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Jeremiah, Who Were You?
If you think, “Uggh, the weeping prophet. How depressing,” think again. Jeremiah is fascinating. He’s so much more than a man who needs a box of Kleenex. This blog post is part of a series on the inspiration for my inspirational fantasy series, The Prophet Chronicles. We’ve talked about Josiah – how he was crowned at age eight. EIGHT! His dad was a rotten guy. He probably made disastrous choices when it came to marriage. He started following the Lord around age fifteen. Why? He became a godly king. Who or what influenced him. Who would he have listened to? Jeremiah! What do we know about Jeremiah? The words of Jeremiah…
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Musings on Josiah
In preparation for the release of Daughter of Stone this summer, I’ll be doing a series of blog posts about some of the characters and events that inspired the story. The Prophet Chronicles is a fantastical retelling of the events before and during the Babylonian Exile. In studying the books of 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Jeremiah, I had so many questions. There are so many things we just don’t know the specifics of. At the same time, there are so many things in their culture that have parallels in our own. We can look into the lives of the people of the Old Testament and…
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On Being Salt and Light
Sean McDowell recently hosted a Jewish guest on his podcast who vehemently denied that Jesus is the Messiah. It’s a great discussion. If you’re a fan of apologetics like me, you’ll enjoy this exercise. Listen to it and pause when he raises an objection. How would you answer these objections? In the words of Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, “There’s a double meaning in that.” What is a biblical response to his objection? How can we address these objections in a winsome way? As always, Sean is respectful. He seeks to truly understand the position of his guest, and he knows we can’t argue people into the Kingdom. People believe what…
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The Gift of Faith
As I mentioned in my last blog post, my review of The Mark of the Raven, our Bible study group is studying the spiritual gifts right now. Of course, discovering what our gifts are is of interest, but I’ve been focusing more on the Giver and the reason for the gifts. Not because I’m super spiritual or selfless, but because I felt like I needed to start at the beginning. Without a solid understanding of the nature of the Giver and His original intent, it’s easy to go off track. Just ask Lady Selene Ravenwood. (See above.) Meanwhile, something serious happened to someone dear to me, and I started to feel…
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Mark of the Raven Book Review
Boy, was I wrong. I’ve been intending to read Morgan L. Busse’s Mark of the Raven for years. But there was just something about the cover. It said, “futuristic dystopian,” to me, and I find that depressing. Between AI taking over, the ever present threat of another pandemic, and the mystery surrounding 3I/Atlas, who needs fictional dystopia? But this book was nothing like what I expected. It’s a rich fantasy, full of meaning and insight, that sucked me in from the first page. I did have to put it down to breathe at times. It’s that intense. Be warned – it’s a three part saga that won’t let you go until…
