In My Life His Glory, Australian author Merle Croskell combines narrative, poetry, and Scripture to share her true story of spiritual oppression and to give God glory for delivering her from evil.
Croskell was introduced to Christianity in childhood, but as a young adult, she turned to the occult. Over time, she experienced frightening scenarios, including demonic forces entering her house, seeing ghosts, hearing forces urging her to kill herself, mist hanging in her sons’ room at night. The latter phenomenon and behavioral problems with the older son prompted the family to seek help from an occult Spiritualist church. Following advice, she and her husband performed a nighttime ceremony to cleanse their home and child.
After this experience, Croskell began studying the Bible, and the family joined an Anglican church where they were taught the dangers of their involvement in the occult.
In outline, the story sounds fascinating, but the narrative is hampered by several problems. The book’s timeline is confusing, with current, past, and future events mentioned in close succession. And while the book’s theme is the occult and subsequent enlightenment through Christianity, Croskell sometimes slips into loosely connected side stories. At one point, for example, a passage about the family purchasing a home with God’s guidance slides into anecdotes about Crokell’s husband’s car accident and the couple’s stint driving taxis.
Possessive nouns frequently appear without apostrophes, and sentences can be awkward. (“He used to visit my aunties place, so when his and my dads visits would clash, and it was a clash, all of us girls would climb under one of the large iron beds, hiding…”)
The narrative’s strength lies in the author’s consistent journey to biblical truth and her continuing ministry to help others follow Jesus. The accounts of evil forces are not for the faint-hearted, however, and the book’s likely audience will be limited those passionately interested in biblical spiritual warfare and deliverance.
