Wrimo for God

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a competition across the United States (and some other countries too), one that few enter and even fewer finish. The contest dimensions are easy enough - write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

I believe YOU have a novel within you. It might be started this November. It might only be a stream-of-consciousness collection of anecdotes about your walk with Christ. It might be a collection of recipes, one hundred for every state in the union. It might be a set of poems you start and finish writing with more focus than you have ever given anything.

The question is - are YOU one of those people who has felt they had a novel waiting to get out, waiting to have a voice, waiting for the right moment?

What if tomorrow is that moment? What if THIS November, you were open to the possibility of writing that novel?

I challenge you to pray! Seek God's guidance in this! And if you are open to it, and God is speaking to you through this blog, then write! Write to glorify His name! Write to convey the sorrows you have experienced and how Jesus walked you through resolution! Write about how forgiveness changed your life once you gave some problem to Him. Write about some personal miracle or revelation you have experienced!

You don't need to share it ... you don't even have to write this for any particular reason ... but consider praying about it. It might be that small step you need to begin a profound change in your life!

Expectations

On being a martyr
There is a facet of faith that most of us only have second-hand knowledge: being martyrs for God. It is an odd thing - looking through Fox's book of martyrs, one gets the impression that there USED to be people who were willing to die for Him, if only to get the word out and to further His kingdom, but now the faith and passion and zeal of the 'true' believer has died down, leaving only the initial followers of Christ Jesus and those that manage to hang on long enough to be a witness and testimony for others. However, there will never be a book that catalogues the number of martyrs in today's world - people in China are under attack this very moment for believing in the very same thing I am free to post. Thus, dear reader: do you know of any family, individuals, or churches I might pray about?

On what a believer's life looks like
From scripture we know there are a number of tools and instances where people are very clearly suffering. Paul, for instance, not only suffered, but accounted it a blessing to suffer, in the line of duty. The question has drawn itself to my awareness because I see God's glory, God's grace, and God's blessings nearly all the time in everything I see and do. The result is that I am full of thanksgiving I often miss the suffering - is that the key? Are we to assume that a believer has his own share, or more, of suffering, but has a completely different perspective on the experience?

Us

This marks the end of the set of blog posts which are entitled via a praise and worship song - early on I stopped using the title itself as meaningful, which takes away from the potential for such posts to tie together; likely due to lack of planning on my part. If that last sentence doesn't make sense, consider this: what if you loved a particular song, and each word meant something to you. You could then post paragraphs of content on that one word, the particular aspect of which could somehow relate to the gross meaning of the praise song itself. Ultimately, the entirety of posts which would be comprised of said titles would be an amazing testimony to your walk and hopefully would give Christ Jesus the glory.

Early on my goal for this blog was to make it about God ... and I tried ... but I have to wonder - if a blog is set up by a person, and all they can possibly blog is what Jehovah gives them, what they experience through Christ's glory, and ultimately are only able to share that data that Yeshua presents to that person ... is it even possible for a blog to truly be about the one one worships, instead about oneself?

I recently heard that "Jesus", though in current usage is the name of my christian God, is actually the modified name of an ancient Egyptian pagan god. So the question I ask YOU, dear reader, is this: What do you know of the origins of the word Jesus? Were you told it and took it for granted? Did you research its origins (for, to be sure, Christ Jesus was likely never called by that name, as he was Hebrew, and did not speak English), did you look at the lingual history of the languages that the holy scriptures have experienced, or have you done what I have done and taken on faith that the name of the God you serve is the same that He is called by? On that note: if you have any books, links, or other literature on this subject, or even the bibliography of same, please comment them.

Today's miracle: The sunset over my backyard fence was beautiful today. I am perpetually and continually amazed how beautifully God paints pictures with tools I could never hope to use, on canvases I have no means of interacting with. Ya'ay God!