The Land of Nis

By Charles C. Woods

The Land of Nis brings a thought-provoking perspective to readers about their encounters while searching for truth.

Searcher, the lead character, will inspire you to take on his identity to live out your story in his.

While reading the Land of Nis, you will encounter people who seem so good and nice, only to discover they have been deceiving others the whole time. Each of these people can be identified in real life that you will encounter. Then other people in the story are victims who seek to be free from the deceivers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781489734990

Charles C. Woods

Charles C Woods, Autor of Hide or Seek and Land of Nis, is known to his family and childhood friends as Bubby. He was raised in Tuckerman, Arkansas. He attended Williams Baptist University, Southwest Baptist University, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned his A.A., B.A., and M. Div. degrees. He also earned his Master Practitioner degree in Neuro-Linguistic Programming from Lead-Plus, located in Woodstock, Georgia. He has served as Pastor, Church Planter, Director of Missions, and Biblical Counselor for over 40 years. He and Christine, his wife, now live in Olivehurst, California. They have two children and six grandchildren.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Charles C. Woods.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

844-686-9607

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3488-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3487-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3499-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906416

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 03/31/2021

CONTENTS

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter IKeep Your Eyes on Your Stuff

Chapter IIFor Truth Sake

Chapter IIITaking When It Is Not Yours

Chapter IVPurity

Chapter VTo Bring A Person to Their End

Chapter VIHonoring Those Who Gave Us A Past

Chapter VIIKeeping the special day to honor the Master in all ways.

Chapter VIIIKeep Master’s Name in Great Honor

Chapter IXMaster is to be the only great one. Nothing is to be made to take His place. Love Him and Keep his Writings.

Chapter XLove Master with all of who you are. He will set you free from the Land of Nis.

Chapter XITo See the Writings in a new way and in the right place.

Chapter XIILeaving A Legacy To Help Others

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Let me introduce myself. I am Charles C. Woods, known to my family and childhood friends as Bubby. I was raised in Tuckerman, Arkansas. I lived there from birth in 1954 until 1977 when I moved away to finish college in Missouri. I graduated from Tuckerman High School in 1973. Six months later, I attended Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. I received my Associate of Arts there. Christine and I were married in 1974. After graduating from Williams, we moved to Bolivar, Missouri, to attend Southwest Baptist University. I received my Bachelor of Arts in 1979. When I graduated from Southwest Baptist, Christine and I went to do missions work in North Dakota for two years. We moved from North Dakota to Oklahoma to pastor Graham Baptist Church for four years. Our next move was to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1989 I graduated with my Master of Divinity degree.

We lived in Missouri for the next twenty years, pastoring at Trimble Baptist Church and Lawson Baptist Church. Then we went back into mission work as the Director of Missions of Twin Rivers Baptist Association. While ministering there, I earned my Master Practitioner degree in Neuro-Linguistic Programming from Lead-Plus, located in Woodstock, Georgia. We moved to California in 2006 to pastor at Linden Baptist Church and then moved to Marysville to pastor Feather River Baptist Church. While pastoring here, I also became the Director of Mission for the Sierra Butte Baptist Association.

We have two children and six grandchildren. With our children’s loving mates, it makes an even dozen. We love them and will always share how much we love them with everyone.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to share with you a few people who have been a great help while writing this book. The first and foremost person is my wife, Christine. We have been together since 1972. We became soulmates and believers in Jesus in the first three years we were together while dating. She has supported me all these years. She was my first real date and I hers. She moved next door to me in 1972, and soon we became each other’s lives. Jesus made the bond between us even more reliable. Whenever I did a paper for school, she was there to make it look better. That has not changed even until today. I am not ashamed to also tell you that we committed to a pure life when we first met and agreed to save that part of us until we were married. We kept our agreement with each other, and there was never anybody else in our lives. Christine and I raised two beautiful children. They, their mates, and kids mean the world to us. We have had disagreements, as all do. We were always ready to work out anything that came up.

