Last month I made an unusual New Year’s resolution for someone as widely-read as myself: It was to read less. It’s been a challenge limiting my book intake in order to focus on my writing.

So in honor of my resolution to spend less time reading, I have to be even more selective of the books I do read than I ever have been before.

I’m having to put aside my beloved history and biography books for a while to focus on fiction to help shape my own writing, but in the realm of fiction, there’s still so much to choose from.

Here’s a list of reasons fiction is good for not just writers such as myself, but for everyone.

1) Fiction can help shape or break a worldview

Oftentimes an author will write about a certain topic because they’re passionate about it. And more often than not, that topic will…

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26).

In Italian, it is “dalla padella alla brace.  The first recorded use of it was in a Greek poem as early as 15BC.  The first to adapt it into English was Roger L’Estrange in 1692.  The Romanians claim it as one of their ancient proverbs.  We’ve all heard it and probably used it at some point in our lives.  “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” means leaving a bad situation only to find yourself in one that is worse.

I’m reminded of a story one of my former pastors told (repeatedly!).  A man driving his car too fast, couldn’t make a sharp corner and drove the car off a cliff into a deep canyon.  He fell out of…

C.cada is a community for Christian artists to get together and practice their art work whether it be writing, painting, pencil drawings, water-color,  photography, wood carving, musical/instrumental, fabric art, etc.  Pastor J of Lillie-Put is the founder of C.cada (Cornerstone Christian Artist Day Apart).  Pastor J gave us a flash fiction writing exercise in which we could choose one of the three photos he displayed as prompts and write a short story 200 words or less.   Pastor J will be posting other stories at Lillie-Put  sometime in the future.  This was the prompt I chose.

Sunset Prayer

His Promises

By Deb Maciorowski

I could no longer wrap my mind around the recent events. Inconsolable and unable to fathom what transpired less than forty-eight hours ago. Would I ever understand? How could I?

As I walked along the path my mind was flooded with His words. ‘I’ll never leave you nor forsake…

Dreams are curious, but fascinating things.  Sometimes we remember them and sometimes we don’t.  We can dream about things that make us happy or sad.  We can dreams about fanciful things or about everyday events.  We can even have repeat dreams about the same thing.

“But I don’t dream,” you might say. Well, that’s not exactly true. According to EvangelicalOutreach.com, Scientific studies have shown that everyone ever studied dreams, and so it’s generally accepted that everyone dreams.  Sleep studies have shown that we go through several cycles of light to very deep sleep each night. One phase of each cycle is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Whenever a researcher woke up a sleeper in REM sleep and asked what was happening, the sleeper always said, “I was dreaming.” In fact, even animals experience REM sleep, so we surmise that they, too, dream—but we cannot communicate with them…

via http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/post/15672917362

Today I’d like to share another post being transparent in my struggle and what I’m learning from it. Today I want to talk about Identity.

I’ve been struggling with knowing who I really am for some time. I often feel that I’m not the same person as I used to be, that I’m not reaching my full potential. Feeling confident is hard, but it never used to be.

One day, I found an article written by a psychologist about identity crisis. She wrote that people start to question their identity after a foundational shift in their life, whether it is where they work, live, or in family situations, etc. I realized this is my problem. Not only did I start college, but I don’t have a room at home anymore, and my family is turned upside down.  With this happening, I have lost a foundation- a norm that has been…

  Every January our whole church is asked to participate in a fasting and prayer time for usually a 21 day fast. Although, this year we have been called to do a 10 day fast now and another one in the fall. Many of us seek God’s direction for the coming year and many seek healing of an illness, and many seek salvation for loved ones, not to mention many other reasons.

The first time I participated in the 21 day fast I was a new believer and didn’t really know what to expect. I have to say I was not a happy camper because of the caffeine headache was brutal for the first few days of it but then I acclimated okay. You see the first year I did the fast I really didn’t understand the importance of the prayer aspect of the fast. I mean I prayed…

To me, one of the most haunting images of the Bible comes from Micah 2:1; What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so.

 According to J. Stephen Land, one of Christianity’s darkest moments began in 1692, when several adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, began to accuse individuals of being witches.  The girls included the daughter and niece of the town’s minister.  They started by accusing the minister’s black housekeeper.  Then they accused two of the older women in town.  By the summer of 1692, the jails were filled with people the girls had accused of witchcraft.  The evidence?  The girls supposedly went into convulsions in their presence, or they said they had seen an apparition of the accused person.  If the accused admitted to being a…