What price can be put on a soul? Part II

What price can be put on a soul?

In the Middle Ages if you were of high birth, capture was not the end.  However, those of lower parentage had an uphill battle if captured.  Your life would be forfeit, hopefully merciful and quick.  The wealthy could buy their freedom at a high cost, but oftentimes it drove their estates into bankruptcy.  If you were in favor with the king or had established yourself with your peers, monies could be raised on your behalf.

Nevertheless, there would eventually be a reckoning.  Lending money to a king was a quick road into the tangled intrigues of court life.  Owing money to the same was worse, because, despite gaining your freedom, you became an unwilling pawn.

But what if there was a king who would pay your ransom, regardless of your station?  And let’s up the impossible stakes by taking the role of a commoner, who owns nothing more than the clothes on your back.  Who would pay for your freedom now?  Why would they want to?  After all, you have nothing to give in return.  You’re lower than a worthless pawn, virtually unusable in the games of royal machinations, unless they need you to commit some reprehensible act where deniability is required.

For someone to pay your life’s ransom would require a selfless act.  A king would have to be out of his wits to make such an offer if there were no difficult conditions placed on your freedom.  What if the only stipulations were to accept the ransom payment and follow the one who saved you?  If the stakes were much greater than your physical life, and that fact was clearly seen and known, very few would reject such an offer. 

Jesus paid our soul’s ransom with his body and His life.  We are unworthy and ungrateful, and I cannot imagine even some of our best friends laying down their lives to better ours and give us eternal life in the bargain.  Moreover, Jesus paid our ransoms, and Romans 5 7-8 declares this thought, ^“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Paying someone’s ransom, their debts, or making sacrifices for another is a powerful way for us as Christians to demonstrate God’s grace.  You can speak volumes about grace and sometimes never fully convey its depths until it is expressed in how you interact with others.  Saint Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

For A Thousand Generations and A Soul’s Ransom are available on Amazon for the Kindle!  Both novels feature engaging plots, dramatic scenes, and vivid characters that live their faith.  They are just like us.

What Price Can Be Put On A Soul?

What price can be put on a soul?  Some deem others as worthless or only worth a handful of coins so long as something is exchanged.  In times past, people were treated as a commodity to be bought and sold with little regard to how God views them.  Unfortunately, this reprehensible act still occurs.

Just recently, I made the acquaintance of someone whom I have never met through Facebook.  I’m curious-minded, so I accepted the request based on having only one mutual friend.  After reading a few posts on his timeline, I felt as though I have met a new brother.  The first post I read came from one of his friends that wrote how this man helped save 50 children from a sex slave camp in Nepal.

Pinch yourself, because you’re not dreaming. God bless this man and his ministry.  

Luke 12: 6-7 has much to say concerning this where it declares, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?  But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

It warms my heart to read how someone lives this short passage of Scripture in such a dramatic way.  I cannot fathom or even begin to elucidate what wonderful things God can now put into their lives.  Hearing stories such as this one, stirs my passion to write, to share, and to pray.  Posting this onto a blog makes more people aware of the depravity of mankind, and hopefully to their knees in prayer. 

   I have always loved the theme of a ransom, and in A Soul’s Ransom, I touch on how “sacrifice sows and enduring yield” and ask the question of readers on the jacket- What price can be put on a soul? 

Should you read A Soul’s Ransom, then my prayer is that you will be touched, entertained, and that you will examine your life afresh.  But the true thrust of this post is simple and straightforward- Pray for the man I mentioned in this post.  God knows his name and the names of each and every one of those sparrows. 

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:26-28

~SH

 

The Place of Inspiration

Authors have a readily available supply of fuel for their novels.  The key is finding whatever or whoever will inform our creativity.  Certain songs elicit images that we seek to combine into a cohesive, well thought-out form.  Additionally, our faith can inspire us to dig deep into the well of our experience and thrust our struggles and our triumphs from answered prayers into an epic story that causes one to re-examine their lives afresh.

In Psalms 26:7 it reads, “That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.”  Truly, King David had a host of struggles and triumphs that gave him cause to pen those inspired words of praise.  He was a warrior, an adulterer and murderer, and yet he was dubbed as a man after God’s own heart because of his contrition.  He lived in a place and time rich with inspiration for writers. 

Israel is only a place on a map.  However, its history is one that inspires.  In the Middle Ages, Frankish knights referred to it as Outremer, the Levant, or the Holy Land.  My visits to Israel were courtesy of the US Navy, and the first time I stood on the Mount of Olives, I was speechless as I gazed out over Jerusalem.  No words burst forth, but the memories were forever etched into my mind that day.  The wind was brisk, drowning out the sounds of the city, which created a quiet hush.  The various churches and domes gleamed in the bright sun, creating a bright dazzle of golden light that contrasted with the sandstone walls.  Olive trees dotting the slope swayed in a graceful cadence.  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher stood still as a sentinel behind the crenellated walls.  And I wondered, did Christ once stand where my feet were firmly rooted?

