Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Two Months! AHHHHH!

*squeal*

I can’t believe it’s boiled down to two months already. Time is flying, and I’m so excited!!! FASTER FASTER!! lol

Why the childish thrill? Well, the week of July 20th, I’ll be taking another trip. This time to a conference in Kentucky -Creation College 3. But it’s the getting there that’s going to make this adventure twice as fun.

Road trip!!

I’ll be going with a dear friend of mine who is also attending the conference. We plan to see new sights, learn new things, and make some incredible memories.

That week, Lord willing (if I have internet), I will try and post frequently to share some highlights of what is going on and all that I’m learning. So, stay tuned!

To learn more about the conference, visit http://www.answersingenesis.org/events/creation-college-3.

Who knows, maybe I’ll see some of you there! :D

~L. Pierce

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

They're All Gone!!!

Being a writer is nothing new. There are hundreds of thousands -probably even millions- of authors in the world today, and that doesn’t even include those that love to write and have yet to be published.

With all those people already writing and being heard, who’s to say that they haven’t taken all the good ideas already? What if my ideas aren’t as unique as I may think?

I say no, with a very warm chuckle. Why?

We are each so unique in every way. Like snow flakes, no two people are exactly the same. Likewise, what we write will be as well. The ideas we envision in our minds, while they may come close to something we’ve read or seen or experienced before, will not be the same.

Let me give you an example. My writing partner and I do an exercise to keep our creative juices flowing. We’ll give each other a sentence or two of a theme off the top of our heads and then we each have to write for a certain period of time and let our minds run wild concerning where that sentence will lead us.

Last time, this was the sentence I sent her... The theme was modern/thriller:

My cell phone sounded from the passengers seat. With one hand on the steering wheel, I snatched it up and accepted the text message...

Now, when I typed that up, my mind went immediately to the phone text being from the antagonist that is threatening her by holding someone she loves hostage. But, my writing partner gave it a completely opposite perspective. She wrote that the text was from her boss, who appeared to be someone in the police department. The protagonist had been on a case looking for a missing girl who had just been found. The text was to let her know they’d found her and to come right away.

Same beginning, but after that everything else was like day and night. And rightly so! My partner and I are two different people.

This is one of the many things I love about writing. There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. It’s purely at the discretion of your imagination.

Rest in knowing that your uniqueness -everything that makes you who you are- will aid you in writing something that no one else has.

I thank God for this every day. Without our differences, we would be nothing more than robots. If that were the case, I doubt there would be such a thing as writing and that pains me to think about! Unique is just another way of saying that we are truly “fearfully and wonderfully made” by an awesome Creator!

~L. Pierce

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Vacations Away!

Ah, the time is here! Vacations are being planned and set out upon. The weather is beautiful, and the tourists are few. I’ve discovered that it’s the perfect time for a vacation.

If you’ve never been to Cape May, NJ, this time of year is perfect. Not too hot, but not too cold. The water is still too chilly for a swim, but the sights well make up for it. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see it rain. Maybe a rainbow will show up and streak its way across the sky with its lucid colors.

We witnessed this very sight. The rainbow not only split the sky in half but separated the light from the dark. It was quite a spectacle! One of the many things I will never forget. God’s promise to Abraham so long ago is still with us. No leprechauns or pots of gold. No, something far greater than that. The love of God.

We took the ferry up and back from Lewes to Cape May and that in itself was so pleasant. The wind on your face. The sea air in your nostrils. I felt like I was Captain of the pirate ship Freedom. It was perfect research for a book I’m working on right now that happens to involve pirates. Nothing compares to first hand experiences when you’re writing. God is so good!

The ironic thing is that I live near the beach, but went to the beach for my vacation. Go ahead, you can chuckle and wonder what we were thinking. Trust me, I’m doing the same. Oh, but it was SO worth it! We’ve seen our beach a million and a half times, goodness knows. This was new territory to explore. I was enthralled and captivated both body and soul.

We didn’t get to see much of the history of Cape May (something we’ll have to discover on our next excursion), but I could feel it everywhere I went. To me, there is no greater high, aside from being in Christ, than seeing everything and everyone around you and knowing there is a story there. Something hidden to uncover like buried treasure.

Where will you be Vacationing this year? Your own backyard? Perhaps Jamaica? (If so, can you take me along? lol *wink*) Wherever you go, be sure to take God along. He makes things so amazing.

Isaiah 45:2, “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron...”

Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to witness Your Glory and for all the precious memories made while doing so.

I’ve missed you all! Hope you have a blessed week. :)

~L. Pierce

Next Posting--- They’re All Gone!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Eating and the Bible: A Closer Look

This issue I’ve been discussing in my last few posts has been much deliberated and debated by many, especially where the Bible is concerned. Some would say the Bible gives permission for such things as eating what we now know as pure filth.

The main thing to notice, however, is that in order to do so and to agree with such a thing, one must ignore all the facts laid out before them. Not only the love of a caring Father that wishes to protect us, but the truth of the matter, such as we’ve found with the pig. Why would God have given us permission now to change it, when clearly the pig itself has not changed?

There are a few places in the Bible that it is said tell us this. I would like to examine two of them with a perspective that follows along with all that we have learned up until this point, if I may.

