Expanding My Horizons
Now that I’ve finished a first draft on my first novel, I’m working on outlining the second. As the first passes around to a few readers, and the plot develops in the second, I’ve become concerned about the track I seem to be following. Don’t Stop Believin’ wanders through the adult entertainment industry – exotic dancing. Sad Girl is heading down an even darker path: human trafficking. Are these really topics that belong in Christian fiction, I asked myself, several times. Am I really glorifying God?
I posed a version of that question to my friend/editor Joy, and she pointed me to several authors: Brandilyn Collins, Dee Henderson, Terri Blackstock, among others. I’ve read a few of Dee’s works, and just finished Terri’s Cape Refuge (and liked it a lot). Dee’s O’Malley series involves a violent stalker. Cape Refuge opens with a double murder. Collins writes Christian suspense. Can I do this?
Brandilyn had a great post the other day about a great fan letter, which in turn linked to a not-so-great fan letter, and that one was the one that really moved me. It was especially heartening to get an encouraging comment from Brandilyn on Facebook.
So I’ve been reading Brandilyn’s blog on a regular basis lately, and today there was a link to Mike Duran’s excellent blog, Decomposing. He’s got some great posts about some topics I’ve really been struggling with, so I’ve got some reading to do. Between his and Brandilyn’s blog, and the AFCW reading lists (social issues and author comparison, I’ve got a lot of reading to do.
Decisions, Decisions
I’ve been trying to outline my latest book. I want to develop “The Sad Girl” into a full-length novel, because I think it will be a good story. But it’s taken a very dark turn at the moment. I’m not above writing a dark story about an ugly topic, but at the moment, I haven’t found a Christian aspect to the story.
Don’t Stop Believin has a strong religious story arc, despite the adult entertainment background. One of the main characters learns about God’s love for her, and then make some difficult decisions about how to deal with the changes salvation brings into her life. Even if a Christian publisher won’t accept it as-is, I think it could be re-written without too much difficulty into an acceptable story.
I haven’t found that angle yet for Sad Girl yet. But I have some time ago determined that I’m not going to write a book that doesn’t glorify God in some way so I need to pay attention to that as I continue the outlining process. I’m still learning about the main character, named Danny Cumberland, and his girlfriend Teresa Chadwick, so maybe there are some things they haven’t told me about themselves yet. I hope so. It’s disconcerting to think about putting so much effort into a story that I won’t be able to write.
Of Icons and Idols
Researchers in Jerusalem announced that they’ve found a burial shroud that almost certainly dates to the early 1st century AD, during the time when Jesus walked the earth. It’s significant because it provides some idea of how the body died (probably TB), but more importantly because of the weave of the cloth. It’s a much simpler weave than is found in the Shroud of Turin, the cloth thought to be the burial shroud for Jesus’ body between the Crucifixion and Resurrection.
For some, that brings doubt not about the Shroud of Turin, but about the new discovery. I am certain that some will think that because of the differences between the clothes, they will think that the newly found shroud is fake, because they “know” the Shroud of Turin is Jesus’ burial shroud.
This announcement comes just two months after an Italian professor of organic chemistry made it known that he had produced an almost identical copy of the Shroud of Turin, using various pigments and common painting techniques. Professor Luigi Garlaschelli says now that he has the process down, he thinks he could create another reproduction in about a week.
In my younger years, I felt sure that the Shroud of Turin really was what people believe it is. It made sense to me that whatever Godly energy that radiated from Jesus when He was resurrected could have left an afterimage on the cloth that surrounded him at the time. As science worked more on the Shroud, I held to my faith. Surely God would have left some physical evidence of one of the most important events in the history of Christianity.
As I’ve aged (matured?) though, I’ve begun to have doubts about the Shroud, as well as the many other religious relics attributed to Jesus Christ. That is not to say I’ve doubted the existence or the deity of Jesus. But I doubt that we will ever find any object that can categorically and convincingly be tied to Jesus’ time on earth. I honestly and truly believe that we’re never going to find the real tomb of Jesus, or anything relating to the Crucifixion or Resurrection.
Why? God commands against idols, and He knows how we as humans would idolize the sites, and the objects. Witness the thousands of years of bitter controversy about the Shroud. Much of the New Testament is about faith, and faith doesn’t need objects, but rather experiences. Faith is defined as “confidence or trust in a person or thing,” or “belief that is not based on proof.” This latter definition is the more important one, I think. Having physical proof of Jesus’ presence on earth would negate the need for faith. Jesus told Thomas after the Resurrection, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:24-29 NIV).
If Jesus said this to Thomas, would He make it easier for us to believe by seeing?
