Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Worlds pre-orders about to close!

Note: Very rarely do I cross-post from my writer's blog, but I'm releasing my first fantasy novel and thought you all might like a head's up :).

The proof copy of Worlds Unseen arrived today, and it's gorgeous! It needed a little tweaking, but that's now done and the finished product will be ready-to-order before this month is out. In the interest of getting this book on Amazon in time for Christmas, I will only be taking pre-orders until November 30. If you'd like an early, autographed copy of my first fantasy novel, place your order on LittleDozen.com today!

Shameless though it is, I'm going to mention that Worlds would make a great Christmas gift for the pre-teen/teen/young adult in your life who enjoys Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, et al. This is clean fantasy with a backbone of truth and a lot of heart. Copies are $15.00, and like I said, they're beautiful! Deborah's cover art and design are gorgeous.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

the truth about us

"Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

Proverbs 9:8-10

It struck me as I read these verses that God, who dares reprove us for our evil ways, has endured a great deal of hatred from the race of beings He created. God has been the reprover of mankind since the day He called Adam and Eve out of hiding to face the consequences for their sin. He dared our scorn, dared our hatred, to tell us the truth about what we have become.

In doing so, He opens the way of wisdom to us. It is not until we begin to fear God that we truly become wise. Those who will listen to God's judgment and accept it as true become like little children who love the One who disciplines them--who grow in His grace, because He does not give up on them no matter how often they continue to fall.

I once read a comment from someone who said they'd tried to read the Bible but didn't care for it because it was too "didactic" (Merriam-Webster: "intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment"). I had to chuckle at this--of course the Bible is didactic. It is a book of Law and Prophecy. It is a book of judgment and of grace that only has meaning because of judgment. It is a book about sacrifice and the cost of true, redeeming love. It is a book of Truth, stated in a black-and-white way that is out of fashion in our world of relativity and reigning nonsense.

Many today would like to take God's words and make a storybook of them. We would like to impose our own culture and personal feelings on the written wisdom of God so that we needn't learn to fear Him--so that we might come to Him as equals and not as children. If we are honest with the Word, it will not allow us to do this. It will continue to tell us the truth about ourselves. Sometimes it will hurt.

The scorner will plug his ears and sing, refusing to hear. The wise man, Solomon tells us, will love his reprover.

Yes, the Bible tells us the truth about ourselves. But it also tells us something much greater: the truth about God. It reveals the holy to us. If we will believe it, it will tell us of a God who loved those who hated Him to such a degree that He took their judgment upon Himself and suffered to give them freedom--who died to give them life.

If we will come as children, we will find that God is a Father eager to receive us.

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

the rejoicing wisdom of God

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was... Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."

Proverbs 8:22-23, 30-31

When I wish to exult in God as Creator, I turn to two passages of Scripture. One is Job 38-41. The other is Proverbs 8. It is Wisdom who speaks in this passage, personified as a woman who remembers the days of Creation and fairly sings forth the joy of them.

In the Bible wisdom is not just a matter of making good decisions. "Wisdom" also means skill, creativity, the understanding to make a thing that is beautiful, and good, and useful. So often we go through life without recognizing the creative wisdom of God, this attribute of His which fills the world--our world, for wisdom's greatest delights are with the sons of men--with joy.

The wisdom that builds mathematical properties and sound waves. The wisdom that enables a man to understand these things, to string a bow or a harp or a fiddle, and then to pour out music as emotion and artistry. The wisdom that plays with light, varying a single colour a thousand times, giving us depth and texture and indescribable beauty. The wisdom that creates a human face, with its telling eyes, its sweet smiles, its unique lines. The wisdom that imagined taste and perfected it, giving us all good things to eat with joy and gratitude.

This is the wisdom of God.

I see His wisdom in the way a child is formed in the womb. I see it in the human capacity for language: in all the many tongues spoken by man, in their tones, their rhythms, their vocabularies and sounds. I see it in gravity and the laws of physics which hold us here, suspended in space, following a carefully choreographed dance with the heavenly bodies all around us.

I see it in salvation. In the truly, truly good way God has reached down in love to take up those who have been so long blind to Him. In the way He opens our eyes and teaches us to love Him. In Christ.

The wisdom of God is everywhere. Where do you see it?

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