So dream for a moment.  In your mind’s eye, place a score of mail-clad, bedraggled knights on that same hill in 1099.  Watch their eyes as they scan the walls and what lies beyond.  Some will lean on their battered shields with mouths agape.  Others will weep at this vision.  Pick one of the men out of the crowd and focus your eyes on him.  Is he afraid?  What emotions are running through his mind?  Does he have secrets better left buried?  Whom does he love, and is his love requited? 

Stand at his side as he tells his story.  For the wind is brisk, drowning out the sounds of the city, creating a quiet hush.  The various churches and domes gleam in the bright sun, creating a bright dazzle of golden light that contrasts with the sandstone walls.  Olive trees dotting the slope sway in a graceful cadence.  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands still as a sentinel behind the crenellated walls.  And he wonders aloud to you, “Did Christ once stand where my feet are firmly rooted?”

Find your song, your hope, an answered prayer, or that epic place.  Then close your eyes, populate your creation, name them and give them faces, and breathe the life of words into the disparate pieces.

And listen as they tell their story.      

If you enjoyed the post, be sure to follow the Amazon book links on the right of the page. 

~SH

A Soul's Ransom....A Tickler for a Novel-Coming to a Kindle Near You!

On August 26, 1346 a great battle was fought at Crecy between the outnumbered English forces and a superior French army.  Sir William de Courtenay, an English knight, was primed to test his pluck, but capture would forever change the course of his life.

His mud-encrusted grin at a peasant girl and his kind words of intervention to a noblewoman would alter their lives, lives that would soon be intertwined into a drama more grand than they could ever imagine.  For some, their escape would lead to the fulfillment of long-held dreams, but for another, dark despair.

Opposition will rear its head and attempt to destroy.  Roles will become reversed and the skies of hope will roll back, only to be replaced with clouds of gloom.  A hard choice of faith will have to be made by his friends and betrothed- believing that a dead man is indeed alive.

If he is alive, then honor dictates that he should clear his name and regain the title that has been stolen.  What secret would drive him to hide from someone who loves him as her own soul and would crawl from the ends of the earth to hold him in her arms?  Is his pride so powerful that he would disavow all that he had once embraced?     

A touching epic of faith, hope, and love, where mettle is tested, weighed, and refined.  A story where sacrifice sows an enduring yield. 

What price can be put on a soul?

Two Difficult Words

History is a wise teacher, should we choose to listen.  Those that willingly ignore the lessons of past will eventually be pulled into life’s classroom.  And sometimes those lessons are hard.  Are they ever easy? 

Buckle your boots, ensure your armor is cinched tight and check for gaps, secure your helm, and strap on your swordbelt as Rosanne E. Lortz has you fill the role of Sir John Potenhale.  Sir John shadows Prince Edward in her novel I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince, and she adroitly sends you through the war torn fields of France during the Hundred Year’s War.  Potenhale’s dreams and his triumphs become yours.  Your heart will race as you scrabble past knights in close quarter fighting to deliver a missive to King Edward III at Crecy on that balmy August day, conversely, you’ll feel elation when the day arrives for you to be knighted.  Your mother and father would be proud to call you their son.

Rejection will sting you.  And then you begin to question everything that you thought you knew about yourself, your call to serve in the Prince’s household, and even your faith, as your role matures.  As the Great Pestilence sweeps continental Europe and crosses the channel, you entreat God for mercy, wondering where you and your country had erred.  What great sin had been committed?  How can it be assuaged?  You seek desperate, austere measures, thinking that God would be pleased by your disavowal of every joy and comfort that life outside a monastery’s wall could offer.

And then you will find answers.

Rosanne uses a historical milieu to show today’s readers that the study of history, and the enjoyment of historical fiction, has relevance.  The echoes of King Solomon’s words from Ecclesiastes 1:9 ring true when it comes to history’s lessons where it says,  “…and there is no new thing under the sun.”  For history often repeats itself.

So as you read her debut novel, be prepared to slog your way through the press of battle, to strike with your sword and defend with shield, to laugh with your comrades when it’s over, and revel as you vanquish implacable foes.

But listen to your friends….whatever allegiances they may have forsworn. The answers will become clear, and they will stop you in your tracks.  God would not have us live complacent lives.  Rather, we should live each day as though it is our last, praying that His mighty hand will protect, guide, and nurture by His matchless grace.

Step into Sir John Potenhale’s shoes and begin your journey.  Embrace the knowledge he embraces, admire John and mirror others who know the value of steadfast honor, and then you will understand the sacrifices one undertakes to utter two seemingly simple words: “I Serve.”  