Ghosts of Christmas Past
December funerals can pretty much suck. You’ve lost someone in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and that can throw a heavy weight into the holidays. It’s hard to share the Christmas cheer when you’re grieving. You can feel guilty about being down, so then you seclude yourself from folks, which is the last thing you should do at that time. Then when Christmas rolls around next year, you get fresh reminders of your loss; it’s next to impossible to forget that death, because it’s tied to a big annual event that millions of people across the world celebrate.
I know what December funerals are like. My mother died December 21, 1998. I had about 20 months prior to that date gotten saved, converting from a non-practicing Lutheran to an evangelical Protestant denomination (Church of the Nazarene). My father was Lutheran; my mother was, I think, Presbyterian. Religion wasn’t that big of a thing in our family, although my dad had always required us to go to church. I had been baptized as an infant, and gone through confirmation. But nothing ever clicked for me.
Dad had died in 1994. My mom had health issues of one kind or another, leading her to be hospitalized in mid-December for venous bypass to help save her legs from the ravages of advanced and out-of-control diabetes. It was only moderately successful, and as she was recovering, she suffered a stroke.
She was dying that Monday.
I had driven from Columbus to Marietta the day before after a rambling phone call from the ICU nurse about how my mom was “decompensating,” and frantic calls to my brother in Oregon. My wife stayed in Columbus with our two small children.
One of the things most evangelical churches teach is that if you present the Gospel to someone, and ask them to make a commitment of their life to Christ, and they refuse, they’re condemning themselves to Hell. The thinking is that they’ve refused salvation. My mom was not overly religious, and at the time, I felt that I needed to “get her saved,” as I understood things. But I didn’t want to have a salvation talk with her, for fear she would refuse the commitment at the end. She had been confused over why I wanted to be baptized again as a born-again Christian, even though I had been baptized as a baby in the Lutheran church. We didn’t see eye-to-eye on matters of religion.
So I had hemmed and hawed about it, and now it was too late. My brother and I, along with the parish nurse and the visitation pastor from the local Lutheran Church were in the ICU room watching my mother die. The pastor was at the foot of the bed. My brother was on the right side, and the nurse was next to him. I was on the left side. I was bawling my eyes out, convinced that my own fear and weakness had kept my mother from hearing the salvation message that I thought I had a duty to tell her.
It was not long after nine PM, and I was holding her hand, and telling her I loved her, and that I was sorry. And at that moment, just before she died, I felt a hand on my shoulder, as though someone had come up beside me on my left side, and put their arm around me. And a quiet or “still, small” voice said to me, “It’s OK. She’s with me now.” Perhaps a minute later, her heart stopped.
Could I have imagined it? Could I have created that experience out of an intense desire to know that I would see her again in heaven? I suppose.
Could it have been Satan, taunting me? I doubt it. I believe in Satan, just as I believe in God, and the resurrection of Christ. You can’t logically believe in God, and not believe in Satan; you can’t have good without not-good, or evil. But it’s not Satan’s style to say something like that. He’d have been screaming “She’s mine now, you fool! You failed!”
I am convinced though that what I experienced that night in a lonely ICU room was a loving, merciful, compassionate God tending to His child in the best way He could. I didn’t want my mom to die. I miss her and my dad terribly. But her body was worn out. Yes, He could have healed her, just as Christ healed so many. But physically touching me was much more miraculous than anything he could have done for her. My God, the Creator of the universe, the Great I Am, presented Himself to someone who was hurting and alone one night. How can I doubt a God like that?
So that is what I choose to remember in December. I could focus on the loss, and how my mother won’t be around to see her grandchildren grow up, and how they won’t have as many loving grandparents in their lives. I could focus on the anguish of watching her lie in a bed, her body refusing to give up. But instead, I choose to focus on the way my God showed His love for me. Isn’t that the better way to deal with Christmas ghosts?
Home Bible Study Groups Banned in San Diego?
I’ll start with a link to the original Fox story that got my attention. That led me to a Google News search, and a pair of WorldNetDaily articles and with a little more information.
Pastor David Jones and his wife life on a cul-de-sac. Last month, they were met by a county official who asked them a series of questions about their Tuesday night bible study, such as “Do you say ‘Amen?’ or ‘Do you sing?’” They were then told that their weekly bible study with about 15 people violated land use guidelines, and they had to “stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit.”
MUPs seem to be designed for churches and other large concerns, as they require traffic and environmental studies, etc. to make sure the land is used properly. They’re expensive, too, and the Jones’ face escalating fines for each violation if they don’t stop their “religious assembly.”
So where’s the line between home bible study and church? My church has about 23 people there on a given Sunday morning; 9 are named Mueller. 5 are named Johnson. It’s just about 4-5 families and couples. Are we a congregation at the church building? What if we meet at a home for bible study?
