Well, this is my second post. I’m trying to get the word out about my Blog. I feel a bit ridiculous though, like “Who cares to read what I have to say anyway?” but I have things that I feel need to be said. I have things on my heart that I need to express. And I have a hope that God will touch people’s lives through things written and discussed on this Blog.

I finished the first scene of Chapter One in my Fantasy Fiction book today. I know that it isn’t a lot, but it is definitely a milestone for me. I only started writing, like really writing, about a month ago. I had toyed with the idea for this book for a few years since it first came to me. But I got serious about it a couple months ago and have been “world building” and outlining a lot since. What I want to do is complete chapter one and send it in for a critique at The Christian Writers Guild (President- Jerry Jenkins, Coauthor of Left Behind). I plan on joining their guild and becoming an “apprentice” so that I can enter my novel in their 10,000-dollar contest. I know, I know, like I’m going to really win. But, hey, it would be awesome if I did. Plus it would be a guarantee that I get published. It’s all in God’s hands though. I fully believe that God put this book on my heart to write. If that is really true, then He will do with it what He sent it out to do. If all that means, is that my faith was built up in writing it, and it touched the lives of the people who read it out of print, then so be it. Naturally, I don’t feel that that will be the extent of it, but I can’t really know for sure, and as a mature follower of Christ, I need to be ready to accept that and see fruit where no other but the eyes of God can see.

I don’t think that I’ve really explained yet what my book is about. Let me see if I can sum it up without sounding too “korny”. In a Fantasy world of my own imagination (named Alorin-subject to change), where Elves are the chosen people of Elyon (God), and Dwarves are the result of the population of Alorin being divided, thousands of years ago, by God and given a different appearance (shortness of stature, etc…), mankind are people in appearance like you and me, and where Dragons are the equivalent of Angels an Demons in our own world, Mortimir (equivalent of Satan) has somehow found a way to eradicate from the memory of Humanity (In my novel, and I don’t think you will find it ANYWHERE else, “humans” and “humanity” refer to the people of Alorin as a whole. Besides appearance, there are no distinctions that make an Elve or Dwarve not human. All Dwarves, Elves, and Men are “human”), the existence of the One True God, and Eynon’s (equivalent of Jesus) sacrificial death and atonement for sin. The Elves (equivalent of the Jews), having been given a specific revelation of God as a people, unlike both Dwarves and Men (gentiles), have not forgotten of Elyon’s existence, but any memory for good or bad, of Eynon, the fulfillment of the prophecies promising a “Messiah”, that they had rejected as a people for the thousands of years since His ascension to Heaven, has been erased.

Both Dwarves and Men have forgotten of both entirely, but the equivalent of “Christians” have forgotten neither. It is a separation of the wheat and the tares for the believers, where the people who were never really “saved” forget of the existence of God altogether, and the ones who were truly “saved” are left in a world where no one has any remembrance of the God they worship- the God that gave them life.

The urgency to restore somehow this knowledge of God to bring people to a saving faith burns within the hearts of Gods people (referring now to the “Christians”). Alorin is torn by war, the “barrier” that separates the realm where Dragons dwell (Angels/Demons) and the people of Alorin, is failing, and the “antichrist” has now stepped on the scene at a time when Mortimir has erased from the memory of humanity the existence of the One True God and Eynon, His Son, who is the Savior of the world.

The story follows Ahaziah (prophet of Elyon), Sharon (Elven woman with unique abilities given by God- very vague, I know, but I don’t know how else to explain it just yet without taking forever), Rayn (an Elve/Man trying to obtain righteousness by the “Law”), Cathan (a Dwarve who teaches martial arts and philosophy at an orphanage in Aliel- a major trading city in Alorin), and Caius (a student under Cathan), as God brings them together to undo what has been done and to head the movement of what will become the underground “church”.

I’m fine with people not liking the premise of my book because they think that it is too much of an obvious allegory, but I would ask that they reserve their judgment until after they’ve read t. I believe that if handled properly, this could be done very well, and be used to open the eyes of many people to the things of God. Four years ago, I became a Christian through reading Christian fiction. Jerry Jenkins and Tim Lahaye have been criticized plenty for their work The Left Behind Series, but it had the power to forever change my life and bring me to the Cross where my sins were washed away. Four years from now, it is my hope that the same testimony will be given about these books, that their hearts were touched, lives changed, and eternal destinies secured in Heaven through reading my Novel.

I’m sorry if I got a bit carried away here in writing all this. As I am saving this now onto my computer, it is 1:23am. I am very tired. If anything is confusing about what I wrote, feel free to comment on it and I will do my best to explain.

Until Next Time…. God bless!

Arthur's Perspective

This will be my first Blog, and will be semi-short. I will be going by the name Arthur, and I live in Southern Nevada. Right now it is about 120 degrees outside. We had a little bit of rain this morning, but it couldn't last long.

I am a Christian, and have been one for 4yrs and 6 days now. When I was 15, I read the Left behind series by Jerry Jenkins. The Gospel was clearly presented in those books and when the characters all prayed to receive the Lord, I was touched. I knew that this was more than just some fictional book that I was reading; God was speaking to my heart. On July 14th, 2004 in South Elgin, Illinois (I was on vacation visiting my Grandma), in my Grandma's driveway, at about 6pm, I prayed to recieve the Lord. I had recognized my sinful condition before God, that He had every right to throw me away from Him, even a duty to do so because of His Holy character. I knew that by my sins I had made myself an enemy of God, but it was the kindness of God that led me to repentance. When I learned that God wanted nothing more than to pick me up and make me His son, to love me and have me love Him, I turned. I prayed to recieve Jesus as my Savior because He had provided the way for me to be saved (took my sins- and everyone else's too- on Himself, while on the cross). My life has never been the same since.

On later Blogs, I will write what God puts on my heart, including: Stories of God working in my life and other's lives around me and the world, tools on Evangelism and my desire to see "Interdenominational Evangelism Teams" spring up: uniting the Body of Christ to work together in love to fulfill the Great Commission, what God is doing in our start-up church in Laughlin Nevada named Living Water Outreach Ministry, etc...

Also, I hope to have alot of information on the Fantasy Fiction book that I am writing. The best way to classify the "genre" that I feel led to write in is "Biblical Speculative Fiction". I don't know where that term was coined, but having read its definition, I knew that it was what I was trying to do.

I love the idea of networking with christians of like-mind. Please, feel free to tell me what you think, Godbless you.

Unitil next time....