Word of Honor
Page 31
And as they walked out into the night, Nick prayed silently for a way to show her the Light that would chase all the shadows out of her life.
Afterword
I love to read, which is probably why I love to write. But lately, I’ve been increasingly concerned that some readers spend hours a day reading novels, and little or no time reading God’s Word. Yes, I want to build my readership, and I want readers to like what they read. I have a message in my books and want that message to get into as many hands as possible. I am also sometimes forced to measure my success by the number of people who buy my books. If no one buys them, the bookstores will stop carrying them. This process makes it easy for me to get my focus off of my true purpose.
But if the only spiritual education you get is through one of my novels, then I have failed. My sole purpose for writing what I write is to point you to Jesus Christ. It isn’t enough for me to point and have you give God a cursory nod. If you aren’t drawn to his Word through reading mine, then I have no business writing these books. And you have no business reading them.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but the Lord has been working on me about what I’m doing and why. So often, we Christians soak up messages and ideas, and sometimes we even come under conviction, and wince a time or two. But then we forget and move on to the next stimulus.
Yes, I try to pass along the hard lessons God has taught me, and I try to convey truth as the Lord has revealed it. But if you read my work and accept anything I say as sound doctrine, without comparing it to the true Word of God, then you are an excellent candidate for false teaching. I am only a sister traveling the same road as you, learning lessons just like you learn them, grappling with the same growing pains, the same fires, the same trials. I have only one source for truth, and that does not lie in anyone’s novel, or anyone’s devotional book, or anyone’s sermon, no matter how clever or eloquently written. It lies only in Scripture, which is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.”
I do believe that God sometimes speaks to my readers through my books, that he sometimes uses me to impart messages to you. But the Holy Spirit can only do that if I’m getting out of his way, emptying myself and offering myself as a vessel to be used by him. I can tell you, that’s no easy task for me. As I agonize over the words and the plot and the characters, it’s easy to lose sight of the truth God wants me to pass along.
So don’t trust my words—trust God’s. Study the book he has given us so that you can’t be swayed by any false teaching. Know his Word inside and out, so that no one can deceive you. Then, and only then, read a novel, or a devotional, or a doctrinal text, and see if you agree with the human author who’s walking the same road as you, that human author for whose sins Christ hung on a cross and died. And when you and I are sitting side by side at the wedding feast of the Lamb, you’ll see that I got there the same way you did: through believing the Word of God and acting on it. “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:8–9).
God bless all of you!
Terri Blackstock
Acknowledgments
I would like to express deep gratitude to Angela Hunt, Alton Gansky, Jack Cavanaugh, Athol Dickson, and Lisa Samson for brainstorming with me on this plot. I feel so privileged to have such wonderful authors offering me ideas. During a novelists’ retreat in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we sat together over breakfast, talking about villains, car chases, and bombs. Before we knew it, I had a conclusion to this book. I couldn’t wait to get home and write it.
I’d also like to thank Zondervan Publishing House for bringing their novelists together to encourage each other. It was one of the highlights of my year.
And once again, I’d like to thank Dave Lambert, Sue Brower, and Lori VandenBosch for their untiring efforts to keep my books coming. I am very pleased to be able to work with such quality people.
Read an excerpt from
LAST LIGHT
BOOK ONE OF THE RESTORATION SERIES
TERRI BLACKSTOCK
CHAPTER ONE
Deni Branning took the last steps down from the commuter plane and pulled out the handle of her rolling carry-on. She glanced back up at her dad coming down behind her. He had struck up a conversation with the man who’d sat next to him. Doug Branning had never met a stranger, which accounted for his success as a stockbroker. He’d snagged some of his best clients on flights like this.
The oppressive Birmingham humidity settled over her like a heavy coat. Its temporary, she told herself. She wouldn’t have to spend the summer here. Just one week, and then it was back to DC, her new job, and the fiancé she’d dreamed of for all of her twenty-two years. Yes, it was hot in the nation’s capital too, and probably just as humid. But its fast-paced importance made it easier to bear.
As her father reached the bottom step, his small bag clutched in his hand, the loud hum of the plane’s engine went silent. A sudden, eerie quiet settled over the place, as if someone had turned down the volume on all the machinery around them. The conveyor belt purging the cargo bin of its luggage stopped. The carts dragging the luggage carriers stalled.
She smelled something burning.
Her father clutched his bag and looked back at the plane. “What happened?”
Deni didn’t answer. Her eyes were on the airport employees yelling to each other about a power outage.
And then, from the corner of her eye, she saw a plane descending too steeply from the sky, torpedoing toward the runway. “Dad—”
The word was barely out of her mouth when the plane shattered into the runway and went tumbling wildly across the pavement.
