Posted in theology

My eBook, “Prophecy in Grace”

By Elizabeth Prata

I’ve kept my blog daily for twelve and a half years. One of the saddest patterns I’ve learned I have to live with, is waking up, reading news, seeing some formerly solid & beloved leader now disgraced in scandal, and I have to go back and scrub blog references to him and replace links. That’s the nature of long-term commitment and perseverance in the faith- some grow stronger, some drift, and are snatched back, and some fall away in sin. Some of those repent and some do not, failing even to see their desperate need for repentance.

Over the years, I’ve published about 5,500 essays. In 2016 I gathered a bunch of essays into a Kindle book I felt were aimed at encouraging people for the glory of God, called Encouragement in Grace. I also gathered a bunch of prophecy essays I’d written for the edification of the saints and the glory of God into a Kindle book called Prophecy in Grace.

I haven’t done much with them since. I didn’t really market them or promote them, I just let them fly and then sink to the bottom of the crowded Kindle basket of all the other self-published books. I mainly wanted to go through the process to test it and see what self-publishing is like.

After I finish writing anything, I always think it’s the worst thing I ever wrote, and I can’t bear to go back and re-read it. I was the same with my newspaper. I never read the finished, print edition of my own newspaper, lol. If I look at it’s like a movie goer watching the scary film through threaded fingers over her eyes.

I was asked about the books recently. So I re-skimmed my Encouragement book and the Prophecy book. Perhaps you might be blessed by reading either of them. They’re not bad. I love the prophecy book because I love prophecy. It gets a bad rap these days. A theologian friend said that prophecy is a kind of disgraced section of study and those who are called dispensationalists are seen as the Rednecks of the disgraced section of study.

I understand. The failed claims of prophecy date-setters damage the credibility of these wonderful scriptures. The fringe preppers and newspaper eisegesists also damage the reputation further. But I am unashamed of anything in the Bible and certainly not ashamed of the promises that Jesus set before us and are specifically given to encourage us!

The doctrines of past and future things in prophecy give hope and underpin our fervency. We know that one of the prophecies promised is that they will mock prophecy. They will say-

Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4).

All things SEEM like they were since the beginning of creation, but in actuality the providential outworking of God is that every day, every second, is part of His plan to hurtle us forward to the end of time. Time will end. At some point just prior to His Second Coming, all things will visibly and horrifically NOT be as they were from the beginning. The sun will darken, the food chain will fail, the oceans will fill with blood, visible demons will roam, and more.

Understand that we are dust motes in a controlled holy stream of activity sustained and propelled by Jesus. He upholds all things by the word of His power, says Hebrews 1:3b. If you want to know for sure what the future holds, at least as far as Jesus has revealed it, study your Bible, of which about a quarter to a third of the entire book is prophecy. Prophecy should inspire us to greater fervency, since Christians know more than anyone that time is near (Revelation 1:3).

Since so much of the Bible is prophecy, and though some of it is fulfilled, much of remaining prophecy is unfulfilled. What is to come? Can we know the future? What did Jesus say will happen? Is prophecy too complicated to understand? This book contains essays explaining the future history of believers and non-believers alike. What is the Rapture? Does Israel have a future? What about the nation of Egypt? Jordan? What about the timing of prophesied events?

I use proper interpretation, scripture and commentaries from noted theologians to explain answers to these questions and more. Prophecy is the ultimate encouragement because it demonstrates the faithfulness of Jesus and His sovereign control over all things, including the history of man.

Those were the questions I addressed in the e-Book Prophecy in Grace. If you are interested, the book is here.

Posted in prophecy, Uncategorized

Announcing Publication of my new book: Prophecy In Grace

My next eBook in the series ‘In Grace’, the book “Prophecy In Grace”, is available for purchase at the Amazon Kindle store! So excited! Here is the summary:

Almost a third of the Bible is prophecy, and though some of it is fulfilled, much of remaining prophecy is unfulfilled. What is to come? Can we know the future? What did Jesus say will happen? Is prophecy too complicated to understand? This book contains essays explaining the future history of believers and non-believers alike. What is the Rapture? Does Israel have a future? What about the nation of Egypt? Jordan? What about the timing of prophesied events? The author uses proper interpretation, scripture and commentaries from noted theologians to explain answers to these questions and more. Prophecy is the ultimate encouragement because it demonstrates the faithfulness of Jesus and His sovereign control over all things, including the history of man.

Also available is the first book in the series, Encouragement In Grace. It’s at the Amazon Kindle store here.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

“Encouragement In Grace” launch day

Forty-three years and thirteen years in the making, seven-and-a-half years of writing and three months of editing & formatting, today my eBook “Encouragement In Grace” launches at Amazon.

For 43 years I was an unsaved rebel enemy of Christ. Hating Him at every turn, I tried ignoring my festering conscience. I was perplexed by the revelation of God to the world through the world, but rejected the solution of Jesus as Creator. Finally I dabbled in almost every other religion I could find to salve my anxious and offended soul. For forty-three years, nothing worked.

After a torturous series of events lasting several years, at long last and in His perfect timing, I was saved by His grace. I did not have an aisle-walking pillow soft Just As I Am salvation. I did not have an easy experience with warm sensuous embraces by an invisible Groom. I did not hear a gentle voice calling me toward clouds. I was dragged kicking and screaming over the threshold of the Door and was given the grace to repent despite my howling objections. At last, I succumbed.

As a result, I value His grace so dearly.

Post-salvation, the Spirit prompted me to begin using my time and writing ability for His glory. I began blogging and exploring theological issues in the topics of discernment, encouragement, and prophecy, the gifts the Spirit had delivered to me. For nine years I blogged, accelerating my writing activity for the last seven years by blogging daily. I wrote on the range of topics in the way I prayed would encourage or convict readers and honor the Lord.

The internet, and blogs in particular, were a gracious addition to the technology the Lord has allowed to be invented. They have been a wonderful relief to me, a writer who has been minimally published, but despaired at the hurdles and gatekeeping of the tightly-knit publishing industry. Blogs allow authors to side-step all that. What a benefit to live in a nation that allows free expression and discussion of Christian topics on self-publishing platforms.

Years later, along came self-publishing platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Hallelujah! KDP and other programs make self-publishing easier … but never easy. Writing is not easy. Writing about God and for God is even less easy. Neither is it easy researching among the competing self-publishing platforms, proof-reading, formatting, and marketing. But it makes the process of disseminating material written by people like me more straightforward. For that, I’m grateful for the opportunity to make Jesus known through these means.

The next two books in this series will be published approximately four months apart. As with Encouragement In Grace, the next eBooks will be published through the Kindle Direct Program, Lord willing. They’ll be called –

Prophecy In Grace

Discernment In Grace

If you should choose to buy the eBook, I pray that “Encouragement In Grace” convicts, enlightens, or sheds some other aspect of Jesus onto your heart and mind.