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Wake Up, O Sleeper!

Filed Under Children, Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 27, 2008 @ 8:04 pm by admin 

       Wow! This Halloween, stores are decked out like never before. Have you noticed that Halloween is now a SEASON, not just a DAY like it used to be?
       This year, for the first time, I saw that some stores have “Countdown to Halloween” calendars that look just like Christmas advent calendars. Also, today at Target, I decided to roam through the Halloween aisles to try to find a candy dish that wasn’t too creepy looking. I started down one aisle and saw some of the scariest display stuff ever. An array of gargoyles and freaky skulls stared me down. I also saw for sale a “coffin sofa cover” that you can put on your couch to make it look like a coffin. And then, next to one of the gargoyles, was…
       A SATAN HEAD. 
       Yes, a Satan head that would have given me nightmares as a child. It looked like the picture of Satan that was in the children’s Bible that my mom used to read to us. It had horns and lightbulbs in the eyes that lit up red.
       I felt torn. On the one hand, I didn’t want to even look at it. I felt sick inside. Then I thought, I should buy it and get rid of it so no one else has to see it. But of course, I couldn’t justify purchasing such a hideous item. Then I thought, I really should write a letter to Target and tell the management that I’m disappointed that they would carry such a thing.
       All this to say, folks, that if you are still in the dark about the fact that witchcraft and darkness are taking over our culture, please WAKE UP!!!!!! 
       Our book Generation Hex shares the truth about our culture’s spiritual trend toward witchcraft. Most Wiccans and witches are NOT Satan worshipers in a literal sense, but he still is leading many away from God’s truth. In Generation Hex, we interacted with Wiccans and pagans in a way that creates open dialogue and seeks to build bridges of understanding from Christians to those of pagans faiths. I hope each of you reading this post will choose to read the book and be informed about the influence of Wicca and witchcraft in our culture, especially among young people.  
       The Bible says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). As Christians, we need to be able to recognize and counteract his evil and destructive work in the world.  
       Blessings-
       Marla

 

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Upcoming Interviews for Generation Hex

Filed Under Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 20, 2008 @ 7:46 pm by admin 

Dillon and I have quite a few live interviews lined up for the next two weeks. We’d love to have you tune in and give us your feedback! NOTE: These stations also allow you to listen to archived interviews, so if you miss the live interview, simply click on the link and you can listen to the interview afterward via streaming audio.

Here is the schedule:

Oct    Central Time    Station

22      2-3 pm            Chris Fabry Live, Moody Radio, Colorado, multiple stations http://www.moodyradio.org/brd_programarchive.aspx?id=18894

25      12-1 pm          Janet Parshall’s Talking it Over, Moody Radio, multiple stations http://www.moodyradio.org/talkingitover.aspx

29      7:30-8:30 am   KBJS Radio, Jacksonville, TX http://www.kbjs.org/common/content.asp?PAGE=247

29-31 3-4 p.m.          Prime Time Live, Moody Broadcasting, Chicago, IL 

30      7:10-7:30 am   Moody Broadcasting, WMBI, Chicago, IL

30      11:15-11:45 am    TLC Radio

30      5:15-5:45 p.m.      Live from Criswell College, Dallas, Texas

WJSL Radio, Quest for Character, Mike Dunn, St. Louis, MO- Rescheduled- New date and time TBA

On Halloween, Dillon Burroughs, co-author of Generation Hex, will be involved in outreach at the screening of the movie Pray 2 in Woodland Park, Apex, NC. 

Dillon also will be involved in an outreach at Tennessee Temple Oct. 24-25 and Oct. 31. For more info, see his website at www.readdb.com.

 

 

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Recommended Books for Teens: Alternatives to HP

Filed Under Children, Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 13, 2008 @ 1:27 pm by admin 

My friend Sarah Anne sent me these recommendations for exciting, well-written Christian-based fantasy books:

 

  • The DragonKeeper Series by Donita K. Paul
  • The Restorer Series by Sharon Hinck

I also had another friend recommend Christian author Bryan Davis’ excellent fantasy fiction series published by AMG, called Dragons in Our Midst. Check it out! 

