Tag Archives: Books

January 10, 2015 · 9:05 am

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 1)

(Click on photo to enlarge)

“Well, what are your plans for your life?” asked Carol, my fiancee of just a few hours.

“I am going to start a large publishing company which will generate millions of dollars to help feed and care for the poor of the world,” I said without hesitation.

Carol giggled. “Sounds great, honey.”

This actual conversation took place sometime during the week of March 10, 1996. Carol and I had first met each other on the previous Friday, had our first date on the following night, and became engaged on that Sunday morning. We eventually communicated our dreams, our hopes, our middle names, and so forth on the fly as we planned for our wedding on April 5, 1996.

Now, let’s fast forward to the various times when we had no money to pay our car payments, our rent or house payments, our creditors, buy groceries, and whatever else over the last eighteen years. The conversations between Carol and me in the midst of our Dunkirk crises generally followed along these lines:

“Larry, what are we going to do? We don’t have enough money to buy a cup of coffee, let alone make the house or car payment,” said Carol.

“I really don’t know,” I replied.

“Well, what do you know?”

“I know the Lord has called me to start a large publishing company which will generate millions of dollars to help feed and care for the poor of the world. So, that means the Lord has a way for us to survive this predicament.”

“O Lord, I’m married to a man who has no clue about the real world and has his head stuck in the sand!”

Yet, the Lord has always brought us through our valleys. It hasn’t always been textbook pretty, but we have survived.

The publishing company, LarryWho, is now alive and on the ground. Its first book, The Day LA Died, is off the printing presses and awaiting release right now. Everything seems to be coming up roses, right?

Maybe.

You see, this series came about because I decided to evaluate my publishing and book marketing qualifications at 3:15 this morning. And guess what? I am clueless. I laid in bed for forty-five minutes before deciding to get up and face my inadequacies.

I walked downstairs, fed the cats a few treats, and sat down, expecting to seek the Lord in my normal manner. But I couldn’t concentrate. So, I walked through the house praising the Lord.

As I praised Him, a revelation dawned on me:

When the Lord created the universe, how much input and advice did He need from me? How about when He set the sun, moon, and stars in place? Or the mountains and seas? Or man and the duckbill platypus? He accomplished it all without my help. Thus, why am I concerned about my lack of publishing and marketing qualifications? The Lord, my CEO, my Sales Manager, knows how to do it all. I need to trust Him to open doors and reveal each step of the journey.

So, this series will be about a blind pilgrim – me – fulfilling a dream of starting a large publishing company. Who knows? Maybe my journey will encourage you to do the same.

(Continued in Part 2)

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Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Literature, Prayer, Prophecy, Self publishing, Shameless Advertising, spiritual warfare, Writing

Tagged as Books, Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, Self-publishing, Spiritual warfare, Writing

October 11, 2014 · 4:06 pm

You Can’t Ever Quit!

In the mid-1990s, I lived in a beautiful Iowa town with a population of less than 4000 for just over a year. The town was located close enough to large cities to enjoy the benefits of metro areas, but far enough away not to suffer from any of the problems attached to large cities. Friendly people, an excellent school system, and good evangelical churches made the town a perfect place for families.

The reason I moved to the town was to help a friend who suffered a broken leg. I lived in his home and worked at another friend’s Christian bookstore. We were all a part of a home group where I often taught at its meetings.

That autumn, three tragedies and a near miss disrupted the beautiful town. Two teenagers committed suicide and another teen failed in his attempt. A fourth youth was killed by a blow to the head in a fistfight with another teen. This all happened within a few week’s time.

As you can imagine, the tragedies stunned the townsfolk. The pastors counseled their flocks, psychologists met with kids at the schools, and everyone talked about the plague striking their youths. What was the answer?

The Holy Spirit spoke to me soon after the last teen calamity: “More bad things will happen unless the people fast and pray for the young people. Tell them to fast and pray.”

Now, I admit my simpleminded, naive attitude led me to think the pastors would all join in with my idea. After all, the Bible often mentions fasting and praying when facing the kingdom of darkness. So, we sent letters to every pastor and even followed up with personal meetings and phone calls to many of them. But yet, not one pastor and none of the churches joined with our small group to fast and pray for the youth of the town.

