Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

  • Can I get a witness?

     

    Witness: 1.a. One who has seen or heard something b. One who furnishes evidence 2.Anything that serves as evidence: a sign

    Acts 1:8 He [Jesus] said to them: ". . . But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth." (NIV)

    I've learned that how a person gives a witness to Jesus Christ depends a lot on two things: his/her denomination and his/her personality. However, whatever the personality type, there is no valid excuse for not being a "witness" to the saving grace of the King of Kings, the Savior of mankind, the Lord of Lords Jesus Christ. If a person testifies to and claims to be a Christian, then there must be evidence to make that person a credible witness.

    As Christians, we're called to walk our talk. Sometimes we fail miserably. Sometimes we excel. Imperfect people that we are, we yearn for consistency and desire to present Jesus to a world that detests Him, is ambivalent toward Him, or truly knows nothing about Him. A daunting task that belongs to us all.

    What brought this on, you might wonder? Tim Tebow, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner, and Jim Zorn to name a few quarterbacks present and past. All Christian men. Does anyone doubt Tim Tebow is a Christian? The fact that bowing in prayer after football games has been given the nickname of "Tebowing" is one indicator that people have become well aware of his faith. Another indicator is the comment by former QB Jake Plummer who wishes Tim would just "shut up about his faith" because everybody "gets" that he attributes his skills to God. Aaron Rodgers, top QB in the NFL right now according to some, says he prefers to let his actions speak for his faith. Well, actions do speak louder than words sometimes, but if all you're demonstrating is that you're a great guy or gal, and you fail to identify what's at the core of your being, no one will know you are a Christian. Simply pointing to the sky after a touchdown doesn't necessarily give credit where credit is due. Kurt Warner, former Super Bowl QB with two different teams and owning a fabulous testimony, says he had to learn when and what to speak about his faith and assumes Tim Tebow will do the same. Jim Zorn was identical to Tim Tebow when he became the Seattle Seahawks QB. He mentioned Jesus at every interview and he got a lot of them. Jim Zorn's witness is what the Lord used to bring me to Christ.

    If you're shy and have a difficult time speaking of your Savior, pray for the power of the Holy Spirit promised in Acts 1:8. Don't let stoic behavior deny you the blessing of telling about the wonder of Jesus and what He brought to us when He came to earth.

    We have freedom of speech just like those who oppose the Lord. Just like our detractors we have the right to speak of our faith. And we have the ministry and call to obey the Lord regardless of our stations in this life. We are compelled to be His witnesses.

    I know there are many who've claimed the title of Christian who've embarrassed us all, and perhaps at times we've embarrassed ourselves, but this is the reason to make sure our witness is passionate and real, believable and admirable. The Holy Spirit is able to guide us in actions and words if we're willing to allow Him that freedom.

    People are lost. Hell-bent. If you believe that "No one comes  to the Father except through me [Jesus]." (John 14:6), then you will constantly be aware of your responsibility to be a good witness. You won't look at Tim Tebow's actions and make excuses for why you don't talk about the Lord who died for you. You won't tire of Tim's passion and purpose. You'll commend him for using his platform to proclaim the most important Person in his young life. 

    At least I will . . .

     

    Father, I pray your continued blessing and power in young Tim's life. I pray his boldness will not be shuttered by those who find it embarrassing. May he grow closer to you with each passing day. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.      

     

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

    Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

  • The Giving Season

     

    Many people want to give of their time, their hearts, their money, but simply don't know where or how to do it. If you're one of those who needs something to believe in and give to . . . look here:

     

    http://www.inspireafire.com/940/

     

    God, all over this earth sin and sorrow appear in seemingly insurmountable volumes. Help each individual to give where you direct him. Help us all to be generous with what you've given us. We know the poor will always be with us until the end of this age, but you expect us to help each other. Show us how to do that. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Being a “pants-er” . . .

     

    The term is "seat of the pants". This expression in the literary world refers to those of us who don't outline, storyboard, and/or highly organize our novel writing. We sit down at the computer, with a laptop, or with a pad and pen and construct stories. How those stories arrive in our brains and translate to our various devices depends on who you talk to about it.

    A thought, a picture, a dream, a song, a character, or even a place can be the impetus for creation. How individuals react to creating presents all kinds of methods. My stories generally start with a character, although the character can be inspired by a thought, picture, song, etc.

    The problem (for me) with being a "pants-er" is knowing very little about the plot. It literally unfolds simultaneously with the words appearing on the screen. This can get tricky. Sometimes it's more like reading a story than it is like writing one. I keep waiting for the next thing to happen.

    I mentioned I'm writing something different for me. And I do not know where we're headed. I have a concept, but strange people keep interrupting and interfering and none of them are the ones I need them to be because it's too soon for that one specific person to come into play. I know: crazy. Right? Only pants-ers understand.