Deni screamed, and the employees took off running toward the plane as it spun into a building.
The plane exploded, and ripples of heat knocked the passengers back from several hundred feet away. Doug grabbed her and pulled her to her knees. “Stay down, honey!”
But she wanted to look. She struggled to see through the shield of his arms. The fire devoured the broken fuselage. She imagined the people inside that plane, crawling over each other in a desperate effort to escape, slowly perishing in the murderous heat.
Her father got up and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, we’re going inside!”
She looked back, feeling the heat on her face.
“Now, Deni!”
“Dad, the people! They’re burning. Somebody has to get them out!”
“They’re trying.” He grabbed up her suitcase, and she followed him up the steps that took them into the terminal.
They were greeted by darkness.
They ran into the arriving gate where a window provided some light. A crowd of people were clustered around it, watching the plane burn.
Doug headed for two Delta employees who stood talking with intense urgency. “Where are the fire trucks?” he asked them. “Has anybody called them?”
“The phones aren’t working. Everything’s out.”
He grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket, and Deni watched him try to dial 911. But the phone was dead. “My battery must have lost its charge. Try yours, Deni.”
She dug her phone out of her purse and hit the on button. There was no readout, nothing indicating it had any power. Had both their batteries died on the plane?
She looked back out the window. The plane continued to burn…engulfed in a conflagration that wouldn’t be quenched. Helpless airport employees stood back from the fire, looking around for help. Someone had pulled out a fire extinguisher and was shooting white foam, but it was like squirting a water pistol at a towering inferno.
Deni thought of herself and her dad, sitting among all those passengers just moments ago. It could have been them out there, trapped in a burning metal coffin.
She gritted her teeth and pounded her fists on the window. “Wher
e are the stupid fire trucks?”
Doug’s whisper was helpless, horrified. “I don’t know.”
She watched the chaos on the tarmac as employees ran in different directions, looking confused and defeated, shouting and gesturing wildly for help.
She heard the sound of another plane coming in, loud and urgent, and the people standing near her began to scream and hit the floor as that plane shot in, descending too fast, too steep…
She couldn’t watch as it hit the ground, but she heard the deafening sound of another crash, felt the impact shake the building. Screams crescendoed…
Shivering in terror, she looked up. The plane was spinning and tumbling across the grass separating the runways.
“Daddy!” She looked up at him, saw the tears on his face, the horror in his eyes. She followed his gaze to the sky. Was something shooting the planes down? Were there more to come? Deni slipped her hand into his and felt his trembling. For the first time in her life, she was aware of her father’s fear. And though his strong, confident grip held her tight, she knew that everything had changed.
CHAPTER TWO
Doug Branning’s mind raced to solve the problems—planes falling out of the sky, crashing, burning, people dying…There was a power outage, but that wouldn’t have caused planes to crash. Maybe there was some kind of battle going on in the air that they couldn’t see. If someone was shooting the planes down, maybe they’d also knocked out the power on the ground. Was it some kind of terrorist attack? An ambush by a hostile nation?
In all his uncertainty, he knew one thing. He had to get his daughter to safety. The airport felt like a target for whatever evil hovered above them. He put his arm around Deni and pulled her from the window. He hoped she couldn’t feel his trembling. “Come on, Deni, we’re getting out of here.”
For once in her life, she was compliant as he pulled her up the long dark hall, past the empty gates. Several Delta ground clerks came running past them.
“Excuse me,” he called out. “Can anyone tell me what’s going on?”
“Power’s out,” one of them called back. “Nothing’s working.”
“Did the planes crash because the tower’s electricity is down?”
“May have. We can’t say for sure.”
But that didn’t make sense. Didn’t pilots have emergency procedures for situations like this? Couldn’t they land the planes without an air traffic controller talking them through it?
He walked Deni past another window and saw the balls of fire, still burning. The other plane hadn’t caught fire, and men rushed toward it, fighting to get the door open. Still no fire trucks had come.
“Dad, this is insane. How could a power outage cause planes to crash?”
“Maybe it’s the other way around.” As he thought out loud, he realized that didn’t bear up. The power had shut down before the crashes. That’s why things went quiet. He’d heard their own plane’s engine power off at the same time that everything else stopped. The luggage belt, the maintenance cars…
Clearly, there was nothing they could do for the poor souls on the planes. Dozens of people were at the second plane now, but they couldn’t seem to get inside. Grimly, he realized they had all probably died in the impact. How could anyone have survived?
“Let’s go to the car.” Still carrying Deni’s suitcase, he headed to the exit. “Maybe we can get a signal on our phones after we leave the airport, and call your mother. She’s probably heard about it on the news and can tell us what’s happening.”