She has done so many things in this life to impress me and make me so happy to be her husband. We know each other very well, but we know we have not seen all there is to see in each other. As she proofreads this book, the thought was evident that there was more to learn. There have been times I was ridiculously hard to understand. As we approach our forty-seventh anniversary in July, I hope the next forty-seven years are even more significant. I will (at some time) write many pages about this wonderful woman who chose me, so many years ago, to spend her life with.

Thank you, Christine, for being there all these years and the ones to come. You make me healthy and ready to face new challenges all the time.

The next person I want to thank is Becky Grimes. Christine and I met her around the year 2001. Becky was working hard in camps for girls, boys, and teenagers. She became a trusted friend who has proven that you can find people like her in this life. Becky would do anything we ask, so I am careful what I ask. When looking for someone to help proof this book, she is the first one Christine and I thought of. She agreed to do so, and here it is for you to read. Her help through the years, with the help of Wade, her husband, is so appreciated. Her love for teaching and learning makes her a strong lady. Her real strength, though, comes from her relationship with Jesus. She and Wade’s witness has been invaluable through the years for so many people, especially young people. Thanks again for taking on the task of helping me get this book done.

The next person to help me by proofing my work is Mildred Berryhill, known to us as Millie. We met Millie when she began to come to church at Feather River, and she has been a great help. She is a lady that has done many incredible things in her life. Millie’s life story could fill a book. She loves to read and quilt. She is a friend to Christine and me. We have taken short trips with her, and each trip is filled with her telling us of the beautiful things she has accomplished during her life. Thank you, Millie, for all your help. With people like these I am writing about, I find peace and comfort.

The next person to thank is Laurie McShea, my office assistant for over twelve years. She has always been there to cheer me on in doing my writing. She has read them and encouraged me to keep it up. Everyone needs people to encourage them. She would ask me (in my dry days) how the book was coming and said that I should get back to writing it. She was always asking me about another book I am writing while doing this one as well. Christine and I wish her and her husband, Shaun, all the blessings possible they can get.

INTRODUCTION

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:1-5(KJV)

The Land of Nis is the story of a person named Searcher, who had never had any connection with God. God’s name is Master in the story. Searcher had no concept that the Master even existed. Then one day, someone handed him some writings to read. The person who gave them to him is Master’s Son, named Apprentice for our story. The reasons for formatting the story this way is explained briefly in the story.

Imagine that you are filled with all the questions of the world. A world that you are only aware of being, not knowing any others. A world where the people in that world are people you work with, talk to, see every day, and have conflicts or relations with them. One day, someone gives you some Writings and tells you that you will find all the answers to all the questions you have in them. To find the answers, you must read what has been given to you and then follow everything in those writings. The catch is that with each Writing, you must fulfill it before moving on to the next. Then you find that you cannot fulfill that one without reading the next and fulfilling it.

How long would it take you to read all the writings? With each Writing comes a truth that you must recognize in yourself. The truth about who you are inside. Once you learn of the person you are, you may have to change that person before finding the real you. I have heard it said, Do not ask the question if you do not want the answer. If you do not ask the question, you always seem to have this thing hanging or lurking over you. One day you ask the question, and you get an answer you do not like. What will you do with the answer you get?

Walk along with Searcher. Let your feelings run throughout yourself. Do you even dare to let this happen? Remember this is Searcher you are with; he is a fictitious person, or is he? You will find a secret in every person’s name that tries to lead Searcher in the wrong ways.

Let yourself experience the life that the writings bring to you.

PROLOGUE

I think we shall take this journey together, said Master to Apprentice.

Apprentice asked what journey Master was talking about.

The journey of telling the whole story of how Searcher found his way to the edge of Nis and escaped his death just before it happened.

Apprentice asked, Before what happened?

Master could not believe Apprentice had so soon forgotten what he meant.

Apprentice, you should remember that we are in a safe place, but not everyone is. They will not escape the Land of Nis. They will not believe they need to.

The talks between Master and Apprentice are worded in the way they are to help us ask the questions we need to ask for ourselves.

