Tag Archives: Fiction

October 1, 2016 · 8:37 am

Geezer Up (Part 4)

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Dylan

If someone would have asked me, “What do you want for your last meal?” It would not have been soggy cornflakes, warm milk, and awful coffee, which I ate for breakfast that morning. Sugar helped me endure the blitzkrieg against my taste buds, but my stomach demanded calories to halt its rumbling sounds. At the time, it was a dismal meal, but in the days ahead, I looked back on it as a pleasant repast. It’s funny how hunger can distort one’s memories.

Forty-five minutes later, the jailer stood in front of the holding cell with a clipboard in his hand. “Listen up men,” he said, looking down. “Ramos, Soto, Delgado, Valdez, Trujillo, and Matthews − you are in the first group to be taken to the courtroom. Your arraignments will begin at 9 a.m. If you have a lawyer, he will meet you there. If you don’t, a court appointed lawyer will handle your arraignment.”

He spun around and walked away.

I did my best to wash my face and clean up in the sink, but there was no mirror to help me in this task. I looked at the others in the holding cell and figured I looked better than some and worse than others. Oh well, I thought, this is as good as it gets for me today.

Two deputies guarded us as we walked over to the courtroom’s small holding cell. I sat down with the five homies on a metal bench and faced the empty courtroom. The clock on the back wall read − 8:34.

“Matthews.”

I looked up and saw a man wearing a dark suit and white shirt standing in front of the cell. He had short black hair and seemed to be of Chinese or Korean heritage. He motioned for me to come near him.

“I’m Artie Chin. Your lawyer, Jacob, referred me to you,” he whispered.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“You are charged with a hate crime for preaching to gays. This is a new law by the San Francisco City Council and went into effect three weeks ago on June 1st. The good news for you is that you are the worst possible test case for this law −”

“Why?”

He blew out a deep breath.

“You’re a retired seventy-one year old man, not an ordained preacher, have no ministry, and have no history of preaching or writing against gays. They’re after bigger fish than you.”

“Okay, what do you think I should do?”

“I’m sure you will be released on personal recognizance. No bail required. You will have to promise to show up in court in a couple of weeks, but I think I can get the charges dropped altogether. The judge may ask some questions, but probably not. You should be a free man in about sixty minutes.”

His words would have encouraged me if the Holy Spirit had not spoken to me a few hours earlier. I prepared myself for bad news.

(Continued in Part 5…if you’re interested, the full series to date may be seen here.)

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September 30, 2016 · 5:08 pm

Geezer Up (Part 3)

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Dylan

The afternoon turned into evening and the evening into night. The only change was the fourteen people that joined us in the holding cell. The newcomers forced me to make a decision between sitting with murderers or with vomiting drunks and strung-out druggies. I chose the five MS-13 homies and behaved myself.

Do you remember how bad school lunches tasted when you were in first grade? Dry bread, chalky-tasting peanut butter sandwiches, and soggy potato chips served with stewed prunes and a dollop of day-old whipped cream. All of it ladled out on a yellow compartment tray.

Well, let me tell you, my first bite into the peanut butter sandwich made me yearn for the good old days of first grade. I gagged and spit up a mouthful into a napkin.

“Hey, old white man, about three in the morning, you’ll be wishing you ate this garbage,” said the youth with the teardrops tattooed under his eyes.

I shook my head and offered my tray to him. He took it and consumed both his and mine. I admired how he and his friends adapted to their situations without so much as a single complaint. I supposed being in jail was just a normal part of their lives.

But the smell!

Nineteen guys in a ten by twenty room with vomit, diarrhea, normal toilet usage, and BO swirling around us without a fan to alleviate the stench. My poor stomach tried its best to unload itself, but somehow everything remained below deck. Steady as she goes, I thought to myself in a moment of humor, which quickly passed

And sleeping!

If I leaned back, my back hurt because of the iron bars, but leaning forward moved my nose closer to the vomit and diarrhea on the floor. I compromised by slouching down like an old sweater midway between both positions. I dozed a little here and there throughout the night, but around 3 a.m., I had a vision.