Everything soon returned to normal for the town. Football season was followed by basketball season, which was then followed by track and golf.

Then it happened.

A pastor and his wife came home after an evening out and discovered their son lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The sixteen-year old son had taken a shotgun and killed himself.

The town cloaked itself once again in grief, but this time it was different. You see, the pastor’s son was the near miss tragedy from months earlier. He was undergoing psychiatric treatment and taking prescription drugs for his depression. All reports showed him on the road to recovery. So everyone assumed that nothing else could have been done to prevent the suicide.

I was angry. First, I was angry with Satan and then, I was angry with the pastors for rejecting my call to fasting and prayer for the town’s youth. And to be honest, I was upset with every person in town. The last place I wanted to go was to the young man’s funeral.

But the pastor was an acquaintance of mine. I had prayed for him and prophesied to him about his calling from the Lord. He told me that my prophecy matched one given to him many years earlier when he attended seminary.

Because I did not really want to attend the funeral, I stood at the end of the reception line, waiting to meet the pastor and his wife before the funeral service. The people ahead of me shook the couple’s hands and said a few words before walking up the steps to the sanctuary.

There I stood, looking at the pastor. He looked at me and we both broke down crying, unashamed about our grief. We held each other and wept. I was no longer angry with him because I understood the spiritual battle had been tough for all of us. The Body of Christ may have suffered a defeat, but the pastor and his wife had lost their son. They were destroyed.

In the midst of our anguish, a prophetic word rose up within me.

“You can’t quit! You can’t back away from your calling from the Lord,” I said through sobs and tears.

He looked at me with unfathomable grief in his eyes.

“I have to give up. I can’t go on.”

“You can’t quit. God called you and He will help you through this.”

He shook his head and began to walk away with his wife.

“This time I can’t go on,” he said as he walked up the stairs.

I stood in the stairwell with my fists clenched and almost screamed at him, “You can’t ever quit!”

The pastor opened the door to the sanctuary and walked inside with his wife.

(An excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, an Amazon ebook.)

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Tagged as Books, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, Spiritual warfare

September 4, 2014 · 10:18 am

Chapter 44: No Longer A Slumdog

In 1995, Janelle told me about K. P. Yohannan and his ministry, Gospel for Asia. She loaned me a book, Revolution in World Missions by Yohannan, which I quickly forgot about until New Year’s Day, 1996. Since I had nowhere to go on that holiday and no TV to watch football bowl games, I hunkered down and read the book.

Yohannan wrote in one part how overwhelmed he felt by the size of India and his meager resources. He cried out to the Lord and eventually the Lord spoke the following to his heart:

“I am not in any trouble that I need someone to beg for Me. I made no promises I will not keep to you. It is not the largeness of the work that matters, but only doing what I command. All I ask of you is that you be a servant. For all who join with you in the work, it will be a privilege − a light burden for them.” (Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan)

The Lord’s response so blessed me that I wrote the words in my Bible. Although Carol and I began sponsoring a GFA missionary in 2006, I paid little attention to the ministry, except for a few glances at the words written in my Bible.

Fast forward until 2011 when we received a free copy in the mail of No Longer A Slumdog by K. P. Yohannan. The title caught my attention because of the movie by a similar name. I sat down and began reading it. I wept often and asked forgiveness again and again of the Lord as the book uncovered my selfishness.

There were stories about Muttu, Asha, Lata, Vichy, Tusli, and other names of poor children I couldn’t pronounce. I read about a mother who sold her baby for ten pounds of rice. I learned about India’s caste system and how the lowest rung, the Dalits, comprise twenty percent of India’s population or nearly 300 million people. The Dalits are considered subhuman, worthy of being treated like dogs.

Every word acted like a rock thrown against my plastic Western Christianity, creating cracks in it. Yet, it was this specific sentence on Page 31, which penetrated my heart:

“In India alone, there are 11 million children like Asha who have been abandoned, and 90% of them are girls.” (Revolution in Missions by K. P. Yohannan)

All I could think about were the 9.9 million abandoned little girls. If I closed my eyes, I saw little children, but their faces resembled my daughter, Susan, when she was four years old. I could not ignore my heart this time.

