Biblical Ghost Stories - Interview with LG Nixon

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm very

pleased to have LG Nixon with us LG

fuses a page turning fantasy with a

haunting theme and turns it into a

Spirit-filled adventure with quirky and

likable characters the whole family can

enjoy her stories are light-hearted but

carry an underlying message of the

importance of a Biblical worldview after

growing up in a creaky old house with a

grandmother who told stories of ghostly

visitors LG naturally gravitated toward

the mysterious today she enjoys writing

stories filled with mystery suspense and

other worldly wisdom she researches and

writes full-time from her home in

Michigan where she prows the night uh

stargazing and watching for Supernatural

events welcome LG thanks for joining us

well thank you for having me I

appreciate it absolutely okay so first

give our listeners kind of the elevator

pitch for the first book in your series

The Ghost of Darwin Stewart okay well um

I'm introducing the spirit realm there's

an unseen realm and

there's a couple of teenage girls that

get into a lot of trouble and they're

learning that there is an unseen realm

and it's a lot of fun a lot of Adventure

and very quirky character so awesome lot

of fun yeah so and I love how you start

out the book by like what appears to be

a retelling of essentially the Garden of

Eden uh but from like kind of your

perspective that sort of sets up the the

plot of where you're going and what the

spirit realm is is so we know we've kind

of contextualized ourselves in a

Biblical worldview right away right

correct yeah correct yeah um and so part

of what just so if listeners are

thinking this is ghost is this going to

be super creepy sort of a thing I would

say um I've I've read the book and I

really enjoyed it um and the book was

it's definitely not scary I mean it's

got the creepy feel to it sort of but it

reminds me more of like Scooby-Doo it's

very like light-hearted in that regard

so it's it's if you're thinking it's

going to be horror don't worry about

that um and also I thought it was so

clever how you made your God figure I am

like I am that was that was a great

touch and he kind of reminds me of ozan

was that what you intended oen from The

Chronicles of Narnia well Lucy the main

character is sort of my tribute to C

Lewis because I was thinking too C Lewis

because you know I always envied Lucy

especially when you got to the movies

Lucy could just run up to Alan and wrap

her arms around his neck and bury her

face in his man right and and so Lucy

was my tribute to CS Lewis right um I am

kind of reminds me of a grandfather

character for me yeah and how that

relationship was it was a very loving

caring relationship guiding as it needed

to be

and so naturally this uh

character came out of I am and and I

wanted to refer that name back to our

Biblical account right and so uh you

know Christian readers will immediately

identify with some of the you know some

of the elements but non-Christian

readers will just have a very fun clean

read and you know it talks about faith

family loyalty you know good uh good

characteristics uh it's just a fun read

nothing gory yeah definitely

not um and there's always the um the

underlying thread that there's

forgiveness there yeah love it so one of

the questions I'm sure will come up for

a lot of people listening is how can you

reconcile ghost stories with a Biblical

world worldview what would you say to

that oh I always ask ask them have you

read the

Bible uhuh for me the imagery in the

Bible is just amazing and when I was

first a young Christian and I'm trying

to read you know the Bible and

understand it it was um it was difficult

I didn't understand everything you know

and and that's true of all of us we

don't understand at the very beginning

and you know I think it's all in the new

Testament that says desire the sincere

milk of the world of the word so that

you grow thereby well for me um the

imagery drew me in and there is a lot of

weird stuff in the Bible and there are

angels and demons there are spirits

there are

ghosts um there are um creatures some of

the creatures that are identified in

Ezekiel are those are really

scary there's all kinds of imagery in

the Bible right and it just begs us to

to dig deeper and so you know parents uh

readers who are concerned about oh she's

selling Ghosts no I'm not yeah I'm

trying to teach that we are all Spirit

beings we live in a Corporal body but at

some point you know we will be a spirit

being and guess what God is a spirit and

those who worship Him must worship Him

in spirit and in truth so there's you

know there's that

underlying uh worldview right there in

in that um we need to recognize this and

and so the ghosts in the book are not

ghosts of my dead grandma or somebody's

Auntie that stayed you know decided just

to stay here um but they soon learn the

characters soon learn that these are

entities these are spirits they do not

belong here and there's a you know uh

there is a distinct difference between

the uh the angels and the

demons yeah um later on she will

discover that she has um some Guardian

Spirits so they interact with her and

you know so there's the definite

difference between the good and the evil

