More, Lord!

I have completed Chapter Fourteen! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited about my progress. God is SO good! Not only have I finished with my 14th chapter, I also re-mapped out the last three chapters. I added a chapter to the book, which I also mapped out. So right now there are 17 chapters in the complete book.

Ahh my heart is bursting with the goodness of my God!

Oh God my heart burns for you! Keep this fire forever burning! I love you so much! Consume me forever with your love. Consume me with your presence. I want to live a holy life before you. Thank you for clothing me with the righteousness of Jesus!

Thank you for who you are, my God. You hear me every time I call to you. You feel me every time I crawl in close on your lap. You touch me each time I reach to you. You are my inspiration. You are my song. You are my story. You are my everything! I love you!

Progress is happening...

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to say that I am actually making progress in my book. I have completed chapter 13 and am well into chapter 14 by now.

Clarice has been here since Monday, and it's so much fun hanging out with her and getting her settled in. But she's great about giving me time to write too. So just yesterday, she volunteered to make supper with Dylana so that I could go upstairs and write! It was so good! In a little less than two hours I churned out six pages of exciting material. It's one of the most intriguing, mysterious parts of my book, so it was fun to write.

Thank you to everyone who's praying for me. It helps SO much! I appreciate your support. I especially love the support I feel each time anybody comments on this blog or on facebook. It just encourages me so much like you can't even imagine. So thank you.

With God,

~Crystal~

Restoration

The day after my last post where I notified you of my writing trouble, I was journaling and I wrote out my heart in a poem-like piece. This will shed some light into where my heart was at that point:

~This Valley~

The sun once lit this lovely valley

Casting light on flowers, trees, the river.

But then shade came, slowly, gradually

And the pretty places of this valley became chilly.

The birds stopped singing, the shade grew darker

Until at last, night set in. It was dark. And cold.

It's in this cold valley where I'm shivering

Wondering where to turn or where to rest.

I feel lost now in this darkness. Where's the sun?

Not even the stars or moon is glowing. I'm lost.

But I remember hearing something that gives me hope:

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

I wonder if the sun will come again in the morning?

I wonder if soon this too shall pass? Please Lord.

That's kind of bland maybe and definitely completely unedited and unretouched. That is simply how I felt that evening. My heart cried out for clarity off vision, for healing in my dull and wounded heart.

I started to feel hopeful that my joy would return eventually to begin writing again, but to refocus I laid my writing aside for a full month.

Now that we've returned to Redding, California, the time has come to begin again. But there were several issues concerning my writing to be resolved first before I could even think of beginning again.

So a few evenings ago I spent an hour in the prayer house, revisiting my old journal entries to remember what it was in my heart that stopped me from writing. Some wounds can only be healed by reopening them, cleaning them up, and then they can heal shut properly. That evening was an opening of my wound.

The day after that in the morning I talked with my mom about my wound. We had a good heart to heart. Dumping out my feelings to her was the cleaning part of the process.

And then today at church, Sherri Silke the speaker asked that all who had dropped a dream of theirs to raise their hand and the people around them would pray for them. I raised my hand. Yes. I dropped my vision of writing this book for a while because things weren't working smoothly as they should. Even if but for a few moments, I lost hope. A handful of caring women around me laid their hands on me and prayed for me. I cried. Of course I cried! But it felt good. It was a release. Afterward Mommy hugged me and whispered in my ear, "Now you can write your book again." Exactly.

So now I am excited to begin working on my book again next week. I am halfway through chapter thirteen, and there's sixteen chapters in total if all goes as I've planned so far. I am planning to restructure my story a little bit and make it even more exciting. I don't know yet how I will do that or what changes I'll make, though I have a slight idea. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens when the creative juices are flowing and things start happening in the story. With the Holy Spirit giving inspiration, anything can happen! Anything is possible!

Rougher Spots

Hi everyone,

For those of you who care to know, I have been having some tougher times with my writing. Due to different circumstances and different people's priorities and other such surrounding things, I've lost some of my joy in writing. Please pray for me! Writing is what I want to do, and I cannot quit. But you would be shocked if you knew all the thoughts that've run through my mind during the worst moments. 

I won't go into any detail. I just want to let the few of you who care know, so you can pray for me. Thank you so much. I appreciate it so much.

Love,

     Crystal.

Progress on my Book!

I have completed Chapter TWELVE! 

I'm really excited about my progress I've made in writing out the first draft of my book. I remember when I first had a dream that one night in 2005. It was so vivid and so mysterious that I knew I absolutely must write it down. It turned out to be a five page dream. More than two years later, I rediscovered it in my writing drawer. I reread it, and realized that this was really amazing novel material. 

Shortly after arrival in Redding, CA, my dreams of writing a book came back to me pretty strongly. So every time I got the chance, I took my binder of notes to the prayer house and began outlining my book. I remember how excited I was to finally have completed my drafting out all my chapters, and then deciding to split my 34+ chapters into a two book series rather than one big fat 500 page book. 

And then I began writing. Slowly, I churned out chapter after chapter.I worked on it for months. And now we're back in Canada for the summer, and I'm still working at it every chance I get.

I'm done Chapter Twelve, and already halfway done Chapter Thirteen. I can hardly believe it. Chapter Eight marks the half-done milestone. But I'm beyond half done! Chapter Twelve marks the 3/4 milestone. I'm already past that too! 

God is so good to me. Sometimes I felt completely uncreative and uninspired. But the Holy Spirit has been intimately involved with each part of my progress, and thanks to Him, I've been able to come this far. I am so grateful for that. If God ever lays it on your heart to pray for me as I write, please do so. I greatly appreciate knowing someone supports me in prayer.

God bless you!

