Girls with Swords!!!

I recently discovered a new author, Lisa Bevere. Wow! Her books are the perfect complement to my Valiant Hearts Series. If you've felt inspired to become strong and courageous, to grow into a valiant heroine who is up for the fight, you might want to check out her books too. I just purchased Girls with Swords, Lioness Arising, and Fight Like a Girl. Pretty awesome titles, right? I'll share more after I've finished reading them. But for now, here's the video that encouraged me to order the books. I hope it will encourage you too.

Can You Be Better than the Bible?

I have an odd question today. Can you be better than the Bible? I suppose most Christians would summarily respond "no, of course not." Yet often people's lives and theology seem to suggest that they secretly think yes. What is it with Christians trying to sanitize everything and pretty it up and make it nice? The Bible isn't always nice. Recently during our morning devotionals I read the scripture in Galatians where Paul suggests that the circumcision advocates go all the way and chop off a certain key body part. LOL. I looked at my thirteen-year-old son and said, "I guess Paul was throwing a bit of a temper tantrum." And as a popular facebook meme suggests, when asked, "What would Jesus do?"--throwing over tables is an option.

Here's the thing. The Bible is not always neat and pretty and tied up with a bow. Sometimes daughter-in-laws seduce father-in-laws. Prostitutes make it into the lineage of Jesus. Men who are said to be after God's own heart also commit adultery and murder. Prophets smear poop on things. Then there's the Song of Solomon, a rather erotic book that I sometimes wonder if Christian parents even allow their kids to read.

I recently saw a facebook post by a fellow author asking someone to explain to her why Ruth lay down at Boaz's feet. She said this seemed rather risky and risque, and of course twenty or so comments tried to explain why it wasn't. Eventually I couldn't take it any longer and replied, "I think it was risky and risque, and I think God has a message for us in that."

If the Bible is indeed (as we claim we believe) God's inspired Word to mankind, then we need to accept all of it, even when it's messy. And if it is indeed God's inspired Word, we can't be "better" than the behavior recommended in it. Of course I'm not talking about bad behavior of specific individuals, but rather the Bible's prescribed behavior, particularly in the New Testament. When we try to be better, nicer, more pure, and more sanitized than the Bible itself, what we actually are is out of balance.

Tweet: We can't be better than the Bible, we can only be out of balance. And out of balance is just plain wrong. ~ Dina Sleiman

For example, while certain aspects of life like drinking alcohol or dancing can in some cases lead to sinful behavior, the Bible never says that either of these are sinful. Still, some denominations of Christianity try to turn them into sins. If someone chooses not to drink alcohol, that can be a wise decision, but if they judge others and treat it like a sin, they're out of balance. When they contrive elaborate theologies of why the wine Jesus turned the water into wasn't really wine, they're out of balance. And when you're out of balance, another word for that is: WRONG!

Paul says it is for freedom we've been made free. Satan wants us bound, God wants us to feel free to enjoy life so long as we follow the Spirit and stay within certain general guidelines. Getting drunk is a sin. Drinking wine is allowed if you can do it with self-control. Dancing with an intentional goal of seducing anyone but your own spouse would reasonably seem to fall outside of those prescribed guidelines (although I don't think it's anyone's job to judge the motives of another persons heart), but dancing as worship is encouraged, and dancing to enjoy life and music and community is fine.

Or let's take kissing before marriage. The Bible never says it's wrong, yet some Christians today treat it like a sin, or a lack of purity. The Bible DOES say not to have sex outside of marriage, and yes, excessive and indiscriminate kissing could lead one down a wrong path. But that doesn't make kissing before marriage a sin. You can't just go around making up sins for expediency. The same goes for dating. Adult Christians should feel free to make those sorts of choices for themselves and not be judged by other Christians.

Again, remember that when we try to be better than the Bible, something is dangerously off course. I have an acquaintance who recently wrote a book called Courtship in Crisis about the problem's within the new Christian courtship movement. Here's my thoughts on the issue. When young men and women are taught to feel impure every time their bodies experience natural, God-ordained sensations, they are being set up for problems later on in their marriages. How are they supposed to magically retrain their minds in one brief ceremony to enjoy what has been causing them perpetual guilt and turmoil for years? Guilt and turmoil that the Bible doesn't require.

Feelings aren't sin. Physical sensations aren't sin. What we do with those feelings and sensations determine our sinfulness or righteousness. If we choose to revel in them and fantasize over them, or worse yet to dive into them, that is very different than experiencing them and then making good decisions concerning them. It's very different than saying, "Dear Father God, I'm having these feelings and don't know what to do with them. Please guide me through this situation."