and introducing you know the the

storyline overarching story line is I'm

introducing basic biblical Concepts in

book one by book two The Ghost Writer

there are more and she's learning that

she needs to share information with her

friends

and building you know a a loving

relationship not only with her friends

and her family but um with those around

her and and so she's growing as an

individual and so are the other

characters in the book and in

incorporating this spiritual realm you

know

readers are

learning and the fun thing is I use

scripture as

dialogue some of the dialogue is based

in scripture it's been tweaked to fit

the um the setting and the storyline

sure but the back of the book are the

actual references to the scripture

that's used so um my author's note to

the reader encourages them to you know

don't just take my word for it but go

look at this for yourself right well and

I know that a lot of the perspective

from Christian worldview at least my

understanding is that If ghosts are not

completely fictitious fig figments of

people's imagination we generally assume

these are demons not actually the

spirits of departed people so is that

kind of where you go with this as well

in the in the books or do you have

actual characters that have pass that

have passed away that are now actual

ghosts in the book in the first book

there's one yes there's one reference

and and she's able to um to interact

briefly with uh our heroine Lucy and her

sidekick K Skyler and and so she has

some information she wants to impart but

she has a special way of doing it that's

allowed by the high King and she refers

to someone as the high King and then she

has the ability to contact but not in a

physical sense yeah yeah yeah so um and

just as a kind of background I was

trying to think as I Was preparing for

this conversation about where in what

where in scripture does it actually talk

about ghost and I can only think of

three references correct me if you can

think of any more so there's this story

of The Witch of Endor where Paul or Saul

goes to the witch of Endor and calls up

the spirit of Samuel and she's actually

shocked that he shows up which leads me

to believe that this she didn't really

think he was going to so this is not a

normal occurrence maybe but that's my

interpretation and then I can think of

two in the New Testament where Jesus is

walking on water and the disciples think

he's a ghost and then terrified yeah

yeah and they're terrified and then also

when he resurrect when he's resurrected

they think that he's a ghost and that's

why they have to touch him to say say

are you Spirit or are you flesh which

tells me that the the Jewish worldview

at that point Incorporated ghosts into

that perspective and anything else you

can think of or what how do you

contextualize that with a Christian

worldview those kinds of stories well

those kinds of stories I you are correct

the um the Jewish riters were more

familiar with the weirdness if you want

to call it that in the Bible and um and

they were aware that you know these

ghost weren't you know the The Departed

dead but that they were some type of

spirit entity right and um you know

going back a little bit if you go back

into job I love job a lot of people

don't say that about job because you

know it can be a little depressing you

know but um there is so much in job one

of the friends

um Eli as the penite I believe it is

he's talking about something that

happened to him and he's

describing um as he was laying in his

bed one night something passed around

him and he was aware that there was a

form there and and so as he goes through

and he describes it you're thinking oh

my gosh he's seeing a spirit yeah or as

they would call it a ghost right well if

you go back when the um King James Bible

was translated it was translated from

Greek and

Hebrew the Greek uses a word um Numa and

Numa can be translated as Ghost spirit

or breath oh interesting okay and so um

it was just very natural for them to

gravitate toward ghost that was what you

know

they were familiar with right and so

they understood that there were other

Spirit beings and so um and there are

places in the translations where you

know instead of ghost they use Spirit

right but um I think there's a couple

other references to to ghost um even

King David mentioned that um the phantom

in the night in one of the uh the Psalms

and I'm like oh wow so you know he was

familiar with them too right you know

and the uh the ghostly figure I've done

some uh uh Research into this and from

when I can gather the uh because it's

not consistent with scripture for this

ghostly figure that came up that looked

like

Samuel um the consensus is it was a

familiar spirit

which they are able to take on the the

appearance of

someone that's departed sure and so then

then that remains consistent with

scripture because you can't call back

the

dead and and so in that particular case

though he gave a prophecy that was

accurate afterwards do you think that

was just you know God allowing this if

this was a demon in that case well if

you go back and you look at what he

actually said it was what Samuel had

said to Saul prior to his death okay so

he didn't add the the spirit didn't add

anything to the story okay okay so that

