Sovereignty and Free Will

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (John 5:37).

Some people see a conflict between God's sovereignty and man's free will. This is addressed in the book, Obedience to Christ, by A.W. Tozer and Caleb Sinclair. Tozer explains sovereignty this way: "God's sovereignty is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign, God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free. The sovereignty of God is a fact well-established in the Scriptures and declared aloud by the logic of truth."

... choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

Tozer gives us his view: "God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil." . . . . "Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures."

He doeth according to his will... none can stay his hand (Daniel 4:35).

Using the illustration of a ship crossing the ocean, Tozer gives us an analogy to consider. Passengers board an ocean liner to sail from New York to Liverpool. As they sail, they can choose their activities. "They are completely free to move about the ship as they will. They eat, sleep, play, lounge about the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please; but all the while, the great liner is carrying them steadily onward . . . ."  They made the choice to get on the ship and sail to where it was going, but they have no choice in its course once they are aboard.

... who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Ephesians 1:11).

"Both freedom and sovereignty are present here, and they do not contradict each other. So it is, I believe, with man's freedom and the sovereignty of God. The mighty liner of God's sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfilment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Jesus Christ before the world began. We do not know all that is included in those purposes, but enough has been disclosed to furnish us with a broad outline of things and to give us good hope and firm assurance of future well-being."

Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).

"We know that God will fulfil every promise made to the prophets. We know sinners will some day be cleansed out of the earth. We know that a ransomed company will enter into the joy of God and that the righteous will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father." In this way, Tozer invites us to see that our free will comes about because of God's sovereignty, and they can easily coexist. Our wisest response is to choose Christ and seek to remain in God's perfect will.

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 Guest, Amber Mae Weston

Hi! My name is Amber Mae Weston. I’m a wife to Earl and a mother to four amazing kids. I have a bachelor’s degree in communications and a background in journalism, but for the past decade, my main job has been chaos coordination, as I do my best to raise my children in a loving way.

Some days I succeed; some days I have to rely on my Father in Heaven to make up the difference. As my children have grown, I’ve found writing to be a wonderful support to my primary goals as a mother. It gives me an outlet that can bend around my family life, and not the other way around.

My latest release is called The Baron and the Ballerina. It’s a clean and wholesome Regency romance with sprinkles of faith and an enemies-to-lovers storyline.

This is my first published full-length novel, and it is truly a labor of love. I began writing it because I had read so many Cinderella-style Regency books where a poor woman ended up with a rich man. I wanted to create a believable version of that trope.

So I researched and learned that though these “sideways marriages” were rare, they did occur from time to time, and the woman was almost always associated with the stage.

Thus, my ballerina was born. She is a single mother, desperate to remove her daughter from the dangers of the stage, even if it means marrying a man she doesn’t love. Colonel John Cooper, a well-respected patron of the arts, is the perfect target.

Unfortunately for her, there is a baron who promised his late father that his sister would be wed to that very same colonel. Sparks fly as the ballerina and the baron compete for the colonel’s attentions, and the more they get in each other’s way, the more difficult it becomes to see anyone but each other.

In researching this book, I learned many sordid details about the stage and the toll it took on women specifically. Whether or not my books would be “clean” was never in question. I’m very careful about what I read and always knew I would strive for that in my writing, but I am not afraid to tackle difficult subjects. Thus, my ballerina became a single mother with a painful past. As I wrote her, I felt impressed to help her move from a place of shame to a place of redemption.

Though I didn’t begin with the intention of writing religious books, I found that a thread of faith naturally wove its way into my story. Every one of my mentors advised that I cut it out. Not because they were against religion, but because they were practical. “If you want to make a profit, you need to give your books broad appeal.”

But when I went to remove the faith, I froze.

How could I take away what had felt God-given?

And so I left it in and pressed forward, trusting that God will help my books land where they are meant to be.

My hope is that someone will read this book and see themselves in Allegra and Ben. They will recognize that though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow through the blood of Christ.

Don’t think this means my book is a sermon presented with a pretty cover. It’s not. I simply allowed faith to be present when I felt prompted. It was never forced, but instead sprinkled into moments, just as I find God sprinkled into my own life.

Thus, my motto was born: Romance that pierces the heart and protects the spirit. My books overflow with emotion, but are presented in a way that protects the most sensitive of spirits. If this speaks to you, I hope you’ll take a chance on my work. And when you do, I hope you come away feeling refreshed and better prepared to tackle the challenges of life. Because isn’t that the purpose of art? It’s scaffolding to support a life that was never meant to be easy.

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Obedience: The Mark of Christianity

A little over a third of the world's population professes to be Christians today. That's roughly 2.6 billion people. "One would expect that a world with such a large percentage of Christ-followers would be fundamentally different from how it is today. All who call themselves Christian have not truly understood what it means to be a Christian."*

"Tozer underlines the teaching of the Bible -- obedience is the evidence of salvation."* Jesus also emphasized this several times. In chapters 14 and 15, John records Christ speaking about this. Here are some of them: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (14:15); "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (14:21); "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (15:10).

Read Matthew 7:21-27. It begins with Jesus saying, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shalt enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." And Jesus asks in Luke 6:46, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

"For Tozer, there is no mincing of words when it comes to preaching biblical truth. The life of obedience . . . is the wisest course of life."* Obedience has nothing to do with earning our salvation. No matter how hard we try, we could never be completely obedient because of our sinful nature from the fall of man. We can do nothing to earn salvation; it is a gift of God. However, obedience is evidence of our salvation. All who are truly saved want to follow God's will. Grace saves us, but love expresses itself through obedience, and this is the mark of a true Christ-follower. Those who belong to Him are not perfect, but they are being shaped into people who obey him from the heart.

