Rescued by John Bevere & Mark Andrew Olsen

After taking John Bevere's Messenger Module through the International School of Ministry, which combined John's books Breaking Intimidation, Driven by Eternity and Extraordinary, I decided to delve into more of Bevere's books and I came across this "novel", Bevere's first.  It's very similar in teaching to Driven by Eternity - it deals with the Judgement Seat of Christ and eternity - but as a novel.  It's plot is more expanded than the story of Affabel contained in Driven by Eternity, but in many ways it is similar.

In Rescued we follow the story of Alan Rockaway, his wife Jenny and his oldest son Jeff.  Rockaway is the pastor of one of the largest churches in Colorado.  Rockaway's son, Jeff agrees to do a video documentary of the pastor and a group of his congregants, who take a couple's cruise together as part of a teaching series on strengthening marriages/relationships.  Parts of the trip are beamed live to the congregation back in Colorado from time to time.  As part of one of their excursions, the group gets to experience a dive in a submarine and as the passengers begin to board the sub, Pastor Rockaway decides to send a live message back to his church, who are gathered for Sunday service.  Just as the submarine begins it's descent an unspeakable accident happens - an out-of-control boat hits the sub trapping all of it's passengers.  Those gathered for Sunday worship are horrified at seeing the accident.  Members of the Barbados coast guard, whom Jeff thinks have come to help in the rescue, actually cause more harm, by sinking the renegade boat in an effort to cover up the real reason for the accident.  Destroying the boat only causes further damage to the sunken sub and adds peril to the lives of the trapped passengers.  As oxygen levels begin to diminish, many of the passengers lose their lives...and learn of their eternal destination after facing Judgement.

Without giving away the end of the story, this book will make you take a look at your life and begin to become even more aware of eternity.  Stressed throughout the book is the fact that often times grace is preached our churches today in such a way that believers never realize that how you'll spend eternity is as important as where you'll spend eternity.

The message of Rescued is phenomenal!  While there were parts of the story (especially early on) that were a bit slow, once you get going, it's a hard book to put down!  I would highly recommend this novel to anyone and everyone.

At the time I purchased my copy of this book, Christian Book Distributors was selling the book for $2.99 in paperback.  At that price, it would make an excellent book on everyone's gift giving list this Christmas...what a better gift to give than to be sure that those you know and love gain more insight and understanding into eternity.  Who knows, this one book could be all it takes for them to fully accept Christ as their Lord and Savior...and secure their eternity!