makes the you know the idea that it was

a familiar Spirit right that you know it

was not actually Samuel but it was um a

familiar spirit that looked that could

take on the form of Samuel so a demon so

a a demon okay got it interesting there

will be theologians that will you know

uh call me out on that one because not

everyone you know shares that same view

but you know but it's interesting yeah

and it's interesting that the word can

mean so many different things because as

you were talking I was thinking about

how it says when Jesus died on the cross

he gave up The Ghost and essentially

that's you know that that spirit that

breath that you know but there's so many

different ways that can potentially be

translated and we've got a very specific

understanding in our culture of what a

ghost is but that may not necessarily

mean the same thing depending on the

perspective culturally exactly well you

know in all the the translations that

have come out in the last you know

several decades they have translated

ghost to Spirit because ghost to cultur

culturally you know what I mean I do got

it both not

engaged but you know our culture has

taken on this you know oh ghost hunting

you know and all of this and so ghost

has taken on this um rather

negative um connotation in referring to

a dead

person and you know the Bible tells us

that that isn't so once you know person

dies there's you know one of two

destinations that you can go to right

and and so

um you know it's you're dealing with

that and so the translations that have

come out have you know they've

eradicated or they've changed some of

the more difficult passages to um a

little more simpler um meaning so it's

easier to understand

sure yeah absolutely so um can you give

us like some ideas of some of the

specific scriptural principles that

you're teaching in this story like one

of the ones that I thought was really

great was the incorporation of the

Ephesians 6 Armor of God in Waring

against the spirits that Lucy receives

but give us a couple of the others that

you feel like are valuable for your

readers to gain okay well you're right

you know the Ephesians the the armor of

God right um and uh she's also learning

she will be learning

about um what we call prayer um and

she'll be learning about that so those

scriptures will come in where you know

Paul teaches us in the New Testament

that you know prayer is very you know

very necessary um I'm trying to think

um oh goodness I can't right off the top

of my head I can't think of the the

references yeah that's okay but you know

there's so many different things that

she'll be learning you know not only you

know scriptural U spiritual things but

she's also learning good character right

and again character comes from the word

of God you know in reading that and

keeping that in our heart and one of the

uh things that I I really do like is the

what we call the helmet of salvation um

she has to have that on

because it protects her mind and you

know the Bible tells us that you know we

are to bring every thought hative unto

Christ because really the battle is for

our mind if you confuse the thoughts you

can reach the heart and change the

heart and so she'll be you know learning

about that um I cannot remember that

reference for for

that but anyway um she will be you know

learning about that that she has to have

her armor on and eventually she'll be

learning to train her eyes to

recognize um truth and

untruth and there will be you know

spirits that will come into the you know

into the storyline that will try to trip

her up um one of the uh one of the

references will be

they will try to make her

halt halt is an acronym for she's um

hungry she's

angry uh she's

lonely and terrified

terrified okay and so you know the you

know the Unseen realm the spirits that

are trying to you know um in influence

her are you know using things against

her and her her friend her I am will be

explaining to her what all of these

things mean you know like the H and halt

means she's hungry well she can not only

be hungry for for food but for

Fellowship

companionship sure and You Know The

Enemy will try to you know uh uh

separate her from those go from her

family from her friends to make her

hungry which makes her angry which makes

her lonely you know so there's all kinds

of things that she'll be learning and

again the scripture references are are

in the back of each of the books yeah

and and uh trying to you know teach the

the readers or lead the readers to

investigate for themselves that you know

here are some ideas that you know the

author has put

forward check them out you know and and

look at the you know look at the um you

know the scripture and see what that

says to you yeah great so as you're

talking I'm thinking of the scripture

that says we should be wise as serpents

but innocent as doves and it seems like

to me there's a there's a danger on both

sides of being too interested in ghosts

and the Occult and the spirit world

because now you're opening yourself up

to danger but on the flip side you don't

want to be ignorant of it either you

want to recognize what's potentially

going on and it sounds like you're

trying to find a way to straddle that

that middle ground of saying yes there

