crossroad.to\HisWord\invisible-war
Deborah, I wonder if this would make it easier for you:
1. I unformatted the first two chapters (Prologue and Chapter 1) in order to work on a clean slate.
2. In the Prologue, I indented the first line of each paragraph and added more space between the lines.
3. In the second part (Chapter I) I deleted the indentation and added more space between each paragraph. I tend to prefer the second option.
4. Perhaps it would be best to replace the word "Prologue" with "Chapter One" then adjust the rest of the book. If you agree, I would be happy to make the changes.
I would be happy to do the same with the whole book. As soon as you let me know, I will “clean up” the rest of the book. I thank God for your fellowship in this project!
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The Invisible War
- a parable to help children recognize and resist New Age deception and "put on" the Armor of God
Prologue (or Chapter 1)
Tom and Molly lived in a little white house in the Kingdom of Troth.* No place could be more wonderful, for it was ruled by the greatest King ever! Nothing was impossible for Him.
Who but their King was wise and powerful enough to make great mountains, trees full of cherries, and funny little kittens? Who else could feed all the animals in the forest? Who else had the power to send rain to water the grass and sunshine to make flowers bloom? Tom and Molly didn't know of anyone.
Only their King--and none other--could have created people. People were special to the King. He wanted them to be his very own friends. And if they would only stay close to him, he would always keep them safe. That's what the King himself said, so it had to be true. Tom and Molly were glad the King took care of them, but since they didn't see any dangers, they didn't think much about it. They just had fun climbing trees in the King's garden, racing down his natural waterslides and splashing around in the royal lake. The Kingdom of Troth was full of fun things to do.
In school, they learned about a time when there were wars and fighting in Troth. But nobody that Tom and Molly knew--not even their parents or grandparents--had lived that long ago. They had all heard that in those bad years, people were afraid all the time. Now that everything was peaceful, people didn't worry about war. They couldn't see any enemies. Some had even forgotten how the King had saved his people long ago.
The King didn't want people to forget. So he invited them for breakfast each morning in the palace garden. There He read to them from his wonderful Book of Truth. Of course, almost everyone in the royal city came.
After the special reading, everyone would sit down at the lovely tables in the King's garden and eat the scrumptious food his servants had prepared. Some, like Tom and his friends, liked to sit on the palace steps or lie down in the soft grass. Molly's favorite breakfast was a big waffle shaped like a face with whipped cream hair, blueberry eyes and a red raspberry mouth.
When Tom and Molly looked beyond the royal forest, they could see a range of mountains. On the other side lay a mysterious land--a dark and dismal place, where thick clouds hung like a leaky ceiling above the ground and made everything damp and dull, even in the middle of summer. People called it Lucidia, as if it was a bright and happy place. They should have called it The Land of Gloom.
An evil Baron ruled that horrible land. All the children of Troth knew that he had attacked the King and started a war long ago, but the King had defeated him. Now the mean Baron could only hurt his own people--and he did that all the time. The poor people of Lucidia couldn't trust anyone, because everyone there lied, stole and cheated--and the Baron was the worst of all. Tom and Molly were glad the Baron stayed far away from the Kingdom of Troth.
One thing about Lucidia had been kept a secret. The two children had no idea how much the evil Baron hated their King. People just didn't talk about that. But it was true. Day and night the Baron schemed how he might cheat the King, steal his land and capture the people again. Of course, the Baron didn't dare declare war and fight openly. He knew that the King was far too powerful for him. And the King's people were much stronger than his own weak, fearful subjects. No, this time the Baron had to win by trickery. But how?
One night the evil Baron lay awake in his bed plotting the King's defeat as usual. Suddenly his mouth twisted into a sly grin. He had thought of a devious plan.
"Wake up, everybody!" he yelled. "Come right now, or you'll be dead! I want you to hear my plan to conquer the Kingdom!"
One by one, his servants crept into the dark chamber of the castle. Shaking with fear, they bowed down before their terrible tyrant.
"My plan is foolproof," shouted the Baron. "I know how we can conquer Troth and turn the people into slaves. Listen..."
Shivering in the cold, the servants and soldiers waited.
"We'll dress like his people," continued the Baron. "We'll infiltrate his Kingdom! We'll sneak into their towns and learn their language."
"It won't work," shouted one of his generals. "They know the King's mysteries. They can tell the difference."
"Many can't," argued a young spy. "Some children no longer listen to the King. They don't know what is written in the Book of Truth. They're easy to fool."
"It's true!" yelled the Baron. "This is a new age--and it's ours! We'll distract them, deceive them and destroy them!" His eyes sparkled with sinister glee. "They will never guess what happened until we've taken control from the inside. This will be our Invisible War!"
His cruel laughter echoed through the halls of the gloomy castle.
