Have you ever wondered what is in a book that is for you?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 13, 2023

Have you ever wondered what is in a book that is for you? What will it provide you with that you are hoping for? I know I do that all the time. Sure I read the back of the book and reviews by others, but I am always looking for that "thing" that I want to read.

Do you want a different outlook on your own life? Struggle with wondering why something happened to you? Wonder why you are suffering and help is impossible to find? Do you wonder why God allowed it to happen, or worse, did God do it to you?

Let's start with the last question. If you are dealing with #PTSD, then that is the usual question all of us ask afterward. Once the gratefulness wears off, we start to search for why it happened to us. I know I was grateful I survived every time. I felt God was watching over me. I was also grateful for the people that came to help me after it was over. That's a lot considering I survived over 10 times!

Then came the struggle to get past the fact it happened to me at all. Why me? I'd read books on how other people survived and thought God had greater plans for them, so He saved their lives. I wanted to believe that. I also read books on how some thought it was all part of a test like Job went through.

People get that lesson wrong all the time. Sure, God allowed Satan to attempt to destroy Job by taking away everything he had. All the things that He had thanked God for, became a struggle wondering why God was doing it to him.

We're not Job. I know my faith isn't as strong as he was and I am certainly not special. The part all of us miss is that God gave Job what he had and it was Satan taking it away. It is the same thing with us.

God has plans for all of us when He sends our souls here. Our souls come into us when we take our first breath. In it is all that makes us what we are, or what we were intended to become. When we know what that is, we know what we're supposed to do on this earth. When we don't, we struggle. When we don't understand the nature of our souls, we take on more trouble than we need to carry.

This passage explains something we need to know the true meaning of. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 That gets interrupted wrong a lot of the time and adds to our wounds. The plans from God are good but what does not enter into our thoughts is the simple fact that Satan wants to mess up with God's plans all the time. He gets in the way as much as possible and uses others to do it. They do the evil stuff to us. On the flip side, those who have not surrendered what is good within them, are the ones showing up to help us.

When they come to help us, they come to help us do whatever it is we're supposed to do here. When we show up to help someone, we use everything we learned to help others. Why? Because we know what it is like to fight off evil but above that, we know what it is like to win!

Throughout the series, all the characters are survivors and struggled with their faith. They are spiritual people, not religious ones. Sure they are Christians but follow the Jesus type of Christianity and pray as they live, by the spirit. They do not attend church services but pray outside. They do not simply quote scriptures as if they have no meaning at all, but live by them. Most of what is in these books are things you'll never hear in church because no one wants to hold power or control anyone. They leave that in God's hands. They seek to do good and join forces to achieve what no one expected could happen.

"What if" something else happened at the same time?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 1, 2023

Have you learned something happened and wondered "What if" something else happened at the same time? If you read the Ministers Of The Mystery Series, you might have begun to wonder more "what ifs" about a lot of other things.

13th Minister Of Salem Reviews

The question for me began when I was growing up near Salem. I can't tell you how many days I was there considering I lived in a city right next to it. I remembered going to the tourist area where the city blended the terrible history of the witchcraft trials with entertainment. Everywhere you look something terrible was turned into something profitable.

I would get sick to my stomach seeing families lining up to put their heads and hands in the stalks, smiling and laughing while someone took their picture. I always wondered if they thought about what the people of Salem endured that was behind what the tourists were enjoying? Did they ever think about them?

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy is a fabulous article to read.

Salem’s witch trials were the largest and deadliest in North American history. Over the course of a year and a half, nineteen people were hanged and one man was brutally tortured to death. Though popularly referred to as “the Salem witch trials,” accusations had spread throughout Essex County and beyond. In total, between 150 and 200 people were imprisoned, ranging in age from four to eighty-one years old. At least five died in jail, including the infant daughter of convicted Sarah Good.

None of the accused were “witches,” defined in the seventeenth century as one who had sold their soul to the devil. Instead, it was a crime often lodged against social outsiders within a community.

Had any of them been what they were accused of, there is no way in hell they would have allowed themselves to be captured and tortured, but that never dawned on the pious crowd screaming for their death. The amazing thing is, the only way to prove the accused were witches was if they survived attempts to kill them. Yet again, it never dawned on the mob that those they put to death must have in fact been innocent since they died. What if they noticed that fact?

What if the church folk claiming to follow Christ, making them Christians actually followed what He taught instead of what they wanted to do? What if they followed the scriptures instead of preachers spewing hatred and contempt? After all, they all had Bibles in their hands and could have read the holy words by themselves so they'd know what was in the pages they would never hear uttered in church.

Today it is almost as if those dark days have returned to haunt all of us. Some people claim their religious freedom is being attacked because they do not want others to have the same freedom to disagree with what they believe. Imagine that! If they want to be free to choose for themselves that would require all people to have that same right, but again, those seeking to control others, never see that simple fact.

If you have PTSD have you ever wondered "What if," something happened at the same time the life-changing event happened to you? What if someone was trying to prevent it? What if that voice in your head heard words from the supernatural world trying to warn you? What if after you survived there were more voices competing for your attention from that world only this time, the voices came from God and Satan at the same time?

The 13th Minister Of Salem is not about those standing in judgment during the witch trials. It is about a secret society trying to prevent evil from taking over again. It is about defeating evil by doing good and opening the eyes, hearts, and minds of people being tortured by the actions of others. It is about the horror of the events that cause #PTSD within us and the empowerment friends offer us by helping us.

All of the characters are survivors from different causes but the thing is, as they struggle to help the protagonist heal, more traumatic events find them just as their battles are coming to a head. Will they find victory over evil or will they fail to see the prophecy come true?

K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite ***** Penned by Kathie Costos, 13th Minister Of Salem is a work in the supernatural horror, suspense, and gothic drama subgenres, forming the third installment in the Ministers Of The Mystery series. It is best suited to mature adult readers owing to its dark content and adult situations. In this profoundly intriguing continuation of the series, we find ourselves back with Chris as word of his achievements and talents has spread, but this only leads to more trouble for our hero. Trying to get married would be hard enough without the constant death threats from the cult of the now-defeated Haman Cain, let alone the Master’s warning that his end-time is drawing near.

Kathie Costos brings us back into the world of gothic suspense, deep drama, and a chilling thriller with a bang in this third installment in the series. I found myself deeply involved in Chris’s psychological storyline. We see the painfully realistic damage that his adventures, battles, and triumphs have left him with over the events of the first two novels. I felt his pain, isolation, and pressure deep in my soul; such is the efficacy of Costos’s intimate narrative, thought, and speech portrayal. The darkest elements of the work are also well-handled to avoid being gratuitous but remain chilling to the core. I recommend 13th Minister Of Salem to fans of the existing series as another accomplished paranormal chiller to devour.