Praise God for His faithfulness! Since our last post, since we asked for your prayers on behalf of And Then Came Life, God has created connections in the publishing world only He could have put together.

Turns out, Glenn’s pastor personally knows the founder of our publisher, American Book Publishers (www.american-book.com). The pastor, himself, is a published author, so he understands our process of getting this book out to the world. And the pastor has agreed to put And Then Came Life in the church bookstore when it releases August 30.

In addition, God has provided Launch Media & Marketing to promote the book, as well as create websites for the book and for Glenn’s speaking ministry. Again, praise God!

Now the task is to get the book into the hands of homosexual recovery ministries and Christian media in New Orleans where the biggest gay pride bash of the year takes place every Labor Day weekend.

Please continue praying for God to empower this book to bring people to Jesus, to help them escape the bondage to homosexual sex and sin.

The official release date of And Then Came Life is August 30, 2010. That’s the day before gay pride’s biggest festival begins in New Orleans. It’s our prayer God will use this book mightily to rescue men and women from “the lifestyle.”

As you know, advance copies are now ready for Glenn and me to begin sending to the media promoting the book to gays and lesbians, and to Christian counselors, pastors, and believers in Jesus who want to better understand their homosexual friends and family members.

Our publisher recommends sending out 300 to 500 such advance copies. Trouble is, neither Glenn nor I have the financial resources to fund a promotion of this size. So we’re asking for your prayers – specifically that God will multiply the 22 copies we have available to equal the impact of 300-500 books.

Call our 22 books the “5 loaves and 2 fishes” of And Then Came Life. Both Glenn and I know without doubt that God led us to tell this story, and we’ve seen His blessing time and time again. So it is with absolute confidence we press forward. We cannot falter now. We cannot let the lack of human resources hinder what God has divinely begun.

Please join us in praying that God will use And Then Came Life for His purposes, propelled by His power. And that we all will see Him at work in this endeavor.

I now know that Robert and I were opening the envelopes that held our finished book at the same time last Saturday night, although in different parts of the country. One more marker for how God works in our lives – sometimes under cover, sometimes in your face. I love Him so!

The final copy now sits in our hands, and while we examine its pages, I realize how little Robert and I had to do with it. Even now, as we try to consider what is next and seek out possible avenues of distributorship, we are reminded of how little we can do when God has a plan in place.

Robert and I are so thankful. There are few words to say, so we bend our knees again in thanksgiving and seek His face for guidance and provision and peace.

Thanks to all of you who have prayed. We give honor to those who have stood by this project, including our wives. Most of all, we give praise to our Lord and can hardly wait to see what He has next for us in Him.

Praise God, the advance copies for And Then Came Life are now here! Glenn and I received ours this past weekend and celebrated with our wives. Then we dedicated the ongoing marketing efforts in prayer to our Lord. Truly He is faithful!

If you have media contacts – Facebook, newspaper, radio, television, Twitter – who are willing to interview Glenn or myself about the book, please comment here or email me at robert@robertparrishwrites.com.

Clearly, we are excited about what God will do next through this book. Please join us in spreading the word.

Just a few more days separate us from the final edit process of And Then Came Life, and then onto print! My mind tries to grasp all this project means before our Lord and for what reasons He endorsed it, empowered us in it, provided every word and every person who has joined along the way, and for the birth of every page.

Something awesome is coming alive between the pages of this personal telling, and while I am sure it is my personal story, it is also the story of thousands who may be looking for hope.

Hope to change. Hope to end the confusion. Hope to settle into a better life, a life filled with inner peace and contentment. It is my hope that And Then Came Life will tell how all these things have come into my life. And while I know all this is true, and am surely grateful for Jesus’ intervening love, I am also sure many will not believe what I have said.

This book is the telling truth of one’s personal journey into life. This week I re-read some of the pages and could barely understand it was about me. The person on the pages has been long gone, yet the images and sting of yesterday’s taunts, rejections and fears still hang in the rafters in my brain.

