Jack LaFountain's Blog, page 20

Know Jack #384 The Right to Write

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment to the Constitution quoted above is often bantered about by Americans—most often by those with a need to defend their actions, whether good or bad. It is of special interest to writers and publishers. The text of the Constitution and its Amendments is not as misunderstood as its context. The misunderstanding has to do with our distance from the inception of the document and our distance from the spirit of those who wrote it.

It is supposed by the less pugnacious Americans of the 21st Century that the rights secured by the Constitution are a grant from the government to its citizens (and anyone brash enough to steal across our borders). While this is certainly true of our British cousins and other republican governments, it is not true here.

The United States Constitution is a grant from the American people to their government. It outlines the rights and duties we the people give to our representatives. The Constitution is meant to protect the people from their government by limiting what it can do.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are granted to people by their Creator. James Madison explained that because “we the people” are not angels, we needed a government to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic. As a corollary, because the people elected to serve in that government were not angels, the government needed to be limited by the people.

Free speech is not absolute. No one has the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. We do have the God-given right to form our own opinions and express them in the public forum without regard to who might be offended. Furthermore, the offended have no right to demand the offensive words be silenced.

I am sharing this tidbit as a reminder of from whence we have fallen. I recently witnessed two men having a private conversation. An eavesdropper took offense to what they were saying and an organization that claims to support 100% Americanism shut down the conversation. Several members pronounced the right of these two men to express themselves privately with one another as “bullshit”.

I feel compelled to share this because silence is tacit agreement. There is way too much silence in America today. Intolerance with certain views has become standard instruction in our institutes of learning and within portions of our government. Silence on the part of “we the people” cannot help but be interpreted as consent to being trampled under the heel of the government.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #174 Believers and Disciples

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.”

Jesus Christ

Christians have always known the answer to the age-old question, “what is the meaning of life?”. If we refuse to enter into discussions of philosophy, metaphysics, and science to explain our existence, it is with good cause. We have left behind discovery and moved on to testing, applying, and evaluating the answer. We have ceased being mere believers (or seekers for you modern folks) and have become disciples.

I am not playing at semantics nor splitting hairs when I say the difference between the two is the difference between life and death. I meet many people within and without churches who put a great deal of stock in the fact that they believe in God, or a god. I believe it and have no doubt that they are absolutely sincere. I think it is necessary to abandon logic and reason to not believe in God.

The problem for those who say they believe in God is similar to the one people face who say they are spiritual and not religious—it doesn’t really mean anything or get you anywhere. We are born spiritual beings and no matter how you conceptualize man’s origin, we are created beings, if no other reason than we are not self-existent.

However, for the most succinct demonstration of the fallacy of belief in God as a means of justification for human imperfection, we look to James who says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble”. Perhaps you don’t believe in a real devil. That would help explain why you are content to say, “I believe” and leave it there.

Belief will neither usher you into a relationship with God nor completely exclude you. He that comes to God must believe that He is. You may be a believer and not be a disciple. You cannot be a disciple without being a believer. The difference is that a disciple accepts the grace and forgiveness of God and then sets about working out the transformation that God wills for their life. Faith without the works that demonstrate it is dead.

Christianity isn’t something people do on Sunday. It’s not a list of rules, doctrines, and creeds—it is a way of life. Or in Jesus words, The Way, of life. It is a life of study, service, reflection, and fidelity. You must work out the particulars of your own salvation, but you will not have to do it alone. The Spirit of God will guide you when you’re lost, reprove you when you’re wrong, and exhort you onward when you are right. Peace with God and everlasting life are offered to everyone, but it’s not for everyone. It is for those willing to take up a cross and follow Jesus.

Maranatha

Know Jack #383 By Faith

“Why are ye so fearful? How is it ye have no faith?”

Jesus Christ

Many people believe that the opposite of faith is unbelief—not so. The opposite of faith is fear. Faith is crucial to success as a writer. You must believe in yourself before anyone else will. That is not to say that you must believe that you have just written the next great American novel to be a successful writer. Numbers are not the entire story—they are not even the main plot.

