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Community > Posts By > PropheticServant
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Topic:
A letter from Jesus
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This was a lovely post my dear. Thank you for sharing this with us!
 
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lol yeah, I-65 totally rocks!!
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Topic:
Writing A Book?
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I have been a professional writer for many years, but here is a bit of advice that I have taken from an extraordinary author who has helped me to stay on task and motivated. The advice I received from Jessica Bird is a "pay it forward" kind of thing. Jess first received it from Harlequin writer, Pat White, who got it from Don Miguel Ruiz. Now I am passing it along. =)
Here are 8 "Rules of Writing" to keep in mind. 1) P&R--Persist & Reinvent 2) Write Out Loud 3) Own Your Own Work 4) Plot-lines Are Like Sharks 5) Sweat Equity Is The Best Investment 6) Conflict Is King 7) Credible Surprise Is Queen 8) Listen To Your Rice Krispies! ------------------------------------- ** P&R--Persist & Reinvent: If you're not selling, or if you're not getting a good response to your material from agents or publishers, try something else, whether it's a new voice or sub-genre or even genre. Keep at it. Keep trying. Look for new avenues that interest you. Find a different path. ** Write Out Loud: Take your vision and execute it to the fullest extent of your capabilities. It is always easier to pull back than to push forward in revisions, and I think that the bolder you are in your first draft, the more likely you are to be honest with what's in your head. ** Own Your Own Work: Do not rely on your editor or your agent or your critique partner to identify and solve your plot, character, pace, context, pagination, or any one of the thousands of problems you have to work through when you write a book. Educate yourself on craft by critiquing the books you read, both the good ones and the bad ones. Ask yourself, What works? What doesn't? Then, when you look at your own work, approach it like you're a drill sergeant facing off at a bunch of unruly, lazy slobs. For me, being nice to my tender little inner artist and soaking in the mother's milk of praise is a surefire way to get soggy and fatheaded. Discipline and a clear assessment of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer are the only things that work for me. ** Plot-lines Are Like Sharks: They either keep moving or they die. Pacing is mission critical and everything must keep progressing. ** Sweat Equity Is The Best Investment: This is corollary to rule three(Own Your Own Work). After I finish the first draft, I go through the book over and over and over and over again. Then I'll take a week off and come at it one more time. I spend hours and hours repositioning the breaks and the chapters and trimming things and sharpening dialogue and making sure I "show" and not "tell" the story. ** Conflict Is King: One of the things that always works well in stories are the conflicts. The characters must overcome a great many things as the story progresses, but each time they make it through one of these roadblocks or trials, they become stronger-just as your story will. You have both external and internal conflicts to consider with all of your characters. Conflict is the microscope of a book. When it's trained on a character, you see what's underneath the narratives of physical description. You see whether someone is strong or weak, principled or apathetic, heroic or villainous. ** Credible Surprise Is Queen To Conflict's King: Credible surprise is the ultimate play on the chessboard for an author. Plenty of things are surprising, but without prior context to give them weight, they're not credible. To really make a resolution sing, you need both halves--a really strong conflict and an unpredictable, but believable outcome. ** Listen To Your Rice Krispies: I don't know where my ideas come from. The pictures in my head have always been there, and they are in charge. What I'm shown is always infinitely better than what I try to deliberately construct. Let what's in your head be the driver. Even if you get lost, trust the stories. Also, a huge, albeit obvious, tip is this: Finish a Book! Even if you don't like it, or you don't think it's good enough, see one of your projects through to the end. Discipline is mission critical to publication, and no matter how enticing the other ideas in your head may be, get to the final page on at least one of your WIPs (works in progress). If you find yourself getting distracted by the buzz of new characters or concepts, write them down in a notebook or Word document to save for later. But teach yourself to finish what you start. |
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probably work lol
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Here's a few cool places to visit. Yeah, there's a bit more than corn in Indiana
 Deer Creek (Now "Verizon") Concert venue Murat Egyptian Room Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Indy 500 (motor speedway) Indianapolis Opera House Beef and Boards (Dinner Theatre) Indianapolis Roof Ballroom Children's Museum Indianapolis Arts Garden Eiteljorg Museum Indianapolis Zoo Circle Center Mall Monument Circle Indiana Beach Brown County State Park Raccoon Lake "The Dunes" (Northern IN/MI area) Broadripple |
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TB: That comment was so very uncalled for here. God bless you.