Thank God I do not give any of my past free rent in my mind. Today I have the mind of Christ! But to imagine this book coming into public view at such a volatile time in our world is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. Sometimes I think I should hide under the bed, but I will not.

Whatever comes next in the journey of writing and publishing this book will be exciting to witness. And I know I am not alone in this. My continued prayer is that people will glean Heaven’s hope from the pages of my story, and perhaps they will find their way out from a lifestyle of loneliness, betrayal, and distinct separateness from God.

What will come next?

Recently Robert posted a short video of my personal testimony as shown on The 700 Club more than 20 years ago. My son was an infant, as you’ll see toward the end of the video.

Sometimes people wish to know how this testimony relates to the book, And Then Came Life. The 700 Club interview happened through a series of “unusual” events. After looking back on them all, I see how God planted the creation of His story in my life, even back then.

To have met Ken Hulme (the video interviewer) and to have engaged his audience years 20+ ago was a great opportunity for blessing. It was said later by The 700 Club that public response to the video was overwhelming and impacted many people’s lives. Many gave their lives to the Lord the day the video aired.

Years after my testimony on The 700 Club, we were asked by our book publisher to obtain confirming thoughts from well-known persons of influence. Ken Hulme came to mind and my wife, Elaine, dialed him promptly. He was very kind and interested in how our lives had unfolded over the past 2 decades. He said he’d often wondered if a call would come saying Glenn had not made it, had perhaps fallen away from the Lord.

But that call never came and instead he learned I was well and growing in the Lord years later. Upon hearing this news, Ken offered his endorsement of our book which you can read on the right-hand sidebar. For Robert and me, this endorsement brought blessing beyond our imagination and now we see how God planned the meeting with Ken Hulme 20 years ago for His purposes today.

We are reminded that God plants all along our journey on this earth and years later His grow out of what initially seemed total dryness. He is a spring in a dry place for His children and I am thankful for His providing Ken’s endorsement when it was most needed. The book is blessed by this endorsement, as well as 2 additional endorsements which we highly value, and enables us to forge ahead with final printing.

There is another lesson from this experience worth stating. If I had not made myself available to Ken’s initial inquires, and if I had not listened to my wife and the Holy Spirit 20 years ago, there would be no book, no blog, and no hope for readers to observe and review and, yes, even critique.

Each day we are each offered opportunities to be obedient to our Father’s voice. Each day we each determine to what degree we will submit to Him. If only we trusted Him with all our heart and leaned not on our own understanding, and in all our ways we acknowledged Him, we would find ourselves in lands of opportunity and blessing that seem otherwise impossible.

While The 700 Club video is not, in itself, making the book become reality, it was the availability of God’s plan that day I accepted the challenge to tell of His touch upon my life. While there can be great fear in transparency, there is greater blessing in standing firm in Him. He is all powerful and loving toward us.

There are great things ahead in Him, despite what I see today. My faith is in what is unseen and there is no time for second guessing. He is ever faithful!

Many fans and well-wishers have asked how God directed Robert and me through the writing of And Then Came Life. Over the years, some have offered words of encouragement motivating the book’s completion. Others have made prophetic statements about the book’s birth and God’s intended purpose for it. And yes, there have been discouraging words spewed from the lips of naysayers.

The Book of Jeremiah, chapter 21, verse 11, speaks of God’s plans and promises for this book and any work done “as unto Him.” So I don’t, therefore, feel it’s appropriate to say more than what God has already said in His Word. I have tired myself with numerous speculations about the book and its impact on readers, and I can honestly say these varied conjectures have not added one iota to this journey, except to create more obstacles to the book’s completion. The fact that Robert and I have come this far is nothing short of amazing and miraculous.

God has worked on His own behalf in bringing this story to light. I can only believe its purpose is more for healing hearts than for my personal gain. He has whispered many words into my soul with regard to His plans, and while they are wondrously complex, I learn daily that my thoughts are not His thoughts. Therefore, I can only wait upon Him to reveal His plans and timing for His story of redemption throughout my life.

