Thank you Lord for inspiration!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Many moons ago, God had given me an excellent idea for a book. The uniqueness of it comes from the idea that the majority of the story is an allegory to the life of a lukewarm christian who is brought to their knees when convicted of the guilt of their apathy towards advancing the Kingdom of God. This I feel is an area that God wants me to address to the reader. It has 2 major principles that I hope comes across clearly at the end of the reader's journey. First, a warning of some of the spiritual dangers of being lukewarm within the church - that it can result in utter ruin. As it is written about lukewarm christians, God will 'spew them from His mouth'. Needless to say, hard times come to the main character of this book - times that bring him to his knees in repentence. Second, that there is hope, reconciliation, and restoration for those who were guilty of this but desire to repent of it.
I have enjoyed playing around with the idea, watching the drama unfold before my proverbial eyes. I had been working on writing about a fictional culture on another world for many years, and this was the perfect match to write my fictional allegory. So, watching as this imaginary world comes to life, complete with a rich cultural background, idioms, beliefs and such, is a blessing to me.
My only problem was how I was going to bring about the saving sacrifice of the Jesus figure in the story. I want to do it honour without simply ripping it from the bible. Of course the sacrifice of Jesus in the bible is by far the superior telling of this atonement - this payment for our sins. And no one allegory could possibly capture the entire essence of it because it goes way beyond all theory and understanding - we can only hope to understand parts of it in this world. And I did not want to simply take the story of it from the bible, change the names of the people and places, and leave it as that, because I do not wish to say that I completely understand Jesus' death on the cross in the bible. No one can. So I had to find an allegorical representation of this sacrifice that spoke of the elements of which I DID understand, that would also fit in the context of the world and culture that I was writing about. And this proved to be a challenge indeed.
But praise be to God, whom I believe has granted me a vision of this most crucial scene, along with its intentions and emotions. I most certainly am NOT going to write the details about the scene here, because it is a focal point of the book. You will have to read it when the book is done! But I did want to share this with you all. As well, I hope to share the final product with you when it is done - either when it is published or at least ready to be published.
God bless ya!
mE
I have enjoyed playing around with the idea, watching the drama unfold before my proverbial eyes. I had been working on writing about a fictional culture on another world for many years, and this was the perfect match to write my fictional allegory. So, watching as this imaginary world comes to life, complete with a rich cultural background, idioms, beliefs and such, is a blessing to me.
My only problem was how I was going to bring about the saving sacrifice of the Jesus figure in the story. I want to do it honour without simply ripping it from the bible. Of course the sacrifice of Jesus in the bible is by far the superior telling of this atonement - this payment for our sins. And no one allegory could possibly capture the entire essence of it because it goes way beyond all theory and understanding - we can only hope to understand parts of it in this world. And I did not want to simply take the story of it from the bible, change the names of the people and places, and leave it as that, because I do not wish to say that I completely understand Jesus' death on the cross in the bible. No one can. So I had to find an allegorical representation of this sacrifice that spoke of the elements of which I DID understand, that would also fit in the context of the world and culture that I was writing about. And this proved to be a challenge indeed.
But praise be to God, whom I believe has granted me a vision of this most crucial scene, along with its intentions and emotions. I most certainly am NOT going to write the details about the scene here, because it is a focal point of the book. You will have to read it when the book is done! But I did want to share this with you all. As well, I hope to share the final product with you when it is done - either when it is published or at least ready to be published.
God bless ya!
mE