imrare: I am so glad that the Lord loosed the Spirit of wisdom and revelation upon you in order for you to write this! This truly is an awesome post full of TRUTH! I found it to be quite awe-inspiring and empowering. Thank you so much for posting this! It was very eloquently put in my opinion.   In Love, Your sister in Christ |
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Topic:
GOD ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH!
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Topic:
Single Christian Dad
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Welcome to Mingle!
I hope you find what you're looking for. 
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Edited by
PropheticServant
on
Thu 12/03/09 03:25 PM
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They claim the scientists are playing "God." Its not since we currently do it with bone marrow. I would love to see the look on their face when a loved one is impacted with an incurable condition One quid pro quo, before I get lumped into the category of Christian 'protesters' waving signs, allow me qualify. I do not see the research itself as 'playing God.' Cloning would be. But stem cell research itself is not 'wrong.' I DO, however, still find the practical application of it unnecessary because I feel that nothing is outside of God's power. And I have been faced with loved ones who had reportedly "incurable conditions," and have myself witnessed miracles in them through the power of prayer and healing--complete restoration, actually. So, I do not believe in the possibility of an "incurable condition." All things are possible with God. |
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Edited by
PropheticServant
on
Thu 12/03/09 03:03 PM
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"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)
"Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you." Psalm 37:5 (NLT) I find stem cell research unneccessary. I believe in the power of prayer and the charismatic giftings of the Holy Spirit through the power and for the namesake of Jesus Christ. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NIV) |
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 I KNOW!!! 5 more days!!! Are you as psyched as me?? lol  Are you still planning on going? Talking your kids or going with a friend or anything?
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Topic:
psalm
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this is how i understand it A psalm of David. 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. The Lord is the leader, and will take care of us 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, He will always keep me safe and give me a safe place to live. 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He gives us our spritual strength to continue to do right, to better life him up and praise him. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [a] I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. No need to fear anything in this world as long as you have the lord with you he will keep you safe and make sure everything is ok. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Will make sure you have everything you need even when life is getting rough. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever Will do the Lord's will and go to heaven. Excellent breakdown and understanding/explaination of this psalm Cowboy! I especially enjoyed your interpretation of V.3.
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Topic:
psalm
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Psalm 23: A Psalm for the Living!
The 23rd psalm is the most beloved of the Psalms and is, perhaps, the most loved chapter in the entire Bible. It is a shame then, that we tend to only hear sermons on Psalm 23 at funerals. It is a shame because Psalm 23 is a psalm for the living--it is a psalm for you and I to apply every day of our life. There is a danger, that when a biblical text becomes particularly familiar to us, we begin to believe that we know all that there is to know about the text. When this happens we tend to overlook messages and applications that are quite obvious. For instance, have you ever noticed how David changes the form of the psalm in verse 4? In the first three verses, David refers to God as "He": "The Lord is my Shepherd . . . He makes me lie down . . . He leads me . . . He restores my soul . . . He guides me". Then in verses 4 and 5, David refers to God as "You" or "Thou": "I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me . . . Thou dost prepare a table before me . . . Thou hast anointed my head with oil". Then, finally, in verse 6 he switches back to the third person: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord". The lesson I have learned from this form change is that we should not talk for very long about God without talking to God. The first lesson that this psalm teaches me is that my study of theology should always lead me to prayer. What shall we say about the first line, "The Lord is my shepherd"? A phrase so familiar that we probably are missing the magnitude of those words. David is saying that the eternal God of the Universe is his personal shepherd. David could have rightly said, 'Hear O Israel, the Lord is our shepherd', but he does not say this, he says, "The Lord is my shepherd". There is a personal relationship here. This is a reminder that Christianity