I know that even if I die today, He has lived outwardly from my life as best as I could allow Him. I have not always been obedient to His voice, and sometimes I am very stubborn. Yet He is always understanding of my weaknesses and has has brought me to greater boldness in Him. This level of personal conviction increases as each day passes while waiting on Him.

Every day I take in His breath as a heterosexual man. I am healthy, happy, and fully filled with His grace and masculinity. Facing giants has been the call for many years, and most giants are unseen and imagined horrors of ridicule, rejection and intimidation. Through His touch, I have stood against of them one at a time, sometimes all of them at once. His blood covering has kept me and those I love most safe from harm.

The journey ahead will be perilous and revealing. This personal saga will test unwanted eyes and voices in my walk with Him, but I am able – through Him – to accomplish all He has spoken for me to be part of. The key to following is knowing His voice and what His Word says for His will in my life. I discover myself daily in Him. Each day is fresh and new, and each trial is but a repeat of old stuff because the adversary cannot create. He can only degrade and destroy.

Each day of waiting on God to bring to pass His will for this book has  been one more chance to further understand, as His son, and to witness His power and compassion. To write any book is an accomplishment the world views as somewhat extraordinary. I am, however, simply astonished to have a life this blessed without a book.

So there you have it. It’s all about His plans and I am along for the unfolding of His plans. Being a vessel for His story is really an honor by which I am fearfully aware of. No way could any of this have happened without Him or through Him. Much is ahead for Robert and me in Christ. The oppositions will arise, I suspect, but so will the blessing of His story of redemptive love and restorative power through His Son, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior!

What struggles have we encountered during the process of writing this book?

When answering this frequent question, I first determine the questioner’s level of interest. The easy and obvious answer was our continual striving for creating good literary value coupled with the patience needed to develop the book’s overall timeline.

Patience is the key. Stories may bubble and fester within one’s heart for many years, but sharing them in their fullest takes committed tenacity while trying to stay true to their reality.

But what do I know?

The deeper answer to this question is far more personal. The power of print on paper is that once the story is out there, it never goes away. The telling is one thing. Public viewing and its ripple effect of the words written is what lasts for a lifetime.

God spoke the title, And Then Came Life, into my heart more than 20 years ago. I was certain the story would be told and there would be additional books that would follow, but I could never imagine how this literary project would occur or when.

Years passed as I sat on the title waiting for godly doors to open. Pages stayed blank longer than they may be printed. There were false starts and failures through well-intentioned persons. Many loving people believed the story’s telling should have begun long before God intended. Three times I followed potential writers until the disappointment of failed starts was more than I could bear.

Finally, I shelved the book and waited, content with the knowledge God had said, “it would be one day.” This was very difficult. The pains I had experienced and the worsening climate in our world’s immorality pricked at my heart daily.

Frequently I was confronted by persons searching for Christ’s hope while trying to escape alternative lifestyles. Growing frustrations came upon me as I could not hand them a book about my personal victories over homosexuality and other mountains of despair.

I learned early on that the most read book is the one we live before our fellow men. The world insists on a daily watch over Christian actions; it demands that the words we say reflect what we do in real life. Intelligence and revelation must be evident in how we act and love others before our smarts can be considered viable information. A book by itself is not the total story, but should reflect the one being shared by a life walked in His truth, love and freedom from sin.

Finally, after many years, Robert came into my life like a wind. Together, God enabled us to develop a story that is already written and a timeline that is already created. Facts and scenarios simply had to be aligned like pearls on a string. The events are real, the persons are real, and the trials are real. The pages were forged together as a team – Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Glenn and Robert.

Through this waiting, through this divinely arranged togetherness, a book has emerged and will soon be printed. While recounting those tales which have survived the editing process, I experienced many emotions. Sometimes after the typing stopped, I would lie awake for hours weeping. There was healing for me, both inwardly and outwardly. I soon realized that even if the book was never presented for the world to read, I had achieved a healing I had not considered prior to the book’s conception.