My wife and I now sponsor six children in Gospel For Asia’s Bridge of Hope program. I am a volunteer advocate for Bridge of Hope, a Gospel For Asia blogger, and a member of their prayer team.

In the foreword to No Longer A Slumdog, Francis Chan wrote:

“I am very thankful for the book you are about to read. It has stirred my heart once again. Living in the West with all of its influences, it is easy to forget about others…”

I recommend this book to everyone, and who knows? It may change your life, too.

(The above is Chapter 44 from my memoir: The Hunt for Larry Who)

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Tagged as Books, Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Gospel For Asia, India, Kingdom of God, Literature, Self-publishing

April 5, 2014 · 9:37 am

The True Story: Larry Meets Carol

Chapter 24

In January 1995, I dated a wonderful woman, thinking we would marry. Many prophetic words had been given to me about marriage and all seemed to point to her as my bride…or at least, I thought so.

I spoke aloud to the Lord one night while driving my truck home from the lady’s apartment.

“Jesus, You need to get us married as quickly as possible,” I said.

My truck cab instantly filled up with laughter, as if heaven dropped an amplifier and speaker into my truck, turning it up full blast. The laughter was the “hold your belly and roll on the floor” type. And it continued and continued.

I pulled my truck over to the side of the highway because the contagious laughter caused tears to run down my cheeks. I turned on the truck’s hazard blinkers and sat there, laughing along with heaven.

It finally ceased and I resumed driving home. I then wondered, is the Lord laughing because He knows something, which I don’t know yet. Or is He just happy for me?

I ignored the former and opted for the latter.

One obstacle after another frustrated our relationship over the next fourteen months. I figured more fasting and prayer would eventually break the logjam of spiritual warfare thwarting our relationship.

Tony and his girlfriend Janelle set their wedding date in March 1996. They asked me to perform the ceremony. A dinner at our two-bedroom apartment was arranged, inviting the people involved in the wedding, which included a mysterious woman named Carol.

Janelle mentioned Carol was her spiritual mom, but I gave little thought to her words. I answered the knock on the door, expecting a frumpy woman to be standing there, but instead, a cute blond looked me in the face. We introduced ourselves and sat down for dinner. Carol was pretty, but my mind was still focused on the other woman.

After the meal, we had a time of fellowship. Somehow, Carol ended up praying for everyone. I looked toward her while she prayed and what I glimpsed in a nano-second changed my life. I saw the woman who would soon be my wife. Not only that, but I was smack-dab, head over heels, instantly in love with her.

I spoke with Tony and Janelle after everyone left.

“I’m in love with Carol.”

They laughed and confessed how the Lord had given each a vision about Carol and me getting married. They prayed for months for us to be a couple.

“But the Lord told us not to say anything to you,” said Tony, “because the Lord said Larry is so stubborn he’ll do just the opposite.”

Janelle gave me Carol’s phone number and I phoned her.

“What have you done to my life? It’s turned upside down,” I said.

She laughed and admitted she missed her exit on the way home, thinking about me.

We planned to meet on the next night.

Our date turned out to be a pizza and movie night at the apartment, but we spent most of the time asking and answering each other’s questions. We planned a second date for the following evening.

The next morning during my prayer time, the Lord directed me to write a marriage proposal to Carol. As silly as that may seem, Carol did a similar thing in her apartment, thirty miles away.

She called at 9 a.m.

“Why don’t we get together right away?”

“Good idea,” I said.

An hour later, we met at the door and became engaged. Both of us knew the Lord wanted us to marry. So, why wait?

We talked over our wedding plans later that day.

“When do you think we should get married?” she asked.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Carol gave me one of her “are you kidding me” glances.

“Larry, we have to be serious. This is important.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“I’m thinking about a specific date, but it involves an anniversary in my life. What do you think?”

“You are not going to believe this,” I said.

“What?”