I think obviously the county stepped in it by singling out “religious assembly” in the complaint. Had they said the couple was violating some ordinance about parking, or occupancy, they might be on better ground, but this seems to be a clear First Amendment violation. I’d be really interested to see the county’s guidelines about major use permits, and who needs them and when. I’d also be curious about their regs concerning churches, and how those regs mesh with the . I’d also be interested to know if the county is going to start cracking down on other weekly events held at homes, like cookouts, or football parties.
They’ll be home for Christmas
Because Santa drives a minivan.
4 Marines were stranded in San Francisco, trying to get home for Christmas. Old enough to serve our country. Old enough to drink a beer, even. But not old enough to rent a car.
God Bless Them All!
The Spirit of the Season
A friend at Global Affairs wrote today about an experience his friend had. That friend’s daughter is in a wheelchair, and receives therapy at a clinic in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Several patients from that clinic got a trip to Wal-mart today, to buy Christmas presents with the pennies and nickels they had been saving.
As they were checking out, a total stranger at the end of the line walked up and had all their purchases put on his credit card.
That ought to restore a bit of your faith in the human race, eh?
Keith Ellison, the Bible, and the Koran
Dennis Prager has written a scathing indictment of Representative Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Apparently Representative-elect Ellison wants to use a Koran for his swearing-in ceremony, instead of a Bible. Prager is outraged, and now the AFA is calling for Christians to floods Congress with demands for a law requiring the use of the Christian Bible during oaths of office for federal officeholders.
Hmm.
Yes, well, as soon as Mr Prager and Mr Wildmon can get around the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution(You know, that pesky part about “making no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof), they’ll have to deal with Article VI, which states in part:
no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States
Go on all you want about how this nation was founded by Godly men on Christian ideals. I won’t argue much with you.
But the keystone for this country’s founding was freedom, not faith. The founding fathers wanted to be free to things they weren’t allowed to do under the King’s laws. The Pilgrims were seeking the exact same thing: a place to practice their faith in freedom, without fear of persecution.
In looking at Representative-elect Ellison’s website, I certainly wouldn’t have voted for him. But I support his right to use whatever religious text he chooses for his swearing-in. Remember that he’s not swearing or affirming to uphold the Koran. He’s swearing or affirming that he will uphold the Constitution.
Faithful to God and Science
Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible.
Dr. Francis Collins is both a scientist and a believer. He’s a born-again Christian, and he\’s also the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, a federal project with 550 employees, a $480 million annual budget and a mandate to explore every twist of the DNA that makes us who we are. A dichotomy? Perhaps. But one that has led him to write a book to address what he calls the the “chasm between science and faith.” Is there such a chasm? Should there be? Said one person at Global Affairs,
It’s perhaps quite simplistic of me, but I’ve always felt that science was the tool that would bring us closer to God. As we unravel more and more of the mysteries He’s laid before us, it seems to fit that He would view that favorably.
God created science, or the facts of life that we study as science. Is it such a stretch that the two can co-exist?
What A Coinkidink!
Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
From an historical standpoint alone, this is pretty interesting news. Imagine touching something that’s 1600 years old. It’s rare enough to see something more than about a hundred years old. But this book is over 16 centuries old!
This tidbit in the article really caught my attention:
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations’ attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
Each night at bedtime, we read some Biblical passage to our kids. It might be a story from one of several kids’ Bibles; we’ve also read out way through the Gospels in The Message. Tonight, in light of the article about the Psalm book being found, I elected to read Psalm 83. The imagery I found there astounded me. Read Psalm 83 below, from the New International Version, courtesy of BibleGateway.com.
A song. A psalm of Asaph.
1 O God, do not keep silent;
be not quiet, O God, be not still.2 See how your enemies are astir,
how your foes rear their heads.3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”5 With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you-6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,7 Gebal, [a] Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.8 Even Assyria has joined them
to lend strength to the descendants of Lot.
Selah9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,10 who perished at Endor
and became like refuse on the ground.11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,12 who said, “Let us take possession
of the pasturelands of God.”13 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God,
like chaff before the wind.14 As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.16 Cover their faces with shame
so that men will seek your name, O LORD.17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
When you compare that text with current events in the Middle East, you have to feel a sense of awe at the “coincidence.” Look at verses 4-5: “…[L]et us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.” With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you.” Which is exactly what’s happening there today. Numerous groups and nations are actively warring against Israel, including the “Ishmaelites,” the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son from Hagar (Sarah’s maidservant). One of Ishmael’s descendants was the prophet Mohammad.
Verse 14 could make you nervous, if you dwelt on the idea that Israel has nuclear capability.
Interesting ideas, eh?
