Showing results by author "Barry Clay" in All Categories

Eight years have passed since Andersonville was destroyed and Oland and his family were forcibly relocated to Richmond. His parents are in re-education centers—prisons that house the most dangerous of inmates and which are intended to wean them from their Christian faith. He and his siblings are virtual prisoners in state schools, undergoing similar indoctrination. Oland is poised to graduate high school, having successfully convinced his teachers and school authorities that he has adopted the atheistic philosophy of the state. Once graduated, he has a plan to free his parents and his ...

While the "Solid Ground" titles which were taken from the book "Solid Ground" discuss various aspects of biblical doctrine and why they are important, "Meat and Drink Issues" explore those differences among Christians that aren't really important, how we should handle those differences, and how we can tell the difference between what's important and what isn't.

It should come as no surprise to hear than God had a plan when He created the world. This excerpt from the book "Solid Ground" discusses that plan. It begins with His temporary plan, Moses and the Old Covenant, and ends with the glorious good news of the Gospel. And we talk about the Man who made it possible to move from animal sacrifice and the Ten Commandments to faith in God, Jesus Christ. If you want to understand Christianity better, do not miss reading this excerpt. This is the central portion of the Christian faith. Everything either leads here or comes from here, and every Christian...

In this controversial excerpt from his book "Solid Ground," Mr. Clay enters territory on which, he says, angels fear to tread, and attempts to answer the question: are there God-designed differences between a man and a woman, and, if so, what are they? No matter your opinion on this topic, you are sure to benefit from Mr. Clay's explanation of what the Bible says about men and women, and how their differences are designed to forward the family and the kingdom of God.

Patience Bellamy is a middle- aged spinster who lives an unremarkable life trying to make ends meet until, one day, she comes home to a basket and several packages on her doorstep. Improbably, there is an infant in the basket, wrapped in a blue blanket. A note pinned to the blanket explains that the parents can no longer care for the child. They implore Patience to provide a home for him, and they further warn her against taking the child to the doctor's office. The note adds, she'll understand once she attempts to feed the baby. This novella has also been collected in the anthology "...

The people of Tyemon's land consider the Antrix a myth -- a story to tell around the fire to frighten children. But Tyemon has discovered that, far from a myth, the Antrix is very real. To his sorrow, he also learns that the stories told of her are not as accurate as he would have liked, and he must now deal with the consequences of approaching her. But correcting his mistake may be impossible. Or is it? This novelette has also been collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

Both believers and unbelievers have found the end of the world as we know it to be a fascinating topic. The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012, and many Christian authors have confidently predicted the future based on their interpretation of the scriptures only to be overtaken by actual events. "How It All Ends" is a collection of chapters from the book "Solid Ground" that explores what we can and can't know from the Bible about the end of the world. Mr. Clay explores the topic of the end of the world with humility where the Bible isn't clear and with confidence in those areas ...

Discover the truth about the government consuming your tax dollars from a now-retired federal employee of more than thirty-seven years. Chock full of amusing (and sometimes horrific) anecdotes (as well as the author's entertaining cartoons), no one who pays taxes and wonders how their money is being spent should miss this book. It’s only one man’s look at one federal organization’s inefficiency, but are the other ones any better? We can only hope. But if they aren’t and if you read this book, you can also chuckle at the lunacy.

The moon is a very religious place. The year is 2242, and Armstrong City, the largest city on the moon, maintains a precarious balance between the old United States of America and the upstart, self-proclaimed Free States of America that broke away in 2126 in protest of government policies they deemed oppressive. The majority of the population on the moon consists of Christian and cultural conservatives, the former having fled the United States to worship and act out their faith freely and the latter to pursue their own agenda free from centuries of policies that they believed had burdened ...

Can we believe anything we want? Does what we believe matter? This edition is an excerpt from the book "Solid Ground." It explores the importance of belief and how it affects our lives even while it discusses how belief in doctrine is, by itself, limited. It was written with both believers and unbelievers in mind, and it forms the foundation on which the "Solid Ground" series is built. It also discusses "cults", what they are, and how we should react when they come knocking at our doors.

