Rock Writers’ Guild

There is no question that the forces of hell have been unleashed against our children.  The daily bombardment is revealed on newscasts, internet and newspapers.  Never in my lifetime have I seen stories of murder, suicide, and attacks on and even by our children, and it breaks my heart.

As I watched the stories unfolding in the past few weeks, I sat and cried at the sights portrayed on the news of innocence shattered.  My heart wept for the families and friends as they deal with the loss of loved ones.  Anger stirred within as well, anger for the accused and for our failure to stop these horrific events from taking place.  But most of all, I feel a holy anger against the wiles of the enemy that convinced individuals of their right to inflict evil upon the innocent.

Our teens are enticed into dangerous encounters, which sometimes turn deadly, as both men and women stalk our kids through the internet chat rooms and sometimes in their own school and church.  Their one desire is physical and sexually assaults toward their victims.  TV programs designed to catch these menaces to our society reveal some individuals who are both professionals and upstanding members of society.  Yet these events catch a very small portion of individuals engaged in this activity.

Recently I have seen two news stories in North Carolina that sickened me even further.  Infants less than a year old were sadistically injured.  One died and one child will forever bear the scars of fractured limbs, and burn scars.   My heart weeps of the horror and fear these children suffered at the hands of the ones who should have been their first line of defense.  My heart wonders how many are left undiscovered, but will bear the scars in years to come.

Scripture reveals in:  I Timothy 3:1-5 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Our society as a whole has developed the attitude that we cannot and must not get involved.  Individuals have become fearful, and sometimes with good reason to stay uninvolved when injustices take place.  Yet, how long can we sit and watch horrors like these become the norm in the world we live in.   

The one sure way is through our prayers.  A friend recently shared how the Lord woke her up the night before the recent attack took place in
Colorado to pray and intercede.  She prayed and cried out for well over an hour.  I wonder how many lives were spared by her obedience.  She pleaded for mercy, and exposure.  She asked for divine protection.  Did the Lord fail her?  Absolutely not!  We will never know on this side of heaven how many more were spared as a result of her prayer.      

However, God has given men ‘free will’.  We make choices everyday, good, bad or indifferent.  We choose to spend time in fellowship with the Lord, or each other.  We choose to be wise or foolish with our time.  Each one of these perpetrators made the conscious choice to commit these horrible acts on the innocent.  Their time of choices is over but the result of their choices will continue to affect countless others for years to come. 

As His children, we have the choice to stand in the gap.  We can pray and intercede for the safety of not only these in our own country, but ask for intervention in other lands.  We can ask for divine coverings, and protection.  Intercession can be made for exposure of the plans of the enemy.  We can war in the spirit for the life, soul and mind of the innocent in this world.   

As His children, we must be willing to lay aside our own selfish desires and plans.  As we lay aside our desires, we can seek His face crying out for those who are not able to cry out for themselves.  With every news story we hear, I pray our hearts will become so moved for compassion to plead for the safety and welfare for the very ones that satan desires to destroy.   

Joyce Sykes

© 2006

“Instead of four bedrooms and three baths, we had four rooms and a path…to the three-hole, quarter-moon outhouse about fifty yards from the back porch. Mosquito-bitten legs dangling over the splintery, roughhewn ledge, my young girl cousins-Peggy, Kathy, Barbara and Sandy- and I would “do our business” and pore through the ever dwindling Sears and Roebuck catalogue to distract us from the foul, fly-infested mound steaming below. We memorized our favorite pages, salivating over romantic fashions, new-fangled gadgets, top-0f-the-line appliances and most importantly, indoor plumbing. Ma always ripped out the “brassieres and girdles” section to help keep curious young boys from sinning.

   There were 13 children in Daddy’s family, 11 in Mother’s…and I was an only child.

    Go figure. “

   This beginning passage in “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” by Reba Rambo-McGuire keeps playing before my eyes over the past few days. Perhaps in part because I am amazed that Pastor Abbey traveled with these gifted artist for two years (?) and then came back to the Rock. I keep seeing the gifts and talents, and treasures she was presented with, and she came back to the Rock. I know in part it was probably homesickness that drove her back, but I see the Providence of God at work here.

    How can the imagery of a little girl sitting in an outhouse possibly cause me to see providence? I’m not real sure, but somehow I see the gifting that was poured into Pastor Abbey from the heavens, and from the life of this simple woman of great faith. I’m sure living in such close contact there were lots of opportunities to see clay feet walking on  water. Yet Pastor Abbey came home. She came to lead this amazing group of talented people the Lord was and is sending to her. She could have moved on without us, sharing that talent with multitudes of strangers. Yet she chose to come home, and move in close enough to sheep who would often pierce her with the thorns caught in there un-sheered coats.

