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Showing posts with label Seventh Dimension Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seventh Dimension Series. Show all posts

Friday, November 15, 2019

Reaching Teens for Christ Through Christian Fantasy



I would like to give away some copies of Seventh Dimension - The Door for Christmas.
I'm going to share something that's been on my heart for a while, and I'll select a winner from those who leave a comment.

Even though I'm not as young as I used to be, I still love young adult books, probably because I remember how much I enjoyed reading books as a teen. When I was twelve, I remember falling in love with Jesus, or, more succinctly, I remember the first time I felt loved by Him unconditionally.

In many ways, I was Shale Snyder from the Seventh Dimension Series - bullied, smart, and insecure, and spent my early years in a broken home. My childhood pet, Gypsy, came to me much like Much-Afraid did with Shale, unexpected and miraculously, and I had a dark secret I never wanted to share with anyone.
But enough of the similarities. Through the years, I've come to appreciate how much writing has helped me to grow as a person. When I write, I clear out cobwebs from my mind. More often than not, they are lies I've spun from mistakes rooted in condemnation. 

I remove stones from my heart that weigh me down, and I escape into this beautiful dimension of enchantment as I commune with God, my Lord, and Savior. Sometimes it's hard to turn off that voice in my head at night when I go to bed. I just want to create stories.

As I look at young adults today, their world is different from my world of long ago. Teens have so much more materially than I ever had. I didn't grow up with much in the way of those kinds of things. I read books. 
My life was forever changed when I discovered I could read at the age of eight. You see, as strange as it may sound for an award-winning author, I was forced to repeat the first grade because I couldn't read. 

If I could give one bit of advice to the young people of today, it would be this: You can make your plans, but the final outcome is in God's hands (My paraphrasing of Proverbs 16:9).

I believe the affluence of America today has hindered the appetite of many for the things of God. Young people see what we have in America as theirs, and while our country has its flaws, it's still the greatest nation in the world. 
If you are willing to work hard at something, you can succeed. If you are eager to get an education and work hard at something, you can be an achiever. If you are willing to postpone gratification, work hard, get an education, and make many sacrifices, you stand a good chance of achieving your dreams. Maybe you want to be a professional basketball player. Perhaps you long to be a lawyer. The list is only as short as you make it. Practically anything is achievable because America is great, and opportunities abound. 

But what happens when stuff happens? When things don't turn out the way you thought they would? When tragedy strikes? 

I remember many years ago going somewhere with one of my daughters and the family of a friend of hers. She was a teenager at the time, and I remember getting into a discussion with my daughter's friend's father. He surprised me by something he said. His comment basically was this: "Why talk about the end times with our kids. Let them live their life, get married, and have a family. They don't want to think about the world coming to an end or the Lord's return. They just want to live their life."

I didn't have a good response to him at that time because I remembered struggling with that same thought also when I was young. There is one particular memory I recall as if it happened yesterday.

I was putting my husband through medical school at the time, and he was in his second year of a four-year residency. We were watching a show on HBO, and basically, it was a documentary focusing on an end-time scenario, primarily based on the writings of Nostradamus (not the Bible).

That was back in the days before I knew not to trust such writers. While there might be a degree of uncanny accuracy in what they say, it's not based on the Bible, and therefore will never be a hundred percent accurate. Anyone who predicts anything that is not one hundred percent accurate is not a prophet of God. Occultists are relying on demonic powers, and the Bible tells us not to listen to them.

I digress. That's not the point of this article. The point is, as I sat there and watched the documentary with my then-husband, in my heart, I was telling myself, I don't want the end to come. I don't want Christ to return. 

Not after doing all this work and putting my husband through medical school. I want to have children, buy a big house with a pool, and enjoy the fruits of what we've worked so hard for. That hard work was arduous labor for me as a court reporter. I put in long hours in a small town that didn't think women should make more than minimum wage.  

I wish I knew back then what I know now. And it is this: We long for the things of this world because we have no idea what better things God has in store for us in the next. 

And while the years pass by, we fill our hearts with material things. We get married, and husbands commit adultery. We raise children who rebel against us. Young people turn from the Lord and go their own way. I personally know of two Christian families that had sons who committed suicide. I know of other Christian families whose children have chosen alternative lifestyles.


I lost my hair through chemo treatment

You see, we can make our plans, but because we live in a fallen world, sooner or later, we will face adversity. However, the imperfections of life in some ways can become a blessing. Without suffering, I don't believe we can become all that God created us to be because He created us for so much more. Pain allows us to turn something meant for evil into good.

It is out of our suffering that we learn obedience, and in our willingness, we see God. We see beyond this world into the next. We know that we weren't made for a fallen world - we were made for perfection in the future one. 

Recently, I went to the "Understanding the Times Prophecy Conference" in Minneapolis. As I looked around at the audience of six thousand people, I didn't see a single young person. I expected to see at least a couple, perhaps some homeschooling families who brought their teens. But nada, not one.

My heart's desire is to win over young people to Christ. As I wrote many times throughout the Seventh Dimension Series, "time is an illusion until God's appointed time."  

