Talent For A Mission

Happy Resurrection Day, Easter, Passover…Call It What You Will

Or what God wills…

This will be a short post, but I wanted to tell the reader the message in the title of this post. Because the message really is this: look to the Man who died on the cross and then rose from the dead for salvation, in a world where any other salvation is hard to find, where depression is rampant, where sickness abounds, and where there are many who need a guiding hand. Where politics seems to screw everything up, because politics will not save you. US president Trump is doing some good things…seems all presidents and national leaders do some good things, but they also do bad or wrong things and maybe a wrong spirit is guiding them. A fanaticism, and religious fanaticism is part of that as well. That’s one reason I do not support “Christian nationalism.” And was our Lord and Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ political? He was anything but! That could be a reason Roman governor Pontius Pilate found no wrong in Him, but King Herod and the religious leaders of the day, the Sanhedrin Pharisees and Sadducees, found lots of wrong in Him…which was why He was crucified instead of rebel leader Barabbas.

I will pray for the readers of this post and any other post on this site, and I will pray for anyone who has bought and/or read any of my novels, as well as the “guide for Christian authors,” Talent for a Mission, which I have posted chapter-by-chapter on this site.

Of course, I have my doubts as to the righteousness of the national, state, and local governing bodies, executive, legislative, or judicial, for corruption is rampant, but I will pray for these folks anyway.

And the media as well, the same media that is pushing the notion that Trump will go to war with Iran even though he is supposedly meeting with Iranian officials. War with Iran? God forbid! We’ve lost only God knows how many young men in these God awful wars for no reason other than to enrich the military-industrial complex. Some in the media say Trump will go to war against Iran on behalf of Israel, Iran’s main enemy.

My opinion? If Israel wants war with Iran, let them go to war with Iran, and leave us Americans out of it! They don’t need us, and they have nukes. And, oh yeah…the memory of what Israel did to the USS Liberty in 1967, murdering 34 American sailors and admitting this crime in their media in 2011 (while the US govt. continues to cover this up…I guess this truth is “antisemitic”….) And, while I cannot support Iran’s theocratic radical Shiite Muslim govt. which persecutes Christians there, guess what? Iran, due to its theocracy and persecution, is turning to Christ! Underground, of course, and the same with North Korea. Would be nice if Israel did as well, but those Talmudic extremists have too much fun spitting on Christians…and not just Palestinians ones, either… Go to former Israeli-now-American Jewish extremist-turned-Christian Stephen Ben Nun at his YouTube Israeli News Live channel for proof of this. And regarding Israel, I pray that these folks and especially their far-right govt. turn from their Talmudic anti-Christ ways and seek His salvation…and all the world doing the same thing!

So, Happy Resurrection Day…or Easter…or Passover…and blessings to you and yours!

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Five (Part Two)

This is a continuation of the previous post of Talent For A Mission, Chapter Five, Part One. Below is Chapter Five, Part Two, the final part of the final chapter of Talent For A Mission, © 2024 Deborah Lagarde. Part One deals with using characters, personalities and roles, and knowledge of national characteristics and the possibility that some target readers has been involved with cults. This final post opens with the possibility that maybe, just maybe, some target readers are members of families some like to call ‘the elites.’ Part Two is below.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Five (Part Two)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Five (Part One)

I decided to split up Chapter Five of Talent For A Mission into two parts for this site. This first part would seem obvious to most authors, using suggestions that, again, would seem obvious to any writer trying to get their readers to consider accepting Christ. But the second part, to be posted next week or the week after, might surprise some authors, but the suggestions there ought to be considered anyway, for it is not just ‘making disciples of all nations,’ but all peoples, even those at the so-called ‘top of the food chain.’ Further, the end of the chapter emphasizes why using talent for your ‘mission’ in these perilous times is paramount. Part One is below, © 2024 Deborah Lagarde.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Five (Part One)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Five)

Chapter Four of Talent For A Mission ends with the final verses of Luke 15: 25-32 of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where the brother of the prodigal son, who has always been faithful to his father and has always done the work his father required, becomes angry with the father because his “lost” and “riotous living” younger brother, upon returning to his father, is feted with a fatted calf—while this always faithful son was NEVER treated with such a reward! So this older brother gets on his dad’s case for this “royalty” treatment to a wayward brother who wasted his inheritance when he could have not wasted it.