is a spirit world the Bible tells us

about it here's how we can actually

understand what's going on as opposed to

saying we're going to completely avoid

that and if you say that to you know

anytime you tell anybody don't do this

that's going to cause them to be

interested in it so I think maybe if we

you know try to Shield people from that

realm all together it might create more

unhealthy interest but if we can say no

here's how it is and here's what God

says about it then more protected

because we're seeing truth would you

agree oh I agree because there's a fine

line that I have to straddle because I

like you say I don't want to create an

interest in oh ghost H you know and them

into the occult but story lines will

show the battle between um good and evil

and we're caught in the middle right

sure caught in the middle and so um

showing them you know good things that

happen with you know with Lucy and she's

learning about you know the spirit realm

but she has you know characters around

her that love her and support her and

they're teaching her and then you see

the the evil entities how they are

destructive and they're causing chaos or

you disruption

and and so there's that that balance

there where yeah you really don't want

to get into this over here because

that's a bad thing and you know if you

look at the Bible um the one thing that

she'll be learning is she needs to be in

the word yeah and um by book three U the

the ghost you can't see there'll be you

know more spirits that will be

interacting with the character

in Whispers they whisper and so how do

they whisper well they whisper in the

ear and so the only way to combat that

is she has to be in in the word and so

then that's teaching us we have to be in

the word we have to strengthen our

hearts and our minds you know with the

word even Jesus when he was um being

tempted you know by the devil used

scripture

against him right and and we are called

to resist the devil and he will flee

from you and so the only way we can do

that is by scripture right yeah you know

even the um I think it's in the Book of

Daniel that uh the uh messenger that was

bringing a a message to Daniel said that

he had been delayed and he was

struggling with this you know this evil

entity

and even the good angels are not allowed

to rebuke the the spirits they have to

use the word of God sure and so that's

where and and that's why I'm using the

word of God as scripture I'm using or

scripture as dialogue right because the

Bible also says that um my word will not

return to me void right and so um I

figure if I'm using scripture as

dialogue they're hearing the word it's

also in the back of the book as

references so they can check it out for

themselves and then once they start

reading

that then I think I I just leave it to

the you know holy spirit that you know

he can use that to start creating an

interest in the reader right to H M

maybe you know so um it's it's very

important that we uh you know show yes

there's an unseen realm there's the good

there's the bad and how do you combat

that you you wear your armor and a major

part of that armor is the word of God

right absolutely

so what have I not asked you that you

want to make sure you leave with our

audience

well I think for the parents you know

that are looking you know for reads for

their for their kids I want to reassure

them that these are not ghost stories as

you would normally think right this is

you know this is a fun clean adventurous

read that will introduce you know uh

biblical Concepts right and help

reinforce you know what the Christian

parent is trying to you know instill in

their their child or the you know other

parent the you know person who's not a

Christian doesn't hold that worldview

but still looking for a good clean read

for their for their teens sure they will

find a fun

adventure by the time you get to book

three it gets a a little bit spooky but

you know nothing gory or graphic or

anything like that but fun right and and

uh I had one um blogger write a review

and she said it was so spooky I had

goosebumps I'm like okay that's a good

thing you know yeah and uh but you know

the comments that I've heard are you

know they're very happy for that that

spiritual thread that runs through there

and you know the the other character

qualities they're happy for that and uh

and so I just want to reassure the

parents no this is not a ghost

hunting got it you know these are just

fun clean reads offering uh an

opportunity to

introduce some different

ideas and the reader can check that out

for themsel that's good and so where can

people go to learn more about you and to

maybe pick up your books well they can

go go to LG nixon.com

and everything they need to know there

is right there there's even some

freebies so they can pick up some

freebies and have fun and then they can

get the books on the website there's

also ebooks and audio or they can go to

uh Amazon or any bookstore can order

them in for you perfect awesome I'm

available great so I will link to your

website in the show notes and thank you

LG has really been fun well thank you Dr

Lauren I really appreciate being here so

thank you for the

invitation absolutely

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