is not as much a religion as it is a relationship. Being a Christian means having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus calls Himself, "the good shepherd" in John 10, verse 11. The nature of Psalm 23 then, becomes even more personal. The Christian reads Psalm 23 this way, " (Jesus) is my shepherd, I shall not want". What exactly does that mean, "I shall not want"? The meaning here is not that we won't desire or want anything, the meaning is that we won't be left wanting. We are being told that the Lord's sheep are not lacking anything. But how is this true? We don't even have to leave Psalm 23 to see that the Lord's sheep do indeed lack things. When we are told about walking through the dark valley it is safe to assume that the valley lacks light, and I presume it lacks the green pasture and the quiet waters. In what sense then, can it be said that the Christian shall not lack anything? I like John Piper's answer to this question, "what David means is that God's sheep never lack anything that the Shepherd thinks is good for them." What this means is that God is all we need. What this means is that Jesus is enough. Whether we are in the green pasture or the dark valley, the Shepherd remains at our side and that is what we need. If we have Jesus, we lack no good thing. While it is true that Jesus is all we need, this is not to say that Jesus is all we get. David reminds us that it is our Good Shepherd who "makes (us) lie down in green pastures" and "leads (us) beside quiet waters"(v.2). Phillip Keller, a pastor and author who for eight years was himself a shepherd, writes, "It is almost impossible for (sheep) to lie down unless (certain) requirements are met". Keller explains that before sheep will lie down they need to be free of 4 things. Because of their timidity, sheep "refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear . . . Sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with other (sheep within the flock). If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down . . . Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food"(Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, 35). There must be freedom from fear, friction, flies, and famine before sheep will lie down. Translate this into our context, and I hear David saying that the Lord often removes obstacles in our life for the purpose of giving us rest--and rest of a certain kind. The Bible does not give us a prosperity gospel, but this is not to say that it gives us a prosper-less gospel. The green pastures and the quiet waters represent a type of prosperity that the Shepherd gives to His sheep. And the reason we are given this prosperity is stated in verse 3, it "restores (our) soul". What ultimately matters is not physical comfort, but spiritual restoration. When our Shepherd provides physical blessings, the goal is spiritual refreshment. And being spiritually refreshed means to walk "in the paths of righteousness"(v.3). Notice that this is not something we can accomplish on our own. Like sheep, we are prone to go astray if left on our own. David recognizes, and we must recognize, that we need to be "guided" by the Shepherd if we are to walk the righteous path. Now, before we unpack the transition verse--verse 4, I want to offer you an observation. Psalm 23 begins with rest and comfort. Psalm 23 does not begin with activity. This is a reminder of how the Christian life is to be lived. We begin by resting in Christ and out of the restoration of our soul comes activity. Many Christians, and many churches, have this backwards. Many Christians run around, busily doing ministry until they are too tired to continue. And only when they have no strength left do they stop and rest. This misses the point that Christianity is primarily a relationship, not a religion. To have activity without a relationship misses the entire point. This is the error many Christians make. We run around attending church meetings, executing programs, planning budgets, teaching the Bible and we forget the reason we are here in the first place. We are here to enjoy our relationship with Jesus Christ. A sure sign that we have missed the point is when our activity in the church becomes a replacement for prayerful devotion to the One who called us here in the first place. Jesus has called you first to worship, and secondly to work. We must never reverse this order. Psalm 23 is about the blessings of being in a relationship with the Shepherd. And what is the primary blessing of the Shepherd? The primary blessing of the Shepherd is Himself. You read about the green pastures and quiet waters and you might think they are the primary blessing of the Shepherd, but they're not. The green pastures and quiet waters eventually give way to "walk(ing) through the valley of the shadow of death"(v.4). The constant in this psalm is not the green pastures--they are temporary. The constant in this psalm is not the valley of the shadow of death--David says we eventually walk "through" it. The only constant in Psalm 23 is the presence of God, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." The blessing of the Shepherd is not an elimination of our problems. The blessing of the Shepherd is not an elimination of our enemies. The blessing of our Shepherd is a table for two prepared in the presence of our enemies(v.5). And the table, of course, is symbolic of our fellowship with Him. In the midst of trials, our source of joy