Apprentice had forgotten because he was in a safe place, but then he looked out over the Land of Nis. It was so full of things that amazed everyone who lived there. Everything was so green and seemed to be so full of life. He had spent so much time in the Land of Nis when he delivered the book of Writings. He had grown to love those who lived there and did not want anything to happen to them. Apprentice knew that the Land of Nis would come to an end at the time appointed. Apprentice watched from the safe place as those in the Land of Nis wandered about as people who could not see. If only they would light the candle that sits on their mantles and tables, they could see better. Why did they not want to see better? Everyone had a way to do it, but they would walk about and often fall because they were too lazy to pick up the candle and light it.

Searcher did not fall as much; he lit his candle and discovered it was easier to see with the little light it gave him. That is why he begins to look because he could see now there is a better way to walk, so one does not fall as often.

Searcher had looked his whole life for happiness in the Land of Nis. What he had gained in his life many wanted and envied him. His house was simple yet so pretty because of the work he had done on it. His family was one that many wanted for themselves. Searcher had reached a place in his life that there must be more because he was still lonely. Something was still missing. While the Land of Nis had seemingly given him everything anyone could ever wish for, he still knew something was missing.

What was it that seemed to be missing, he would ask himself every day. Just one thing, what was it? What was missing had become the loneliness that would drive him to the areas of his life that only a few would ever dare to look for. Those who dared to do so seemed to disappear and never be seen again in the Land of Nis. Rumors would go out that those few lost their minds and wandered off, or something had come down from above, or something out of the forest had taken them away.

Searcher was ready to look harder and longer than ever. What was this thing that seemed to drive him, even to desperation at times?

CHAPTER I

KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR STUFF

40215.png

With this desire to discover what was missing, Searcher studied hard to find the place to start. He had heard an older, wiser person say, To find a secret about yourself, you sometimes have to walk backward. What did this saying mean? As Searcher thought about it, he realized it meant sometimes; we must look backward in our life to where we had already been. He would have to begin looking where he had already been, his past. That is it, he thought, but it was getting late at night, so he made some notes and decided to think about it in the morning when he had rested with a good night of sleep.

He awoke the next morning early and full of energy as he began to search his past. He had slept well, and many dreams had filled his head, but nothing would stop his journey now to discover what was missing and why he could not find it before. He found a place that he knew no one would disturb him. Now, where shall I begin, he thought. Shall I start with a childhood memory or something different that would take me beyond my childhood, to a place where everyone starts?

A few years before, Searcher had met someone who talked with him for a few days and then disappeared. In the few days he talked to this person, he felt a pull to listen to everything the person was telling him. This person told him that he would not remember much about what they talked about. The person Searcher did not know was Apprentice. He gave Searcher some Writings to keep. He told Searcher that these Writings would become a guide for him to follow. Searcher did not pay much attention to what Apprentice was saying at the time. Searcher did know that something was different about him. He did not seem to be from the Land of Nis. The Writings were heavy to carry. Once home, Searcher put them in a safe place for a later time to read sometime in his future, but not right now.

The Land of Nis just did not seem to be all it once was. Now, why was it so different than when he was a child? He picked up the Writings that he had heard that could make a person wiser. Before, they seemed to mean nothing, but now it was different. Was it because he was ready to hear what the Writings had to say? That is the answer; to find something one must be looking for it. Now the Writings were making sense. He had finally begun to look; now, he would be able to understand.

The Writings began by telling the reader to look at the way everyone started their lives. Searcher looked back at his life and then those who grew up with him. What was it that first impressed him in life?

It was the great things everyone else had, he thought to himself. I remember wanting everything everyone else had. The great farms, large herds, and places to call his own. There were times he wanted others’ families and servants.

"How childish this seems now, but I must look deeper and see why I thought that way, and now I do not.

Now, this raised a question for Apprentice.

What does this mean, Master?

Master told Apprentice to pay close attention to the thought Searcher has come to. Master told Apprentice that Searcher is on the right path and must learn that it is just the beginning of other great wonders he will have. Searcher is discovering something to help him see the Land of Nis as it is. If Searcher leaves what he has found behind, it will help others to come out of the Land of Nis also.

Now, Apprentice, Master said, let us watch and listen as Searcher begins the process of his discoveries.

Searcher studied why he thought the