Also, my darling teenage friend Grace sent me the list below. I have wanted to post this for some time. It’s a list of GREAT ALTERNATIVE BOOKS for teens to read besides those with dark witchcraft-related themes. Here they are:

  • The Eragon series by Christopher Paolini
  • Anything by Francine Rivers - Her books aren’t fantasy but I personally love her writing.
  • Ted Dekker books, especially the Red, Black, White series
  • Books by Frank Peretti (This Present Darkness, etc.)
  • Proof by Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh
  • The Last Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
  • The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Grace says, “I also really like classical books, I’m currently reading a lot of Jane Austen and Charlotte and Emily Bronte. I think a lot of girls would like their books.” There you go! Can’t go wrong with the classics. Thank you, Grace!

   

 

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Q & A Time with the Poet

Filed Under Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, Poetry, Resources, Stress and Conflict, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 13, 2008 @ 8:19 am by admin 

Hello, my fellow writers and poets! I am going to start posting questions and answers about writing on my site. Today’s questions come from C.M., a young man who e-mailed me with questions about getting poetry published. His basic questions were these:

QUESTIONS 

1. How do I find competitions and venues for publishing my poems that aren’t scams?

2. How do I improve my poems enough so that I will be ready for entering these competitions? 

He mentioned that he had entered a contest through the National Library of Poets, but then later discovered that the competition was a scam. 

ANSWERS:

       Thanks for your message. I’m so sorry about your bad experiences with the National Library and other contests. Yes, you definitely have talent and potential as a writer! If you submit to the magazine Poets & Writers, or go online to their website at http://www.pw.org, you will find a list of real, vetted competitions to enter each month. Here is the list for this month: http://www.pw.org/content/deadlines. All of these competitions are legitimate, so you won’t have to worry about scams. 

     
       The best way to improve your poems is to read as much contemporary poetry as you can and revise, revise, revise! Keep your audience in mind. Use specific language. In poetry, the nouns/objects carry the weight. Use a thesaurus and a synonym dictionary to be sure you are using exactly the right words. 
 
       Most Christian publishers don’t publish poetry, but there are a few Christian poetry journals that you can submit your work to:
 
              -IMAGE
              -Relief
              -Rock & Sling
              -Toward the Light
 
        Most people who publish poems today, including myself, publish in the contemporary poetry (secular) market. Those poems typically have more of an outward focus rather than an inward focus. For some idea of what I mean, stop by a Barnes & Noble or other bookstore and pick up a bunch of their newest poetry and literary journals and read through them for a couple of hours. The Paris Review, Missouri Review, and others should give you an idea of what kind of poems are being selected. Also, you should purchase the following books online; they will really revolutionize your writing.
 
             -The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo
             -The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser
             -Several collections of poetry by Billy Collins
 
        Also, check out this website and you will be able to read many contemporary poems there: http://www.poets.org. Discover which poets you like and then figure out why you like them. What elements do they use that you might be able to focus on more in your own poems?
 
       Poets & Writers Magazine also includes lists of the winners of all of the major poetry contests. Reading the poems of the winners, printing them out and looking over them and seeing what they did and how they used language, will be one of your best tools for writing winning poetry!
 
       Also, if cost is a factor, you may want to focus for now on writing poems and submitting them to journals (which is free). After you work on your poems for a while, then you can start entering competitions. Definitely stick with it! Blessings!
Marla
 
 

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Poetry Updates

Filed Under Communication, Family and Friends, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, Poetry, Resources, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 12, 2008 @ 4:06 pm by admin 

Marla Alupoaicei recently won awards in two poetry competitions. Her poems “Ode to the Theory of Everything,” “Prodigal the Prodigal,” and “The Cutting” won a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize in the amount of $2500. For more information and to read all of the prizewinning poems, please visit www.dorothyprizes.org.

 

Marla also won a prize in the Writer’s Digest 77th Annual Writing Competition (Rhyming Poetry Category, 4th place). If you’re a fellow poet, Marla would love to hear from you. Please post updates here of your poetry writing, publications, awards and accomplishments. Marla would like to hear about how God is blessing your work!  

