Mountain of God

By Charna Ainsworth

The journey gets underway when Shelly becomes a young woman and leaves her family home. Thus begins this thought provoking tale of her discovery of Christ and the ensuing Christian walk through life. She climbs the peaks as the spirit guides her steps, knowing at times she is in the presence of friends and at other times, enemies. But eventually realizes she is perpetually in the middle of spiritual warfare, a tug-of-war for her immortal soul. Only when she reaches the end of life’s journey, and she is in heaven in the presence of Jesus, is all truth revealed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charna Ainsworth
• Release date: Feb 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310598500

Charna Ainsworth

Charna Ainsworth was born and raised in Mississippi. She inherited her father's talent for writing and began to write poetry and short stories at a young age. The Letter, is the first novel in a trilogy which she wrote over a period of six weeks. It was followed by two collections of poetry, two novellas and the second novel of the trilogy, Shades of Persuasion. Charna is an avid reader and on Sundays you can usually find her attending church. She resides in the country, in Mississippi with her family.

Book preview

Preface

Every person who gives their life to God faces darkness at some point in their Christian walk. There is certain to be times when we will not be able to see where we are going. And even moments where we feel completely alone, almost abandoned, even by our friends, family and God. This darkness can make any Christian wonder if anyone really cares about us and will they be there to help?

Everyone has experienced sleepless nights, troubled by problems that don’t seem to have solutions. And during one of those nights, the hours can begin to feel like days, as the minutes creep by slowly. Those are the times when your heart feels heavy and tears flow after many questions return to you unanswered.

When you are in the darkness it can feel like it will never end. But there, out in the distance, something is changing what we see. A glimmer of light is pushing through the darkness and with it, bringing a new day. And during these moments it is then we remember that we are never alone. Jesus is always with us, even in the darkness. And we are reassured that He deeply cares about us. He will always be with us, especially during our darkest hours.

In the following pages you will read about a young woman who also faced the darkness yet she found God’s light. She shares a similar path many Christians discover during their life’s journey. She makes friends, faces enemies and learns to be dependent on Christ, her savior. These pages will give a message of hope, faith and encouragement. And it gives a deeper understanding and wisdom of how God truly watches over and guides each of us.

The words will remind you, we all share many poignant human experiences. And through these experiences God reveals His light to us in many ways. Sometimes it is through a helping hand that we didn’t know would be there or just from the warmth of a smile or kind gesture. Occasionally it will come when we receive strength to overcome adversity and it was more strength than we realized. At other times it’s just the strange knowing, knowing you should be extremely afraid but yet you don’t have any fear. Through all of these instances, a certainty grows within each Christian. God is close beside us; He is with us every step of the way.

Each person who gives his life to God is certain to face darkness at some point in time during their life. But as this book reveals, we are never alone, even when we think we have been abandoned. The Holy Spirit will always be with us and comfort us. That is a promise we can count on. And no matter how dark our path becomes, we must watch and expect to see the light out on the distant horizon.

You must open your mind to perceive this light for it is not ordinary. It cannot be seen with your eyes. It is not like the sun, moon or the stars. It is not like a lamp or fire that we use to banish darkness at night. The light of God’s love defies description and can only be seen through faith. It is our belief that opens the eyes in our minds and hearts to experience the bountiful love of God’s light. It finds us no matter where we are and it illuminates the deepest darkness. And it makes clear the most difficult path.

Look up, keep looking, and certainly you will be able to see the light.

MOUNTAIN OF GOD

There is a path that I’m on,

I don’t know the way

but a still small voice is guiding my footsteps.

Should I go to the left?

Should I go to the right?

Whichever way leads up

is the way to the light.

There is one who is blocking

the way and the truth.

He’s the one knocking me down,

making me dazed and confused.

So it’s two steps forward then one step back,

making the long journey needful of skill and tact.

Sometimes I’m deaf.

Sometimes I’m blind.

But at all times, I need this special friend of mine.

And when I finally reach the end of this road

it is then I will remember

that all paths on this mountain lead to home.