In it, I was seated high above the city of San Francisco, maybe in the heavenly places looking down on the city. I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart, “I am going to use your time in jail as an opportunity to take on the spirit of depravity, which is the main principality governing San Francisco. Be bold and allow me to speak through you. I will give you more than enough grace for this experience.”

I then fell into a deep sleep, comforted by the gift of faith which enveloped me like a warm quilt.

(Continued in Part 4…if you’re interested, the full series to date may be seen here.)

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April 1, 2016 · 3:52 pm

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 11)

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As a young Christian, the Lord spoke to my heart, “Don’t ask Me why I want you to do something. Just do it.”

So, it’s been my desire to obey these words over the last thirty years. Have I made mistakes? Yes, but even then, I have learned to rely on the following —

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Every command or direction we feel the Lord is speaking to us, we must accept by faith, and then act on it in faith, which is one way to test the spirits. If it turns out not to be the Lord’s voice, we have to trust that the Lord’s grace will cover our errors.

So far, the Lord’s grace has been more than sufficient for me.

Okay, in Part 9, I wrote that I felt the Lord wanted me to start a Noontime Prayer Meeting for Geezers. What happened?

I delivered flyers to every church in the city (75 or so) and posted signs directing people to the outdoor noontime prayer meeting along the roadway. For weeks, I fasted and prayed each Friday at an open air park shelter with numerous people watching on.

My results were perfect: I always showed up and no one else did – as in zero, zilch, nada.

Did this discourage me? No, not at all.

I’ve learned over the years that it’s my job to obey what I believe are His commands and it’s His job to act. If He wants me to look like a fool or to fail, that’s His choice, not mine because I’m His servant, always ready to follow His commands.

But then, four weeks ago, the Lord spoke a new word to my heart.

(Continued in Part 12…if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 10)

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I began this series on January 10, 2015, but because nothing was moving forward for me, I placed it on hold. Now things are happening again. So, I’ve decided to rerun the earlier parts before I began anew. If you don’t want to wait, you can read the first ten parts in their entirety here.

Twenty years ago, if you would have asked, “What will you say when your publishing company is successful?”

I would have quickly answered by singing a Toby Keith song: “How do you like me now? Now that I’m on my way. Do you still think I’m crazy, standing here today? I couldn’t make you love me, but I always dreamed about…How do you like me now?”

You see, when you’re walking through the wildernesses designed just for you by God, there’s not a lot of people who believe in you because of your mistakes and how unsuccessful you appear to them. If you bother to mention your dreams to others, you invite ridicule and the inevitable questions: “How?” and “When?”

And all you can do is shrug your shoulders at their queries.

But in all this, you have to hold onto the promises given to you by God. You can’t ever let go of them. Each day, you must thank the Lord for your publishing company and your promises being fulfilled, even if you’re sleeping in a car and eating out of dumpsters. Walking by faith is not an easy path for anyone.

So, for a major part of my journey through the wilderness, I kept going for one major reason: the desire to prove my worth to others. I wanted to show them that I heard God’s voice and that He honored me for my perseverance.

Today, if you asked me the same question, I would answer, “It was by His grace and I deserve no credit for any success.”

Somehow, in the wilderness, it no longer became about me and my quest, it became all about Him.

(Continued in Part 11)

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March 9, 2016 · 9:22 am

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 8)

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Ten thousand and seventy-four days ago, a female minister named Linda Sutter (Olson) pointed to me as I sat in a pew of a small church and asked me to stand up. She then began prophesying to me: “God is doing a quick work in you…”

Even today when I look at her prophetic words, which I wrote down in the back of my Bible, I laugh at God’s idea of a “quick work” versus mine. I thought it would be months, certainly not 10,074 days or nearly thirty years.

But let me tell you a little bit about Linda Sutter Olson.

During the early 1970’s, the Lord told her to go into full-time ministry as a teacher and a prophetess, but she had at least three problems. First, she was a woman. Second, her pastor would not endorse her ministry. Third, she did not have any contacts.

What could she do?

She sent out a few flyers to area churches, but had no responses. No one seemed to need her ministry.

One day, Linda was driving through rural Iowa and stopped at a diner in a small town. She sat down at a table and ordered her lunch. Linda noticed the couple sitting at the table next to her had received their meals and were praying before they ate.