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You are Loved by God…

Filed Under Communication, Faith and Values, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, Poetry, Resources, Stress and Conflict, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 10, 2008 @ 4:05 pm by admin 

 Some quotes to inspire thought:

 

     And did you get what

     you wanted from this life even so?

     I did.

     And what did you want?

     To call myself beloved, to feel myself

     beloved on the earth.

                       -Raymond Carver

 

 

     We fill our hands when they are

     empty. We empty ourselves when we have held too much too long.

 

                     -Kathleen Graber, “Book Nine”

 

 

 

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Is Satan Real?

Filed Under Articles for Caregivers, Children, Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, God\'s Plan for Marriage, Illness and Grief, Intercultural Marriage, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, Parenting Your Parents with Grace, Resources, Stress and Conflict, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 10, 2008 @ 3:55 pm by admin 

What’s the Difference Between Wicca and Satanism?

 

            One of the most common questions we receive from Christians is, “Don’t all Wiccans worship Satan?” Actually, no. Most Wiccans and proponents of other New Age religions will be quick to tell you that they do not believe in absolute evil. In fact, they do not believe that Satan exists at all; they consider him to be part of the Christian tradition. Wiccans believe that by admitting that Satan exists, they name evil and allow it to have power over them.

           Truth is, however, Satan does exist. He is alive and well in the world, seeking to lead people astray and destroy them. To put it simply, Satan counterfeits God. He seeks to usurp God’s power and glory, and he tries to distract and mislead people from recognizing God as the one true and holy God. Interestingly, the Scriptures tell us that we can have power over Satan’s evil by clearly naming it and rebuking it in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 16:18; 19:13; Matthew 4:10).

            The New International Version of the Bible includes 47 verses that specifically mention Satan by name. What types of actions does Satan perform in the world? The following chart lists some of them.

 

Satan…                                   Scripture Reference

convinced King David to take a (prideful) census of the nation of Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:1

presented himself before the Lord along with all the other angels.

Job 1:6; 2:1

told God that he had been “roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

Job 1:7; 2:2

suggested that Job worshiped God only because God protected and favored him.

Job 1:8–9

afflicted Job with painful sores.

Job 2:7

stood at the right hand of Joshua to accuse him.

Zechariah 3:1

was rebuked by the Lord.

Zechariah 3:2

tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13

was personally rebuked and sent away by Jesus.

Matthew 4:10

caused some people to say that Jesus’s power was from Satan rather than from God, which was blasphemy.

Matthew 12:26; Mark 3:23–26; Luke 11:18

caused Peter to prioritize the things of men over the things of God.

Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33

will be cast into eternal fire.

Matthew 25:41

takes away the Word of God sown in some people’s hearts before it can take root.

Mark 4:15

fell like lightning from heaven.

Luke 10:18

prompted Judas to betray Jesus.

John 13:2

can get a foothold in our lives if we do not control our anger.  

Ephesians 4:27

schemes to destroy people; we must put on the full armor of God to protect ourselves.

Ephesians 6:11

lays traps for God’s people.

1 Timothy 3:7; 2 Timothy 2:26

holds the power of death.

Hebrews 2:14

causes people to harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in their hearts.

James 3:14–15

will soon be crushed underneath our feet by the God of peace.

Romans 16:20

masquerades as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11:14

displays all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.

2 Thessalonians 2:9

is our enemy; he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

leads the whole world astray; will eventually be destroyed.

Revelation 12:9

will be bound for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:2, 7

will be thrown into the lake of fire forever.

Revelation 20:10

 

Satan does have some measure of power as the “prince of this world.” However, God’s power is far greater. Let me know your thoughts! Thank you.

 

 

 

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6 Myths and Truths about Wicca

Filed Under Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Stress and Conflict, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 7, 2008 @ 9:13 pm by admin 

Hello, friends! Here are some interesting myths and truths about Wicca to keep you informed during WICCA AWARENESS MONTH! And if you have not yet snapped up your personal copy of the new book Generation Hex, please do so now on www.amazon.com. We hope you will take this opportunity to become informed about this influential cultural and spiritual trend!

