Shannon here: Lana Christian shares her inspiration for her Biblical Fiction title, Survival Secrets, plus how her characters are like and unlike her, & a chance to win a signed author copy of Survival Secrets, a bookmark or the first book in the series New Star. Comment on any question dated Oct 2nd – 18th to enter the drawing along with 4 other titles in my Oct Book Bundle #1. Deadline: Oct 25th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Lana:
Faith, Hope, Love, and Risk in the Wise Men’s story: The Magi’s Encounters series by Lana Christian:
The word “love” is so overused that it loses meaning in today’s lingo. “Love it” often means “That’s great,” or “I agree with you.” If we say we love someone’s new outfit, we may really mean we wish we had one just like it.
And sometimes we confuse the attraction of romance with the substance of love.
If marital love could be distilled into a recipe, I’d look for commitment to each other and God, trust, perseverance, resilience, and grit to top its list of ingredients. I thought my marriage had all the ingredients for a forever marriage—until a “mystery illness” felled me. By the time it was correctly diagnosed as the worst version of late-stage Lyme disease, I had almost died twice.
Then my husband checked out of the marriage.
Abandonment and divorce left me deeply wounded without time to grieve. Two weeks after the divorce, I moved cross-country to be treated by a top Lyme specialist. Suddenly single after 33 years of marriage, functionally homeless, facing uphill health and financial battles, I slowly realized I needed to rediscover my first love. God.
I had to relearn who I was—but more importantly, WHOSE I was.
The last three years of my marriage, I’d come to believe I was “damaged goods” unworthy of God’s love. I had to learn how to see myself through His eyes. I had to trust that all He said in His Word was true, no matter how I felt. Over time, I rediscovered God’s embodiment of perfect love. He revealed that to me in profoundly new ways through His power, protection, and provision.
Those themes appear in my series, The Magi’s Encounters. (If you’re wondering what it’s doing here amid blogs about romance novels, please keep reading.) I write biblical fiction. Yes, this series is about the Wise Men. Its premise is that finding Jesus as a toddler (Matthew 2) dramatically changed the trajectory of their lives (and—spoiler alert—they crossed paths with Him more than once).
New Star, the first book in the series, is the Wise Men’s backstory. Most of what we think we know about them is based on tradition instead of truth, so I did a full year of research before I wrote their story. Part of their job was to uphold their empire’s national religion. They bucked that to believe Hebrew writings about the prophesied eternal child-king (Yeshua/Jesus).
That act was radically countercultural and counterintuitive. Far beyond an academic interest in an elusive star, the Wise Men risked their reputations, careers, and literally their lives as they chose their newfound faith over everything else to find Yeshua.
That’s extraordinary love.
It didn’t stop there because the Wise Men defied Herod’s order to bring him news of the child when they found Him. What a sacrificial act of love! Their desire to protect Yeshua, His family, and their caravan superseded all their other desires. We get a hint of that in the last half of Matthew 2:12, the springboard for Book 2 in my series.
While unforgiving environments, calamities, and political enemies test the Wise Men’s faith in Survival Secrets, the faith journey of Farzaneh is of a different nature. She’s the series’ main orbital character and is the estranged cousin of the lead Wise Man. Farzaneh is widowed for a second time in New Star. She struggles with many of the issues I struggled with after my divorce. In the first century, the concept of forgiveness was unique to the Hebrew faith. As a newly minted God-fearer, in Survival Secrets she wrestles with the notions of forgiveness and reconciliation with her cousin, former guardian, and others.
New Star underscores that having faith in God will cost you something. Survival Secrets shows that God will test your faith by pushing you into wilderness situations—but He will also carve a path through them. Both books highlight that God will honor the courage of faith in action in ways you can’t imagine.
God’s love for us is the greatest love story of all time. I hope you enjoy Farzaneh’s and the Wise Men’s journeys in that love story.
Reader Question: What about you? How did God show up strong for you when you needed Him the most?
Oct Book Bundle Giveaway #1
Survival Secrets by Lana Christian and a bookmark, signed print copy, Biblical Fiction. If winner hasn’t read book one in series, New Star, they’ll receive it instead.
The Broken Weathervane by Laura DeNooyer, Dual-Time Women’s Fiction, winner’s choice ebook or paperback. USA only.
Don’t Blink by Jordyn Redwood, Romantic Suspense, e-book copy of the complete box set
To Speak His Name by Tara Johnson, Historical Romance, Print.
The Hidden Legacy by June Foster, Romantic Suspense, e-book copy.
About Lana: Lana Christian is an award-winning author in business and creative writing. Since 2021, she has won a dozen awards for her biblical fiction and nonfiction. Lana is a science and history geek who loves hiking, secret staircases, and masala chai tea. She believes many problems can be solved with common sense, but God can solve every problem. Her greatest desire is that her stories will immerse readers in another place and time they may know little about but will come away with an experience that exceeds their expectations. Learn more & connect:
Lana’s Website Lana’s Facebook Lana’s Twitter/X
About the book – Survival Secrets:
On the run from Herod and the Nabataeans, Akilah makes a desperate decision to venture into the unforgiving Wilderness of Paran. To reach Egypt’s safety, his caravan must survive the elements while maintaining their anonymity and protecting the secrets they harbor. Their knowledge of Yeshua is one of many secrets that jeopardize their lives. When calamity tears one Wise Man away from the others, the group’s resolve and newfound faith start to crumble. Farther from their goal of returning to Persia than ever before, they encounter Yeshua’s family again. Its ramifications raise the stakes for their cost of belief in the Hebrew God.
Two thousand miles away, Akilah’s estranged cousin, Farzaneh, wrestles with the same as she tries to uncover secrets her husband took to the grave when he embraced the Hebrew faith. As life shifts radically for everyone, each person must risk trusting an unfathomable, sovereign God.
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in Lana’s other titles?
Get your copy/copies now!
Come back Oct 4th for Shannon’s Book Bargains Roundup!
I was hosting a Red River Luncheon Ladies’ gathering at my home when my husband hollered from the bedroom, “Oh! Caryl!”
I ran in just as his defibrillator hit him the second time! It hit him twice more before I got him to the car for the hour’s drive to the ER.
The ladies immediately prayed and Ron and I both prayed all the way to the hospital… I wasn’t sure if he was praying for his heart or my driving! 🙂
But God… oh how I love that beginning to a sentence! He blessed us and I got Ron to the hospital without another shock.
Over the next month there were a couple hospital stays and cardiac ablations and he’s back to his usual active self! I’m so grateful to Father for healing Ron! He showed up and showed out!!
Hey Caryl,
I’m so very glad your love story got to continue.