It's true, most young people will have many years to live before God calls them home, but Jesus could return tomorrow. Death is only a heartbeat away. If only I could encourage young people to know Christ personally and to live their life for Him and not for themselves.
I won't reveal the final scene in the last book of the Seventh Dimension Series, The Howling, but the idea is "to occupy" until God returns. That means for young people to live their life, get an education, raise their family, and enjoy life, but live for the glory of God, live to share God with others, live in a way that brings honor to Jesus Christ. 

Young people need to have a personal relationship with their Savior and live as if God could come back at any time. I believe the priorities for most young people do not put Christ first. 

We must not live to please our own appetite. We should occupy until God's return or until He calls us home. That's a vastly different mindset than I could have imagined that day when my then-husband and I watched that apocalyptic HBO pseudo-documentary. I didn't want to live for God. I wanted God to let me live the way I wanted to live. And in His mercy, He did. He showed me a better way, and it was a way of suffering.

So my question is, how can we get young people, teens and young adults, to realize how quickly time flies, that time is an illusion, and as James 4:4 says, our lives are merely a vapor, here for a little while, and then gone? 

When we look around at the world today, we can't help but come to the conclusion that God has made us for so much more. How do we get young people to seize this day, this hour, this moment, for Jesus Christ? 

I've written the Seventh Dimension Series in hopes of reaching those who, like me, love to read. While it's a dwindling number of teens, I believe our future leaders of tomorrow are the young people who read today. A person can't learn all he needs to know to live well only through personal experience. Reading opens the door to biographies of famous people, traveling to other places, and "tasting" different cultures. For the creative ones, reading can take a person to faraway places in time and space, as in the Seventh Dimension Series



Books can teach the reader about God in ways he is unlikely to learn any other way. That's one reason why God gave us the Bible, which includes sixty-six books written by many authors. Life is just too short to experience everything personally. But vicariously, a reader can experience so much more, and in my opinion, it can be better than a trip to Disney World.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments, and I will choose some winners to receive a signed copy of The Door.  

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Seventh Dimension Series Bundle Now Available on Amazon


The Seventh Dimension Series Full Box Set includes The Door, The King, The Castle, The City, The Prescience, and The Howling. The Seventh Dimension Series has won over thirty book awards.

“Time is an illusion until God’s appointed time,” is the major theme based on A.W. Tozer’s quote in The Pursuit of God: “A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.”

The two young protagonists, Shale Snyder, an American, and Daniel Sperling, an Israeli, meet in the seventh dimension—a reality outside of time. Their love for each other is conflicted over their opposing spiritual beliefs that seem irreconcilable. The story covers many years as the young couple matures. The sixth book, The Howling, culminates with Biblical revelations concerning the future, Daniel’s missing father, and a startling surprise.

Allegory, foreshadowing, and symbolism are woven into the Seventh Dimension Series, and the heroism of the two protagonists is meant to inspire the reader.

Love and forgiveness are virtues that both protagonists must learn. The Seventh Dimension Series begins in Atlanta, Georgia, but quickly moves to Israel. The reader soon finds himself immersed in the first century, and stories from the life of Jesus Christ intersect the story plot outside of time. As the reader progresses through the books, he is exposed to many religions and worldviews including Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism; and the young couple makes a memorable trip to heaven and hell.

Many relevant topics are addressed that young adults will have explored in school, among friends, or been exposed to through the media—evolution versus creationism, globalism versus nationalism, socialism versus capitalism, adoption versus abortion, and Christianity versus occultism. Spiritual warfare is a recurring theme, and there are talking animals, special gifts, and much more that I will let the reader discover for himself.

The protagonists are coming-of-age young adults, taken via supernatural stargates into the violent, unpredictable world of the seventh dimension. While I wrote this series for young adults, all readers will enjoy the deeper, profound truths that can only be learned from a life well-lived. 


An unexamined life can squander the opportunity to be redeemed. What a waste. My goal is to make the reader think, ask questions, and consider the most important question of all—where will he spend eternity? As noted above, the theme of the Seventh Dimension Series is: “Time is an illusion until God’s appointed time.” You may not have tomorrow. You only have today, this hour, this moment, this second…

Friday, May 31, 2019

Five Star Readers' Favorite Book Review of the New Release "Seventh Dimension - The Howling" by Christian Fantasy Author Lorilyn Roberts


Reviewed By Ray Simmons for Readers’ Favorite



Some of the greatest stories you will ever read can be found in the Bible. From beginning to end, that’s mostly what the Bible is, a collection of great stories. But there are always a few people who read those stories and think they can tell them better and can adapt them to a tone more suited to a modern reader. Usually, they can’t but sometimes they can. When they get it right, it is a thing of true beauty. That’s what you have in The Howling, Book 6 in the Seventh Dimension series. Lorilyn Roberts has taken parts from all over the Bible and woven them into something new, beautiful, and true to the spirit of the original. I like that it is written for a Young Adult audience. So many of the spiritual books seem to be targeted at older people. I don’t think that’s fair. Young people need spiritual works targeted specifically for them sometimes.

