Bring Others Into the Sunshine of God's Good News by Linda L. Linn - HTML preview

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This is a work of fiction, except for the Bible Scriptures, which are God's Word and are therefore true. State and National Parks and Monuments, including National Forests and BLM areas are real places where some of the people in this novel travel to visit. So are the four-wheel drive roads and destinations. If you are interested in visiting any of those places be sure to check locally for current conditions and road closures.

No person in this novel exists in real life except for God the Father, God the Son, (also known as Jesus Christ or the Messiah), and God the Holy Spirit. All the other characters, places and events in this novel are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental. But, many things in the story, and especially the miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit can really happen.

This novel is meant for adults, not children, although with parental guidance, it has parts children might learn from or enjoy. The many places where I have copied parts from other stories in this Sunshine Series are with the author’s permission, since I’m the author.

Scriptures are shown by italics, and are this author's paraphrase and sometimes personalizations or summaries of the King James Version of the Holy Bible. I chose the King James Version because it has no copyright. Basically, what I do is change words like "thee" and "ye" to "you", "thy" to "your", take the "eth," etc. off words, and sometimes use synonyms, to make it sound like more modern English. You can do the same thing as you read the suggested old hymns in a hymnal.

The author encourages you to look up these scriptures in your preferred Bible translation and read them there also. The Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs chosen for this novel really do have meaningful words and teachings. I encourage you to look up the hymns and spiritual songs in a hymnal or songbook.

If you don’t have a hymnal or a songbook, try looking up the title of the song on the web to find the lyrics. Reading the lyrics for the songs, finding pictures of the real places people travel to, and other things the characters look up on the web could enhance this story if you can take the time to do it. Just type the song title, name of the national park or any other topic into the search engine for the web and you can find a wealth of information.

There’s a list of the characters and horses in this story in the addendum at the end of this novel. It might help you to keep track of who is who as you read.

A Au A A u u utttth h ho h o orrrr’’’’s o ss s N N N No o o otttte e e es ss s

My main reason for writing the fifth book in the Sunshine Series was to consolidate the Bible teachings in the other four books into one book for new believers and people who want to continue to grow and mature into honorable people. I also want to encourage people to do everything they can do to spread the Good News to as many people as possible while there’s still time before Jesus returns.

Have you ever desired to start a house church, like the ones you can read about in the book of Acts in the Bible, or plant a church, either where you are living now, or in another city or town that needs one? If so, the little booklets and short books included in this story could be used to teach the new believers who would result from your ministry ideas or ones you could use from the idea list included in the addendum of this book.

As the author, I hereby give permission for you to copy and print all five booklets, the two short books, and the idea list, in their entirety to give away free of charge to new believers or to others who might need to learn what is in them. They all work together to help new believers learn how to live for Jesus. I know these are just the beginning of all the things that people can learn about living lives that are worthy of our Savior, Jesus. But they are a start, and people can go on from here.

I have also consolidated the booklets and books from this fifth novel in the Sunshine Series, to make one separate volume. It is a shorter book, associated with this novel, and its number is 5a because it is not a new novel in the series. The purpose for this shorter book in the series in to further consolidate the information of the five little booklets, the idea list, and two short books, and put them all into one volume in order to keep them together since they build upon each other. It will be easier for you to print instead of

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having to look through this whole novel and find where all the pages are, since they’re used as scenes in the novel. It will be available as an ebook or PDF file, from free-ebooks.net.

The PDF files would be easier to make prints from than the ebooks or a printed copy. But the printed copy will also be available to buy from thebookpatch.com. Printed copies, of course cannot be free, but you would only pay for the cost of printing, tax, handling and shipping, since the retail price is only a dime more than the wholesale price. I did not do this project as a way I can make money.

You might want to give each booklet or short book separately to the new believers as you teach them, like is done in the Sunshine Series of novels, so the new believers wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. But they should be encouraged to keep and review all of them, because review is a good way to remember.

You may have noticed that the leader of the Grace ‘n’ Faith churches in the stories has no name listed. As it says in 2 Corinthians 4:7, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. The point of this, is to emphasize that it is NOT about a person. But it is about Jesus, who is the head of the church, and about the Holy Spirit in believers, who guides, gives gifts, edifies the church and glorifies Jesus.

The reason for planting churches is to win as many people to the Lord as possible. This is also the goal for the two or more member ministry teams, the public school missionaries, and other ideas in the books. Everything is to be done for Jesus and to bring him glory and everything is to be done in love as it says in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians.

My purpose, motive, and goal, for all of the books in the Sunshine Series of books is to present the Good News to some who may not have heard them and to give believers ideas and encouragement about how they might serve Jesus to bring as many people as possible into his family. And besides that, the readers get to read many good scriptures, meet people who are genuinely nice as they live for Jesus, and enjoy various scenes of interest and romance.

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Colossians 1:9b,10, … we pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you might walk worthy of the Lord …

being pleasing and fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God…

A spring snow storm had brought huge, wet snowflakes to Pine City and the surrounding areas. A young man had jumped off his bike and hurried to stand under the eaves of a small cabin. He was very wet. He looked at his wet clothes and thought, “Oh no! What will I do now? This is a terrible way to meet the owners. They’ll think I’m some beggar or a crummy person. I guess I’ll have to try to ride my bike back to the motel in the snow, and come here some other day.” So when the snow let up a bit he gathered his things and was ready to go back to his bike.

