Faith
Words of Power
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. James 3:9-10 Words are powerful. Like a bit or a rudder, they can turn large objects by one small uttering, one small sentence. As…
Constant Dialogue
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17(KJV) Dialogue is a vital part of novels. Writers can certainly add depth to characters through their actions, but the heart of the character is revealed through the words he or she speaks. At the same time, a novel with only dialogue would be exhausting. The silence within scenes, when…
The Greatest Story
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (NIV) When the first characters appear on a blank page, as writers, we fall in love with these two-dimensional people. Under our penmanship, they grow, taking on personalities of their own and making the story come alive.…
Proof It
Raise your hand if you’d rather proofread someone else’s work than your own. Count my hand raised. When it comes to others’ work, grammatical mistakes leap out, waving their arms and begging for a red-pen rescue. For all the delicate etiquette of criticism, it’s easy and oddly satisfying to search out and correct someone else’s…
When God Leads you to the Edge of a Cliff
“When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He’ll catch you when you fall, or He’ll teach you how to fly!” I read this in an email devotion and it got me thinking… What do I have to lose…
Whose Point of View
Psalm 37:30 – The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just. The greatest jolt for a reader is to be absorbed into a story, sensing the urgency of the dangers, feeling the onset of emotions, being carried away by the events, when all of a sudden, the story…
When God Fights
I remember when my middle daughter was seven being picked on by a boy a couple years older than her. His teasing was relentless and it was clearly bothering Abby. Finally, our oldest, Laura, could take it no longer. Pushing past Abby, she grabbed the boy by the shirt, drove him against a wall, and…
Packing What You Need
“Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.” Genesis 22:3 NIV When I was younger I thought I knew…
There is NO Easy Button
Christianity is much more than simply believing in Jesus; it’s following him. We need to make that distinction because our culture is voyeuristic – we like to watch things…and that’s it. People in our culture don’t mind looking at Jesus, but few are actually willing to follow him. Following is much harder. Following Jesus is…
The Grace of Who I Am
Romans 3:23,24 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (NIV) I know who I am, and I know my struggles. If I were to list them one by one, they would be embarrassing, ugly…