She leaned over and said, “It’s nice to see a couple pray together in a restaurant.”

“Oh, you’re a Christian,” replied the husband. “Why don’t you join us for lunch? We would enjoy fellowshipping with you.”

The couple turned out to be a pastor and his wife. The pastor ended up inviting Linda to minister at his church that evening.

Linda eventually ministered in numerous large churches and then traveled to Russia, Albania, India, Eastern Europe, China, and the Philippines. But every door that opened to her calling could be traced back to that chance encounter at a diner in a small town in Iowa.

So, when I look at the boxes of books in our closets, I like to think that I’m just one divine encounter away from publishing success.

(Continued in Part 9)

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March 7, 2016 · 8:50 am

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 7)

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One of my favorite prophetic words was spoken to me in the Spring of 1994. It happened when a friend and her husband stopped by the house to see me on their way to a restaurant.

“Larry, the Lord knows how much you love to preach, but He wants you to do something first for Him, before you do any more preaching. Then afterward, you can preach all you want,” she said.

The “something” the Lord wanted me to do first turned out to be – start a paint contracting company, which ended up being a total disaster. I am still suffering from its fallout, twenty years later.

And preaching? I still laugh when I think about the Lord saying to me: “Then afterward, you can preach all you want.”

You see, what was missing in the prophetic words was that the Lord was going to squeeze every drop of desire out of me to preach and be on a stage ever again. The guy who used to love to preach died often in countless trials over the last twenty years. I absolutely do not miss him and, in fact, I abhor the guy I used to be.

Okay, how does this fit into publishing?

I have two thousand copies of The Day LA Died, ready to be marketed through whatever way the Lord shows me, like Christian book stores, churches, and advertisements. The two thousand copies weigh a total of 1900 pounds and are stored in closets throughout the house. It would be nice to free up the closet space again.

But first, I feel the Lord wants me to do something for Him, something which, of course, has nothing to do with publishing.

So, if you believe that walking with the Lord is the shortest distance between point A and point B, I have bad news for you. That is usually not the case. There will be plenty of time-consuming zigs and zags and stops along the way, but I also guarantee, it will be the greatest adventure of your life.

(Continued in Part 8)

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March 5, 2016 · 8:20 am

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 5)

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Basilea Schlink (1904 – 2001) was born in Darmstadt, Germany. After World War II, Schlink felt the need to repent for Germany’s cruel deeds. To do this, she became a Lutheran nun and along with Erika Madauss founded The Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in 1947. Schlink wrote over fifty-five books, but my favorite is Realities of Faith:

In 1949, a year after the currency reform, the first products of the publishing house and our works of art were ready to be placed on the market. The question arose, should we actually sell our products?…

Within me a concept took shape, clear and sharply defined – a mental picture painted by the Sermon on the Mount, that for those who seek first the kingdom of God “all these things shall be yours as well” (Matthew 6:33). A word began to sound clearly in my heart – “Father.” He will provide, He will prove Himself a Father to His children. But that meant that we, as His children, must provide the opportunity for Him to do so…

How could all this take place? It became more and more clear to me. We must let loose our security and protection; we must surrender ourselves to utter dependence upon our Heavenly Father. This would give Him the opportunity to care for us and show His miracles. It meant the surrender of all security and steady income. We would depend on Him for everything. By faith and prayer we would stand upon His word, “give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” (Luke 6:38)

…We set no fee on our services. Our literary works, our arts and crafts carried no price tag. This meant that now we would be totally dependent upon the Father in heaven…

We began from that point to walk in this pathway. It made our Sisterhood truly a fellowship of prayer. Every day we started out with nothing. From a human viewpoint we stood before mountains of worries which had to be prayed away. So we had endless opportunities to present God with the many promises of Scripture – bringing them like an “IOU,” asking Him to redeem them. (Realities of Faith by M. Basilea Schlink, Bethany House, excerpts from pages 33 – 35)

That’s right! Schlink and her sisters did not put prices on her books. Did this cause them any problems?