Below are the verses from Luke 15:25-32—

{15:25} Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.

{15:26} And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.

{15:27} And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

{15:28} And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

{15:29} And he answering said to [his] father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

{15:30} But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

{15:31} And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

{15:32} It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

To sum up, the elder son is angry because the younger ‘prodigal’ son is getting a hefty “fatted calf” reward just because he gave up the “riotous” lifestyle and returned to his father, a hefty reward father never had given to him. One would think the elder son would be thrilled his younger brother gave up that wasteful lifestyle and returned to his father after learning the negative consequences of that wasteful lifestyle.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Five)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Four)

This post, Part Four of Chapter Four of Talent For A Mission, covers Luke 15: 20-24 about “returning to the father.”

{15:20} And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

{15:21} And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

{15:22} But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put [it] on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on [his] feet:

{15:23} And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill [it;] and let us eat, and be merry:

{15:24} For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

In other words, the six members of the prodigal band, having been given “missions of God” by God’s angels, the Tooters, “returned to the father.” For, in order to do their “missions of God,” they had to “return to God.” Further, in order to “make merry” and “be found” after years of being “lost” (since “prodigal” means “lost” in this context), they had to repent of their many and grave sins and accept Christ as Lord and Savior and Redeemer, the “rewards” being an eternity in Heaven with their “father,” not an eternity with the satanic Corion “gnawing their bones forever.”

The other “reward” was that, with their jet having had a bomb placed within a cabin seat by a minion of evil, they were taken out of the jet right before the bomb went off, and then existed in a timeless white void where they would make their fateful decisions regarding their “missions.”

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Four)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Three)

Note: This is a continuation of the previous post, Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Two), which I had to split into two parts (Two and Three) since the post would have been quite long had I not split it.

Throughout the remainder of The Prophesied Band all six members go on their journey to find their true selves after their Asia-Pacific Island tour ends; being fathers and husbands, vacations in various places with friends, family, or both, partaking in projects to discover the meaning of some songs or some historical figure one of them was obsessed with, and one of them, synthist Bry, trying to unite with wife and children again after a separation. Upon certain truths being revealed and discoveries made to them, their ‘father’ (that is, God) tells His agents, the angels known as the Tooters and their own agent, Morwenna, the ‘witch of the Hovels,’ to set the band on the course of becoming ‘hired servants,’ letting them know that they are about to make their decision about their ‘mission of God’ which is revealed to them in the final Chapter Ten of The Prophesied Band. Here are Luke 15:18-19 about becoming ‘hired servants’:

{15:18} I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

{15:19} And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Three)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Two)

In the previous post dealing with Part One of Chapter Four of Talent For A Mission, I posted how The Prodigal Band Trilogy used the three novels within the trilogy to encapsulate the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15 Parable of the Prodigal Son. The first of the trilogy novels, Battle of the Band, relates to the first three verses of the parable: how the ‘riotous living’ of the six members of a top-rated late-80s and 90s rock band ‘wasted’ their lives and true selves, which led to heart attacks of two of the band members in the novel’s climax, leading them to realize they needed to ‘change their ways.’

In Part Two, I will post how the second novel of the trilogy, The Prophesied Band, shows and tells them giving up their ‘wasted ways’ as a beginning to them ‘returning to their father.’ This novel climaxes with the spirits of Good telling them how they will accomplish this ‘return.’ But they still have real issues they’ll have to deal with, as did the prodigal son, as seen in the continued parable below. Part Three deals with what those spirits of Good tell them so that they can choose, or not choose, to ‘return to their father.’ Since I did not want to make this post very long, I will post this ‘spirits of Good’ part right before Christmas.

