The Bible is a Love Story
A lot of us were taught to think of the Bible as a guidebook to help us get into heaven when we die, but that’s just a few verses. The whole Bible is the story of God wooing humankind to be his bride in a world where we humans have lost the plot. It’s an epic of love, betrayal, murder, war, sacrifice, and redemption that we can find ourselves in, and get engaged in to add depth, direction, purpose, and meaning to our lives . . . and change the course of human history.
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The Butterflies in God’s Stomach is that story.
Note: This book is NOT YET PUBLISHED–download the sample chapters in pdf and audio to join the journey as we get it there!
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Poetry
The Bible is deeply—and fundamentally—poetic.
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If you don’t get that, you’re not getting the whole Bible. From cover to cover Scripture is filled with poetic symbols, themes and motifs that resonate throughout books composed a thousand miles apart in space, and a thousand years apart in time.
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The Butterflies in God’s Stomach is a distillation of that poetry.
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Download your free sample chapters in pdf, or in audio and I’ll read them to you, or both. (Do both!)
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Science
Are God and science at odds?
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Did the Creator of the Universe get nervous when European men in wigs and tights started looking through telescopes?
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This perceived tension between science and Spirit has gotten really silly over the past 500 years, and it’s time to move on.
The Butterflies in God’s Stomach is a creative retelling of the Bible’s story of the origins, history, and destiny of human civilization that isn’t afraid to let science shed light on our story.
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For more download the free introduction and sample chapters in print and audio.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Story
There’s an ancient idea that’s gaining steam again that Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, tells one big story—but how could that be?
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The Bible was written by more than 40 authors, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents, over a span of 1,500 years. None of them even knew their works would be compiled centuries later and called the Bible. It seems impossible that they could all end up telling one story, but they do, and it lines up beat-by-beat with a 15 beat, 3 act plot structure created in a modern plot laboratory called Hollywood.
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The Butterflies in God’s Stomach is that story.
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For more, download your free sample chapters in pdf and audio now.
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*Note: I got a number wrong in that video. When I said $40 billion I meant $10 billion. Hollywood generates $10B annually, $40B is the whole world.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
Join the Journey
Will Butterflies find a home in Christian publishing?
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I hope so, but it may not, for reasons I find fascinating, but sad.
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I’ve been working on this book for seven years, but I’m just now embarking on the adventure of getting it out into the world, and I hope you’ll join me.
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Here’s where we are:
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In the fall of 2016 I pitched a previous draft of it to an agent I know and admire. In this video I share some of his feedback about its beauty, imagination, and creativity . . . and his rejection because “the very things that make this book special would put it out of reach of the average reader…make it too hard to ‘get.’”
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Ugh! It was heartbreaking. Had he pointed me to anything at all that wasn’t good, I could have improved it—but he was saying that the very things that make it good would make it worse.
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To be clear, we’re not talking about a very difficult book—download the sample chapters and you’ll see—this is about what the industry assumes about Christian literacy.
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I got pretty depressed about it to be honest…then I got back to work.
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Over the 40 weeks that followed I re-wrote the book, now in its 7th draft in 7 years. I revised each of its chapters 12 times, infusing them with even more beauty, imagination, and creativity as I simplified and clarified until a child audience got it, average readers got it, and until my heart swelled with gratitude for that rejection because now you’ll get so much more out of it.
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So here we are.
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I don’t know if this book will find a home in Christian publishing or not.
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It’s still hard to classify, imaginative, creative, and it strives for beauty in a Christian publishing world that I’m told doesn’t prize those qualities, a world where devotionals, memoirs, and large church platforms rule the day.
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Anyway, this is 2017, and there are a lot of ways to get things done. The Shack was rejected by the Christian publishing world, self-published, then went on to sell 20 million copies.
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Whatever happens, I would love to count on your company.
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Join me on this journey by downloading the free sample chapters here, and let’s stay in touch.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Paul Thomas. My parents named me after the apostle and the doubter—nailed it, 1970 mom and dad.
My full ancestral name is Paul Thomas DaÅ™ílek. That last name is a Czech one pronounced something like Där-zjÄ“-lek, so I keep it at home with the family where it’s cozy and we never say, “Like the Dalek’s from Dr. Who?”
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In this video I share a little story about putting on a backpack, heading south, and working as a bean farmer in El Salvador until tragedy struck. It’s about making friends, finding ourselves in a love story, drilling water wells, and a decades-long obsession with Scripture’s love story that culminated in this book.
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If you know me, you might associate me with my work as a water well driller, a non-profit founder, development professional, or as Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Living Water International (check ’em out—I had a great time with my friends there before I realized I’d go bonkers if I didn’t quit to go all in on this book).
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Today I pay the bills as a freelance writer from my home in San Antonio where my brilliant wife is earning a PhD in snuggle science, and with our two beautiful kids. (Snuggle science is my term—her colleagues use bigger words.)
I hope to get to know you better in the future, but what you need to know right now is that I’ve written a book I’d really love to share with you. Check it out by downloading the free sample chapters here, and if you feel so inspired, shoot me an email at PaulThomas@ButterfliesBook.com and let me know what you think.
Download Free Sample Chapters in PDF and Audio
Submit your email address and we’ll send you a download link.