       Poor enough to grow rich in the Lord, is what I found in reading Reba’s book. Strong enough to walk confidently in her weakness humbly before the Father.

       How wonderful it is to be ministered to by the fruit of this mighty woman of God’s ministry.

   Thank you Pastor Abbey, for moving forward into your calling. I continue to pray for you, that the arrows will fall to the ground bouncing off the breastplate of righteousness you wear with great humility and faith.

Abandonment

“All Christians have spiritual needs, but the believer who has abandoned himself to the Lord no longer indulges in the luxury of being aware of spiritual needs. Rather, he gives himself over completely to the disposal of God.

How do you practice abandonment? You practice it daily, hourly, and by the moment. Abandonment is practiced by continually losing your own will in the will of God; by plunging your will into the depths of HIS will, there to be lost forever!”

Jeanne Guyon: Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ

Perhaps it is because I have read this book five times now in one year, or maybe because I have given away three cases of this book and am delighted when one person out of twenty has the light turned on like I have. I don’t know exactly why Madam Guyon’s words so profoundly affect me except a year ago in October I heard the call to “Be still and Know”. She challenges me to abandon myself completely to the Lord Jesus Christ in a way I have not seen anywhere but the bible. She teaches me how to BE STILL and Know God. She doesn’t mince words, and what she states is hard to imagine much less move in.

But I find the hunger that is inside me burning so strong, that her challenge to press in deeper, and trust that even in the silence I am with Him is exactly what feeds me. She points out again and again my desire for peace and comfort at any price are not God’s ways. While He does bring these things, He also brings death to self, and self centered thinking. He demands my whole being, because He knows anything less will taint what He is doing in me. He calls me to a place of entering into the fire and allowing Him to purify my life. Dying daily, hoping against hope. When everything seems the absolute darkest, it is then I must trust the most. He calls me to a deeper experience with Him. Guyon shows the way into this chamber is through sacrifice, and obedience. As I press in her words seem less difficult.

“In all your experience of Christ, it is wisest for you to stay away from any set form, or pattern, or way. Instead, be wholly given up to the leading of the Holy Spirit. By following your spirit, every encounter you have with the Lord is one that is perfect..no matter what the encounter is like.

Do not be too surprised if you are no longer able to offer up prayers of petition….In this new relationship with your Lord, it is the Spirit who prays! And as the Spirit prays, He helps your weakness. He is making intercession for you, and He is praying according to the will of God.”

Guyon lived in dungeons for her belief in experiencing the depths of Jesus in the 1600-1700’s. What sacrifices am I willing to make to press in deeper?

“Raederle said very little, either to Danan or Bri; she was grateful that the mountain-king refrained from questioning her.  He only said gently, with a perception that startled her, “Isig is my home; the home of my mind, and still, after so many years, it is capable of surprising me.  Whatever you are gripping to yourself in secret, remember this: Isig holds great beauty and great sorrow, and I could not desire anything less for it, than that it yields always, unsparingly, the truth of itself.”"     - Patricia McKillip “Riddle of Stars”

   This is probably my favorite all-time book, by one of my very favorite authors.  Although many of her books involve fairy, magic, and non-Christian mythology, I can’t help loving them for her beautiful descriptions, precise language, and moving characters.  Her people are very real to me.  Some of them I love.  All of them are bound in beauty or fear or evil or pain, according to their natures.  I like her earliest books best- they’re cleaner.  There is, in many of them, an innocence and beauty I find irresistable.
    This passage is one of my favorites in this book, and one I have long thought on.  It’s something I attempt to do in my writing.  I contain great beauty and great sorrow, and I want to yield them unsparingly, truthfully, and beautifully.  I hope that I succeed, and I am only ashamed that so often the truth of what is within me is still petty, irritating, prideful, arrogant, and selfish.  I want to give healing, not hurt, and when I realize I have slipped up again, I am ashamed.  But then I think of this passage again, and I try again, coming out of sorrow, shame, and lack, to write once again the truth that I have.

     “As he spoke he tore a strip from beneath his coat, and , turning sharply about, walked before them to the brink of the cliff, winding the strip firmly about the hand rest of the lance.
     “On the very edge he stood erect and waited.
     “The sun rose out of the plain, and flashed with blinding force upon the Bedouin boy clad in his sheepskin coat and desert turban, precisely as it had found him in the porch of Aaron’s tomb upon the summit of Mount Hor.
     “His hand no longer held a shepherd’s staff, but firmly grasped a Grecian lance that gleamed and flashed as fiercely as the sun.”
                              -Harry W. French “The Lance of Kanana”

