The Power of the Word by Dr. Richard Spillman

As Christian writers, we have a weight of responsibility to fairly and prayerfully include God in your work. Our guest today, fellow Mountain Brook Ink author, Richard Spillman, is here with encouragement as we write. Read on!

~~~~~

This is a story of the amazing power of the Word of God. It contains all the elements of a Hollywood script: drama, conflict, good vs. evil, angry crowds, and a single righteous man willing to speak the Word of God.

It took place several years ago in Palo Alto, California, at a time when Ray Stedman was the pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, the largest church in the community. A few weeks earlier a local developer had filed an application for a liquor license. He wanted to build a liquor store only blocks away from both Peninsula Bible Church and the local high school. The application was accepted, posted, and the zoning board set the date for a public hearing.

In the days leading up to the hearing things were relatively quiet. It appeared as if this proposal was going to easily slide through the approval process. Later the developer would tell the local news outlets that it looked like he was going to be able to walk out with his license in less than fifteen minutes.

The day arrived. The developer and his attorney were a little early, so they took their assigned seats at the front table. Occasionally one of them would glance back at the entrance and watch as the room filled until it was standing room only.

At the posted time the meeting was called to order and it began in a businesslike, calm fashion. But that didn’t last for long. Tension, yelling, interruptions, even red faces all slowly built up. Citizens expressed their outrage, citing the need to protect their youth from the temptation to buy and drink alcohol. The developer argued that if the students wanted alcohol, they would get it even if his store were located farther away. It was the parents’ responsibility not his to keep the kids away from his store.

Just when it looked hopeless, a solitary man sitting in the back who had remained quiet during all the arguments stood and raised his hand. At first no one reacted to this man but as the whisper circulated that it was the local pastor, Ray Stedman, people quieted down. He walked up to address the zoning board and asked for permission to read a short passage of Scripture. The board agreed.

Pastor Stedman opened his Bible and turned to Luke 17:1-2. As he read the words aloud, a hush fell over the crowd.

He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Without a comment, Pastor Stedman closed his Bible, turned, and walked back his seat. After a few moments of silence, the man who wanted to open the liquor store stood up and withdrew his application.

Just as Christ used the Word to rebuke the enemy, Pastor Stedman had used the power of the Word to set things right in his community.

Since most of us are readers, writers, or both, this is a story we can take to heart. When we write our books, especially when those are Christian works, we need to understand that even if our book is a romantic historical piece, an adventure, or a cozy mystery, as soon as we put God in it, it has the potential to become powerful. We have a responsibility to ensure that the way we involve God in our stories is Holy Spirit led.

To that end, I pray, and I ask you to pray with me, that we will always keep Christ at the center of every word we pen.

Words are powerful, especially when our books include God. #amwriting #Christianfiction

~~~~~

Everyone dies once…what if a chosen few were raised from the dead?

Now that the threat from Abdul Ba’ith has been eliminated, Lazarus and his team at SOAR hope to help Ricki discover the secret in his journal. That hope is dashed when he discovers that the UDs have even bigger plans in the works—plans that threaten the stability of the entire world.

North Korea is ruled by a UD who has overseen the development of a deadly airborne disease. The virus is on its way to the Middle East by boat where ISIS will use it to destroy Israel on October 10th. Lazarus joins a team sent to North Korea to eliminate the UD responsible for the program while another team searches for the virus in the Middle East, hoping to destroy it before it can be used.

