Is it Friday yet?

No, not really. But tomorrow I'll leave for a women's retreat, so I'll do my Friday blogging today.

If you haven't been following The End of Horror in which J. Mark Bertrand and Dave Long duke it out over Mark's analysis of Ezekiel's Shadow, you're missing an enlightening discussion of Christians and art and how we can convey faith in our writing while still telling a good story. (and could I possibly have written a longer, more rambling sentence? I don't think I'll try to find out.) There's more good discussion on the Critical Analysis forum at Faith in Fiction, too.


Here's a good thought about the church from Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum:

But we're not the Blog of Christ. We're the Body. That Body wasn't created to go into the hellholes of Earth and hand out a tract, but to be the very arms of Jesus around a broken person who needs a shoulder to cry on more than she needs someone armed with a relentless set of answers.

It reminds me of James 2:14-17 -- "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."


Mike is one Master's Artist who doesn't want to grow up. More power to him.


I'm off to a women's retreat tomorrow, as I said. I hope you'll keep us in your prayers. It promises to be a lovely weekend, weather-wise. Pray that it will also be a lovely weekend spiritually, as well.