Into the Fire

Sunday's Offerings

 

From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things

as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.

Proverbs 12:14 (NIV)

****Political Update****

 

If we believe the terminology the Obama Administration is using as they push for a debt ceiling increase, the United States is headed for an economic “disaster of biblical proportions.”

How our nation got here and how we move forward is as much about principle and our moral obligations as it is about the trillions of dollars Washington is currently arguing over.

As stewards of what we have been given, what is our responsibility and our leaders’ responsibility as our nation continues to rack up enormous amounts of debt? What impact will this debt – largely owed to China – have on our children and grandchildren’s future?

Please read my latest piece on this important topic for the new ACLJ blog, The Docket. As Americans of faith, we often direct our energies into issues related to life and the family. The amount of debt that our nation has incurred is proving to be a tremendous threat to every American family today and to our future. Please share this article – and the in-depth resources of the new ACLJ.org – with your friends and family by forwarding this email, and sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Jordan Sekulow
ACLJ, Director of Policy and International Operations

 

God, we are desperate for your mercy and direction. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Conflict, conflict, conflict . . .

 

(Thanks to BK Jackson for her thoughts on this topic. I needed a post for today.)

 

When is it too much? If I’m reading a Robert Liparulo novel, there’s always a huge amount of conflict. The master of pacing in his early thrillers and in his Young Adult Dreamhouse Kings Series, conflict rules and reigns on page after page. The pages can’t turn fast enough. Even with proper chapter breaks, it’s difficult to stop turning those pages. So. Robert knows all about conflict and how to keep it sharp and fresh.

 

Reading a Lisa Samson novel presents a different kind of address to conflict. It can be subtle, sometimes slow-moving, other times overt, and in its own way a quiet life-and-death literary treatise of pain, struggle, and growth. Not atypical of literary novels but never less than real and honest in the department of the human psyche and its varied emotional and spiritual makeup.

 

The “must have conflict on every page” instruction grinds on me. Another “rule” that exceeds sensibility and needs translation. When you use this premise for a romance what you get are doofus characters pretending they don’t like each other when it’s blatantly obvious they want to rip each other’s clothes off. Exaggeration, okay? But, hey, that kind of conflict results in shallow characters playing junior high school games with each other and makes me, as both a writer and a reader, want to shred pages of said books. Frankly, it’s insulting. Apparently there are several readers who enjoy being insulted with this kind of behavior. It’s exceedingly difficult to pull off this stuff in the content of romantic fiction because it’s so disingenuous—especially after the back cover copy reveals the storyline with the hint-hint, wink-wink suggestion or question.

 

Your approach to conflict in story might prove quite revealing in your genre and author tastes. Your thoughts on this are welcome . . .

 

 

Father, you know the conflicts of the ages. It all began with sin. Help us to honor you with the way we write, the way we depict the struggle. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Would appreciate your continued prayers for those mentioned yesterday. My brother is facing possible heart surgery. He’s stable but needs prayer. Thank you all. May the Lord richly bless you for lifting up the needs of others.  

Prayer needed . . .

 

Here are some very real prayer needs. Hope you will invest your time to join and assist these people in asking God for His best in dire situations. Sorry that some of the information must be vague. May the Holy Spirit guide your prayers. Thank you to all who recognize the needs and understand the value and power of prayer.

 

Lee Hough, Alive Communications Literary Agent: Brain surgery (Thursday) for tumor

Becky: Author's daughter

Another author's son.

Adding my brother Richard who's been admitted to the hospital with pnemonia this morning. 

 

In the Name above all Names, the Name of Jesus, please intervene, God. You are supernatural and miraculous. Help each one, Lord, as only you can do.

High and Mighty

 

The above words ring synonymously with the Lord God Almighty. Rightfully so.

 

He alone can claim them in every aspect of their fullest meaning.

 

In no way do they apply to Christians. They just don’t. But, God help us, we sometimes display this attitude about so many things in which we have no right to do so. Name me one of us who hasn’t stumbled badly through the course of walking out our faith. We can talk a good line, but when it comes to living it out, we often fail. Miserably. Praise God, sometimes we obey in those circumstances when our flesh rages against the Holy Spirit and, lo, we forge through the temptations and do “the right thing”. We take no credit for it other than knowing the relief and blessing that follows such actions.

 

Sometimes Christians pontificate with a moral absoluteness against things in which they’ve never been tested. “The high road” we often call it, choosing to exalt those actions which somehow place us above the masses both in the secular world and in our world of weaker-faith brethren. We know what’s right and those who do these things can’t possibly be smiled upon by our Great Lord because what they do is just plain wrong! Those right things can be attached to the simplistic and the complex and very often all they demonstrate is our ability to show pomposity in its “highest” form. Not to mention our hypocrisy.  

