In Faith

Today's Passage: Genesis 1-2:3.

Was the earth created in 7 days, or billions of years? Does it matter? Today we read through the first part of the Creation story, spending most of our time talking about why the earth may not have been created in 7 calendar days; then reversing in one quick passage from John 2 to show why we can accept a 'young' earth and a literal interpretation of Genesis 1. Most importantly, we talk about what the Creation story tells us about God.

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Today we're looking at why the Old Testament is still relevant to Christians today, as it was to the early church; why we shouldn't view it as boring; and how we might begin to reconcile the seeming contradictions we'll find. Kicking off a brand new umpteen-week series--let's go!

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Today we're covering a random smattering of topics--repentance, vocation and calling, defining your audience and writing to it, and eucatastrophe. While we might see future Writing in Faith episodes, this should be the last for a while. It's been fun, but also looking forward to our next series!

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Today we try to define "love" from a Scriptural standpoint--for the devotion, focusing more on the command to "love one another." For writers, we look at four relationship tropes that pose inherent danger and unacceptable risk if our readers begin to internalize them as anything close to true, or a model to follow in real life.

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Today we look at THE foundational principle of life, the universe, and everything, from Genesis chapter 1; and how "In the beginning, God..." underlies everything we should know and understand about Creation and Scripture. For writers, we pare back everything we've read, heard, and watched to take a look at the idea of 'story' and how it informs what we create.

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Today we talk about salvation--who can be saved, how, what happens after, and when do we get to heaven. For Christian writers, we're talking villains--how to create and use them to address evil and sin in the world in a way that pleases people, and--I believe--God.

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Today we take a brief look at what the Bible says about men and women--or is it wives and husbands?--and how faith and the Spirit works in and through both to preach Christ to the world. For writers, we get an introduction into writing "the Other", those who are not ourselves (our race, gender, culture, religion, etc) and how to write well.

Sanderson on Sexism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98Zy_hP5TI&list=PLH3mK1NZn9QqOSj3ObrP3xL8tEJQ12-vL&index=4
Starting at 54:43

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Today we take a second look at Scriptural grace--what is it? Is it just forgiveness for sins, or is there some power in it, something to help us live up to the holiness we've been called to? For writers, does grace cover us when we "break the rules" of writing? How do some authors break rules in a way that still makes sense, and makes for a powerful story, while others make us roll our eyes and throw the book?

LINKS:

Blue Letter Bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org

Pumped Up Kicks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXO-jKksQkM

Order of Adjectives: https://theeditorsblog.net/2014/04/08/keeping-adjectives-in-line/ 

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In this episode, we discuss holiness--setting ourselves, and what we write, apart for God's purposes instead of our own. In our spiritual life, what does "holiness" mean? Why should we choose it? For those of us calling ourselves Christian writers, our books should be different than those of the world--but we don't necessarily need to write only Sunday School-approved stories. What should we consider when trying to make our books holy? Answers to all these and more in this episode.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -- Romans 5:8

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Non-health-related delay this time--I've been super-busy preparing for the release of The One Known, Book III of The Triumvirs series. Check out danieldydek.com to see more, and check out what's been going on. Also, slight change in topic schedule! All good things.

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