August 2006

Do you ever feel like life is just too busy, and you can’t keep up? Sometimes I’m dog paddling to stay afloat, to remember everything, especially when I forget to make a thorough to-do list. Because like it or not, as we get older, our memories don’t hold as much as they used to and our recall isn’t as swift. I liken it to a computer that needs more RAM.

With the ACFW Conference (if that link doesn’t work, click here) coming up in a month, and two of my kids heading back to college (they still live at home), and the older guys working to finish their independent film, our house is busier than usual. But hey, it’s all good. :)

I’m finishing up a proposal so that I can participate in an early bird class at the conference. My youngest son, Ryan, is also writing a story – his first! So I’m helping him critique that. We have a September 1st deadline, and we’ll probably be the last submissions to trickle in. Unfortunately, I had the bright idea to give Deb Raney and Colleen Coble something totally new to critique. It would have been easy to give them a project that’s been on the back burner for years or one that is in the works. But I really needed the help with the sequel to my romantic suspense. So there you have it. It’s a first draft, the way I see it, because I haven’t tweaked it a zillion times. But it wouldn’t do me any good to submit something I don’t plan to change much or that has already been critiqued by a half-dozen multi-published authors. I’m looking forward to their comments. Only one other pair of eyes has seen any of this so far – my friend and crit partner Jill Stengl.

A new project to look for on this weblog will be a list of new releases from my fellow Christian authors. Month by month I’ll list the new releases in Christian books, fiction and non-fiction. This list will not be exhaustive by any means, but will hopefully, give you all an idea of new reading material to choose from. Also a new interview for Spotlight is just around the corner, this time featuring author Rene Gutteridge.

Next on the September schedule (can you believe we’re halfway through August already?) is another week talking about Biblical fiction at Favorite PASTimes blogspot coming the first week of September (4-8). I’ll be interviewing Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, author of the Genesis Trilogy from Moody Publishing. I recently read the second book in Kacy’s trilogy and absolutely loved it! Biblical fiction at its best!

That’s enough rambling for now. I will say that one thing busy-ness has taught me is to be very careful not to let it take me away from time alone with the Lord. In our instant-everything world, we need an Anchor to keep us from drifting off course. I’m reading the Psalms right now and dwelling on the truths found there. I even found the verse and title for my sequel in its pages.

God is interested in all the details of our lives, but He still tells us to seek Him first. Then all these other things, the crazy, never-ending busy details, especially the things we need most of all, will be added to us.

What impresses you?

I’ve met a lot of people in my life and been in a number of churches. You meet people from all walks of life in a church, rich and poor, tall and short, beautiful and ordinary, heavy and thin, educated and illiterate, talented and incapable, young and old.

Church leaders are often what draw us to a church. If we like the pastor and his teaching, we stay, right? Sometimes there are other things that attract us besides the sermons, like programs for our kids or ministries where we can get involved. We draw conclusions based on what impresses us.

I was thinking about some ministers I’ve known over the years. Sometimes we put preachers on a pedestal and expect them to rise above the things that influence us. They should accept all people in their congregations, no matter how unimpressive they may be. We think that way because these men are representatives of God. And Jesus wasn’t impressed by any man because He knew what was in man.

But pastors are people too, and though I do not think we can excuse those who do not meet the Biblical qualifications for such an office, we cannot ignore the fact that they come to conclusions about people the same way we do. Some are impressed by money or education, others by talent, still others by willingness to serve. Sometimes they judge a man’s spiritual condition based on these impressions, without really knowing the heart of the man.

When Samuel went to anoint a new king to rule over Israel, he was quickly impressed by Jesse’s tall, good-looking sons. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Perhaps we should consider these words, the next time we are impressed by outward appearance and actions.

I’m pleased to announce that I have a new Spotlight interview up this month – an interview with author DiAnn Mills! I won’t say more because it’s all on the Spotlight page, so please click on over and check it out. And this month we’ve got a free book giveaway! Don’t miss it! (Details at the end of the interview.)