Schlink tells the story about how the sisterhood had spent all of their money on printing books and pamphlets for a booth at an outdoor fair. A young man walked up with a black suitcase and learned that their publications were free. He dumped every book and pamphlet into his suitcase and walked away. Schlink wrote: “Wouldn’t this way of doing things bankrupt us?”

Yet, God always provided for them.

Okay, how can a businessman, like me, possibly hope to survive in the cutthroat publishing industry?

(Continued in Part 6)

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March 2, 2016 · 8:00 am

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 3)

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One of these days, I may write a nonfiction book entitled: God Wouldn’t Do That, Would He? I will fill the pages with these words: “Yes, He would!”

One of the biggest Christian myths is the belief that if God tells us to do something, we should always be able to accomplish it. If we fail to accomplish whatever God told us to do, then it is totally our fault for the failure. After all, why would God ask us to do it in the first place if He knew we couldn’t do it?

Numerous scriptures can be used to back up this erroneous mindset, but if you view the Mosaic Law in total, which God commanded Israel to keep, you will soon realize an important fact. God knew Israel would fail to keep the Law. There is no possible way any man or nation could ever keep the 613 Mosaic Laws. So, why did God command Israel to keep the Law, knowing they could never do it?

Now we know whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).

Paul makes the case in the book of Romans that the Law was given to reveal our sin and strip away every excuse we could ever have about making ourselves acceptable to God, apart from Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer. The Law points us to Christ.

Thus, when God asks us to do something, knowing we will fail in our attempts to do it, He has a purpose in it. It often strips us of our fleshly ways and excuses so we are more dependent on Him.

I became a licensed California real estate agent working for Tarbell Realtors in 2003. My total number of sales while working for the firm was one home and that was to Carol and me, a new two-story in Rancho Cucamonga.

But something else happened in my year with Tarbell because I felt the Lord wanted me to start a newspaper for real estate agents. It was to be a humor/satire periodical. I checked about mailing lists, computer software, printing companies, mailing costs, credit card machines, billing statements, and countless other things.

Carol and I prayed about the whole plan, its costs, and felt we should do it. I believed the periodical would be part of the fulfillment to what the Lord had whispered to my heart as a young believer: “You will own a publishing company.”

I ran a test mailing of 1,000 copies. The test showed a few problems, which needed to be addressed. It also caused Tarbell Realtors to ask for my resignation, which I agreed to do.

After the test, I sent out 8,000 copies to agents at various real estate and mortgage firms, hoping for a ten to fifteen percent return. If the mailing proved successful, the following mailing would have been to 30,000 agents. My goal was to have 30,000 paid subscribers in the publication’s first year.

Carol and I flew to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the day after the large mass mailing. She had sold over a million dollars of furniture in 2003, which placed her in the top one percent of all sales people in the nation, earning her a week’s paid vacation at Thomasville’s Top Sales Writers Conference. Thomasville wined and dined her for the whole week while I sat in the audience and applauded her accomplishments.

Although I enjoyed Carol’s success, I could not wait to return to Rancho Cucamonga and count all the subscriptions from my mailing. I rushed to the post office soon after we landed in California. I expected to see 800 to 1200 orders inside the box, but it was empty. None. Zero. Zilch for 8,000. It was statistically impossible to be that unsuccessful. The only way it could have happened was for God to slam the door in my face.

I felt crushed and humiliated by my failure. I wept and asked the Lord why He did that to me. A little while later the Lord spoke to my heart: “Now I can use you.”

I eventually found comfort in the following:

“Pioneers [prophetic people] therefore have to dwell in the constant reality that they may be mistaken. Being men and women who learn more from their mistakes than from their successes, pioneers have the privileged opportunity of providing both personal wisdom and compassion when others make errors. They must keep a careful balance: maintaining a deep hunger to follow God’s instructions exactly, while at the same time, having the courage to live with the mistakes they’ve created out of their imperfect hearing and circumstances. If you are afraid to take chances and fail, you will never make it as a pioneer.” (Pioneering by Dennis Peacocke, The Morning Star Journal, ©1991, Vol. 1, No. 4, page 21)

The above is an excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, an Amazon eBook.

(Continued in Part 4)

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February 29, 2016 · 12:04 pm

The Rumors of Larry’s Death Were Not Greatly Exaggerated (Part 2)

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“Larry, you will write and own a large publishing company,” the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart in the fall of 1985.