The chief goal of a writer is to deliver his/her soul onto the page. If this post sounds a bit like a sermon, well, that’s where I learned about putting one’s soul into one’s work. It’s also where I learned to step out from the crowd and declare, “this I believe”. If that idea scares you, by all means, run and hide. If, however, you are prepared not only to expect more of yourself but to demand more of yourself than you ever thought you could give—you might be ready to write.

Fiction is about creating worlds strange and familiar, heroes and villains, pain and joy, right and wrong. All of these things are drawn from the same well and with each drop, a bit of the author splashes onto the page. It’s a fearful thing to expose your innermost thoughts and feelings for all to see. It is not for the faint of heart.

Conformity to the newest trends and socially acceptable tropes may garner more sales. Is that the price of your soul? Make no mistake, that is what we are talking about here. Writing demands the writer pass through burning zeal, confusion of thought, deadly silence, and unexpected discovery on the way to The End. Even that is not truly the end. By faith, you must walk away unafraid and with the certain knowledge that you have left your heart, mind, body, and soul on the page.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #173 Elements of Faith

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

The scripture above is a wonderful description of faith, but it does not define faith or tell us how faith works in giving substance to the things we hope for or provide evidence of the unseen. There is a good reason for this. The working of faith is, of necessity, more involved than merely describing it. An airplane is easy to identify. It is much more difficult to describe the aerodynamics that keep it in the air.

There are three components or dimensions to Christian faith. I will endeavor to describe them. However, like most things related to Christianity, telling you about them is not as difficult as putting them into practice.

The first component of faith is hearing. As Paul told the Romans, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. Before a person can come to a conclusion, they must begin with a hypothesis.

Jesus often called for those who had an ear, to hear Him. He was not speaking about the wing-like things on the side of our heads. He was speaking of a willingness to listen. Discarding (or accepting) an idea based solely on its source is foolishness. As the old saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. The Bible urges us to be swift to hear, but slow to speak.

Now hearing is just that—hearing. It does not mean to unquestioningly accept as true the words you have heard. Not the words from friends, not the words from pulpits, not even the words in your Bible. The words we hear are meant to be examined, questioned, and tested in order to evaluate their veracity. The scripture invites hearers to “taste and see”, and to “try Me now in this”. That is, to experiment. God is not afraid to be put to the test provided the conclusion has not already been decided in the experimenter’s mind.

Faith is an action, not an idea. That is why James said that faith without works—the resultant actions—is dead by itself. He challenged those who said they had faith to demonstrate it in their lives without actions ( of course, they couldn’t.). He said he would show the world his own faith by what he was motivated by faith to do.

Hypothesis. Test. Are these steps sounding familiar?

The next step is to evaluate the results. Did acting on the words you heard produce positive results? The result of faith at work is to produce the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance in the life of the person conducting the test.

One important note must be considered. Fruit does not grow overnight except in the most miraculous cases. Babies don’t learn to walk without falling down. Nurtured, fruit does grow, and babies do learn to walk. In the same way, faith, soundly practiced, will produce spiritual fruit and a spiritual walk.

Maranatha

Know Jack #382 What a Wonderful World

I was preparing for an appearance on a podcast recently. I knew the podcaster’s first question was going to be “What got you interested in the paranormal/spiritual world?” Except with me, he didn’t add the /spiritual part. That was just God looking out for me. I suspect that his listeners would have been turned off by my answer. So, of course, I’m going to answer both parts right here where I am the only one held accountable for my answer.

What got me interested in the paranormal/spiritual world? The bottom line is simple—life. You see people don’t really have an option about it. I’ll address the paranormal first. Now, Mr. Webster says that paranormal and supernatural are synonymous. I disagree, but they can be treated the same way here. Neither is scientifically explainable—his definition with which I do agree.

I have found that when speaking about human beings the terms “always” and “never” can pretty much be ruled out. There are always exceptions. People dead for a half hour come back while the doctor is making out the death certificate. Perfectly healthy people drop dead. I’ve had nurse aides come to the nurses’ station in shock after seeing a phantom little boy in one of the rooms. Then there are my own encounters with angels and demons for which science has no explanation.

