Welcome to My Writing World
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I’m editing and updating my first post on this blog to be more of a true welcome to all who stop by to visit. I hope to get back to every post before I get too far along. I want to add images, double-check for grammar, and do a quick readability check. I would love for every post to be five-star perfect, but I know that’s not reality. My most difficult issue is probably with the use of passive verbs, but when talking about past events, it’s a bit difficult to do otherwise.
So, what is this purpose of this blog? I’m using it as a place to make myself write more things to be read by others. I write a lot, but it’s mostly in the form of prayer journals or other journals, though I have had requests to publish my prayer journals because I speak to God as if He is the Best Friend I have ever had–because He is. What little I’ve shared from the journals has brought great encouragement to others, and being an encouragement is one of my greatest desires.
The first post I made here was probably a year after I actually created the blog, and it was just one little paragraph and a link on June 7th, 2009. I had tried to post before that, but each time I would run into a struggle in getting it to do as I wanted, I would quit for a long time before trying again. That’s an old bad habit wrapped around a fear of failure that I consistently work to free myself from. That said, daily struggles with recovery from a neck injury (and two surgeries), from the pain of fibromyalgia, and from PTSD related to many abuses in this life, kept me from updating the blog again until May of 2012–almost three years.
I added another space of nearly six months without posting until I shared my thoughts about the hero worship I saw the world offering Obama, and I compared it to the elevated worship ignorant Christians offered the apostate preacher Todd Bentley. Find that at November 6th 2012 article called “When I Said I Knew It.”
Just under a month later (a record considering how much space I had been leaving between posts), I shared about my purchase of materials from “Pro Blogger” and my hopes that they could help me get more done. I’m certain they would help if I would apply them, but I’m far more interested in being available for others who say they need my assistance than in taking the time to learn how something new and how to apply it.
In early 2013, I thought I would become consistent with posting a daily thought on the book of Proverbs and the thirty-one readings that correspond to the 31 days in the month. I got through two of them before whatever I allowed to distract me stopped me in my tracks, and I went another almost 4 months before posting again. That post on April 21st, 2013 called “So Many Laws” is about a lawful heart versus a lawless heart and how lawlessness it was actually creates the need for more laws.
Finally, on September 28th, 2013, I began writing a daily post with my commentary on portions of The Torah (the first five books of The Bible). For once I have focus, and I have posted regularly now for over eight months as of this update. I have learned that having a focus makes a lot of difference, so I’ll need to figure out what focus to apply once I have gone through the year of Torah readings. I know I love to teach, and I love to encourage, so I hope to find a way to incorporate that into whatever I do. In the meantime, I hope readers enjoy my commentary as I share my love for God and His great creation, mercy, and love for me. In the meantime, consider this your invitation to read, comment, and vote on my blog content; add a like if you like, and take a gander at some of my other blog-type projects…
- My first blogging attempt (in 2006) at Yahoo 360 with kaleidoscope designs (transferred here at the 360 closure)
- My next blogging attempt (at Blogspot.com) for a book project I hope still bears fruit one day
- My accumulation of articles at Scribd
- My profile page at Flickr, and most photos have abundant descriptions, so a lot like a photo blog
- My creativity and design blog for kaleidoscope images here on WordPress (one day to have at least weekly posts)
- My main website at crystal-writer.com where I hope to streamline my entire web presence.
And with that, may I introduce you to my first post on this blog…
My first post here will actually be a test on posting a PDF with line numbers so members of Louisville Christian Writers can post editing comments a little more easily. I had a bit of a hard time getting the PDF into my blog where people can read it as part of the blog. But, with perseverance, I finally got it. Just click the link below.
My Latest Flickr Photos
Crystal Writes A Blog 
No Fear (of Failure)
Bear Just Out of Hibernation; Cade’s Cove Loop, TN. By Crystal A Murray, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
There was a lady getting really close to the fence to take pictures instead of standing back and using her zoom lens. When the bear lunged toward the fence, she backed up real quick, and I was glad I was a good distance back already.
Click the picture to open another tab/window to other cute bear images on my Flickr photostream.
When the clothing campaign first came out, and I started seeing things all over the place with the words No Fear, I remember thinking what a foolish campaign it was because it left God out of the equation. When the writer in the 23rd Psalm says he will not fear, he includes “because you are with me” in reference to The Lord his Shepherd. With God, we do not have to fear, but without Him, we have no guarantee of the kind of peace that drives away our fears.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 1:39 through Deuteronomy 2:1, Moses speaks to the “little ones” that God promised would cross into The Promised Land after their parents sinned against God. He tells the children what happened when God stopped them in their paths and sent them back out into the desert.
After the spies came back, and the people stirred God’s anger with their fears and complaints about giants in the land, they thought they could just change their plans and get God to change His mind. They said, “Now we will go up and do everything The Lord told us to do,” and it says they considered it an easy matter since they were following commands God had given. But Moses told them not to go and fight because God would not be with them and their enemies would defeat them.
Did they listen to God? No. Did they listen to Moses? No, not to him either. Moses says in the reading that the people took matters into their own hands and went up into the hill country without God’s blessing and presence. When they did, the Amorites came out of the hills and came against them like a swarm of bees. They defeated Israel in Seir and chased them all the way back to Hormah. After that, when they cried out to God, He neither listened to them or paid attention to them, and they were forced to stay in Kadesh longer than planned. Beyond Kadesh, they traveled the road to the Sea of Suf and stayed circling Mount Seir for a long time.
Listening to words of God without them being the current and anointed spoken word for our hearts and our time is like taking verses out of context. If we take just part of three verses (Matt 27:5, Luke 10:37, and John 13:27), we can get the instruction: Judas went and hanged himself. Go and do thou likewise, and what thou doest, do quickly. That twisting of Scriptures out of context is used often by those who are trying to manipulate people who respond to every “the Bible says” statement without searching the Scriptures and trying the spirits. More than likely, there were leaders who did this to the children of Israel, and they were outside of the will of God. God did tell Israel to get ready for battle, and He guaranteed them victory because He would be with them. But, when they chose not to go with Him, and then chose to obey later when He said not to go, they were in double rebellion against Him.
God’s word tells us not to fear in some form or other about 365 times. It’s good that we can have Yahveh to lean on and trust every day of the year, but that doesn’t mean that we have Him on our own terms. Even the No Fear company faced bankruptcy in 2011, so nothing is guaranteed even when a company is big and profitable and expands into the soft drink industry.
God has given us His entire word, and He gives us His Holy Spirit to guide our interpretations, so we can know His encouragement to not fear in the proper context. No fear, especially of failure, is good when we are walking in humble obedience to God’s direction for our lives. In obedience to Him we find His presence, and in His presence, we find the strength to do all things through Him.
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July 22, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, fear of failure, Israel, Moses, No Fear, Scripture, Torah Portions | Leave a comment