* TROTH means a promise to stay together. When we love and follow our King, He will care for us and keep us close to Him forever.
Chapter 2: The Mysterious Dog (or Chapter 1)
Tom awoke with the sun. He jumped out of bed and pounced on his friend Peter still snoozing on the other side of the room.
"Wake up, Sleepyhead!" he shouted. He couldn't wait to go fishing in the King's river and build a tree house and look for wild animals. So what was he waiting for? He jumped out of bed and pounced on his friend. "Hurry up! Can't waste our day in bed!"
"Okay, okay. I'm getting up." Peter rubbed his eyes. "What do we need to take?"
"Fishing line, hooks, compass, snacks..."
"And chocolate cream cookies." Peter grabbed the bag his mom had fixed for them last night.
Tom and Peter were stuffing it all into their backpacks, when they heard a dog barking in the yard. They ran outside just in time to see a frightened squirrel scurry up a tree. A little white dog was bouncing like a jumping jack around the foot of the tree.
"Come here, you funny pup," called Tom.
The dog came running so fast that it almost did a somersault trying to stop at Tom's feet.
Tom knelt to pet it. "I wonder where it came from. Do you think it may be a stray looking for a home?"
"Maybe it belongs to one of the new families in town," answered Peter. "It doesn't look lost or starving."
Tom felt around the dog's collar for some kind of identification. All he found was a round hard disc with a strange symbol on it.
"Look at this, Peter! What does it mean?"
Puzzled, they stared at the symbol. It had two circles. The inner circle framed the shape of a bear. From this center, four lines divided the rest of the symbol into four equal parts.
Suddenly a shrill whistle pierced the air. The dog perked its ears, then shot off in the direction of the sound. Tom and Peter ran after it. Moments later, they stood face to face with a boy about their own age. He smiled and greeted them with a friendly, "Hi, I'm Colin."
"I'm Tom and this is my friend Peter," said Tom. "Is this your dog?"
"Sort of," answered Colin. "I found her on the mountain last week when we passed an old cabin. I whistled and she came running."
"You found her on the mountain? What were you doing up there?" Tom looked toward the mysterious mountain that reached high into the clouds behind the King's palace.
"We were moving to Troth," answered Colin.
"Where from?" asked Peter.
"Lucidia," answered Colin.
"You mean the evil Baron's land?" Tom felt excited--and a bit afraid. He had never met anyone from that mysterious land on the other side of the mountain.
Colin frowned. "What do you mean--evil? Lucidia is a good place," he answered.
Tom wanted to ask why Colin's family had left Lucidia if it were such a good place, but he didn't. Maybe he'd ask later.
"Anyway, she's been following me ever since," continued Colin.
"Then she probably belongs to someone up there on the mountain," said Peter.
"She's mine now," said Colin. "She really likes me. Don't you, Sasha?" The little dog wagged her fluffy tail until her whole body shook.
"We looked for some kind of identification on her," said Tom, "and we found this strange symbol. Do you know what it means?" Tom lifted the little dog in his arms and held the disc up for Colin to see.
"Sure. That's a quartered circle. It's a great magic sign. Circles are sacred. The four lines point to the spirits of the North, East, South and West. The bear in the middle stands for somebody's special animal power."
"That's weird," said Tom. He quickly dropped the disc.
"Let's take the dog back to that cabin where you found her," said Peter. "I want to see what it looks like on the mountain."
"We're not supposed to go up there." said Tom. He remembered one of Dad's warnings about the mountain--something about strange rituals in the forest. But he wasn't sure. It can't be too dangerous, he thought to himself. Colin got here safely.
"We already have food for the trip," said Peter, as if he hadn't heard Tom.
"If we climb to the top, we can see my country," said Colin.
"Wow! That's awesome!" Peter's eyes sparkled. "Let's go..."
"Wait!" interrupted Tom. "You're forgetting something. We have to go to the King's reading first."
"Reading? Yuck! That sounds boring!" said Colin.
"It's not boring at all," said Tom. "The King reads to us from the Book of Truth. It's great! Then we eat a yummy breakfast afterwards. Hey, why don't you come along?"
"No way!" Colin backed away.
"We can climb the mountain afterwards, right?" Peter sounded impatient.
"Well... I guess," said Tom.
"All right! Where do we meet?"
"How about right outside the palace gates?"
"Sounds good. See you guys then." Colin turned and walked away. "C'mon Sasha!" The little dog bounded after him.
Tom was still thinking about Lucidia as he and Peter walked toward the King's garden. "Peter, did you see the symbol Colin was wearing? It had an animal on it too--just like Sasha's sign. Only Colin's animal was a snake. What do you think it means?"
"I don't know. Maybe the snake is Colin's power animal. Maybe it has some kind of magic."
"I didn't like it," said Tom. "It looked spooky!"
Peter shrugged. "Don't be so picky."