 

Generation Hex: Uncovering the Truth about Wicca

Myth #1: You can tell a person is a Wiccan just by looking at him or her.

Truth: Jami Shoemaker of Llewellyn Publishers said, “The average witch is a beautiful twenty-five year old.” Wiccans do not necessarily dress “Goth,” nor do they ride on broomsticks!

Myth #2: Wiccans are Satan worshippers who sacrifice living beings.  

Truth: Wiccans do not worship Satan directly. They consider Satan part of the Christian tradition; most don’t even believe that he exists. They do not perform human or animal sacrifices.

Myth #3: Wiccans are trying to convert others to their religion.

Truth: Wiccans read books on Christianity and other religions. However, they typically do not try to convert others to their faith.

Myth #4: Wiccans don’t follow any rules. 

Truth: Wiccans follow the Wiccan Rede, which states, “’An it harm none, do as ye will” (translation: “As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, do whatever you want”). They also follow the Rule of Three, which states that the consequences of a person’s actions, whether positive or negative, will return to that person threefold.

Myth #5: Wicca and Christianity are compatible.  

Truth: Scripture clearly states that Christians are not to participate in any form of witchcraft. This includes séances, casting spells, palm reading or fortune telling, using Tarot cards, communicating with spirits, playing with Ouija boards, or playing occult-related video games.   

Myth #6: Arguing with a Wiccan about God or the Bible is the best way to lead that person to Christ.

Truth: Wiccans enjoy engaging in honest, open dialogue about their faith. If you show genuine interest in them, most will be glad to discuss their beliefs and experiences with you. When you have the opportunity, share your positive personal testimony about how God has transformed your life through Christ.

 

 

BIO: Marla Alupoaicei (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002), is an author and speaker as well as a writer for East-West Ministries. She and Dillon Burroughs (ThM, 2002), recently released the book Generation Hex: Understanding the Subtle Dangers of Wicca with Harvest House Publishers. Marla and her husband, Catalin, operate a ministry called Leap of Faith for intercultural couples. For more information, please visit Marla’s website at www.marriageleap.com. Marla also mentors and encourages writers and authors at her author site, www.marlawrites.com.

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Author Dillon Burroughs’ Website

Filed Under Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Success, Time, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 7, 2008 @ 9:05 pm by admin 

Hello! Thanks for stopping by Leap of Faith. For those of you who are seeking additional info on Wicca, check out the website of author and speaker Dillon Burroughs: www.readdb.com. Stop by for a visit, and feel free to e-mail him if you have any questions! Thanks! 

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Join the Gen Hex Club - It’s Wicca Awareness Month

Filed Under Children, Communication, Faith and Values, Family and Friends, Generation Hex, Resources, Stress and Conflict, Success, Writing Inspiration
Posted on October 6, 2008 @ 1:27 pm by admin 

Hello, friends, and welcome to Leap of Faith! October is Wicca Awareness Month! So what do you need to know about Wicca? Here are ten pointers:

1. According to recent studies, Wicca is America’s fastest-growing religion.

2. Wiccans believe in a God and a Goddess that are equal in power.

3. Wicca is the most popular “brand” of witchcraft today.

4. Wiccans have homeschool networks, just like Christians do.

5. Wiccans do not worship Satan directly. They don’t even believe in him.

6. Wiccans use candles, crystals, and other objects to pray and perform spells.

7. Wiccans love nature and seek to protect the environment.

8. Wiccans shouldn’t be feared. They are people just like the rest of us. God loves them.

9. You WILL have opportunities to share your faith and create open dialogue with Wiccans, pagans and those of New Age faiths. Your care and preparation will determine whether you do a good job of this or not.

10. We want every person to be well-equipped to understand Wicca - what it is, and what it is not. Our book Generation Hex will equip you to know more about Wicca and to share your faith in a positive manner with people of a variety of belief systems.   

Pick up your copy of Generation Hex today on www.amazon.com or at your local bookstore! Thank you.

 

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