One reason for this is that there are many questions the scientific method cannot answer. Science is simply not equipped to answer them. Because there are scientifically unanswerable questions, the paranormal/supernatural are not really a deviation from what we call the “normal” universe.

Every time I pick up a book, I suspend disbelief and as much opinion as possible and let the author show me the story. The best authors leave me some blanks to fill in with my imagination. I have had this affliction since childhood. I won’t say everybody has it to some degree because of that always/never principle.

Now for the spiritual part. If you read my blogs, some of this will be old hat. Spirituality is not a choice people make. Humans are made up of body, soul, and spirit. They may deny the existence of or choose to alter body parts they were born with, but the possession of a spirit is not an option.

So much for boasts of the “spiritual, but not religious” folks. Those they call hypocrites are just as spiritual as they are. The religious aspect I used to equally devalue, but I have discovered people who may not be religious. Of course, being religious in the true sense of the word has nothing to do with churches.

Religion is a focused disciple. A person can be religious about their diet. In fact some nutritional gurus I’ve heard sound like tent revival preachers. I have met Drill Sergeants who were very religious on a wide variety of subjects as well as being evangelical in their own way. I’m religious about my morning coffee.

I have found that there do exist people who have no focus, who blow with every wind of TV “news”, Facebook trend, or social influencer. I suppose I could say that they are religious about their social media, but I doubt they are that grounded. Ironically, these same folks swallow whole everything they hear while proclaiming that characteristic the sole purview of Christianity. I don’t mind that. You can say what you like about my faith. I just find it interesting.

We are spiritual, born into a world where miracles and the unexplained happen every day. Being interested in that world doesn’t make me strange (there are plenty of other things that do that). It simply makes me alive and having a good time doing it.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader # 172 This Little Light of Mine

“Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly.”

Proverbs 13:16

I once read a bit of homespun wisdom that I have taken to heart when speaking about my faith. This homely bon mot goes like this, “If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one which yelps the loudest is the one you hit”. No one makes more noise than the person working desperately to deny that which they know to be true.

Jesus pronounced as blessed the faith which produces attacks of unfounded reviling. “Rejoice and be exceeding glad,” was His advice when such attacks occur. And why not? It’s just the yelping of wounded dogs that can’t help their instinctive reaction.

I think Christians should live right out in the open without apology for what we believe. Compromise is not Jesus’ way. Read the gospels and see if it is not so. In the same vein, neither do I believe that we should try to persuade or pressure people. We are to be lights in the dark. A lamp offers light while chasing no one.

That said, a lighted lamp must look different from the darkness that surrounds it. I don’t know if there ever was a day where, despite the call for inclusion and diversity, that looking and believing differently was so maligned. The church has gotten the message and labors to conform to the expectations of the society that surrounds it.

This ought not to be. That’s not just my opinion. The scripture clearly states we are not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by a renewing of our minds. This applies to us as individuals as well as in groups. The scripture also says that not all men have this knowledge. That is simply a statement of fact. It neither recommends nor condemns. That is for individual souls to work out to their own blessing or cursing as free will dictates.

Do not mistake what I am saying here. There is a way that seems right though the ends thereof are death. The prudent person knows this and applies themselves to investigation. The fool assumes he must be correct in “his” truth and plunges ahead to whatsoever he conjures in his heart.

The saint and the sinner are both driven by desire. The object of that desire determines the quality of their life over (and beyond) time. Those who deem themselves worthy of world celebration unashamedly lay open their folly seeking approval. The prudent have found their place in the Creation and have no need of acclamation or earthly approval.

Maranatha

Know Jack #381 From the Little Reader, the Mighty Author Grows

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

Stephen King

Bill Cosby, before his name became anathema, released a hilarious album entitled, I Started Out as a Child. (Perhaps that’s a warning to us all about the nature of humanity.) This post isn’t about him, his triumphs or his sins. It’s about beginnings. Like certain body parts, (I was thinking navels) we all have one. The overwhelming majority of writers I know began reading as children and will probably die in old age with a list of books they still want to read.

