Excerpt from Redemption

This is one of my favorite parts of Redemption (my book, in case anyone reading forgot or didn't know). Those last two lines are my favorite! I just came across it again and started grinning, so here you go:

The wicked man turned to look at her.  “You’re still mine, darling,” he said.  “Don’t forget all you’ve done for me.”  He grinned.  “You don’t deserve forgiveness.”

Sophy lowered her head and closed her eyes.  “I know,” she whispered, her voice barely legible through her sobs.  “I’m not worth it.”

“That’s right.  Don’t forget it.”

“He’s a liar, Sophy!” he* cried, running his hands through his hair in desperation.  Gwen began to cry with him, and suddenly, she loved Sophy.  If her Creator cried for the woman, how could she not?

A real post will come soon, I hope, but here's a little something.

*edited slightly to avoid spoilers

Eternal salvation -- a rambling post

Someone else could probably do this better than I will, but that person isn't here right now. I'm not doing this out of a desire to be right. You see, I'm seventeen; I change my mind a lot on many things, but there a few, just a few, beliefs that I know are right, that I feel so strongly about that it's hard to contain it all. One is the fact that God is incredible, amazing, beautiful, perfect, lovely, loving, holy, and powerful, and I am constantly, forever in awe of him. Another is eternal salvation.

Once we call on Jesus to forgive us of our sins, we are saved from Hell forever. No take-backs. How do I know? First, a bit of logic:

When Jesus died on the Cross, He did it to redeem all people and wipe out all sin. That was over two thousand years ago; at the point in time, I hadn't sinned yet. Never. I was completely perfect. Of course, I hadn't been born yet either, but what does that matter? Jesus didn't die to take away the sin of certain people at certain points in time. He died once for us all, so we only have to accept Him once. It's simple. Not easy, but simple. (Really, how easy is it to accept that the beautiful, incredible King of the universe lowered himself to this dirty world and died for me? It's hard.)

Another thing is time. God is not in time; the Holy Spirit is in time (and Jesus was in time, but now He's at the right hand of God in Heaven). The Holy Spirit guides us through our choices while God is above, outside of time, seeing it all happen at once. The beginning of the universe and the end of it -- He sees it all at the same moment. Therefore, He doesn't need us to constantly ask for forgiveness; we do it because it's right, but it has no affect on our everlasting souls.

Now that I'm done rambling, let's get to the verses.

Hebrews 10:14

"For by one offering, He forever made perfect those who are being made holy." (Emphasis added by me.)

Jesus sacrificed Himself to make us who are "saved" forever perfect, sinless. Our sin is forgiven forever, not just from the time we were born to the time we last prayed.

2 Timothy 2:13

"If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for he cannot deny Himself."

No matter what we do, He is faithful to us.

Romans 8:15-16

"So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children."

We are God's children. When a child is adopted, he becomes the son of his father, especially in the time during which this was written. God is our Father; we belong to Him alone forever.

John 10:27-29

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand."

If no one can snatch us from God's hand, how can we possibly jump or fall from it?

Romans 11:29

"For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn."

Never. And "withdrawn" means that He won't take it back, not that we can't throw it back. (But we can't, as Paul and John have already explained.)

Philippians 1:6

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."

He began something in us, and He will not stop until the day that Jesus returns.

John 5:24

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life."

We have already passed into life; death has no hold over us anymore. Those who have eternal life can never go back to death.

Ephesians 1:13-14

"...And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him."

When we came to believe in Jesus, He gave us the Holy Spirit right then. The Spirit is a promise from God, who never breaks His promises.

John 6:39-40

"And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

When we believe in Jesus Christ and become "saved," we are given to Him by God. He will "not lose even one of all those He has given Me." We are His.

(To quote the Doctor, this one got away from me, yeah. I told you that it's hard to contain my feelings on this. I'm writing a novel with this premise, have been for a year.

If I did offend or upset anyone in any way, I am sorry that you were offended or upset. I am not sorry for my words because they're true. That should be the slogan for my blog and my stories. I really don't like upsetting people, but it does become unavoidable on worthwhile subjects. I hope something I said made a difference to someone.)

P.S. I used the New Living Translation for this. I hate that one; it dulls the beauty of the words. I prefer NIV because it's easiest to understand and New King James Version because it's beautiful to read. But other people can read Living easier, so... there ya go.

P.P.S. Credit to my daddy for part of the logic, Ted Dekker for explaining time in Blink, and Josh Olds for finding me the verses.

Quoting myself

"For future reference, if I ever go insane, I want you to tell me. And yes, I'm still mad about my dream."
~ me to my sister

(By the way, is it bad that I'm using a Literature textbook as a footrest?)

Procrastination

Things I do while I should be writing:

1. Watch Doctor Who. I mean, come on, the original show had over twenty seasons, and the new one can be watched multiple times without getting old. I can spend a lot of time procrastinating with that.

2. Play Subeta.net. I love/hate that place. It has me trained to log in every day and do every worthwhile quest to make millions of Subeta Points to spend on clothes for my avatar (I have a lot of clothes).

3. Facebook. My writers' group is special, a great little community. It's also incredibly addicting. (I'm there now.)

4. I read webcomics. I have a whole bunch that I love especially and read a lot, but the one most worth mention is SurvivingTheWorld.net. If you have some time, go check that place out; Dante could always use new readers.