Oh, and in case you haven’t read this elsewhere, American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) is hosting its annual conference in Dallas, September 21-24. See details here. This year our featured keynote speaker is Liz Curtis Higgs. I’ve never met Liz, but I’ve heard her speak on tape, and she is hilarious! A delightful, fun speaker with lots of great insight. (She’ll make you laugh ’til your sides hurt.) :)

Besides that, if you’re interested in writing, the conference gives all kinds of opportunities to learn, to interact with other writers and editors and agents. Meet old friends and make new ones. Best of all, fellowship with other Christians of like interest.

Hope to see you there!

There is another new Biblical-style novel on the market called The Expected One by author Kathleen McGowan. This book promotes the same type of heresy as found in The DaVinci Code. You can read about it here.

In this autobiographical novel the woman claims to be a descendent of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ. Of course, she has no practical proof of such a claim. She had a vision! So why wouldn’t we believe a vision? Yeah right!

In discussing this issue, however, I’ve come across the argument that Jesus actually could have been married and had a whole passel of kids, and that it wouldn’t have changed what He did for us on the cross. I’ve thought about that because the idea troubled me. Is that really true?

In thinking about the issue, a verse was niggling at the back of my mind but I could not for the life of me remember it exactly or where it was found. I even looked up in a concordance the few words I could remember and found nothing. So I began to pray and ask God for the verse and for wisdom on the subject. The book of Isaiah came to mind, so I turned there. Then Isaiah 53 surfaced in my thoughts. I found my answer in verse eight:

“By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”

This verse is repeated in Acts 8 where Philip is talking to the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip explained to the man that these verses were speaking of Jesus, so there is no mistake who is the subject.

Since this was a prophesy about Jesus, Jesus had to fulfill it. To not do so would mean the prophets were liars. And it would have meant that God didn’t keep His Word.

When Jesus came, He fulfilled every single prophecy spoken about His first coming. The gospels and Acts are replete with quotes from the Old Testament, testifying how Jesus fulfilled this or that prophesy, to show the Jewish nation that Jesus was indeed their promised Messiah. This verse, quoted in Acts 8 is just one of many examples.

John 14:1-6 is a wonderful passage of promise where Jesus tells His disciples that He is going to His Father’s house to prepare a place for them. In verse two He says: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.” Emphasis mine. In other words, “I’m telling you the truth.”

Further on in verse six He says again, “I am the truth.” Jesus always spoke the truth. And He was obedient to everything His Father planned for Him. (Philippians 2:5-8)

Since Jesus always did His Father’s will, and He knew the prophesies that He came to fulfill, to marry and have children would have been wrong for Him because it would have negated the prophesy. If Jesus had been married and had children in secret, as some might claim, He would have been a liar. (Prophets were to be stoned if even one of their prophesies did not come true.) Since God cannot lie, we would have to question whether Jesus was even God if He had done so in even one point. But in fact, He did the exact opposite. He spoke the truth, even in the face of torment and crucifixion. So why would He lie about anything else?

Instead, he told us ahead of time through the prophet Isaiah, that “Who can speak of His descendents? For He was cut off from the land of the living.” In layman’s terms (Jill’s paraphrase) – “He didn’t have kids. He died in the prime of His life.”

So could Jesus have been married and had kids and still fulfilled God’s will for His life to accomplish our salvation? No. If He’d had descendents it would have negated the prophesy. And one unfulfilled prophesy would have made it impossible for Him to say on the cross, “It is finished.”

As for whether Jesus had any relationship at all with Mary Magdalene – yes, just like He does with you and me if we repent of our sin and trust in Him. He was her Savior and Lord. That’s all. And by the way, Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute as so many think. She was demon possessed. Jesus rid her of seven devils.

Some of which are probably running around now portraying lies about her to this day.