 

From the rules of no makeup and long dresses to the ideal methodology of war in the 21^st century, Christians expound on the lawlessness, evil, wrong-doing, and sinfulness of those who participate in the ideology that counters their own. We are a sinful bunch and one of the major faults is our incessant ability to dictate the way others must live according to our understanding of the “rules”, the “moral high-ground”, the “authentic Christian”, tending to ignore our own fleshly tendencies.

 

There is a right way to live in Christ. It’s personified in dying to self on a daily basis, praying for the Lord to exceed us, to ask for the faith we need to persevere in doing what the Lord requires of us according to His word and personal instruction. We’re responsible for our salvation and behavior in Christ—not anyone else’s. When we speak against the evils in this world, we must do so with the understanding that at any time we could’ve chosen that road—and of number one importance: make sure what you come against is in fact wrong according to God, not you.

 

 

God, forgive us for our short-sighted views on just about everything. Help us to see with your eyes. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.    

Okay then . . .

 

Monday, Fourth of July. Barbequed ribs at our neighbors. They’re wonderful people and so good to us.

 

Home now and wondering what to do for a post on July 5^th . . .

 

What I want to write I probably shouldn’t. I know: not fair to tease like that. Maybe another day.

 

So.

 

Here’s what I will say. Karen Ball, one of Christian fiction’s premiere editors (now a literary agent for the Steve Laube Agency) and an author to boot declares the synergy that forms between author and editor when they understand each other and work toward the same goal is what she loves best about editing.

 

A writer doesn’t always get that editor.

 

A couple of times different authors have posted their before-and-after editing examples. Invariably I liked their version over the edited one. Geez. Not helpful.

 

And what about when you read a novel which is terribly average. Who gets “credit” for that?

 

Oh well . . .

 

 

Father, you give the gifts. Thank you for all the different ones who use them to honor you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Naming the . . . Lion of Babylon

 

First off in the CFBA Tour for July is Davis Bunn’s Lion of Babylon published by Bethany House. Davis Bunn is the consummate novelist with numbers of books sold in upward of six million copies published in 16 languages. So when you want to read those novels that exhibit skill and finesse, diverse plots with intense character development, you turn to a Davis Bunn novel.

 

Ex-operative Marc Royce, fired by his hard-nosed boss because of attending to his wife who suffered a stroke at a very young age and eventually died, learns his best friend Alex has gone missing with a female American nurse and a female aid worker in Iraq. When approached by his former boss to go under the radar to rescue the trio, he accepts the request without hesitation.

 

His contact in Iran sets Marc up with an Iraqi lawyer Sameh el-Jacobi from whom he learns that not only is the trio missing but also a young wealthy Iraqi man along with multiple Iraqi children disappearing and continuing to be kidnapped.

 

You’ve heard of the clichéd “strong silent type”. Marc Royce is that guy. When he has no suitable answer, he simply doesn’t reply. He commands respect without ever asking for it and understands the value of recognizing the culture and adapting to its protocols without condescension, disrespect, or compromise. His relationship with Sameh is cemented not only in mutual respect and earned trust but in brotherhood of the Christian faith. If there is a miniscule fault in this novel, it’s Marc’s infallibility.  

 

Marc’s skills in the field return with the rush of adrenaline, and with Sameh’s help and insights he begins to figure out the underlying plot of all the kidnappings eventually discovering why his friend and the others have disappeared. When Marc is able to gain assistance from Sameh’s old friend, a well-trained but demoted cop (Hamid Lahm) who is now a prison guard, he secures both the respect and trust he needs to employ the man in his attempt to rescue the missing victims. First accomplishing the rescue of several local kidnapped children with the help of the cop and his faithful men, suddenly Marc becomes a hero to the local Iraqis and Hamid and his men are instantly promoted to important positions in law enforcement. When the new “Major” Lahm hails Marc as a “lugal”, an unheard of praise and title for an American, the door opens for whatever Marc needs to find his friend and the rest of the kidnapped victims. He will need everything he can get because of where the victims are.

 

With clean and crisp writing Davis Bunn once again delivers a fascinating story with current and ancient history carefully woven into the telling of Lion of Babylon. That mix of old and new, the clashes of different denominations in the Muslim faith and hierarchy, the politics of people lusting for power, and the bridge between an Iraqi’s family and a lonely American give the reader a clearer picture of a people’s innate distrust and the conflicts of nation building after its ruination by a dictator. The clever title speaks of both the physical and eternal. Another quick, interesting, exciting, and ultimately touching read for Davis Bunn.

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764209051

 

  

 

 

Father, you’ve given Davis so many fascinating stories, and I’m sure you’re not done yet. Please continue to meet the supply for stories that bring honor to you from the hand of your servant Davis Bunn. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Sunday's Offerings

 

" . . . I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."

John 17:14-15 (NIV)

First Born

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONOVAN COLT TORP!

 

May the Lord continue to bless your heart and soul and uplift your spirit in every way. May you follow Him close for the rest of your days accepting His love and heeding His voice. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.