott's life" to keep me from rolling my eyes some. By the end of the book, what was meant as review ended up being repetitiveness. Still, this book is worthy of 5 stars and a full recommendation.

BOOK REVIEW - "SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH" (COLORADO K-9 UNIT BOOK 1) BY LAURA SCOTT

 

Who murdered rancher Jordan Clarke's missing sister, and what happened to her newborn child?  How about the unknown assailant taking potshots at Autumn Riley, who with her bloodhound partner Bear are part of a task force to solve that murder, two previous similar killings, and rescue another pregnant girl who's missing?

It's an annual tradition, or at least its been the past four years: Laura Scott has the honor of starting Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspence imprint. This year, she's getting the Colorado K-9 Unit series moving with "Searching for the Truth." 

One thing I always try to do in reviewing fiction is to spoil the book (I don't worry as much about spoiling the plot in non-fiction books). Of course, the main story threads are not concluded in the first book, but in my opinion the ending for the first book was not completely satisfying. I see hints that parts of this series will be disturbing for certain readers. 

Does that mean I don't recommend it? No. It's well written, and you can care for Jordan and Autumn through this story (and they'll probably have a smaller but definite part as the series progresses. Thus, I give this 5 stars, and recommend it.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RED ALERT" BY MALCOLM & THE MIRRORS

Red Alert by Malcolm and the Mirrors, which came out in '82, is one of my favorite albums musically, one of my favorite albums ministry wise, and one of my favorite album covers.

No, this album came out before the TV show, so there's no connection with Malcolm in the Middle. Malcolm refers to Malcolm Wild, who in the '70' was part of the Jesus Music pioneer group Malcolm & Alwyn, who had a solo between the two groups (he's currently a pastor at a Calvary Chapel in Florida). For those who are familiar with his earlier items, you need to put on your seat belt - this one is definitely harder.

Some of the songs on this project deal with the threat of nuclear war in the title track and in "Paint Your Windows White." The answer, though, is not politics but in Christ, which are the themes of lead off song "Gotta Give," "Can't Live Without Him" (which was previously on the Back To The Rock compilation), "Sharon O (She's Gonna Go Through Stages)," and "Love Your Love."

For me, though, the highlight of the album is the final two songs. "Look Up! (His Coming's Near)" and "Alright By Me" have encouraged me multiple times in the 45 years since I started listening to them, up till present.

I highly recommend this album.

STUDY BOOK REVIEW - "NOT MY JESUS: RECLAIMING THE TRUTH, REJECTING THE IDOLS" BY SHANE PRUITT

 

The Community Group I'm in (think adult men's Sunday School class) has spent the last 16 weeks going through "Not My Jesus: Reclaiming the Truth, Rejecting the Idols". Yes, this is an 8 week study, but our class tends to take our time going deep into the material each week. Author Shane Pruitt introduces the student to 8 Pseudo-Christs:

1. The Moldable Jesus: a regular human being like us, not Divine, but being molded as we are by circumstances and the like.
2. The Personal Genie Jesus: Quick to grant us our needs and wants, focusing on our will, not His.
3. The Non-Judgmental Jesus: Ready to say, "Neither do I condemn you" but doesn't add "Go and Sin no more."
4. The Participation Trophy Jesus: Accepting everybody into heaven, without us needing to do anything but be alive.
5. The Distant Jesus: A Christ who doesn't pay much attention to our day by day lives.
6. The Comfortable Jesus: A deity who doesn't expect us to get out of our comfort zone or challenge us.
7. The Boring Jesus: A faith that doesn't have much excitement, not as appealing as the world to the believer.
8. The National Jesus: A Savior who's more interested in the U.S. of A. but not so much everybody else.

This book starts with an introduction to the author, how to use the study and Bible study tips and resources, and why we can trust the Bible.Each chapter a group session guide and three personal studies. On the final page of the study book, there's a code which allows you to view a 10-15 minute video with the author explaining the lesson. 

I found this an interesting study, and the videos enjoyable. I've had studies before from Lifeway which has personal studies, and I'm never sure if they're supposed to be comvered before the video and class or afterwards - I do the former. 

I recommend this for personal study and more so for studying this as a group as I did, and as this book is designed to.

WHAT IF WE HAD A SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AND NOBODY CAME?

American Flag displayed at Howard County Vietnam Veteran's Grounds, Greentown, IN

One of my favorite memories was sitting in the living room in '75 and '76, watching CBS and especially being interested in the short segment "200 Years Ago Today..." Just as impactful was seeing a sign on a door of a business in beautiful downtown Cottonwood, AZ during that time, which read "200 Years ago today, on this very spot, not a thing happened."

A few years later, I saw a news special on New Year's Eve, 1979 looking at the decade of the 70's, and covering three events that defined that decade. Those were, I believe, the covert war in Laos (I could be wrong about this one), the resignation of President Nixon, and the celebration of the Bicentennial.

Fast forward half a century. I'm still around. But do I see the same attention given that they did 50 years earlier? Do I see "250 Years Ago Today" on TV? No. Thought that might be because I don't watch TV. Neither do I see signs letting you know that nothing happened on that spot 250 years ago.

I'll admit that I don't feel the same jubilation because I'm not where I see it promoted. Nothing got me excited about it. That fact depresses me: I do want to be celebrant of the mile stone (I've heard some state that in 200 years after becoming free, a nation returns to slavery; I don't remember who said this, but I'm glad that hasn't happened at present time.) 

Let me bring up a question, though. Is it possible that many have been deceived into believing our country existing isn't necessarily a good thing? Could it be the unsettledness due to the division in the country that makes the possibility of civil war exists, one where a person will unfriend you because you vote for the wrong candidate, or where someone is considered not having anything worth saying if they they call those who aren't legal residents of this country illegal and who think law enforcement officials should enforce the law? Could it be that we've been bullied and are afraid to speak out and think that our race or religious convictions or gender or gender identity disqualifies us from expressing our views? Could it be that we're afraid we'll be called Christian nationalists if we hold to conservative views?

Is our nation perfect? Uh, the nation is made up of people - are any of our citizens perfect? We have errors. Yes, I see Christian Nationalism (as opposed to Christian Patriotism) as a problem. But it's not the only problem - Progressive Christianity is one I fear just as much.

Lifeway Research has put out a couple of polls recently for U.S. Protestant pastors, with slightly different angles. The first question was if it was important to incorporate patriotic elements into worship services on the 4th of July weekend. The second  was whether their church should do something special to commemorate our country's 250th birthday on July 4th, 2026. Yes, both are similar, but the first talks about patriotic elements and the second sees it more something special to point out the milestone. 

Results?

1st Poll - Should the Church incorporate patriotic elements into worship?

• Total Agree             45%
• Strongly Agree       16%
• Total Disagree        53%
• Strongly Disagree   29%
• Not Sure                  2%

2nd Poll - Should the Church commemmorate the nation's 250th Birthday?

• Total Agree              50% 
• Strongly Agree         16%
• Total Disagree          47%
• Strongly Disagree     19%
• Not Sure                    3%

One item that did make me smile. Google is our platform, and for a week or two the Google home page had a soccer themed artwork on their logo. The 3rd and 4th of July? They had a patriotic theme. I'm grateful for that. The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site was open, but I don't know if they had anything special. Also, the Indianapolis Zoo had a special today, with admission for $17.76. I wonder what the animals did to commemorate the event.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the 250th anniversary  and its celebration. Is it like having a Semiquincential party and nobody came?

NOTE - Question in title and in concluding sentence inspired by my friend Robert Roberg titled "What if They Had a War and Nobody Came?