When I say that, I mean from the moment they learned to read, they read everything they could lay their hands on. I remember reading cereal boxes. I read in the same fashion my grandchildren played video games. The library was like a shrine—a portal to heaven, or at least to distant worlds.

People have told me that I have a gift for writing. God gives gifts as He wills, so maybe that is true in some cosmic sense. However, if that is so, it first manifested in a love of reading. Reading hundreds of books didn’t give me a writing voice. It taught me that writers have a unique voice. It also taught me characters have voices when they talk you should listen.

I had all the English classes that taught grammar, sentence/paragraph structure, themes, and vocabulary that everyone else took. Reading showed me how all those diagrams worked to create pictures with words. If I have a natural gift, it was dormant until watered by reading.

I know writers who say they don’t read so as not to taint their originality and voice. Did you notice the quote by Stephen King that started the blog? Okay, that’s all I got to say about that.

So, what did I read? Here’s my top-ten influencers list. These books have structured my thinking and my take on the universe.

The Bible—the words I read changed my life and still influenced my voice. Does anybody else think in King James?

Mere Christianity—the two facts that determine all clear thinking in the universe.

Collected Works of E.A. Poe—specifically The Tell Tale Heart and Annabelle Lee. The power of words that make you see.

The Abolition of Man—the insidious evil within modern education.

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs—the depths of human cruelty.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn—stories and characters don’t have to be regal, wealthy, handsome, or articulate, just honest.

Don Quixote—confirmed that being a reader, dreamer, and a bit odd is okay, even exciting.

Come Nineveh, Come Tyre—the danger of “right” thinking and “right” causes. Scariest book I ever read.

Animal Farm—dangers not questioning/fighting demagoguery.

Civil Disobedience—to thine own self be true.

There they are along with a bit about why I love them. The list is not exhaustive, not by a long way. I’ve read every one of these books multiple times. While Mr. King and I would disagree on just about every issue these books bring to life. We do agree that reading is the stuff of which authors are made. To read well is to write well.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #171 You Must be Born Again

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new…For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Paul to the Corinthians

Christianity is not about reformation. Its goal lies far beyond the ability of mortal human beings. The goal of Christianity is the perfect human being. Hopefully, this illustrates the futility of reforming our behavior enough to meet the goal. The good news (the gospel) is that God has provided a means of reaching the goal—He will do it for us—that is, if we allow Him to do so.

Rather than reform us, God offers to transform us. In Christ, we see how this works. Christ, the sinless Son of God, took on the burden of humanity’s sin—He was made sin for us, or like us. He then offered His blood as the sacrifice for sin. This was the just payment named by God the Father for sin. Since we could not pay that price and yet live, Jesus who could lay down his life and take it up again did it for us.

He did this that we, by accepting His sovereignty, could be made righteous like Him. In effect, He will share with us His divinity, as He shared our humanity. This does not mean Christians are free to act any way they choose. The key above is accepting His sovereignty. He is King of Kings; we are His subjects. If we stray from His commands, we are corrected.

You have no doubt heard that doctors practice medicine. When I was a nurse, I practiced nursing. I spent 25 years practicing and never did become a perfect nurse. In fact, what I didn’t know and couldn’t do would fill volumes. By the way, I never found a perfect doctor either.

Christians entering into a relationship with Christ become disciples (practitioners) of Christianity. In a spiritual sense, they have a diploma saying they graduated from their old life into the new Christian one. They are then sent out into the world to practice Christianity. Do not expect perfection in that practice, but steady advancement pleases God. Of course, your standards may be higher than God’s.

I readily tell people that I do not practice what I preach. I preach Christ in whom the fulness of the Father dwells, without sin, and full of mercy and grace. I don’t pretend to reach that high. I can barely conceive of the notion enough to aspire to it.