I was ecstatic when I heard these words and made a decision which has guided my life for nearly thirty years. I decided to never accept a job that would hinder my dreams of writing and being a publisher. For the most part, this meant being a car salesman, laborer, house painter, and minimum wage employee.

Looking back, none of my fifty or so jobs since 1985 have offered me much of a chance to be promoted, which was fine with me. Promotions would have been obstacles for my goals because they would have required a greater commitment than I wanted to give.

Let’s be honest, okay?

When the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and I made my career decisions, I did not realize it would take twenty-nine years to publish my first book. Twenty-nine years! It just seems so unbelievable that the dream is still so strong in me, even though my youth has long since disappeared.

I can still remember when Bonnie Chavda prophesied to Jim Goll and me at a 1999 meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. She first pointed at Goll and said, “Your writing career will take off. You will write many books because God has anointed you for now.”

She then turned to me. “God is holding your writing career back. You will be successful, but at a much later time.”

Jim Goll has written over twenty-five books and is a big time prophetic author. Most of his books have been published since that night.

I have just published my first book and have a few eBooks on Amazon right now. That’s the extent of my accomplishments since Bonnie prophesied to me.

If you have any thoughts that God is unfair when he raises up one person compared to another, then you need a greater understanding of God. He is the Boss. He knows what it will take to ready a person for His plans and is not willing to lower His standards in the least.

As far as finances and time goes, God uses these as tools to mold His people.

One experience still brings tears to my eyes.

(Continued in Part 3)

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January 16, 2016 · 8:51 am

Today, Anna’s Secret is Exposed!

Anna L. Davis, is a believer, a godly wife, mother, daughter, sister, and my friend, but yet, she has a secret. One that was pretty much kept in the closet until today. In her words:

“I am (mostly) a mild-mannered editor for Henery Press. But by night and on weekends, I become a coffee-guzzling cyberpunk writer who feeds on biotech mayhem.”

A cyberpunk? For those of you who are not in the know about this term, it was coined in 1983 by Bruce Bethke, an award winning Science Fiction writer. And guess what? Bethke wrote this about Anna’s new novel:

“Open Source hits the ground running and never slows down. If you like CSI: Cyber or </scorpion, you’ll love Open Source.”

Amy Rogers of ScienceThrillers.com said:

“In a plausible near future, in response to a terror attack, Americans must be microchipped if they want health care or a job. Privacy is a lie, digital torture is real, and the well-off choose to install enhancing hardware in their brains. One man rejects all this. When a NeuroChip is forcibly implanted in him, he learns the hard way about mind control from both sides. Open Source is a paranoid, mind-bending scifi thriller for our time.”

The reason why Bruce Bethke, Amy Rogers, and numerous others write glowing reviews about Anna’s new novel, Open Source, is that the story is so well-written. A page turner with conflict in almost every paragraph. The main characters – Ryker Morris, Rae, Sawyer, Nox, and Helen –are complex with a depth, which makes you want to know them even better.

My favorite character is Helen — “a grouchy person, bent over with age, carrying a brown suede purse, old ratty afghan, and a ready scowl.” In an early scene:

We both prepared to stand up. Helen may be grouchy and into all kinds of weird Voodoo stuff, but we had her back. She was one of us.

Pointing a wrinkled finger in the rich kid’s face, Helen swung around on her chair. “Don’t ever touch me again, son. You hear? I know things about these streets you might never learn. They’re haunted, yes. I do say, haunted! Soon enough, no. A kid like you? Ain’t you never gonna see. One minute, asleep. Next…cursed. No warning, no. Ain’t you never gonna see what’ll come after you. In the dark.” (Open Source, pp. 19)

If you enjoy scifi thrillers, you will enjoy Open Source. If you enjoy fast-moving, well written stories, you will enjoy Open Source. And if you’re a Christian, you will enjoy the redemptive story Anna threads throughout her novel.

My wife Carol says about Anna:

“She is a fantastic writer, but you know, she is really pretty, too.”

Open Source is available in paperback, Kindle, Nook, and iTunes. You can check it out here and check out Anna L. Davis here.

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