But during the lull in the storm, the owners of the cabin had quickly come over to the cabin. They took him inside of it, where he changed into dry clothes and got warm. They stayed to talk to him and found out that he worked for the Local News and had come to find out the story of Mercy Valley Ranch, since it had become rather famous. Oscar and Vera checked out his credentials and agreed to tell him about it, if he would tell only the truth and give God the glory.

He had ridden there that day on his bicycle from his small motel room in Pine City with a small bag of clothes, his camera and a laptop computer since he didn’t have enough money for other transportation yet. He promised them he would tell only truth and learn how to give God the glory, whatever that meant. Then he paid them the rent money to stay in the Visitors’ Cabin long enough to learn about the ranch, take pictures, and get his story written.

That evening Brad wrote in his notebook, “I experienced their mercy on me, a complete stranger. They took me inside that clean cabin before they even knew my name or my business. Vera urged me to go take a very warm shower to get warmed up again, and she was glad I had some dry clothes to wear. I’m sure that if I hadn’t, Oscar would have back to their house to get me some.”

The next day Oscar took Brad to get his other things out of the motel room and cancel the rest of his stay there. Then Oscar accompanied him to the Local Grocery so he could buy some groceries, and Oscar bought some things Vera needed.

Oscar and Vera were impressed with the young man and had learned that his name was Brad Decker. They answered his questions one day as he interviewed them and the conversation went as follows.

Brad: What was this ranch like before?

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Oscar: My parents bought this ranch when I was just a kid, from a family who had raised cattle on it. As soon as all the cattle were sold, my parents gave the land a rest for a couple years while they planned how they could make it into a beautiful valley again and develop it into a dude ranch.

Brad: That sounds like a lot of work!

Oscar: Yes, it was, and I got to help with the work. They wanted to develop a place where people could come for a weekend or more and be refreshed before going back to work. After the years the land rested, I was old enough and strong enough to be a good worker. So after my school day and their regular jobs and during weekends, except for church, we all worked together to get the land back into good condition, since it had been overgrazed for too long.

Brad: How did the three of you do it?”

Oscar: We rented planting equipment for several years, from a local farm as soon as they were done with their planting. We planted crops such as buckwheat and legumes that help put nutrients back into the soil as they grow and then we’d plow them under, along with the dried cow manure, and do it all over again.

Vera: I’m glad we don’t have to do that hard part any longer.

Brad: It was obviously very successful, because this is one of the most beautiful valleys I’ve seen in a long time. When you brought me back with my other things from the motel room, I was awestruck with the beauty of this ranch as we came around the last corner! It’s a pleasant change from the cities. I’m sure it’s even prettier with all the green of spring and summer.

Oscar: Thank you, and we thank God for helping us to learn how to work with his plan of creation to continue to make it work well all these years. My parents planned this ranch so well that we can still rotate all the horses through the pastures and they don’t have to be cooped up in a corral.

Vera: Yes, and the way the stream goes into and out of Wild Mint Lake keeps the sediments moving up from the bottom and they get spread out on the pastures to help fertilize the hay when we irrigate.

Brad: Were the houses already here?

Oscar: The big house with its bedrooms and a sitting room upstairs for the workers, and two of the cabins were here but we built the rest together, adding one a year until we had several big ones and some small ones. My parents and I called it The Yardley Dude Ranch.

Vera: Right, and all of the cabins were built with good views of the mountains and the valley. Each dining room has a picture window looking at the mountains, and the living rooms have a view of the valley.

Brad: What are some of the things the people enjoyed when it was a dude ranch?

Oscar: Many people came here especially for the opportunities to ride the special horses we have that do not trot, but have a comfortable gait, which is like a running walk. First the people agree to learn how to care for the horses and follow the rules of the ranch. The ranch has many trails to choose from and more on the public land that borders the ranch.

Vera: After all the cabins were built, game rooms were added to both levels of the big house so people would have fun things to do after dark or during inclement weather. Each game room has a piano, tables for table tennis, smaller tables for board games, puzzles and certain card games that do not include gambling. Instead they improve memory through concentration, matching, and learning names for birds, wildflowers, national parks, and so forth. The big inside riding arena, which is also for inclement weather was added later.

Brad: I heard that this was a very successful dude ranch, and many people wonder why anyone would change such a good money maker into homes for abused girls.

Oscar: It was indeed successful, and after I married Vera, she added her own special gift of hospitality and our reservations jumped to full most of the year.

Vera: Thank you, Dear, but I give God all the glory and credit for this gift, since he gave it to me. Now I think we should save the rest of the story about the dude ranch and why we changed it, for another day when you can come to the big house and enjoy a cup of tea with us at our dining room table.

Brad: I’ll look forward to that, and I’ll also get to continue enjoying this great view of the mountains and valley here in this cabin, since all the cabins and the house have the same great view.

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