    Once in awhile I think it would be easier to write another way. But then the story turns active, and I'm so glad it took on a life of its own. So glad I didn't have it figured out in advance.  

    How 'bout you?  

     

    Lord, I'm just grateful to write them. Please keep filling in those multiple blanks for me. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Picking favorites . . .

     

    Some people can tell you their favorite anything the moment you ask. I can do that with a few things. Like pop. Coke is it! No question. No "But I also like . . ." Coca Cola is my favorite pop. Period.

     

                                Coke

     

     

    However, do not ask me to name my favorite novel, movie, or song. Because there isn't a favorite. There are many. Multiples. In fact, I think for novels my list of favorites would exceed a Top Twenty. Songs too. Movies: maybe not.

    How 'bout you? Is there a single favorite in the novel, film, and song categories for you?

     

    God, so many wonderful creations. I'm in awe of you. Always. And desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • If you know . . .


     

    . . . someone who truly loves to read contemporary romance which isn't all fluff and frills, please introduce them to either The Famous One or Breath of Life. Two completely different tales that approach love and romance from the very real perspective of the world and contrast it to God's intended version of the experience, both stories reveal the journey of finding true love.

     

                             110684

     

                                             

    If you decide to purchase either novel, $15 will be your price and it will include shipping within the continental USA. Email me if you think that person is on your Christmas list.  

     

                                      136615909

     

    Father, thank you for these stories, for the courage to write them, for blessing me with the experience and perspective. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Again . . .

     

    Understated beauty:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2d0TT8jCjw&NR=1 

     

    God, your beauty displayed in all forms. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • The Season

     

    What is often termed the Holiday Season can be a time of joy or a time of sadness. It depends on what's associated with the particular time of the year. I've said multiple times before here how much I love Christmas, but even for me it's a time of reflection for the losses in my life. This year will be the first Christmas without my brother. And although it's only been in recent years that we've been able to spend a day together with our extended and remaining family, whether before or just after Christmas Day, I've always gotten a call or a card from my brother for Christmas. Not this year. He will be celebrating with both of our parents and the star and reason for the season Himself! And although there will be tears shed here on earth when his daughters and grandchildren meet at our home to honor Christmas and his memory, most of us know he's well and truly happy. So this Christmas I will be without Mom, Dad, and my brother Dick. That's all there were of us. 

    Mike Duran wrote a touching piece here remembering his father, demonstrating both the sorrow and joy of experiencing the loss of loved ones.

    The special times of year which evoke intense emotion, the gathering of family, and, yes, even the giving of gifts, remind us of favorite times or, for some, of somber occurrences and bittersweet memories. Christmas was always a wow-occasion at our home. A fantastic big deal. Dad decorated outside, taped Christmas cards to fill huge brick fireplaces in the family room/kitchen and in the living room. Mom handled the tree and other delightful indoor decorations, making our home a celebration of Christmas indoors and out. I loved it. Still do. We'd have fabulous turkey dinners with my grandmother Lila and various other family members through the years. Lila, my mom's mom, would come over pre-Christmas and bake Dad's favorite date-filled cookies and Divinity: the melt-in-your-mouth kind, with walnuts, perfect. Mom would bake a variety of cookies, all delicious. I loved them all. (Unfortunately, I never acquired their love of baking. And I've always eaten my share of cookie dough of all kinds, ruining the yield of recipe projections.) 

    Loss can be accentuated during times of celebration. We want all the pieces to fit together as we remember them. If the holidays presented times of worry or even danger from errant conduct, we often can't shed the anxiety of their approach. Either way sometimes it's hard to truly concentrate on the One who made the reason for the season. The Deliverer. Jesus frees us from the bonds of this sinful life and becomes the focus of what we really need in spite of or in addition to what we might want.  

    If Christmas brings you sadness, I pray you will find joy in the reason for the season. The One who came suffered many things on earth but brought great joy to all who experienced His relief. He arrived, He gave, He died, He arose, and to this day and beyond He gives life to all who come to Him. Life on earth is not the ultimate. It's filled with sin and sorrow. But there are times of great joy to be celebrated and lived to the fullest no matter the circumstances of modest or extravagant existence. On earth all things come to an end. In heaven there's the sense of eternal surprise and discovery. No more tears, no more sorrow, no more conflict and ruin. Of course it sounds unbelievable – it's supernatural! Beyond our finite endeavors. It's beauty, truth, joy, and salvation. Exactly what we all need and desire.

    Let your heart celebrate Christmas this year. May this "holiday" season be more than just another holiday to you. May it be the source of salvation for everything you truly need.

     

    Father, thank you. Jesus, thank you. Holy Spirit, thank you. Words are never enough.   

     

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

    Hebrews 12:28-29 (NIV)

  • For Lee Hough . . .

     

    I don't know how many of you know Lee Hough. He's a prime literary agent for the well-known and highly regarded Alive Communications Literary Agency. Lee is one of the good guys. Professional, congenial, humorous, and first class.