When Fred Dorflinger and his wife Carol visit their friends Alan and Loretta Hostetter and their 10 children, they expect a quiet, calm weekend. What ensues instead is a calamity of unexpected visitors, clumsiness, unforeseen events, and a very dangerous bowl of spinach dip. To say more about this short novelette would be to spoil the surprise. Winner of the 1983 John T. Ruhl Memorial award for humor. "I have seen people howl with laughter when Barry Clay reads this story aloud to his friends, but I really, really wish he would have spared me the acute embarrassment and not printed this for...

"When your children are young and they do things like biting each other, stealing each other’s toys, and attempting to swindle their younger siblings out of their meager life savings, it seems as if they will never become snotty teenagers, much less old enough that your state has decided they are responsible enough to drive. But it happens." And so begins the short Kindle edition of "You Drive me Crazy," true accounts of one family as the adults attempt to teach their four children to drive. And they did it successfully! All four children are now mature, responsible adults who have been ...

Since commissioned by the archangel Gabriel, Christian evangelists Dakota and Emily Peterson's floundering marriage has not prevented them from providing supernatural healing and spiritual counseling to those who flock to their meetings. But a couple approaches them, providing an opportunity that only God can foresee, if they are simply willing to obey Him. This short story is also collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

Surely, no camping trip could be that bad. Surely. But this novella is inspired by actual events, and the Brooks family little expects just how bad one long weekend at a state park can be. This book has also been collected in the anthology "Molded by Humor" along with other short stories and novelettes that were inspired by actual events.

Melissa Nelson understands that she is being unreasonable. Her husband is no doubt correct when he says that teenage boys, bored in the rural community that is their new home, are moving the scarecrow as a prank on their new city slicker neighbors. But as she looks out in the field of corn and sees the scarecrow looking at her, she can't convince herself that she is being irrational. Is she losing her grip on reality? And then a neighbor informs her that the scarecrow is indeed more than it seems .... This novelette has also been collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

The writer of the book of Hebrews in the Bible refers to "elementary teachings." This title explores those "elementary teachings" that Mr. Clay hasn't already explored in other "Solid Ground" titles: repentance from dead works and faith in God, instructions about washings (baptism?), and laying on of hands. Whether your feel these topics are elementary or not, you're sure to benefit from reading Mr. Clay's explanation of them.

Family. Faith. Fantasy. For generations, the kingdoms of Vaniar and Sylvanlund have been at war over the mineral-rich mountainous region between their two kingdoms. Sylvanlund has proposed a marriage between the only children of their monarchs, a marriage that will end the war and the loss of lives it has meant for both kingdoms. The king and queen of Vaniar accept the proposal and begin negotiations, but someone with unknown motives has begun machinations – machinations of incredible sorcery – to prevent the marriage from occurring. Or so it appears. Identical twins Ian and Tad ...

Ten years have passed since the Princess Endinara, now queen of Sylvanlund, was saved from a mystical illness by an unlikely band of men and women, led by Quentin Bregard, the man who is now her husband and joint monarch. Ian and Tad Tomulson have both married, as has their sister, Vanessa. Like Quentin and Endinara, they are raising their children in the relative calm of the two prosperous, peaceful kingdoms in which they live. The sorcerer Dovar and his evil sister, Ulava, are dead, and the RavenDisc halves are safe with the former sorcerer’s apprentice, Mok Halim. Or so they think. For...

In this novelette of the near future, clones are grown for replacement parts. On rare occasions, some clones are even used as new bodies for those influential or rich enough to obtain them. Susan Bachman is a Clone Tank Nurse who, abruptly, is forced by circumstances to reexamine everything she's ever known about clones and the comfortable life she leads. This novelette has also been included in the anthology "A Little Bit of Everything" by Barry Clay and in the book "Speaking".

It is the early 22nd Century, and Susan Bachman has achieved her goal. She is a CTN - clone tank nurse - a good-paying position matching the needs of people requiring body parts that are harvested from clones grown in tanks. But her world is disturbed when one of the clones opens its eyes and looks at her. She is told that this is a common event and means nothing, but it begins a series of events she cannot control and results in an end she cannot predict. This book combines the novelette "With Whom I Had Been Speaking" and the novella "Knowing with Whom I Had Been Speaking."