Today’s special guest is non-fiction author J.A. Cox and we’re chatting about The Beauty of Tribulation.
J.A. is doing a tour with Pump Up Your Book. Feel free to visit his other tour stops.
Bio:
J. A. Cox is a husband, father, disabled veteran and award-winning author. He is passionate about Jesus Christ and has a desire to allow God to use his writing to bring glory to his name and reach others for him. His other passions lie in: 1) Empowering people by teaching about things that he is knowledgeable in a simple and fun as well as interesting manner. 2)Inspiring others that they may realize how the true potential to overcome their perceived dilemma lies right between their ears and how they allow it to manipulate what their eyes behold. 3) Helping people to realize that being healthy truly begins with realizing how important it is for them to be intimately acquainted with their own body in order for others to help them resolve its maladies that beset it. Along with those, he enjoys entertaining with fiction based on the concept that fact is stranger than fiction and then stretching it just a tad to create some memorable page turning moments that you will likely recall for some time to come.
Welcome, J.A. What inspired you to write this book?
God laid this book upon my heart to bring encouragement and answers to Christians who are suffering and don’t understand why and how it is a blessing for their benefit as well as others who witness their painful trials.
Excerpt from The Beauty of Tribulation:
Tribulation is the most abundant commodity that everyone is looking to sell but no one is willing to buy. It is an experience so common to mankind that it transcends social, cultural and language barriers. It requires no introduction or explanation.
We commonly associate the following with it:
- Suffering.
- Adversity.
- Trial.
- Pain.
- Temptation.
- Infirmity.
It is safe to assume that the general perception of tribulation is not positive, and we desire to avoid it as much as possible. This places a Christian in a precarious position.
This is the case when we consider what God’s word exhorts:
- To count it all joy, James 1:2,3.
- To greatly rejoice in it, 1 Peter 1:6.
- To not think of it as strange, 1 Peter 4:12.
- That we glory in it, Romans 5:3.
- Paul expressed exceeding joy in it, 2 Corinthians 7:4.
- We must experience much to enter God’s kingdom, Acts 14:22.
In regard to such maybe you have thought the following:
- Okay Paul, I know you were a great man of God and had endured much hardship but I’m having a difficult time finding joy in this.
- Is there something wrong with me if I have no joy in suffering?
- Why must we go through tribulation?
- Why does God allow us to suffer?
- Do we experience tribulation as a form of punishment?
- Does tribulation mean that God has forsaken me?
I realize that these are thoughts believers scatter from as roaches do from the light. This is done out of a fear that entertaining such could give authority to them as well as make it a reality. While there is truth in that line of thought, the realization of that reality is on a conditional basis. In other words, those thoughts would not manifest without effort being put into making them so or a lack of effort to bring them about. There is also an equivalent level of danger in believing that a Christian is above such lines of thinking. It is also devastating to deny their reality. Those types of thoughts are a natural and unavoidable occurrence generated from our unconverted body. Also, another truth needs to be realized, your tribulation is not being orchestrated by God.
What exciting project are you working on next?
The exciting project that I am working on next is wrapping up my sci-fi work in progress, Fulling A Vow: Looking for Answers. I am currently 90 percent complete but have been on hiatus for a bit due to some circumstances. I plan to get back to it by the end of this month though.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
This is a good question and I am not sure when I actually considered myself a writer. Writing has been a very large part of my life since elementary school. It has also been one of my most therapeutic outlets in my teen age years, more so through poetry. However, I have always enjoyed writing stories for fun and living out my wildest fantasies such as being in a wicked storm on the high seas, getting into dog fights as a squadron commander in a far far away galaxy and such.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
No, I do not write full time.
Aside from my writing I am a full time, committed father that helps govern my home with my wonderful Puerto Rican wife who is my queen as we homeschool and raise our very creative, intelligent and wonderful six children. That is a full-time job of course on top of doing my best to be a good husband.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I suppose my quirk would be to unwilling at times to allow my story to unfold as it desires when I have taken all the painstaking time to get a scene outlined only for things to say, “You know what that is all fined and dandy but I don’t care to do that and will take it from here, just sit back and watch.”
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I would have to say that for a period that I desired to go into Psychology.
Links:
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