She followed him at a trot. He reached the front door, but it didn’t open.
“Power’s out, Dad, remember?”
He turned and found a manual door. As they pushed through it, he was struck with the silence in the street. There were no cars moving through, and the security guards were probably helping the rescue effort. They hurried across the street into the big parking garage. They’d parked on the fourth level, but the elevators weren’t working, so they found the stairs and trudged up.
They were soaked with sweat by the time they reached their level and made their way to his new Mercedes. Doug used the remote on his key chain to pop the lock on the trunk, but when he got to the car, the trunk was still closed. Jabbing the key into the lock, he opened it. Quickly, he loaded their two bags, slammed the trunk, then manually unlocked his car door and got in. Deni knocked on the passenger window.
He frowned at the door lock. The power locks weren’t working—how could that be? The power outage couldn’t extend to his car, could it? He leaned across the leather seat, and opened the passenger door.
As Deni got in, he put the key into the ignition and turned it…but nothing happened.
Deni just looked at him. “The car’s dead too? Dad, this is like the Twilight Zone. What could cause this?”
Doug looked around. Usually cars circled everywhere, looking for a parking spot. But not today. He got out and walked to the edge of the parking structure, looked over to the roads that took them out of the place. There were a few cars lined up at the toll booth, but they weren’t moving. No cars ran on the streets leading to the interstate, though several looked stalled in the middle of the road. People stood outside their vehicles, opening the hoods…
He ran back to his car and tried turning the key again, to no avail. He tested the radio. Still nothing.
Deni slapped the dashboard. “This is just great! Are we going to have to stay in this creepy place with planes crashing all around us? I want to go home.”
“I don’t believe this.” Doug turned to the back seat and saw a Walkman one of the kids had left there. He grabbed it, shoved the headphones on, and tried to get a radio station.
All he got was silence.
Slowly, he took the head phones off as the stark realization took hold of him. Everything was dead. Electricity, phones, cars, radio waves…even planes in mid-flight.
As he sat in his useless car with the keys in his hand, Doug Branning felt the world spinning out of control.
And he was powerless to stop it.
Last Light
Terri Blackstock, #1 Bestselling Suspense Author
Today, the world as you know it will end. No need to turn off the lights.
Your car suddenly stalls and won’t restart. You can’t call for help because your cell phone is dead.
Everyone around you is having the same problem…and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Your city is in a blackout. Communication is cut off. Hospital equipment won’t operate. And airplanes are falling from the sky.
Is it a terrorist attack…or something far worse?
In the face of a crisis that sweeps an entire high-tech planet back to the age before electricity, your family faces a choice. Will you hoard your possessions to survive—or trust God to provide as you offer your resources and your hearts to others?
Yesterday’s world is gone. Now all you’ve got is your family and community. You stand or fall together. Like never before, you must rely on each other.
But one of you is a killer.
#1 bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if novel in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts—and lights the way to restoration for a self-centered world. Last Light is the first book in an exciting new series.
Softcover: 0–310-25767–0
Audio CD, Unabridged: 0–310–26880-X
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Night Light
Terri Blackstock, #1 Bestselling Suspense Author
In the face of a crisis that sweeps an entire high-tech planet back to the age before electricity, the Brannings face a choice. Will they hoard their possessions to survive—or trust God to provide as they offer their resources to others?
#1 bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if series in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts—and lights the way to restoration for a selfcentered world.
An era unlike any in
modern civilization is descending, one without lights, electronics, running water, or automobiles. As a global blackout lengthens into months, the neighbors of Oak Hollow grapple with a chilling realization: the power may never return.
Survival has become a lifestyle. When two young thieves break into the Brannings’ home and clean out the food in their pantry, Jeff Branning tracks them to a filthy apartment and discovers a family of children living alone, stealing to stay alive. Where is their mother? The search for answers uncovers a trail of desperation and murder…and for the Brannings, a powerful new purpose that can transform their entire community—and above all, themselves.
Softcover: 0–310–25768-9
Audio CD, Unabridged: 0–310-26921–0
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Other favorites from Terri Blackstock…
Newpointe 911 Series
Softcover 0–310-21757–1
Softcover 0–310-21759–8
Softcover 0–310-21758-X
Softcover 0–310-21760–1
Softcover 0–310-25064–1
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Cape Refuge Series
This bestselling series follows the lives of the people of the small seaside community of Cape Refuge, as two sisters struggle to continue the ministry their parents began—helping the troubled souls who come to Hanover House for solace.
Cape Refuge Softcover: 0–310-23592–8
Southern Storm Softcover: 0–310-23593–6