“While painting last July, I felt the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘You will be married on an anniversary.’ Then, that evening a Christian neighbor named Dan walked over to the apartment to tell me how he had been at a drug store and saw an anniversary card. He felt it would be important to me sometime in the future.”

Both of us laughed at how the Lord had confirmed our marriage and wedding date.

We married four weeks later on Good Friday, April 5, 1996.

Wouldn’t you think that because the Lord endorsed our marriage and brought us together, we would have smooth sailing and no problems at all? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

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March 26, 2014 · 7:33 am

Got 99¢

Beginning today and ending on April 1, my book, Where’s the Kingdom of God?, is on sale at Amazon for $.99. You can download it onto your Kindle or any iPad, PC, Mac, iPhone, and other smartphones with Kindle apps.

Amazon book description:

What was the message Jesus commanded His disciples to preach?

If your answer is the “gospel,” then you are almost correct, but you have omitted three important words.

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

Jesus spoke about being “born again” one time. He barely mentioned the “church,” said nothing about the “Bride of Christ,” and talked little about “saving sinners.” His primary message was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God.

Yet, most of us understand little about the kingdom of God or its benefits for each of us.

Where’s the Kingdom of God? is written in an easy to read style, which will give you an understanding of the most important kingdom in the world. The seventy-two footnotes will encourage you to dig deeper in your own study time.

So, if you are like me and are dissatisfied with our governments and social systems, then you need to read this book. It will offer hope in the one government and kingdom which will never let us down: the Kingdom of God.

53 Pages Reg. Price $2.99 Author: Larry Nevenhoven

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle Apps.

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March 12, 2014 · 7:32 am

Got 99¢

Beginning today and ending on March 18, my book, The Hunt for Larry Who, is on sale at Amazon for $.99. You can download it onto your Kindle or any iPad, PC, Mac, iPhone, and all smartphones with Kindle apps.

Amazon book description:

Although the author’s surname is Nevenhoven, few can pronounce it. So what do they do? They wrinkle their noses and say, “Larry who?”

The actual hunt for Larry Who began on a farm in the 1950’s surrounded by loving parents and country churches. It continued down a winding path through the 1960’s and the University of Illinois, ending up with Larry being an agnostic. Then, it was off to Detroit, Louisville, and Fort Dodge, Iowa, where Jesus blasted Larry’s agnosticism into pieces on the day of his planned suicide.

From his salvation day onward, life should have been one triumph after another, but that was not the case. He trudged through deep valleys of loneliness, poverty, rejection, firings from jobs, climbing into dumpsters, homelessness, divorce, and failures.

But it was during Larry’s worst disappointments and deepest valleys when the Lord revealed Himself as a loving Father with unlimited grace to soothe the pain of His child.

The Hunt for Larry Who is a series of snapshot experiences about a farm boy from small-town America who desired to be wealthy, as in stinking rich, but ended up falling in love with Jesus. Paul the Apostle described Larry to a tee:

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:15-16 New Living Translation).

If you are looking to read another vanilla flavored story about a Christian that does everything right, The Hunt for Larry Who is not that book. It is a down in the trenches account of an ordinary man who struggles to serve an extraordinary God.

291 Pages Reg. Price $3.99 Author: Larry Nevenhoven

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle Apps.

4 Comments

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Tagged as Books, Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kindle, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, Spiritual warfare, Writing

March 5, 2014 · 5:10 pm

Got 99¢

Beginning today and ending on March 11, my book, Prophecy 101, is on sale at Amazon for $.99. You can download it onto your Kindle or any iPad, PC, Mac, iPhone, and all smartphones with Kindle apps.

Amazon book description:

Do you prophesy? If not, why not?

These may be questions you have never been asked before, or at least, not very often. But did you know that the Apostle Paul asked questions much like these of early Christians? He wanted all to prophesy.

Why?

Prophecy is a gift meant for each of us so we can help other people. (1 Corinthians 12:7 paraphrased)

The Apostle Paul knew the early Christians needed prophecy because of their perilous times. Famines, persecutions, wars, and even shipwrecks awaited many of them so they needed warnings from God. And one of the best ways to do that was through prophecy.

Okay, but what about today’s Christians?