Part One featured Luke 15:11-13. Part Two features Luke 5:14-17, below—

{15:14} And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

{15:15} And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

{15:16} And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

{15:17} And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

I will only feature one snippet showing the spiritual “hunger” the six band members experience due to their “riotous living” and the consequences, both physical and spiritual, of that lifestyle. In Chapter Four of The Prophesied Band, band singer Erik and bassist Keith—who nearly died of heart attacks in the final climax chapter of Battle of the Band, realize the “hunger” for meaningful lives as not only members of ‘the band of the 90s,’ but as husbands and fathers, as well as their true selves outside of the celebrity spotlights—for they both know it will take a bit of time to physically recover (and later, they have their Asia-Pacific Island tour rescheduled over it). They discuss this “hunger” while recovering in a private hospital in the town they grew up in, Walltown.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part Two)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part One)

Folks, this trilogy is called The Prodigal Band Trilogy for a reason! And the reason is this: the parable within the Gospels spoken to the Apostles by Christ Himself that gave the most inspiration to this trilogy was the Parable of the Prodigal (Lost) Son within the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15. This parable has been, during my entire life, one of my favorite parables. My other two favorite parables have also been referenced in my Biblical References Snippet posts—the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard and the Parable of the Talents. All three work together to impart my mission message, but it made more sense to me, what with my trilogy about a rock band that gains fame and fortune but loses their ‘souls’ so to speak, to call this the Prodigal Band Trilogy, where the ‘prodigal band’ meets (spiritually) the ‘prodigal son.’

Before I go on and repeat posting parts of the Parable of the Prodigal Son which was posted in Chapter Three, let me explain the meanings of prodigal and prodigy. The ‘prodigal son’ is ‘lost’ because of wasteful extravagance. He is wasting his ‘inheritance,’ or (in the case of my prodigal band members) ‘talents.’ Three of the band members, singer Erik, bassist Keith, and keyboard synthist Bry, are also child prodigies, possessing ‘extraordinary talent’ at singing and music playing as children through inheritance from ancestors. Instead of throwing their given talents into classical music or opera singing where they could make good incomes, they instead choose rock stardom, as they could then acquire extravagant fame and especially fortune. And we all know the lifestyles of rock stars, right? Sex, drugs, and rock and roll…

In part one of this “prodigal son meets prodigal band” set of posts is explained the first part of the parable, verses 11 through 13, the ‘riotous living’ part, and Chapter Six of Battle of the Band is loaded with these scenes. The prodigal band is partying at an estate outside of the fictitious California coastal city of Richmont, which is considered a hotbed of occultism. The estate called Hellside Horror House is owned by a horror TV channel couple that host a horror TV show, Andre` and Cheetah. Along with the band are fellow rockers, celebrities and groupies that are also witches.

Here is the parable in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15, verses 11-13, “the riotous living” part, and then three snippets from the first trilogy novel, Battle of the Band.

{15:11} And he said, A certain man had two sons:

{15:12} And the younger of them said to [his] father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth [to me.] And he divided unto them [his] living.

{15:13} And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Four (Part One)”

Talent For A Mission: Chapter Three

Chapter Three of Talent For A Mission (© 2023 Deborah Lagarde) is posted in its entirety in this post since it is a short chapter and is based on the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15 Parable of the Prodigal Son that my The Prodigal Band Trilogy is based upon. Below is the entire Chapter Three of Talent For A Mission:

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission: Chapter Three”

Talent For A Mission, Chapter Two (Part Three)—My Personal ‘Why’ Continued—Why Fiction?

In this continuation of Chapter Two of Talent For A Mission (© 2023 Deborah Lagarde), I explain why I have used fiction to carry out my own ‘mission of God’ instead of non-fiction…with this non-fiction ‘guide’ being an exception, so far. Below is Part Three of the ‘why’ scenario in Chapter Two:

Continue reading “Talent For A Mission, Chapter Two (Part Three)—My Personal ‘Why’ Continued—Why Fiction?”