    This, the story of the “coward of the Beni Sads” who would not become a fighter and slaughter men for no good reason but insisted he could not “lift a lance to take a life, unless it be for Allah and Arabia,” has long been one of my favorites.  It’s a story of a boy who must prove his courage without going to war.  It’s a story about holding a moral principle so high that you will accept the consequences unto death not to break trust with truth.  And it’s a story of how God rewards committed faith even while allowing its sacrifice.
     It’s also brilliantly written, which is always a plus.  Listen to this, “There is but one name more bitter than ‘coward’ to the Arab.  That name is ‘traitor,’ and after being called a coward almost all his life, the very last words which Kanana heard from the lips of his countrymen came in frantic yells, calling him a traitor.”  Now, who could resist reading the rest of the story?
    The storytelling is hypnotic.  The scenes are so vivid, romantically painted in heroic brushstrokes. There is nothing lurid or mean or small or disgusting.  Even the villians have a dignity of purpose.  They’re evil, but they’re not degraded.  Why does so much of modern literature degrade mankind?  I’m a sucker for any story about a hero, a man with confidence, with strength, with conscience.  They are few and far between.  Now we have “dark heroes,” men who can’t decided to be rescuers or abusers, heroes who are drunks, or dangerous, or wandering on the wrong side of the law.  Our kids want to “be bad” and “look tough.”  But they have no knowledge of what true strength is- to bear, without compromise, the consequences of right and necessary action.  Or, as Reepicheep so nobly put it, to swim East until we can no longer paddle, then to die with our noses pointed towards the rising sun. 

Acts 7:56 (The Message)
54-56 At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!”

              That is the revelation I seek. To see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side! That place is so magnificent that Stephen could remain steadfastly keeping his eyes on his Lord Jesus asking Him to receive his spirit, and then laid down his life just as Jesus had before him, asking “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Then he fell asleep.

                 I have entered a tiny portion of the revelation of the Lords presence; I have experienced what it feels like to be overcome by His glory. Unlike Steven I was reduced to slobbering worship on the floor. I could not contain His greatness, nor could I bear to look up at Him.  He was too wonderful for my mind to contain. He was too beautiful for my eyes to behold. The most I could see was the floor, which was white see through marble, but only glimpses of this could I see through the white cloud that surrounded the Throne. I tried to lift my eyes, but His Glory was too heavy, the knowing of who He is was too large to contain.

                               I saw the slightest glance of His nail scared feet, and I was undone with gratitude, and thanksgiving. My heart felt it would rip in two from sorrow at what He had endured on my behalf.

                      A tremble of air ruffled my hair, and I felt the slightest touch of His finger tips. I was over come with Joy. It was a joy unspeakable; it filled me full of running rivers of laughter unlike any laughter I have ever known. It poured out of me onto the floor around me, and I heard people running around the room splashing in the river from the throne room. I looked up to see the water because it was so real, and instead I could barely make out the bottom of a chair too beautiful to describe.

                 Again I was overcome by the immensity of our Father in heaven, and understood why the angles and elders sing Holy Holy Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty who was and is, and is to come. Revelations 4:8.  You are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Revelations 4:11

                        Now I seek to understand what He is saying, I want to know His word deep inside me. Steven gave his accusers a history lesson before he told them who they were. He was stoned while one of the greatest men yet to be, looked on holding the coats  of those who killed Him.

                My stubborn heart screams when a slight remark is made against me or when I being overlooked by those I care for. Teach me Lord to lay down my life, that I might have further revelation of Who You are. The great I Am, who laid down His life and rose again that I might live! Help me to keep my eyes on You. As I come boldly to the Throne room to worship and adore You, even if I cannot contain Your majesty. It is You that I seek! One day soon I will worship you unencumbered!

i know what you’re thinking….
“shes been gone awhile….she finally got on here and posted…where she been?…oh, so now she decides to post!” hehe.
ive been here. there. everywhere.
oh the places i go.
actually lately god has been testing me. my faith. me. my faith. and well, me. and ive come to conclude that i do break down. but my faith still stands. and he is still my god. and still in control.

this is something i wrote. its my heart. and its my favorite way to write….its like a stream. it flows. i write. so heres a little peek into my heart today…

worship- worthiness. respect. reverance paid to a divine being. (our God). the expression of such revereance. extravagant respect of admiration.

love- strong affection. warm attachment. a beloved person. unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for others. to cherish. to feel a passion, devotion, or tenderness for.
~love is also a choice…

WARNING: not really sure if this makes sense. my mind races and i write. just bare with me…

worship and love go hand in hand. when you love your maker you worship. you worship because you love him. its not because of anything hes done. its simply because of who he is. and its because you love him. you are devoted to him. you are attached. loyal. you cherish him. and you have a passion for him.

when love abounds worship is inevitable. when i worship its my heart bursting with unquenchable love. im giving all i have. i dont hold back. and i cant hold back. because of who he is i cannot hold it inside. i am utterly in love with him. thats right in love. every part of him i cherish. his character is amazing.