Charna Ainsworth

Mountain of God

The Journey

By Charna Ainsworth

Chapter One

The first thing Shelly could remember was Steadman hitting her on the head with a baseball bat. Shelly fell to the ground, crying out in anguish as Steadman knelt down, wiping the blood away from her left eye. She tried to hold on but her world became darker and darker until everything went black. When she opened her eyes again, the pain nearly took her breath away. Now, her brother was a mean little boy but he swore up and down he didn’t mean to hurt her. But from that moment forward everything seemed just a little dimmer in Shelly’s world.

When they got home from the park, Shelly’s swollen face explained something terrible had happened. Her mom was screaming as though someone had hit her and her dad barely reacted any better. Steadman lied about what had happened and Shelly was in shock not only from being hit but from her brother’s lies. The biggest mystery was how their parent’s anger was directed at both of them. The more she tried to tell the truth, the less her parents believed her. They could never imagine their precious baby boy picking up a baseball bat and hitting his sister over the head for no particular reason. Shelly had to have done something wrong or there was no way this would have happened.

From that day forward, Shelly’s life changed dramatically. And some of her most cherished childhood memories before that incident had been washed away. She had always been a sweet little girl with a heart of gold but now she chose a life of solitude. The change in her came so suddenly that some folks began to speculate that maybe she’d had brain damage. Instead of surrounding Shelly with love and understanding, everyone turned away from her leaving her to feel even more alone. And the once cherished daughter became an outcast as her wound became an ugly scar.

Now when she was a young woman, Shelly left the safety of her family and friends to begin a new life. She’d made a promise to herself, to follow her dreams, and that promise meant everything to her. No one was going to stop her from fulfilling her dreams and she meant no one! Shelly didn’t know where her new life would take her but she was going anyway. I speculate that she was just in search of the truth.

There was plenty to be afraid of but her only fear was of the darkness. Other than that, she didn’t worry about anything. When she was hungry, she ate, when she was sleepy, she slept and when she had to go, she went. But deep, deep down inside she felt so alone.

One day as she was walking, the heat was rising off the road like you would see a mirage in the desert. With each step her legs seemed to get heavier. As she topped the hill, there was a wide path on the side of the road lined with big trees. She turned, looked at it then stepped forward and began to walk. Something in her heart felt like this could be a bad decision but she kept on walking, ignoring her feelings. Besides, she didn’t know which way to go and this way looked much easier than the road she’d been traveling on. But it wasn’t long before she realized this path was the wrong one, leading to nowhere.

Shelly sat down on a big flat rock and leaned back looking up as far as she could see. She contemplated about which direction to take. She could either walk back to the road which meant, in her opinion, wasting time or make a new path for herself. Sweat rolled down her face as she looked around still trying to decide what to do. The darkness almost made her feel blind but when she looked straight up, Shelly could see a dim light. It looked so tiny and so very far away. She wondered how she could ever make it that far. As she sat there pondering, she realized there was nowhere else to go. She would just have to believe and start climbing.

Time passed like sand through an hour glass. Shelly rarely stopped for more than a few hours. Some days she might only make it a few hundred yards and some days a few miles. There were friends made along the way but nobody joined her. Most everyone she met said she was crazy for wanting to travel to the light. Sometimes she could hear their remarks as she walked away. And sometimes she would hear laughter. Occasionally there would be one or two of them that said, ‘you’ll be back someday’. But she knew, without a doubt, she’d never see them again. And even though most of the time she didn’t want to, she left them behind to face the journey alone.

It wasn’t long before Shelly met a man named Henry. It was the first time in her life that she felt accepted and needed. He told her stories about his home and she told him about her adventures on the path. Henry wanted to get married but she told him no. She didn’t want to stop traveling toward her destination. He persuaded her by insisting that he wanted to travel too. The fact that he wanted to go with her and a promise that he would never leave changed her mind. She didn’t want to be alone anymore and she thought it might be easier if she had a partner. Besides, he was a strong and loving man and she needed his help.

Without her family to help with the wedding plans she turned to Henry’s mother Henrietta. She was a master at planning and organizing parties and events. The two of them went right to work on invitations, menus and choosing the venue. Most of the time they agreed but whenever they didn’t Henrietta’s choice usually won out. Henry was much too busy to be concerned with any of the wedding plans. All of that was left up to Shelly and her future mother-in-law.

On the big day, everything was in order and Henrietta could not have been happier. Since Shelly’s dad was not here, it was Henry’s father, Thomas, who walked her down the aisle.