The Howling is the last book in the series and though I did not read any of the other books in this series, I have read other books based on this material, so I enjoyed The Howling as a stand-alone story. Having said that, I am probably going to go back and read the series from the beginning and in order. This is what Lorilyn Roberts suggests in the introduction. She assures us that though we get the main story, there is some back story and building blocks that might make a difference. I believe her, though I went ahead and finished this book. The characters were too engaging and the plot too intriguing for me to stop once I picked it up. I love this type of story and I loved this book. I think everyone will but especially those with a Christian background.

Seventh Dimension - The Howling will be released on June 1st and is available now at a special price of $2.99 across all e-book platforms. After June 1, the price will go up to $4.99. 



Daniel Sperling enters the Seventh Dimension shortly before the return of the Messiah. As one of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists called by Yeshua, the horrors of the Day of the Lord take center stage. Discernment in the seen—and faith in the unseen—can mean the difference between life and death as God teaches perseverance. Daniel’s love for Shale and Shira grows amid revelations concerning the future and the fate of his father. As the Kingdom of God draws near, a new world order, built on a matrix of deception, makes Daniel’s calling more perilous and deadly. His race to the finish, where time is an illusion until God’s appointed times, is heroism at its finest—and demonstrates God’s profound love in the heart of all of those who seek Him.

Here are links to get your copy of the final book in the Seventh Dimension Series for 40% off.

Order from Kobo


Quotable Quote from The Howling


As my eyes became heavy, the strange conversation in the chariot haunted me. Those voices—I’d heard them another time also, arguing over my future. God had kept the vision from me until now—but why? When I closed my eyes, I remembered it, but this time, I knew the dream was slightly altered.

Someone called my name. “Daniel G. Sperling.” I looked and saw a very tall creature wearing a black robe. He held a large book in his hand. 

Another well-built supernatural creature dressed in a shimmering white robe appeared, blocking the other’s path so he couldn’t reach me. “You can’t have him. His name is in the book now.”

The supernatural being gritted his teeth. “He’s mine.”

The authoritative voice raised his voice. “Your power is diminishing, Lucifer.”

“I’m still the prince of the air, Michael.”

“His soul has been purchased, and you can’t have him.”

“Michael, his death is imminent.” 

“His time has not yet come, you fallen one, and you are not all-knowing.”

The two argued back and forth.

The man in the white robe held up his hands. “The race is not over, Lucifer.”  Michael turned his eyes to me. “Finish your journey, Daniel. Know you are highly esteemed, and keep seeking the truth.”

*~*~*

The Seventh Dimension Series has won over thirty book awards. This is Lorilyn's eleventh book. To learn more, visit  LorilynRoberts.com

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Shawshank Rebellion - Can Movies Help Us To Write Better



The Shawshank Rebellion is one of those movies I still think about even though it's been a few years since I watched it. I recently found some notes I wrote after viewing it. and as I start on book five in the Seventh Dimension Series, I am reminded about what made this movie so memorable to me.

Here are my thoughts after viewing it as part of my Masters in Creative Writing.

The most powerful scene was the last scene, when the two characters, Andy Dufresne and Bogs Diamond, reunite in Zihuatanejo, after serving their prison sentences. Of course, without the powerful scenes before and the setup, it wouldn’t have had the punch or the afterglow for the take-away. Plus I have been to Zihuatanejo – and so I know how beautiful it is.

The most powerful scenes before the last scene included:

When Andy Dufresne arrived at the prison initially and he and the others were looked upon as jail meat by the inmates. 

The long corridors of the jail where the inmate population were housed. 

The opera music that was piped loudly through the jail as the inmates stood frozen in the courtyard listening. 

The newly finished library; the completed tunnel that was discovered behind the picture of the movie star; the emptying of the dirt through the pants leg of Andy Dufresne from his tunneling. 

The scene where Bogs uncovers the note from Andy toward the end; the scene where the old man after being released from jail is almost run over by a car. 

The voiceover says the outside world moves too fast. He had only seen a couple of cars before he was put in prison and now there are so many. 

The little bird that the man was hiding in his jacket, he gave him a worm from Andy Dufresne’s food; and the powerful scene when the crow was released. The first bird symbolized the prisoners, but yet being taken care of; the second bird symbolized the old man being set free.

The Shawshank Rebellion spoke to my heart; we are all prisoners on some level, in some aspect of our life, but we can be set free and not lose hope.  And may I not become like the warden, who carried a Bible and quoted Scripture, yet was a crook and a cheat.

The best movies are those that strike a nerve and cause us to question the status quo; what we feel, think, and believe at our core. Few movies do that—at least for me—and to bring it back to writing stories, do not the best books do the same in our hearts? Redemption is paramount, and The Shawshank Rebellion gives the reader what we all want: To be redeemed. To feel valued. 

Now that I've been challenged with a reminder from the past of what I want in movies, books, and life in general, hopefully I can deliver to my readers that kind of redemption in the fifth and final book in the Seventh Dimension Series.

Now off to outlining and writing!