see he is more than my creator, my savior to me. he is my breath. my rock. my friend. my stability. my heartbeat. my vision. my sight. my ears. my map. my almanac. my pageturner. my author. my illustrator. my counselor. my teacher. my health. my comforter. my hand holder. my guide. my king. my daddy. my music. my sunny day. my rainy day. my caretaker. my nurturer. my provider. my liberator. my rescuer. my family. my answer. my all in all. my lover. my romancer. my romance. my hallmark card. my light in the dark. my song. my voice. my eyes. my strength. my knight in shining armor. my passion. my everything. my soul.

hes my soul. hes a part of me. he is me. i am him. the more i am like him the less i am myself and me…i am nothing. i am worthless. empty. hurt. confused. worried. without him i am NOTHING. he makes me beautiful. he makes me worthy. he fulfills me and fills me. he heals me. he gives me a clear mind. he soothes me. he fills me with love. a passion. a devotion. to him and his people. im called to love. live love. speak love. show love. send love. see love. be love.

he is love. he is in me.
i am love. because i am his.

dear lord…
i am worthless and nothing without you. i am an utter mess up without you. so lord, take all of me and empty me. spill me out. get rid of lisa and pour in you. i want you. i want to reflect you. i want to be clothed in humility and grace and love. take out mediocricy and the fear of being intimate with you. may you explode uncontrollably in me. rise up in me god. push me down so you may rise up! i want people to know you! make me a warrior….unashamed. unshakable. unquestionable…for you.
i seek your face.
i am seeking you.
i will seek you.
im after your heart.
im devoted to you.
i cherish you.
i love you.

1) Identify a writer – Christian or secular – whose style appeals to you. Analyze and list the elements of style that contributes to that appeal.

My favorite author, considered by different groups to be both Christian and secular, is Madeline L’Engle. She draws me in with her masterful grasp of language and art. I choose not to approach her writing as either “Christian” or “secular” mainly because I do not think you can distinguish any art as purely secular. Good art is, at its core, inherently Christian and I do not believe you can separate the two.

L’Engle writes with a distinct “discovery” style. There are no bullying tactics to her writing approach, and yet I consistently find myself being drawn in to her point of view by the way she weaves her words into a garment of truth.

2) Identify one publication you would like to write for and provide a brief analysis of what appears to be its style. Caution: Some magazines don’t have a consistent style, but many, such as Christianity Today and Discipleship Journal have clearly defined styles.

I am very interested in Radiant Magazine for its modern approach to reaching the Christian woman. Its styles vary depending on the article’s topic and can be written in a humorous style, discovery style or even simple and direct. The modern woman, both Christian and non, have such varied interests and can be more effectively reached if given a broad scope of writing styles to peruse.

3)List the books you have analyzed for the writer’s style and give a few comments about each.

I have analyzed the following writings of Madeline L’Engle:

Walking on Water - uses discovery style and reflective style to take the reader on a journey to reflect faith and art. A Wrinkle In Time & A Severed Wasp – In both she uses discovery style and reflective style to tell the stories.4) Write one or two paragraphs using a simple, direct style.

Do you find it difficult to motivate your worship team? At times it may even feel like your team has to be drug kicking and screaming to rehearsals or early morning sound checks. Don’t dismay! There are some practical things you can begin to do now to combat this familiar issue.

First, get to know your team! There is a common problem among church leadership teams where we fall into the trap of constantly ministering to other people but never being ministered to. Each person on your team has needs; get to know them and minister to them based on that need. They will be able to come to rehearsals and services refreshed and ready to give again. And make sure you, as the team leader, have someone in your life that you can talk to and pray with regarding the needs in your own personal life.

Second, cast a vision for your team. Give them something to work towards. For some of you it may be merely to learn how to stay together on songs. For others, it may be to work on original arrangements or produce a worship recording of original music. Let God speak to your heart and then get your team excited about what He wants to do!

5) Try writing a couple of paragraphs in a humorous style.

Gathering the church choir sometimes feels like herding cats, doesn’t it? You’ve got 12 grandmas filtering through the sanctuary kissing all of the church young’uns, the tenor section in the back hallway talking about this afternoon’s football game and the choir director in the bathroom stall fretting about the offertory. I’ll bet that more times than you’re willing to admit, you’ve seriously considered quitting this thankless job and joining the college students working at the local Starbucks. All the free coffee you can stand and no real responsibility, what could be better than that?

You know, I have been there so many times. I’ve questioned God – “Is this really where you want me, Lord? I’m not so sure…” Stop for a moment, relax….breathe….let it all roll off and come back to reality. God’s not crazy! He did not make a mistake when He called you, so stop your whining and get back to work! Make sure your team knows what you expect. Give them no room for failure. Remember, if you will build a strong team with clear expectations, they will come. (to the prayer room on time!)

6) Write a paragraph in a meditative/reflective style.