The hours passed as the keyboard flamed and when all was done, I was emptied more than ever. The story is personal – there is no arguing this fact. Now, however, it is available for all the world to read. The kindness of people falls short where they hurt and their attitudes can creep into their responses when they are confronted by another person’s life truths. It is my personal story for your personal review, and it is not intended to sugar-coat anyone’s feelings.

As I said above, there has always been a certainty this book would be birthed. While the telling of it has been extremely difficult, it has also been an honor. Not everyone could tell this story, and not everyone is required to do so. For me, however, telling or not telling this story has never been an option.  Even at this very moment, I hope its sharing will bring Heaven’s hope to those who were as lost as I once was, or to those who pray for and care for others lost in lives of sexual debauchery, chaotic fantasies, and abuse at the hands of those they look to for comfort and guidance.

Whether what lies ahead is daunting or exciting is what readers will decide for themselves. This story is mine. It is also another person’s story. Like myself many years ago, this person is also looking for ways out of what has become poisonous to his or her heart and eternal welfare. Today that person continues to live under the spyglass of judgment, ridicule and oppressive opinions.

I will never be a Marlboro Man, but today I am a free man – free from that judgment, ridicule and oppression – because of the embrace of a Heavenly Father’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.

It is that simple and wonderfully glorious. So I tell this story as unto Him!

I call this book my difficult blessing. Like all births, it has had both its pains and its joys.

Biography written as fiction, or “biofiction,” is a newly emerging genre in literary fiction. This genus tells other people’s stories complete with dialogue, characterization, plot and protagonist in fascinating and highly readable ways. Biofiction captures those wonderful tales grandparents relate to younger generations. It brings to life family anecdotes, neighborhood legends, even community or multi-family sagas.

During the five years Glenn and I spent writing And Then Came Life, the telling of David Goldberg’s story became amazingly personal, moreso than any fiction I’ve written. Almost daily, as Glenn emailed additional snippets of David’s life, as he revealed more and more about the troubled youth growing to adulthood, I came to know our protagonist as a true friend. It was a rare privilege, indeed.

Through this biofiction work I became intimately acquainted with a young man I’d never met. While David had lived a life beyond my experience, beyond my understanding, I soon began relating to him. His desire for approval, though expressed in ways I’d never considered, was no different from my own longing. His want for genuine friendship and love, while sought in bars and dank bathhouses, was most similar to my own need sought through family and co-workers and church activities.

Sometimes, I confess, I was shocked at David’s antics. Frequently I was amused. More importantly, I realized the heart and soul of this young man deserved to be portrayed. The world would become a better place for having known David Goldberg and his journey to the Love and Truth for which he so desperately yearned. It became my holy mission to accomplish this telling.

The true-life story of David Goldberg (not his real name) first appeared on The 700 Club more than 20 years ago. That short television segment told of David’s escape from his life of homosexual bondage into freedom in Jesus Christ, followed by a nurturing heterosexual marriage and family. Soon David’s longer story will appear in print. Watch for And Then Came Life at online and retail bookstores this Spring.

David’s tale is not uncommon – that of being born into a dysfunctional family with a physically absent father and emotionally absent mother. Also not uncommon is the patience with which David’s Creator continued calling David into relationship with Himself.

Rather, the uniqueness, the newsworthiness of David Goldberg’s story is in the circumstances in which he discovered the biblical David and identified with the man God appointed to be the forefather of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. Just as the biblical David fell into immorality and found forgiveness, so did David Goldberg find forgiveness for his condition of sin.

That same forgiveness for David, king of Israel, and for David Goldberg, homosexual, is available to everyone who seeks Jesus Christ with pure motive and whole heart. To learn how you can escape homosexuality, log onto http://www.exodus-international.org or call 407-599-6872.