I wish to make things quite clear however, that I am by no means saying that I know everything or that my way goes. I will be the first one to tell you that I am not perfect, and it is greatly possible that I over looked something in the course of my research. But, God's Word is perfect. All I hope to do is offer some things to consider -some options to weigh amongst the many. My desire for this post is to help aid you in making a final decision.

Two of the major ones I’ve come across are Mark 7:14-23 and Acts 10:9-16. (for the sake of space, I will not provide the verses in their entirety.)

*Mark 7:14-23

Let’s go back to the beginning of the chapter... I truly believe that context is so important when it comes to the Bible. (Read http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n4/unlocking-scripture on context.) And this instance proves it.

Read verses 1-13. What do you find?

The Pharisees accused the disciples of not washing their hands before they ate. This is the main issue concerning these verses, not the food they were eating.

Also, what is it that Jesus talks about as being the real source of uncleanliness? The heart. Jesus is saying that all that we take in (be it with our eyes, ears, mouth, etc.) does not make us unclean and evil (notice the order -unclean leading to evil). The evil our hearts choose to do or follow is what makes us unclean (this is the correct order -evil leads to unclean). We are unclean by our evil, or sin, not evil by our unclean (in this case, the dirt we ingest). Boy, is that a brain twister. Did you follow all that? ;)

Otherwise, every poor and homeless person would be considered evil. And even thensome! I know some American homes and families that are not exactly the cleanest people even though they have the capacity to be. Does that sound right to call them evil for it? Goodness, no.

See, what the Pharisees were doing here was making it seem like the dirt on our hands is what makes us evil or 'unclean.' The Greek word used here for unclean even means defiled. But that is not so. Verse 18+19 (before the parentheses.. I'll get there in a moment) agree with this as well. It is saying that it does not go into the heart, where evil starts, so it cannot be the cause. It goes into the stomach and out of the body. Again, this is not talking about food because food doesn't go into our heart either. It's talking about the dirt on the disciples unwashed hands.

It seems odd to me for the parentheses to be here then. Reading it plainly, it doesn’t even fit with all that is happening and being said. The only thing you could peg on this verse is concerning washing hands. So, should the parentheses really be there?

I’ve read that in the original Greek the parentheses does not exist.

And check out the KJV version (this, I’ve read as well, is the closest to the original Greek) -http://www.ibsstl.org/bible/verse/index.php?q=Mark+7%3A14-23&submit=Lookup+Verse&niv=yes&kjv=yes&display_option=columns&v_mode=on&t_mode=on. It explains things much differently and not to mention has NO parentheses saying anything of this sort.

I think it’s safe to say that this is not talking about food here at all. In fact, the word food is not mentioned, say for once in verse 2 to tell us what the disciples were doing -"eating food..." That's it.

Jesus was merely talking about how our digestion separates the impurities -like dirt from our hands- in the stomach. This has been proven scientifically, has it not? This, then, agrees with the Bible. But, saying that all food is okay to eat by this section, does not.

This makes even more sense as we go on to the next set of verses...

*Acts 10:9-16.

Mark is before Acts not only in book but time period as well. From what we can conclude about Acts, the issue of food is still there. Meaning, the passage in Mark we just read did not do what those claim it did. It did not make all foods clean to be eaten. Read it, and you’ll see.

Peter makes it very clear that he has still followed the food laws and would never break them. If this was changed back in Mark, why would he have needed to?

Now, onto the verses... As I’m sure your Bible makes aware, this chapter is actually three parts, not just one. I will abbreviate it for you.

Verses 1-8 tells us of God coming to Cornelius and telling him to send for Peter, which he does.
Verses 9-23 tells us of God coming to Peter, before the men sent for him arrived.
Verses 23-48 tells us of Peter’s visit with Cornelius.

The last set of verses is especially important. There we learn that Cornelius was a Gentile. At that time, Jews and Gentiles did not associate with each other. It was law (verse 27). However, in verses 1-8, Cornelius is described as a “devout and God-fearing man.”

This is the cause for all that was said in God’s vision to Peter. God was giving Peter permission to go to a Gentile, not that he could eat whatever he pleased. Peter even says this when he gets to Cornelius’ House in verses 27-29.

How do I know this for certain? You’re probably thinking, the vision did in fact include food, did it not?

Yes, it did. But, think about this...

Up until this point, Peter and those like him all followed the food laws as he makes clear in verse 14. Back then, it was a big deal, hence why Peter reacted the way he did to the vision.

Now, if God had really told him that all food was now clean to be eaten, that would have been MAJOR news for the Jews. I mean, we are talking life changing here! Wouldn’t Peter have wanted to spread it? And fast?

But, he didn’t. As we read in verse 28, he links it to the issue between the Jews and the Gentiles. Nothing more.

In conclusion then, it appears that the Bible cannot be used to support this claim that we are free to eat anything we want.

I have seen the reasons why first hand in fact. My father left and divorced my mom, not only turning his back on God but on everything -his entire way of life, which included food. Since then, he has eaten and done anything he pleased.

Well, just recently, he had his Appendix removed. The doctors said it was so toxic that if he didn’t get it taken out, when it burst (not IF it burst), the mess would be horrible. Now my father is without his Appendix, which I have read is a big part of the immune system. And I have no doubt that the reason it got to be so toxic was because of what he ate -it was much more than pork, too.

Reason for not eating what the Bible says to stay away from? The evidence is hard to ignore.

WDYT?

~L. Pierce