*Caleb Sinclair in the introduction to Obedience to Christ, A.W. Tozer and Caleb Sinclair.

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Pawprints on the Page

While editing my upcoming book, Malachi's Mountain, I realized I've used dogs as secondary characters in several of my stories. Malachi's faithful companion, Flint, is one of them. Malachi got him from the Shoshone when he was just a pup. Flint is loyal, intelligent, and the perfect friend for a mountain man living alone in an isolated cabin.

My first story to feature a dog in a significant role was Roslyn's Rescue, an inspirational retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" set in medieval England. Owein, a noble wolfhound secretly gifted to Roslyn by the woodcutter, proves to be exceptional. When Roselyn faces danger, it's Owein who races for help.

A dog also plays a memorable role in Inman's Impersonation. Someone has mistreated the animal, and Inman's kindness wins his complete devotion. Inman first names him Drifter but soon shortens it. Driff becomes an important presence throughout the novel.

In Grandma's Match for Garrett, Garrett goes to great lengths to find Wren a dog. Something happened to the one she used to have, and with all the trouble surrounding her, he's convinced she needs a good guard dog. He ends up bringing her two, and they quickly become invaluable.

A puppy also finds Meleah when she's lost in the woods in Noah's New Bride. She names him Pal, and his companionship helps ease the loneliness of the logging camp while Noah is away working during the day.

I've loved animals, especially dogs, since I was a little girl. My family used to raise cocker spaniels, and I always had a dog of my own growing up. Those memories are special to me, so it's no surprise that dogs keep finding their way into my stories. I expect readers will meet even more canines in books to come.

Do you enjoy discovering dogs in the books you read from time to time?

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On the Frontier

Faith, belonging, and the courage to stay when leaving would be easier

Guest Post by Heidi Gray McGill

About the Author

If you had asked me before the 2020 lockdown where I would spend my days, I would not have said late-1800s Missouri. I certainly would not have guessed I would feel so at home among frontier families shaped by hard labor, deep convictions, and the daily work of holding one another together when life offers no simple answers.

And yet, here I am.

Somewhere between barns and kitchen tables, sickrooms and fence lines, I found a world that feels familiar in all the ways that matter. The frontier was a place where people worked until they finished the job, said what they meant, and trusted God whether or not the trail ahead was easy. Faith was not something you explained. It was something you lived, often quietly, often without applause.

I write Christian historical fiction because I believe the strongest faith stories are rarely tidy. They are not polished sermons. They are lived out in ordinary places by people who keep showing up, even when it costs them something. Stories have always been one of God’s favorite ways to remind me who He is and who we are becoming, usually one hard-earned step at a time.

About Keeper of My Heart

Jimmy Reeves heads west and completely out of his comfort zone.

A trained pharmacist from the East, he arrives in post–Civil War Missouri with intention, not certainty. He wants to learn from Robin Manning’s Arapaho knowledge, to understand healing that cannot be found in bottles or textbooks, and to figure out whether faith can be practiced instead of merely studied. Jimmy is thoughtful, reserved, and deeply uncomfortable with chaos, which makes the frontier a challenging classroom.

Cecelia Shankel has never questioned where she belongs.

She was raised strong, shaped by land that demands work and by people who rely on her steadiness. Cecelia does not become capable through crisis; she was formed that way from the start. Strength, to her, is not something to explain or defend. It is simply how the day gets finished.

When grief, responsibility, and an unexpected affection draw Jimmy and Cecelia together, neither is looking for romance. What they find instead is something quieter and more demanding. Trust built through presence. Love proven through action. And the slow realization that sometimes God’s calling is not about escape, but about choosing to stay.

Keeper of My Heart is a slow-burn Christian historical romance featuring an opposites-attract pairing, an emotionally wounded hero, a capable frontier heroine, found family, and the quiet tension that grows when two people learn to carry responsibility together.

The Heart of the Story

Jimmy’s journey is about learning to stand when everything in him wants order and certainty. Cecelia’s is about learning that strength does not mean standing alone. Together, they discover that God often works through ordinary people who simply refuse to walk away from what has been entrusted to them.

For readers who believe God still meets us in the middle of work, weariness, and unanswered questions, this story offers a reminder. You are not late. You are not alone. And faithfulness still matters.

A Final Word

If you enjoy stories where faith shows up in the ordinary work of living, I hope Keeper of My Heart feels like the end of a long day on the porch, when the noise settles, the light fades, and something steady asks you to stay a while longer and listen.

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The Sacrifice of Christ

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

Have you ever thought of how great a sacrifice it was for Jesus to leave the splendor and perfection of heaven to come to earth as a babe and grow up surrounded by the sinfulness, problems, and hardships that abound here? He came, knowing that He would be reviled, persecuted, and ultimately nailed to a cross.

On that cross, the physical pain would have been excruciating, but there were other sacrifices as well. All at once, this perfect, sinless man took on the sins of everyone who had ever lived or would ever live. I can't even imagine what a dark, heavy burden that must have been. How painful that must have felt, yet it didn't stop there. In that moment, God turned away from Him.

He had never been without the Father, but suddenly, God the Father left Him. Talk about being abandoned and alone! And he endured that separation so that we would never have to. His abandonment purchased our acceptance and belonging. His suffering opened the way for our salvation. When we pause to consider the depth of His sacrifice, it should tell us how much we are loved and bring us to our knees to accept Christ as our Savior and live for Him.

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