And even when we make poor decisions, God is there to forgive and restore us.

Of course I realize that some of my readers are teens, and so I remind you that children are instructed by the Bible to obey their parents. That message is clear. And adult children must still show their parents honor and respect, but they must also make their own decisions before God and take responsibility for their own choices.

On the flip side, to parents and church leaders I would say this. I grew up in the church, and trust me, kids who grow up in the church have excellent "b.s." detectors. They know when the adults in their lives are giving them rules that go beyond the Bible. And all that serves to do is undermine their credibility. When people try to make rock music, black fingernails, blue hair, and the like into "sin," they risk pushing others away from the true gospel message of freedom, grace, and redemption.

Okay, I may have fallen into rambling a bit, but this has been niggling at me for a while. So here's what it all comes back to. Can you be better than the Bible? No. Not if you believe it's truly God's Holy Word, as we Christians claim to believe it is. So let's get real, authentic, maybe a little vulnerable. Let's stop living nice, safe, clean, pretty lives and not be afraid of the riskier existence of walking by the Spirit of God. Let's present a version of Christianity to the world that is not based on rules and limits, but on the immeasurable gift of God.

We can't be better than the Bible, we can only be out of balance. And out of balance is just plain wrong.

The Sneakiest Sin

While writing Chivalrous, I had the challenge of taking the nearly perfect spiritual paragon, Allen of Ellsworth from Dauntless, and giving him a flaw that he needed to overcome. As I considered my options, I decided to go with that sneaky character issue that tends to creep in when someone, especially a Christian, is pretty much doing everything right: the sin of pride.

The truth is that we all need a savior, and none of us are good enough on our own. But many Christians fall into the trap of thinking that they have to do things through their own strength and self-determination. It's almost as if Christ saved them once, and it's been their job to save themselves every day since.

Allen was easy pickings for that spirit of pride to creep in due to his subtle issue of insecurity. He had been born and raised a peasant. He had been told that his place was to do nothing more than work the land, and that he would never be good enough for fine ladies such as Merry and Gwendolyn. So when he was offered more than he could have ever dreamed of, it was easy for him to become confused and put his pride and sense of duty before that still, small voice of God that had always led and guided him in the past.

I've noticed that a few reviewers that hadn't read Dauntless weren't sure if they liked Allen because of that pride. And not surprisingly most of them mentioned that they were not Christians. It's easy for Christians to overlook pride, but the truth is, it is very ugly to those outside of the faith. I think pride, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy are the three main downfalls among Christians that the enemy uses to drive people away from faith in Christ. That is why it was so important to me to include this issue in Chivalrous.

Fortunately, Allen overcomes his pride just in the nick of time. But if you think you've got your act all together and that you're an awesome Christian, watch out! None of us are perfect. We all need Christ, and if we start to think we can do it on our own, chances are that sneaky sin of pride has crept in.

Beauty for Ashes

Often in interviews I’m asked about the theme of Dauntless. Interviewers probably don’t realize that this is a slightly odd question for a novelist to answer.  Novelists should think about plots and characters. We’re not supposed to focus on themes or messages when writing books. They should arise subtly and organically. It is better to focus on questions than on answers. I admit…for some of my books I did have a theme, or at least a question, in mind from the beginning. 

But for Dauntless, it really did arise naturally from the plot and characters as I wrote the story. Dauntless came to me as the very first prologue scene playing in my mind like a movie. A female Robin Hood type character using her acrobatic, cat-burglar type abilities to rob a passing wagon. And so the story began to unfold. The backdrop, King John’s England in 1216. A sort of historical dystopia with an evil ruler, a corrupt government, and a civil war. Why did Merry become a thief? I decided her father tried to assassinate the king, and so the king tried to decimate everyone in the castle and the surrounding villages, but the children alone escaped, and Merry became their leader.

This book opens against a tragic backdrop. But each of the four main characters face that tragedy in a different way. Merry hardens her heart and does everything in her own strength. Timothy turns to ambition and the letter of the law. Allen presses into God. And our bad guy, well, he lets hatred completely eat away at him. They are all surrounded by the ashes of life. Yet God can turn our ashes into beauty if only we will let him. He can take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good. And rest assured, there is plenty of beauty, light, hope, and even laughter in this book.

And so the theme verse became Isaiah 61:3.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Will Merry learn to soften her heart and allow God and others back in? Will Timothy learn what is truly important in life? Will God alone be enough for Allen? What havoc will our bad guy wreak? Check out Dauntless to find out.

Have you ever faced tragic circumstances in your life? How did you respond? In what ways did God turn your ashes into beauty?