THE NEW WORLD COVENANT
By Norm and Kim Bourque
Copyright 2014 The New World Covenant Group Ltd.
This licensed ebook is for your personal enjoyment only and remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy this book and would like to share it with others please purchase an additional copy for each recipient or encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favourite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover design by Digital Donna
www.digitaldonna.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Faith
The Message
Chapter 1 – The Accident
Chapter 2 – Alyssa Falls
Chapter 3 – Attraction to Religions
Parable 1 – “The Blinded Horse”
Chapter 4 – Security Breach
Chapter 5 – Black Bart Tavern
Chapter 6 – “God Virus” and Schwartz’s Diner
Chapter 7 – News Report from West Africa
Chapter 8 – Johnny
Chapter 9 – Seraphina and Murphy
Chapter 10 – Dr. Greer
Chapter 11 – News Report from India
Chapter 12 – Murphy
Chapter 13 – Leilani
Chapter 14 – News Report from United States
Chapter 15 – Emma
Parable 2 – “The Tree of Life”
Chapter 16 – Amanda
Chapter 17 – Wade and Judy
Chapter 18 – Sylvia and Vince
Chapter 19 – Brian
Chapter 20 – Murphy and Jason
Chapter 21 – Cooper
Chapter 22 - Veronica
Chapter 23 – News Report on Gang Scene
Chapter 24 – Jason
Chapter 25 – Gina and Darren
Chapter 26 – News Report from New Zealand
Chapter 27 – Rabbi Asher and Hannah
Chapter 28 – Jason and Cooper
Chapter 29 – Murphy, Jack and the Investigation
Chapter 30 – Single Mom and Poem “You Are My Love”
Chapter 31 – Shirley
Chapter 32 – Messengers and Disappearances
Chapter 33 – Questions of Faith
Chapter 34 – Identikit
Chapter 35 - The Wild Mustangs
Chapter 36 – Emma’s Lesson
Chapter 37 – Convergence
Chapter 38 – The Message of Love
List of References Used in the Book
Dedication and Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Contact Us
Reviews
Faith is the rooster that crows in the darkness,
before the rising sun...
...And when Faith alone, is not enough,
it becomes like the fragile egg,
needing to be nourished from the inside out.
.........................................................................................
Almost 14 Billion years ago...
The Greatest Question of All Time...the Beginning...
BLACKNESS
It starts from nothingness
a blackness so black,
a void so still and quiet
that no light can yet enter.
From somewhere within this void, a highly ordered voice speaks his word that no one can hear yet.
"BANG"
Within the blackness, there is now light. A brilliant ball of packed gas and dust particles explodes, spreading intense searing light outward across the great expanse to form the building blocks of a new infant universe.
Space is alive. Millions of flickering and twinkling lights, each with its own unique degree of brightness, an overwhelming mass that continues to break away from the original explosion. As they burst into existence, the cycle of life and death begins. Objects collide, deflecting or joining to form one. This action continues to repeat until it achieves a random pattern throughout the solar system, and although its growth in size will continue, a sense of order settles over the universe.
Still so far away in the blackness of the universe, a lone object tumbles unheeded. An asteroid, its dense rocky body comprised of hardened iron and nickel, its girth spreading dozens of miles across. It weaves its erratic path, yet unseen to earth, tumbling rapidly without purpose or care. Unchallenged, its momentum will continue to increase until it fulfills its inevitable destiny, without benefit of choice or exemption.
God's Message
IN THE PRESENT...
TV talk show hosts begin their opening monologues as radio DJs spin their music tracks for thousands of nightshift workers and life continues around the world as it has for many nights, over many years, until tonight…
All forms of communications cease. There is no sound or picture and no amount of manipulation will make the equipment operational, though many will try without success to re-establish their connections.
From somewhere unknown, words begin to form on the black screens of TVs, computer monitors, and cell phones. His word carries over every form of communication method from sophisticated to primitive. Even the very wind carries the words to areas where modern conveniences do not exist.
There are approximately seven thousand recognized languages and dialects in the world today and many others, not officially recognized, but the Voice reaches all.
"HELLO MY CHILDREN...
THOUGHT YOU WERE ALONE...YOU NEVER WERE!"
The Voice, slow and measured, filled with gentle authority says,
"MUCH OF EARTH TIME, AS YOU KNOW IT, HAS PASSED."
The Voice continues,
"MANY WHO BELIEVED IN ME NEVER QUESTIONED...
BUT MANY OF YOU HAVE...
...MY SPIRIT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE.
“I AM WHO I AM."
The Voice now takes on a more sombre tone,
"MY MESSAGE TO YOU SINCE THE BEGINNING OF YOUR TIME HAS BEEN ONE OF LOVE,
... BUT THAT MESSAGE HAS BECOME DILUTED...MISINTERPRETED."