    Not too long ago Lee and his family faced the horrors of discovering he had a malignant brain tumor. Before they had much time to adjust to this startling news he was into surgery with a rigid schedule lined up for what happened next. None of it was pretty. And really it still isn't.

    I'm including this latest entry from his post at Caring Bridge. It speaks both eloquently and dramatically of his present condition and need for prayer. I'm posting this so you can add your prayers to many others for this genuine gentleman. Please pray for Lee Hough.

     

    Going into the first appointment with my chemo doctor back in July, Paula and I held on to each other’s hand, tight. There was still so much about my glioblastoma cancer that we didn’t understand, much less about chemotherapy. We were nervous. The doctor was chipper.

    He said there had been a groundbreaking study of brain cancer showing that if you received chemo and radiation simultaneously it would significantly increase your life span. And he flipped open the report and showed us a graph with geometric lines of life and death. Two trial groups were represented. One received only a single form of treatment. The other both. Clearly you wanted to be on Team Simultaneous. And to my great relief, I was already signed up on that roster.

    “Significant increase in life span.” It sounded like somebody had found the fountain of youth for cancer victims. Suddenly we’re smiling. The oncologist is smiling. Happy Disney blue birds appeared above our heads chirping a smiling song as Snow White in a nurse frock waltzed her way in to the exam room singing “If Your Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.” I clapped like a flamenco dancer.

    Soon we’re cha cha’ing out of the office all grins when I asked, “Could I have a copy of the report?” I wanted to read more happy details about my soon-to-be prolonged life. Dr. Cheerful made me a copy.

    “Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor in adults, is usually rapidly fatal.”

    That was the opening line of the report. Bluebirds started dropping dead all around me. Don’t panic. A couple of paragraphs later it said, “. . . survival is generally less than one year from the time of the diagnosis.” No“Happily ever after” there. Instead I’m starting to feel like I’m drowning in doom. And then, hallelujah, I finally got to the graph page, a beacon of hope in this medical shop of horrors. The graph will throw me a lifeline of good news. But bad news had another twist of the knife. The glioblastoma cancer patients who participated in this trial? When the researcher followed up with them after 28 months, “480 patients (84 percent) had died.” Now I’m completely undone, horrified. First for those “patients” – people just like me whose hopes were undoubtedly just like mine. Second, because of the scalding realization that I’m not reading a “report” anymore, I’m reading my obituary.

    The coup de grace was delivered just before the graph. I was still holding out hope in the doctor’s fabled “significant increase in life span.” And here it finally came. The total life span gain of the simultaneous therapy approach: “The median survival benefit was 2.5 months.”

    Wait. Are you serious? Not 10 years or 5; not even 2.5 years. 75 days. That’s it. I felt like the victim of a drive by data shooting. I’m history, dead man walking. All I could think about was where to hide the report from Paula. Which I actually did. Not rational, just desperate.

    The thought then crossed my mind of shortening my oncologist’s “median survival benefit.” Snow White was going down too. But I got past that, and the 30 days of chemo / radiation, all the while wondering, What will the next MRI on my brain show?

    I debated, a lot, whether to drag you through all of the above. But there is a reason: the follow up MRI on my brain is finally on the books. And if you understand the medical realities revealed above, then perhaps you will understand what’s next, what’s happening now.

    I actually thought that I was ready for this MRI. As one of my eloquent writer friends would say, “You so crazy.” And she’d be right. Because the moment Paula called and told me the date, I mean the instant, the nerves inside me fried. “Ok, that’s great, Paula, thanks for letting me know,” I squeaked out over a tightening throat. I was driving home at the time and kept asking, What’s happening? Why am I feeling this way? And it finally hit me.

    I know the date. And, normally, you’re not supposed to know that date. The date when you stand a very good chance, medically speaking, of being told about your death. The 84%. The rapidly fatal. I prefer ignorance is bliss, but“December 2nd” took that away and replaced it with an unnatural, unwanted awareness.

    Because grade 4 glioblastoma tumors are so hard to kill and so good at killing, the doctor wants me to have an MRI every three months. If the Lord chooses to heal me, it appears that I’ll rediscover that truth in three-month increments for the rest of my life. Starting with December 2nd.

    More of the “New Normal” that is redefining our lives, but not our faith. The result of the MRI will be explained to us on December 8th. Once again, Paula and I will be holding on to each other’s hand pretty tight. We know you’ll be there with us. Thanks for having our back in prayer.

     

    Father, Lee's a treasure to you but also to all of us who've had the pleasure to know him. Please, God, show Him and us your mighty hand of mercy and power. Please heal Lee. Let the healing serve as a mighty witness to your glory. We ask for your divine touch, your healing touch, your merciful touch. We ask it all in the Name, Authority, and Blood of Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.