On May 20, 1985, I was planning on committing suicide, but a businessman spoke prophetic words to me which saved my life.

As you can probably guess, I am fervent for prophecy and like the Apostle Paul, I believe all should prophesy. You see, just one prophetic word might change your life, a family member’s life, a neighbor’s life, or a stranger’s life. And who knows? Lives might be saved because you prophesy.

Prophecy 101 contains 58 simple lessons that I have learned over the last twenty-nine years on how to prophesy. The book is filled with scriptural and personal examples in a quick reading style.

So, do you want to prophesy? The decision is yours.

207 pages Regular Price: $3.99 Author and Publisher: Larry Nevenhoven

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle Apps.

Got 99¢

Beginning today and ending on February 26, my novel Jonah is on sale at Amazon for $.99. You can download it onto your Kindle or any iPad, PC, Mac, iPhone, and all smartphones with Kindle apps.

Amazon Book Description:

The novel, Jonah, consists of two novellas written specifically for people who live in a post-911 America and who no longer see hope in a watered down, same-o same-o religion.

The main character in the first novella, Jeremiah, has his dreams wrecked by a late night visitation with an angel. Then, he receives a prophetic message for San Francisco. Will the city heed Jeremiah’s warning or is the city doomed?

In the second novella, Jonah, two prophets receive identical messages for the West Coast. Though each faces different struggles, it comes down to whether or not the people believe the prophets’ words. If the prophetic words are ignored, what will happen?

Fiction or prophecy? Time will soon reveal the answer to all of us.

Check out the two reader reviews here.

261 Pages Reg. Price: $3.99 Author & Publisher: Larry Nevenhoven

Available at Amazon for Kindle and Kindle Apps.

Announcing: “The Hunt for Larry Who”

To think that I would ever write a memoir would have been preposterous a few years ago. After all, I don’t rub shoulders with the famous and have done little of value in my life. If I died today, my eulogy would simply be: “Larry loved God.” Who knows? Maybe that’s enough.

Amazon Book Description:

Although the author’s surname is Nevenhoven, few can pronounce it. So what do they do? They wrinkle their noses and say, “Larry who?”

But it was during Larry’s worst disappointments and deepest valleys when the Lord revealed Himself as a loving Father with unlimited grace to soothe the pain in His child.

“The Hunt for Larry Who” is a series of snapshot experiences about a farm boy from small-town America who desired to be wealthy, as in stinking rich, but ended up falling in love with Jesus. Paul the Apostle described Larry to a tee:

“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:15-16 New Living Translation).”

If you are looking to read another vanilla flavored story about a Christian that does everything right, “The Hunt for Larry Who” is not that book. It is a down in the trenches account of an ordinary man who struggles to serve an extraordinary God.

300 pages $3.99 Author & Publisher: Larry Nevenhoven

Available on Amazon for Kindle and Kindle Apps

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Tagged as Books, Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Kindle, Kingdom of God, Literature, Prophecy, Spiritual warfare, Writing

January 1, 2013 · 6:58 am

My e-book, “Prophecy 101,” is FREE Today. Get Your Copy Now!

If you have a Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad, Nexus, Galaxy, or any computer with Kindle apps on it, my e-book, Prophecy 101, is free on New Years Day and January 2nd through Amazon.

Amazon Book Description:

Do you prophesy? If not, why not?

These may be questions you have not been asked before, or at least, not very often. But did you know that the Apostle Paul asked questions much like these of early Christians? He wanted all to prophesy.

Why?

Prophecy is a gift meant for each of us so we can help other people.(1 Corinthians 12:7 paraphrased)

Okay, but what about today’s Christians?

On May 20, 1985, I planned on committing suicide, but a businessman spoke prophetic words to me which ended up saving my life.

Prophecy 101 contains 58 simple lessons that I have learned over the last twenty-seven years on how to prophesy. The book is filled with scriptural and personal examples in a quick reading format.

So, do you want to prophesy? The decision is yours.

File size: 297 KB Print Length: 231 pages Regular Price: $1.99

FREE on January 1 and January 2, 2013. So, check it out here and while you’re there check out my four other e-books here.

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