The silence is disturbing; a collective breath taken and held as humanity waits for the next words.
After what seems like a long pause, the Voice speaks again,
"TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LOVE IS, YOU MUST GIVE SOMETHING UP IN RETURN.
"I WILL DELIVER UNTO YOU...MESSENGERS...
"THEY WILL BE BRING MY MESSAGE OF LOVE, PEACE, AND EQUALITY FOR ALL HUMANKIND AND A NEW AWARENESS OF THE NEED TO HELP HEAL THE RAVISHES INFLICTED UPON OUR NUTURING PLANET.
"A NEW WORLD COVENANT...ONE FOR ALL HUMANKIND AND ALL NATIONS.
"THE QUESTION IS, IS THERE STILL TIME FOR HUMANKIND TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF 'WHAT IS LOVE'?"
The Voice fades away as the screens return to normal. Regular broadcasting resumes and life continues as it was before...
The earth rotates on its orbital dance around the sun, the journey ensuring that somewhere on our planet, dawn is always beginning...and this truth, like the sun, always rises from a seemingly never-ending source of light.
Over the horizon of the nature reserve, a fiery reddish-orange halo frames a blinding yellow disk while soft streaks of pink and softer yellows lighten the surrounding sky. Nearby a rooster crows, heralding the start of a bright new day.
Elsewhere, another day is just beginning, but this horizon is dark and forbidding as the rain descends...
Chapter 1
As he drove, he hummed along to the radio
quietly playing a selection of their favourite songs when a strange brief message suddenly interrupted the music, but as suddenly as it had begun it ended and the music continued. What was that all about, he thought? His hands held tightly to the steering wheel as the powerful car travelled along the bumpy road, the wipers just managing to keep up with the rain on the windshield.
The car pressed on through the darkness, the lights barely penetrating the road ahead through the driving rain.
It was a foul day to be travelling to a family reunion but he couldn't disappoint her parents again this year. For once work wasn't going to interfere with her happiness.
There were no lights on this stretch of road and virtually no traffic in this time just before the dawn when it was at its darkest. It should hopefully, lighten up in the next few minutes. The dark clouds and rain aren't helping any, he thought to himself.
He glanced over to the beautiful woman sleeping beside him. She grew lovelier every year and his love for her was immeasurable. Sometimes he would ask himself, what she was doing with him when she could have done so much better. What could he possibly offer her? His work hours were erratic and long and so many times, he'd had to disappoint her by not being at events that were important to her but in his heart he was content, knowing she loved him in spite of it, her endless patience, and tolerance continuing to strengthen their bond.
He saw the lights of another car just off to the right coming down a long driveway and he touched his brakes. Surely the driver will stop they must see us. He realized at the last second that the other car was not going to stop and he stood on the brakes, pressed his hand to the horn, and yanked the steering wheel to the left, hoping to avoid the accident, which he knew in his heart he could not.
He threw his right arm across the chest of his sleeping wife to try to hold them in place and braced himself in those few seconds before impact.
The grinding sound of the metal monsters as they came together was the sound of nightmares and would haunt him for a lifetime.
The collision sent the car into the ditch across the road where it came to a stop against the bank, trapping the driver’s door.
People have said that there is a strange eerie calm after an impact. It’s as if the world has stopped, time stands still for a moment, and nothingness slides down over your body and through your conscience, encompassing you all over. As you feel it and wonder if you still exist at all, the slow motion ends, it slips away and life begins again.
He felt his head as a warm liquid dripped down his face. He must have passed out for a moment. He turned his aching head to his wife. She was unconscious and hanging awkwardly in her seat belt. He called her name repeatedly, pleading for her to wake up.
"Please God, please don't let her die," he begged aloud as he worked himself out of his seatbelt and crawled over to her side of the car to try to open the passenger door. He heard other voices and with their help, they were able to pry open the damaged door.
"Help her," he cried helplessly and slipped back into the driver’s seat. He watched anxiously as two men undid her seatbelt and carefully lifted her out of the vehicle. She moaned and it gave him a small surge of hope but she made no more sounds and her lovely brown eyes did not open. They set her gently down on the grassy area alongside the road and a woman tucked a blanket around her. A stranger held her hand and continued to talk to her, offering reassurance, but there was no response from the unconscious woman.
As the man climbed out of the passenger door of the car, he looked over to his wife, lying on the ground and he raised his eyes to the heavens, the rain blinding him.
His voice full of anguish and fury he screamed into the pre-dawn darkness, "Why? Why? Why?"
The others watched silently and in the distance, they could hear the sirens.