The odds are stacked against both teams as twist after twist arise to impede their progress. Will Lazarus be able to free North Korea of its dictatorial leader? Will Shiri’s team be able to locate the virus and neutralize it before it is released on Israel? It’s a world-wide hunt with more that the existence of Israel at stake, because the virus will spread from Israel to the rest of the world.

~~~~~

Richard Spillman has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and has taught Computer Engineering for over 30 years. After his recent retirement, Richard took up his life-long dream to write novels. His first novel, The Awakened, was a Genesis Semi-Finalist and a Cascade finalist. Richard is active on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Wattpad and LinkedIn. You can learn more about Richard at his website: spillmanrichard.com

The High-Wire Novelist, Part I by Beth White

Beth White

When I asked Beth White to join us again today on Seriously Write, she gave me so much great information to share that it needed to be two blog posts instead of one. But instead of breaking it up into two weeks (and make you wait to read it), we decided to put the first half of the post here and the second half on her personal blog. So be sure to look for the link, at the end of this post, to read Part II of The High-Wire Novelist.

~ Angie

As I write this, I’m at the end of a long day of teaching music to students in an inner-city high school in Mobile, Alabama. Someday I’m going to write a screenplay based on my adventures over the last six years. Oh, the lives that have intersected mine. The drama confronted, acted upon, and put behind me—or not. The happy tears shed for miracles of God’s provision and endless wonder at the creative gifts bestowed in unlikely place. But the telling of it, the figuring out of what it means, will come much later…maybe when I retire.

For now, any spare moments of the day are spent trying to wrestle six years of research into three historical romance novels—novels which go by the grand title “The Gulf Coast Chronicles.” Yes, my alter-ego is Author Beth White. Most writers, I suppose, have to juggle two jobs and can only dream of the day they’ll make enough money in royalties to quit the day job and write full-time. So I know I’m not alone in feeling this constant pull between doing the day job with excellence—and writing an excellent book. Letting either one slide is not an option.

Sometimes—okay, most of the time, I feel like I’m missing the mark. I’m constantly behind where I want to be in word count. When I do sit down to write, usually in late afternoon or early evening, my brain turns to sluggish jelly. Who are these characters lying limply on the computer screen, and why will they not get up and do something? I read back over what I wrote in the previous session and can’t remember where I was going with that half-finished sentence. Suddenly 18th Century Mobile feels like an alien planet in a faraway solar system. And I don’t do sci-fi.

So how does it get done? I’ve been repeating this process in various incarnations for more than fifteen years. Honestly, it doesn’t get any easier—if anything, my expectations ratchet higher for each successive book. I expect more from my prose-crafting, and I crave finer characters, more complex plot, deeper themes. Probably I should issue a warning here: Orderly Type A personalities will not like my messy methods. But maybe I can help a few writers out there who need reassurance that a busy life is not such a bad thing for a writer to have.

For one thing, aside from occasional physical weariness, I find that accomplishing challenging tasks energizes my spiritual life—which by definition energizes everything. Those of us who walk with Christ should find Jesus infusing everything we do. If the connection is deep, faith-filled, and rooted in scripture, we will hear the Holy Spirit whispering directions as to where to spend time, what’s worth investing our lives in. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t give up any of the commitments on my plate right now—and I’m very reluctant to take on anything else—because I’ve discovered that obedience is the height of joy.

One of the hardest elements of practicing the gift and responsibility of writing for publication is convincing others around one of the worthiness of the endeavor. I’ve discovered that being generous in using the gift in other ways besides writing fiction often wins the respect of friends and loves ones (and bosses and coworkers too!). For example, when some project at work or at church crops up where the gift of words would be useful, I volunteer. I figure, if I’m going to be there anyway, I might as well be doing something I enjoy, right? Of course that can get out of hand, but if people observe your ability to write in what they perceive as a “useful” application, they are more likely to take you seriously when you need to reserve time for the fiction.



Part II of the High Wire Novelist, http://www.bethwhite.net

About the Author

Beth White is a native Southerner, born on the Gulf Coast and reared in northwest Mississippi. Besides performing professionally as a singer and flutist, in the last thirteen years she has published (as Elizabeth White) four novellas and ten full-length novels with such publishers as Tyndale House, Zondervan, and Steeple Hill. Beth’s current and most ambitious writing project to date is the culmination of a decade’s research into the cultural, political and religious development of the American Gulf Coast. A lifelong passion for stories which chronicle the innate human drive for romance, faith, and adventure began when she was still a child. The Pelican Bride launches The Gulf Coast Chronicles with the adventures of a ship full of French mail order brides.

Beth and her husband Scott have two married adult children and one grandchild. Beth teaches piano and chorus at an urban high school in Mobile, Alabama, an occupation which will undoubtedly one day become a story thread in a novel.

The Pelican Bride
by Beth White

The Pelican Bride

She’s come to the New World to escape a perilous past. But has it followed her to these far shores?

It is 1704 when Frenchwoman Geneviève Gaillain and her sister board the frigate Pélican bound for the distant Louisiana colony. Both have promised to marry one of the rough men toiling in this strange new world in order to escape suffering in the old. Geneviève knows life won’t be easy, but at least here she can establish a home and family without fear of persecution for her outlawed religious beliefs.

When she falls in love with Tristan Lanier, an expatriate cartographer-turned-farmer whose checkered past is shrouded in mystery, Geneviève realizes that even in this land of liberty one is not guaranteed peace. Trouble is brewing outside the fort between the French colonists and the native people surrounding them. And an even more sinister enemy may lurk within. Could the secret Geneviève harbors mean the undoing of the colony itself?