is our fellowship with the Shepherd--He prepares a table for us, He anoints our head with oil, our cup overflows(v.5). Whether we are looking at the shepherding imagery, or the imagery of table fellowship, the main theme of Psalm 23 is plain to see: David is describing the joy of being in a personal relationship with God--a relationship that has no end, "Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever"(v.6). The 23rd Psalm portrays life as a pilgrimage--it is a pilgrimage with God, to God--and our final destination is "the house of the Lord". Our final destination is unhindered fellowship with Jesus Christ. And it is our final destination that should define everything we do in the meantime. Whether we are talking about Bible studies, building projects, or children's programs--these things are not the point. And any church program or project that does not move us toward an improved relationship with Jesus Christ is a misguided project and misses the point. It is time for us to examine the purposes that are behind the church projects we undertake. It is time for us to prioritize passion over programs. We want a quality ministry, yes, but not at the expense of a quality relationship. When we reach our final destination, when we get to the house of the Lord, there will be no more programs, but what will remain is passion. When we get to heaven there will be no more religion, but what will remain is our relationship with our Shepherd. Don't miss the point of Psalm 23. Our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, calls us, not to ritual, but to a relationship. It is in the relationship that He gets the glory due to Him and we get the joy we so desperately seek. Amen. |
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I think most decent women would. I think that most women, decent or not, just dont SEEK that type of responsibility off the bat. I agree with msharmony. But I also think that it takes a person of character and quality to be able to love a person for who they are despite any disabilities or unfavorable outside influences in a person's life. This can be applied to anyone really. Everyone has a 'past' which will affect their present circumstances. A ethical and moral individual will be able to see past all 'flaws' in another and love that person for their inner self. Sadly, a great many people will not take the deeper look. Or they will be more interested in their own self-interests and may not want to be burdened by another's problem. Too many people seek someone for "right now" as opposed to waiting for who is essentially "right" for them and has the capacity to love for all ages. This is the main reason that so many relationships will burn out after only a matter of months, or even a few years. Everyone seems to want the "end result" (e.g. love, the fairy-tale ending, intimacy, sometimes even marriage etc.) NOW before taking the time to build the foundation. If there is no foundation of friendship established FIRST, the relationship will not be able to withstand the weight of burdens that life will inevitably place on the couple. My advice to you is that you find someone with whom you are comfortable in being friends with first. Someone who you can talk to, enjoy spending time with them, and then build a foundation of commitment from there. Only then will that love endure the test of time. If not--if you jump into a relationship and go too fast, become close or intimate too soon, it may be great for a time, but it will not survive. And that is essentially what *most* people want--someone to grow old with and be with forever. In our younger years we must all remember that youthful beauty will always fade. But a love built on inner beauty, friendship, companionship will last an eternity.
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Welcome to Mingle KingMercy!
This was an excellent post, and I am glad you added prayers of Salvation to it--nice touch. For me, I see all of the aforementioned reasons for needing Jesus Christ to be quite valid. Although, I feel there are an infinite amount of reasons why we, imperfect sinners, need a savior. He is in everyone and everything and present through all aspects of our lives. I can think of no one else that is worth living for. And since we are on a site that cators predominantly to singles, I think it is worth mentioning that many people seek unconditional love from another person in their lives. However, it is safe to say that people can hurt you; lovers, friends, family--they can all disappoint you at times and let you down whereas Jesus never has or will. Live with and among others in your life, but live only FOR Jesus.
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Such a beautiful--and very true post. Thank you!
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This was very nice, thanks for posting.
((((((((((nvkikigirl))))))))) *waves to her* |
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Topic:
Come See The Difference
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Great Post!
God bless you.
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Topic:
hi fellow sista and brothas
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Welcome to Mingle!
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Topic:
JESUS SAVES------JESUS SAVES
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Amen! Great post...
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