Christian fantasy literature, and commentary on assorted subjects
Very bad weather today. Dark, gray overcast and rainy. We are supposed to get a little snow tonight. It got very cold again.
Didn’t do much today–but every day can’t be as good as yesterday was.
I am hoping to hear some good news soon.
As is, I am grateful for what I have, my upcoming chili for supper and maybe a scary movie.
Pray for our troops.
God bless everybody.
Patty
From November 24, 2017
See that great big black cat sleeping with his best friend, the pit bull, on the sofa?
That big cat, some months ago, was Jax the little kitten, picked up by my stepdaughter Georgia in the middle of a storm, adopted, and found to be at death’s door, due to a serious blood condition requiring immediate treatment–including a transfusion of very rare donor blood, etc.
Many of us prayed for Jax, and now you can see the result.
It’s become fashionable these days, in a fallen world populated by sinners who have free will and atrociously abuse it, to say that prayer is futile, waste of breath, just won’t work–even some who call themselves Christians are saying that prayer is just a waste of time. And who has never had that thought cross his mind?
But this fine healthy cat is here because a woman had compassion on him, and acted on it, and because God heard our prayers and did the rest.
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
From February 18 2012
One of my chess buddies put me on to The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall. Written in 1959, this fantasy adventure for young readers–a Newbery Award-winner, by the way–is completely devoid of sex, blood-drinking, profanity, and the rest of the current staples of young readers’ fiction. Instead, it just has to plod along with adventure, humor, engaging characters, an amazingly tantalizing historical background, and nice, clear prose. There isn’t even any sorcery or witchcraft in it.
Kids will like it because it’s easy to read without being dumbed-down, and it’s highly imaginative. Adults will enjoy it for exactly the same reasons. It’s probably perfect for reading aloud to your home-schooled 10-year-old.
This is not an overtly “Christian” book. If it has a message, it’s a plea to resist the pressures of conformity. But it’s not hard to imagine God using this book to do good–which is a great deal more than you can say about a lot of the current young readers’ fiction.
From April 12, 2013
Do people commit mass murders, and other horrific crimes, simply because weapons are available?
If that were true, then “gun control” would work and Chicago would be the safest and most crime-free city in America.
Chances are you’ve never shot anyone, robbed a bank, or burned down someone’s home. Why not? Is it because there’s a policeman standing guard over you? Or do you just not do stuff like that because it’s wrong, because you have no desire to hurt or terrorize others–in short, because you’re a normal human being?
Let’s suppose the entire country is populated by individuals who are governed by a lust to kill. How many police would you need to keep them from loosing an orgy of murder? It would not be possible to maintain a police force large enough to control 300 million homicidal jerks.
While our idiot leaders in Washington diddle around with new gun laws that will do nothing except to infringe upon the rights of law-abiding, peaceful citizens–for some reason criminals habitually ignore laws–we have Hollywood cranking out one movie after another featuring death and dismemberment, bodies and body parts flying all over the screen; we have a whole “gangsta” subculture which collects “music” award for “songs” about raping and beating women, shooting cops, shooting rival gang members, etc.; and we have boys growing up spending how many hours a day absorbed in video games about massacres and generalized bloodletting. We have schools and “educators” teaching whole generations of children that Christianity is wrong and the great goal in life is to please oneself: the Marquis De Sade could hardly say it better. And the smartest people in the country are all pumped up to destroy marriage and the family.
We’re trashing our civilization six ways from Sunday, and the morons in the Senate think more “gun control” will save us?
Can they really, truly be that stupid?
I don’t know if I have written about Lee’s katana This is a very sharp lethal weapon. A sword. He purchased it from his judo sensei (teacher) a number of years ago. This is not a replica or a toy. Think of a 3 foot long razor blade and you have it about right. Lee had to work with the bokken (a wooden sword) for over six years before he was allowed to train with the katana . After Lee’s passing, one of my first worries was where to sell this item. You can’t do it on eBay. The school that he had attended had closed quite a while ago. I mean a number of years ago. I did contact a couple of judo schools, but they did not do sword work.
Yesterday, when I was going through Lee’s papers, I came upon a small slip of paper, quite yellowed and old, with a man’s name and telephone number on it. Also on the paper was a note saying the man was a sword student of Lee’s sensei. I really doubted that the number would be good, as I have run into a number of dead-ends with phone numbers–people are switching to cell phones–but I called it anyway. The number was live. I was ecstatic and left a message explaining the situation and giving him my number.
Mid morning today the phone rang and it was sensei himself. I never expected to hear from him, but evidently the man I called had called him and told him my story. Long story short–he (sensei) said he will do the legwork and ask around and he probably will be able to find me a buyer. He also said he would try to get me more than I paid for it.
I will never complain again about Lee saving everything.
Pray for our troops.
God bless everybody.
Patty