Tag: the Good Samaritan

‘Writing Believable Fantasy’ (2017)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of fantasy

Don’t forget to provide your imaginary characters with an imaginary landscape.

I won’t add more helpful hints to this little essay. No–there’s something else I wish to add, which didn’t occur to me seven years ago.

Writing Believable Fantasy

Here’s another aspect to the question. Let’s say you can write believable fantasy. The next question: why do so? Why?

Increasingly I’ve come to view fiction as parables. They’re not factually true, not about real people–but they could be. Parables have to be believable: how else is a parable to teach the lesson it is meant to teach? Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that very well, and made abundant use of parables.

As did, for example, C.S. Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia. It’s longer than Christ’s parable of The Good Samaritan, but they are obviously related to each other.

‘The Scope of Healing’ (Martin Selbrede)

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Martin Selbrede | heroinamerica

Why can’t our civilization solve its biggest problems?

Because we’re always “abandoning the world to humanism” and respond with disbelief to Biblical solutions, says Martin Selbrede.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-scope-of-healing

Because we’re all hung up on merely personal holiness, and merely physical healing, we “barricade our hearts behind a wall of theological excuses” and fail to seek healing on God’s terms–terms that apply to the healing of nations and even to the healing of the earth itself. If only we could spend enough money! If only we could develop more powerful technology! If only government had more authority!

The money gets spent, technology advances, we grow the government–and the problems remain… often growing worse because our humanist solutions don’t work.

This is a fairly long essay, but stick with it–plenty of food for thought!

Behold the Power

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I’ve been re-reading Parables by John MacArthur, a book I’ve already reviewed here and elsewhere: and let me say again that, if you haven’t read it yet, you really ought to.

The chapter I read today examined the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and makes a powerful point: this is what God’s love is like. This is the love that we receive from God. And he quotes St. Paul, “When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

“I am saved.” We have heard that so often, and so often said it ourselves, that it has become a cliche–which means we have to try to hear it now as if we’ve never heard it before. As if the good news of the Gospel really were news to us.

This is power. This is Jesus Christ, our Savior. There is no one, no institution, no public policy, no power in the world that can give this to us: only God’s grace alone, in the person of Jesus Christ. By grace we are saved. Not by anything we do, or ever can do. Because we can’t. But God can.And has done so.

It’s something to think about… a lot.