September 27, 2013
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GIVING ME FITS!!
Chapter 4 is giving me fits! I fairly flew through chapters 1-3, but I keep getting chapter 4 WRONG! The current working title for the chapter is TWICE THE SONS OF HELL and then the second title line is, "The Prodigal Conflagration".
The second title line, or what I call the kicker line is actually the concept I'm talking about in the chapter. You might be able to tell from "The Prodigal Conflagration" that the chapter is focused, mostly on Jesus' parable, "The Prodigal Sons." What I'm having trouble with is getting Luke 15:1-2, 11-32, Romans, chapters 1&2 to mesh the way I need them to work. Jesus gives us the story of two wayward sons, and Paul expounds upon the type of sinner each brother is. Romans 1:18-32 lays out what underlies the rebellion of younger brother types, while the entirety of Romans chapter two tells about the older brother type. What is most tricky is how to arrive at the final conclusion: A world full of both younger brother types, and older brother types inevitably leads to the third type: Lukewarmness and outright apostasy. (See 2 Timothy 3:1-9 and Revelation 3:14-22). Nature abhors a vacuum; even the spiritual realm abhors a vacuum. The battle between religious left wing nut and religious right wing nut has brought no useful answers which lead people to the world overcoming, omnipotent, resurrection power of the living God.
More and more Christians are left hurting, confused, and running from churches in droves. What about gay people? What about abortion? What about the terrible decline in successful marriages, and the harm done children when the family falls apart in the divorce? And perhaps, most important of all: What happens if my pastor shows up as a regular on the Oxegyn Channel's "Preachers of L.A.!?" (I mean if my pastor's bling isn't as big as all the other Preacher's bling, I'll be so ashamed! And my pastor's Bentley is 2 years old, what if his 'ride' is too old???)???
The point here is centered around God's warning,
"6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
“Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.I've started Chapter 4 five or six times...I guess "third time" is not the charm... If I have to start the chapter a few more times I'm not going to be the least bit charming. Some writers view whatever they write as though it is their children. I don't have that big an attachment to the verbal hash I sling. But dumping 600 to 3000 words five or six times makes me want to put the "Writing 'Puter" on a greased cookie sheet, dumping a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips on it, setting the oven to 500 degrees, and seeing if I get some "ooey gooey chocolate chip puter cookies!!!
Comments (6)
Hemingway once told F. Scott Fitzgerald, “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”
He also said, "There is nothing to writing. ALl you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
I personally find serious writing to be the best means of discovering truth about oneself, and it's never easy or pretty.
Don't know if I'm discovering anything new in this particular writing project. I'm more laying down what God has already showed me over the years. The title of the book is EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GOD'S LOVE I LEARNED FROM HOOKERS; REACHING THE BROKEN IS REACHING GOD
Can you skip chapter 4 until later and come back to it when 5 and 6 are done? Maybe the bugaboo which is making it hard to write this conflagration will have worked itself out by then. Often letting a piece of writing cool and come back to it a little later is an excellent idea.
Thanks, going to give it a try. Chapter 5: When God Is Great; "The Abraham Revelation". Opening quote:
"The Words of St. Paul, 'No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,' shows us the necessity of eyeing God in our good works, and even in our minutest thoughts; knowing that none are pleasing to him, but those which he forms in us and with us. From hence we learn that we cannot serve him, unless he use our tongue, hand, and heart, to do by himself and his Spirit whatever he would have us do." ~ John Wesley.
Lol at 2 year old Bentley! too silly. :p
You don't think a 2 year old Bentley is too old. I'm seriously feeling worried for the least of the mega pastors in L. A. ;-P