I do not fear to stand before God just as I am. Why should I, he knows me—yet He loves me. I do shrink in my unworthiness from the prospect. My confidence in my appearing before God lies in the One who stands by me and in me—Jesus Christ. He has picked me up many times. To my sorrow, He will need to do so many more times before I appear wearing His righteousness as He wore my humanity.

Maranatha

Know Jack #380 Oh, the Horror!

“How can you call yourself a Christian and write all those horror stories?”

Not a-fan.

I’ve been asked this question repeatedly over the years and the answer is twofold. One part is philosophical/theological. The other part is practical. The former I am always quite ready to share. The latter, not so much. At least I have not chosen to share it in a public forum such as this before. However, I will do so this once.

I will start by saying that I am not ashamed of my faith in any way. I think that no matter what I am writing, my faith is not hidden. However, I think my faith, as expressed in my writing, tends to be more overlooked than sought out. It happens in the same manner that f-bombs are skimmed over by readers who don’t like their use. But on to the question at hand.

First, the philosophical aspect of the answer. It’s really quite simple, for me, horror reduced to its elemental parts, is nothing but a battle of good versus evil. Sometimes good struggles while evil seems to gain the upper hand. This is done not to glorify evil, but to paint a realistic picture. Being “good” isn’t always easy. In fact, sometimes the narrow way is paved with tribulation and pain.

Goodness always comes at a price. It is a price not everyone is prepared to pay which is what separates true goodness from the “I’m good enough as I am”. Spoiler alert—in my stories, good wins every time. That, to my way of thinking, is not fantasy, but fact.

The second part of the answer always leaves me feeling let down. When I say let down, I don’t mean disappointed, more a kind of bittersweet sadness. I said this part was practical, and so it is. The bottom line is that people buy and read my horror stories. They do not buy my faith-based work. I’m not complaining, I’m just telling it like it is.

Would I quit writing horror and write only stories of faith if the opposite were true? No more than I have quit writing my faith-based novels. I will say this though, for the last eighteen years I have written for readers. However, while I write for the reader, I write whatever inspires me at the moment. As a chef who cooks, because he likes to see people eat, I write to see people read. If that were not true, I wouldn’t be publishing books in the first place.

Few people buy my Christian stories, which means few people read them. Numbers don’t lie. The strange part is—it doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing them. Hope springs eternal. So, there it is, the mystery unraveled. Christianity is not a roadblock to life. It is the superhighway of real life that gives meaning to everything else.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #170 Blessed Poverty

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus Christ

It is common practice by those outside of Christianity (and some inside) to quote the first four words of that sentence and stop both mind and mouth. It is not a modern phenomenon, but it has found a secure home in modern American thought. Victimhood is the golden calf of the woke and media shepherds as though poverty was a virtue. As they would have us believe, poverty is the direct result of oppression.

What Jesus was actually speaking about is a spiritual virtue. To be poor in spirit does not mean to be lacking in spirituality. Some would have us believe that to be spiritual is some kind of choice about lifestyle that disregards religion. Of course, this is utter nonsense. Human beings are spiritual creatures. We are born a living spirit, and we carry our spirit with us into whatever realm awaits beyond the physical life we are now experiencing.

Christians call that realm heaven. This is more than the minute glimpse of golden streets, walls of jasper, and gates of pearl that John saw. To be equipped for that heavenly realm requires a certain type of spiritual poverty—to wit a humility of spirit That is, a spirit that does not boast itself, parade itself, or set itself above others. It is a spirit of love—pure and undefiled by self-promotion. The poor in spirit have a clear vision of a proper relationship with their Creator.

Who decides what is proper? That is simple enough to answer—the Creator. God is not “the man upstairs”. He is not a man at all. He is the Creator who made us for Himself. He also gave us a free will to choose between a loving relationship or an adversarial one.

Though most of us never read them, when we enter a website, we are asked to agree to the terms and conditions associated with the site. The same is true with God. You may enter His kingdom, but only if you agree to His terms and conditions. The difference is, God takes them seriously, and violating His community standards carries a more severe penalty.

The poor or humble in spirit realize this relationship truth and hold God in the awe due Him.

Maranatha