5. Watch Youtube videos. I use Youtube for music, but sometimes, I also use it to waste time watching Doctor Who tributes, mostly BabelColour, and Tobuscus videos.

6. I blog. Obviously, not very much.

7. I read fanfiction. My favorites are generally crossovers.

8. I change my profile picture on Facebook.

So that's all I can think of for now. Procrastination, gotta love it. Here's a great little video that I swear will make you laugh out loud:

I love it! Four and Ten, two of my favorites, converging in wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey space.

Doctor Who quote

My favorite Doctor Who quote:

"Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it... Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives."

~ River Song, in her first/last appearance (wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey) in the episode "Forest of The Dead"

Now I will try very hard not to steal that line in one of my stories, especially in my possible series of shorts about Doran Maeve, the time-travelling lunatic. (Have I not mentioned him? Oh, well, you'll find out soon enough who he is...)

"Love your neighbors as yourself."

I wrote this a while back and finished it just now. It has no point, but it's something I think about. (And I just remembered that I wrote this after watching Thor. Super hero movies: the very best at stories where the hero creates the villain.)

I’m watching a movie or television show, and suddenly, I notice something about this character.  He could be the guy who’s going to snap and kill everyone or himself in the end, or maybe he’s just a jerk.  That doesn’t really matter.  He’s depressed, mean, or something else, but that doesn’t matter either.  What does matter is the lack of love shown toward him.
Obviously, no one would want to love a murderer or other type of evil person.  I wouldn’t expect anyone too.  But it’s before all that, when this character is still in the early stages of breaking down, that he needs kindness and guidance.  And he’s not going to accept it from the righteous hero; he needs it from another source.
Haven’t you ever watched a movie and thought, that entire conflict could have been resolved if someone had given -insert character name here- a hug in the first five minutes?  It drives me crazy because I know that I would be the one to give him that hug.  Except… I wouldn’t.
As we travel through life, we are oblivious to the pain of those around us.  We see them, but we don’t, not really.  We think we follow the command of God – to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – but we’re hypocrites.  All of us.  We don’t like to admit it, but we are.

So I don't know if there's a point to this. I don't think I can impart any wisdom on how to change yourself -- other than to ask God to help you. It's just an observation, something I wrote in a passionate frenzy -- I do that sometimes.

Pointless post #2

I found the beginning of a story in a notebook, and I don't even remember writing it! From the way the beginning goes though, I can see how I was going to end it, and I'm working on it now. The name I picked before was "Monster Within," but I'm probably going to change that.

And it's about vampires! How cool is that?

Okay, so I actually wrote that yesterday, and now I'm finishing this post. I got a new book! It's The Last Dodo, a Doctor Who novel by Jacqueline Rayner. Two chapters in, I'm in love -- with the writer and the book! Did I mention what a big fan of the Doctor I am? No? I love him, the Tenth especially with the Eleventh and Third right behind. Rose is my favorite of his companions, of course, though I love Rory so much.

Okay, so this has turned really pointless. I promise that I will eventually write something worth reading and maybe get someone besides Beth and Adam reading it, haha. Until then, I will mesmerize you with one of the best videos I've ever seen. Look!

(Watch the whole eight minutes. It's worth it. If you don't feel like it, at least skip to 6:15 because that's my favorite part. The effect will be better if you watch all of it.)

Plot twist!

I love plot twists. They're so much fun! This one was to do with Quin, the best friend of Kat -- a lycan -- who's dating a vampire named Lucius. Quin is just the normal, human college student... right?

On an unrelated note, I now have a Twitter! My new name is sarahnewman04 I also have a Facebook, but that's secret for now. Maybe I'll make one later that I can let the public see.

A completely pointless post

I have the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel and the memory of a blue fish. Therein lies the reason for the dozens of unfinished stories saved on my computer and in old notebooks. Also, why I randomly drop out of conversations, leave my phone while I run into the other room, and have a desk covered in interesting, broken knickknacks. It's who I am; it's in my genes.

Let's pause while you get the jeans jokes out of your system. Are you done? Okay.

I'm also interested in almost every genre of story. Fantasy, science fiction, romance, suspense, mystery, and just about everything else you can think of. The only way for me to stay interested in a story is to surround myself with that genre. Music, the shows I watch, and the books I read all have to correspond to what I'm writing about.

So this is my list of media intake right now:

The Vampire Diaries (show)

Being Human (show)

Teen Wolf (show)

Nightshade (werewolf romance novel by Andrea Cremer)*

The hair bands my mama likes -- Aerosmith, Def Leppard, etc (it's what my MC likes)

"You're a Wolf" by Sea Wolf (a song that reminds me of werewolves)

Anything else with vampires or lycans in it

I did try watching True Blood too. Tip: never, ever let that junk reach your computer. It was one of those show that tries to be "real" by doing things like showing lots of sexual scenes and murders (and what vampire is named Bill?) So, no, I didn't like that.

All of this may be slightly damaging to my mental state, but it does keep me on task. Especially with this new twist in my story.

*I'm not recommending Nightshade until I finish it. As of now, I haven't decided if it's romance or "erotica." We'll see.