Chapter 2
A pretty stream meandered through the countryside, its clear bubbling sounds soothing to the ear and its bounty providing much needed nourishment to the wild grasses, trees, and wildlife. On one side a gentle slope with flowers growing wild, their vivid colors shimmering in the early morning dew. On the other side of the stream stood an old growth forest, its canopy providing a dense cool shade. Looking down the stream you could see its winding path through a deep valley cut into the hillside.
One solid ancient oak tree made its home close to this stream, its extensive roots, deeply embedded within the nurturing earth, its heavy branches stretching magnificently up to the heavens, providing shelter and sustenance.
Some of its many inhabitants began to stir as dawn's first rays of light came filtering through its leaves.
Against the wide base of the mighty oak, a man was resting. His back pressed against the firm wood and his denim covered legs stretched out before him. He pushed back his cowboy hat and raised his head slightly. Somewhere in the distance, he heard a rooster crow and he breathed a sigh of contentment. This was such an idyllic setting, he wished it were possible to come here more often and sit beneath this nurturing tree of life. He often thought that this was what paradise should be, a place of such beauty and peacefulness, where one's thoughts were of good things, and where all negative thoughts became free, unchained.
Another crow from the rooster carried on the warm summer breeze. Even though sounds may carry over many miles, the rooster's crow was in actuality quite close to where he rested. With his familiarity of the lands in this area, he knew the sounds were coming from the Carter ranch just over the ridge. The Carter family had lived here for several generations and would probably be here for many more.
Back when the Carter family first moved into the area, the Homestead Act encouraged people to take up residence. The patriarch of the family, Josiah Carter chose to take up the challenging task of making a home here for his family.
Josiah Carter was a tough, hardworking man but he was also a very intelligent and crafty man and somehow he knew that it was important to secure as much of the land as possible for his family. Due to his efforts, the family was able to start their original homestead with over five thousand acres.
Josiah, being an equally smart businessman, knew how to utilize the land to make money. First, he thinned out the thick forest along the hillsides and sold the timber. Then he turned the nutrient rich soil into crops that he could sell, and rented out pastureland to his neighbours. He even planted an apple orchard and sold the fruit to the bigger towns.
He and his sons fenced off two hundred acres of the land and this is where they built the family's ranch house and outbuildings and maintained enough land to raise the cattle, horses, pigs, and chickens that their family needed to sustain themselves.
As their reputation grew for producing some of the best meat in the territory and raising the finest and fastest horses, they acquired numerous contracts from the government but this was during a time when there was great uncertainty. A time where many were indifferent towards the intolerance of others and many did not share the sentiment that "all men are created equal". But many others believed their patriotic duty was to help ensure the rights and freedoms of all people, regardless of color, for the entire country. These people believed that society was not the same as it had been when they first came to this country and that time should not be allowed to remain in the past any longer but must move forward and grow. What is in one's heart will dictate change. It is always better to change people's behaviours and beliefs if they choose to do so voluntarily rather than by enforcement of laws. Ideals can and will change with time, such is the finite nature of life. A new country will emerge where values and morality apply to all people, unchained under a flag of freedom where fairness, equality, and justice will remain forever unchallenged.
To satisfy their obligations, the Carter's increased their herds and land to accommodate the government contracts. They were able to provide a bounty of sweet grasses for the cattle to grow fat on and room for the horses to run free and grow strong and fast. As the Carter family name grew, their business opportunities grew as well wi
th many people seeking out what they produced, both locally and around the country, utilizing the railroad to bridge many of the distances.
Over time, as Josiah gained wealth, he continued to acquire additional pieces of land from his neighbours. As the older generation aged and newer generations lost interest in the old farming ways, Josiah added to his holdings until he had amassed fifteen thousand acres, give or take a bit; sometimes it was hard to distinguish where his land ended and the park reserves owned by the Government began. The government land butted up against his property in the south for many miles.
Eventually the war ended and so did the government contracts, the harsh reality of supply and demand having an immediate impact on their economic future. The Carter's reverted to a more scaled down version of life, more of one that resembled the stable and humble lifestyle they had started out with. They retained the original homestead and some of the remaining livestock, but the horses they could not sell right away they released to roam free, knowing there was plenty of food to sustain them in the wild.
After an amazing one hundred four years, Josiah slipped the bonds that held him to this earth, and the ranch and all the land passed down to his son Joe.
Well Old Joe, as most people called him, being smart like his father, knew that he might be the last of the line to want to work the land, decided he needed to protect it. Soon after the land passed into his hands, he met with the six remaining neighbouring ranchers whose lands bordered his. Some of these men and women were older, contemporaries of his father Josiah and others closer to Joe's age, but sadly, they all agreed the old ways were dying out. Most had seen their family members move to the big cities, choosing careers in an ever-growing modern world instead of the hard endless work of nurturing the land and living on its bounty. These men and women had buried many of their friends and watched as the families sold off their legacies, the very lands that had provided for them for so many years.
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