I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince can be purchased on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Serve-Novel-Black-Prince-ebook/dp/B00332EWC4/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329657180&sr=1-2

Like her author page on Facebook and visit her blog at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/RosanneLortz

The Journey

Five years ago, I was at a spiritual crossroads in my life.  I had been feeling the tug to do more, to find my purpose for God.  This was to be the one that would get me out of bed in the morning and define my passion.  I was unsure of which way to go, so I spent time in prayer, hoping for a burning bush experience like Moses had that would clearly point the way.

The answer was elusive, so I began to take stock of my condition.  I pinpointed the one thing that I had always dreamed of doing, the one vocation that I could funnel my energies into that would glorify and direct people to God.

I chose to write.

Not just entertaining stories or thrillers, but stories that would entertain as well as instruct.  After reading Ken Follett’s “Pillars of the Earth”, I was struck by how easy it would be to write a Christian novel within a medieval construct. 

So I began to write, and seeing how quickly “Ransomed Lives” took form and how quickly 400 pages could enfold was astounding.  The next logical step was to secure a publisher and move into a direction that held such great promise.  Where there was a wall, there had to be a door.  But for five years, I had stood next to that same wall, wondering and waiting.

Where was God in all of this?  Was I not good enough?  Did I displease Him in some way?  My recurring refrain was, “I thought I was supposed to do this!”  As a year of frustration passed, I began writing again.  Something new was sure to please God, and “A Pilgrimage of Time” yielded itself shortly thereafter, only to become “For A Thousand Generations”.

However, the wall never moved, and no door could be found.  Frustration turned to apathy, but try as I might to give up, God wouldn’t let me go.  “Why God?” I wondered.  I was stuck, but as I discovered that fretting and giving up were not options, I decided to try another alternative. 

Riding a horse can be a delicate art.  You have to strike a balance between two opposites when holding the reins.  Not too tight.  Not too loose.  Hold on, but not in a death grip.  Peace returned, and though there were times of frustration and doubt, I still had the rock of truth down deep that kept my hope alive.

And so last year, the wall began to weaken, cracks appearing where the stones were once closely fitted.  Opportunities materialized and the wonders they hid began to form.  At the year’s close, I felt a stirring that “it” was right around the corner.  I would have a publishing avenue.

I had always been against self-publishing.  The notion left a bitter taste in my mouth.  If a mainstream publisher doesn’t recognize your work, then you have no business becoming an author. 

I could not have been more mistaken.

As bookstores dwindle, eBooks will soar.  Publishers will shutter their doors, never to reject anything that isn’t a mildly calculated risk ever again.  There are a host of sites that allow you to publish free, upload your eBook, and begin selling your passion.  You own your success and failure without a garage full of dusty books that you published on your own or your publisher dumped on you to sell (or else).

However, only one leg of this journey is over, but I learned that God had never left me, that this portion is over, I passed muster, and I am a better man for it.  Consider James 1:3-4 if God wants to test your mettle: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

 

Visit: http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Generations-Novel-Embracing-ebook/dp/B006XUPLVY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329268585&sr=1-1

Driving to the Sea

God gave Joshua a special commission to go and possess the land west of the Jordan River.  Note that it was not Joshua who was making the demand, but ponder what it states in Joshua 1:1-3:

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying:  “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel.  Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.

God, and the promises He bestows, do not render Him little more than a personal vending machine.  However, God in His sovereignty and grace allows us to lay claim to those things that He has granted us.  There are those of the belief that we can pick and choose our blessings, claim them in faith, and go and claim what we have spoken.  Entire mega-churches have sprung from this faulty notion.  If this is true, why doesn’t it work in the slums of Calcutta?  Hmmm?

But if God imparts a purpose and passion into your life, and if He has clearly given you the land to possess and make fruitful, then by all means, tenaciously take ownership of that gift.  Let nothing hinder you and don’t lose heart.  Joshua 1:7 declares, “Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.”

Having God as the pilot does not sit well with the “type-A” personality, does it?  We are driven, ambitious, and many times successful, but God does not measure success in purely physical terms.  The scales by which we are measured are eternal.  Are you baseball’s homerun king?  Or are you that actress that won several Academy Awards?  These pinnacles will eventually dissipate into the ether.  Rather, take hold of the passion God has given you and make every inch of your plot fruitful.  Be strong and full of courage.  If you hit the most grand slams or win the lion’s share of awards, give glory to God for your abilities.  He never forgets.

Today’s church sermon ended on an interesting note.  The pastor encouraged us by unabashedly saying that we children of God through Christ.  So if you are hindered, but are certain concerning God’s call on your life…then drive your enemy into the sea.