~Crystal~

Sin Creature

Sin Creature

Slowly, stealthily, the creature crept out of its pit. A yellow gleam in the eye and a hiss inside the throat revealed its nefarious delight in seeing its victims standing before him. Its partially scaled, partially hairy black body was not too big to be formidable; but oh, certainly big enough to beat down any one of these unfortunate humans who dared rebel his touch.

* * * 

“Crystal! CRYSTAL!”

My door swung open and I jerked upright in my bed. What? It’s three in the morning! “Calm down, Katie!” I said. “What is it?”

Katie’s eyes grew large and her voice lowered to a whisper. “It’s out again!”

The musty little trailer I had just moved into took on an even more sinister atmosphere as I realized what she meant. The time had come. Throwing my damp, lumpy quilt around my shoulders and stepping into my slippers, I rushed outside with Katie. “I’m taking care of this, Katie. Don’t worry.”

I followed Katie to the back of the village, and into the deep forest. “You say this happens every night?” I asked.

Katie nodded. “Every night.” Her voice was tight with fear.

I had heard absurd and creepy descriptions of this creature. Not that it scared me though—this was my duty.  But as we walked deeper into the forest, my heart quickened.

Obvious terror marked every face around the pit. All eyes were trained on one old man, who shook as though a shock of electricity were shooting through him. But I saw no creature! Then I remembered that this was believed to be a spiritual manifestation, so I ought to pray for my eyes to be opened.

“Do you see it?” asked Katie.

I shook my head. Holy Spirit, open my eyes. I paused. And let me not be afraid when I do see.

And then I saw it. A hideous black creature that looked like sin itself was standing up on the electrified man, licking the area over his heart.

Katie screamed when it clambered toward her, but became silent as it made eye contact with her.

“Sin Creature, STOP! In Jesus’ name STOP!” I was surprised when it did not heed my command.

“It’ll stop when finished,” an old woman said. “Always does.”

At last the creature crawled into its pit. The spell broken, everyone sighed with relief.

Why didn’t it stop? What’s this thing anyway? I was not about to let this continue another night.

Then God spoke to me. Crystal, this creature is the embodiment of sin. Many years ago, the villagers committed a sin that has woven itself into a dreadful creature that now haunts them every night. Only repentance will release them from its grip.

In as simple words as possible, I explained to Katie and the others that Jesus had died for their sins to free them from Sin Creature. They had only to repent and believe in Jesus’ power, and they would be relieved of Sin Creature’s power.

Solemnly, they confessed their sins and thanked Jesus for his sacrifice. Smiles shone in their eyes as the Holy Spirit filled their hearts.

“Now you have authority to destroy that sinful thing!” I exclaimed.

With joy in their faces and confidence in their hearts, they marched back to overcome their sin together.

“Come out, Sin Creature!” they called.

Confused, Sin Creature crept back up.

“We’re done with you!” The old man threw a stone at it.

“Can’t torment us any more!” An elderly lady hammered it with her broomstick.

“Our sins are forgiven us!” A young man shouted as he kicked the writhing creature.

Sin Creature groaned as it wriggled toward Katie.

“In Jesus’ name, LEAVE!” She shouted, pointing to the pit. “And don’t EVER return!”

Sighing and moaning, the beaten creature fell backwards into its pit. The pit closed up, swallowing the village’s sin forever.

The people erupted in cheers. “We’re free!”

That night, a heavy rain began falling. In this rain, the villagers stood with open arms, letting the grime wash off their clothes, off their skin. No more stains of sin were left on any of them.

That was a year ago. Since that rain, a large pool of cleansing water lies over the area where the pit used to be. Yes, the villagers are still human and make mistakes, but now each time they do, they bathe in the Waters of Remembrance and ask the Lord for forgiveness.

THE END

 

- Crystal Dueck (May 2009)

Introducing Myself

I love my Father who loves me and cares for me. I love Jesus who gave his life for me so that I can be his Bride. I love the Spirit who speaks to me and comforts me and opens my eyes to things unrevealed.

If you took away my family, my home, my friends, my years of education, my church,   and all my material things... you still would not have taken away the one thing that nobody could EVER take away from me.... my relationship with God. He means everything to me.

But that does not make me an odd or crazy person. I am a normal teenage girl who just graduated from high school, who has normal teenage problems and issues, and I have normal things happening to me... (gotta admit though, the life with Jesus is WAAAAY the most adventurous life to live EVER!).....

You might think me quite ambitious...(whether that be positive or negative) but YES, I am actually in the midst of writing my first draft of Book One of a two-book novel series. I'll release it at the end of this year if all goes as planned.

Starting this September, I will also be going to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. I can't wait! My parents went there last year, and the results are amazing! Can't get enough of God's amazing love for his people and the way he loves to show his power through the supernatural!

I love talking about whatever people are open to talk about. I am NOT, however, interested in theological debates that are meant just for the sake of having an argument. My God is a God of LOVE. He doesn't need to prove himself, and I don't need to prove him either.

Well anyway, that tells you a bit about me and what's the most important about me. The other little details you'll have to ask about, or wait till I decide to share little snippets of my life. Now it would help a lot if you actually made the effort and took the time to comment on entries I post, or else you know as well as I how long this blog thing will last. But like most other things in my life, this too is an "experiment." Cool thing is, lots of my experiments turn into experiences! 

I don't really know where this blog will take me. Maybe it'll be like a public online journal. That sounds a little scary. Maybe I'll just randomly post quotes or articles or other inspirational things I find. Maybe it'll be something to keep you mostly updated on how my story is coming along. Maybe if people leave comments or messages, I can address different questions you post. Is there issues you'd like help with, that you'd be okay with my addressing out in the open? Others might have the same question and they'd thank you for asking. I'm not your number one advice person or counsellor, but I love talking about it and see if I can be of any help. Maybe I can offer you God's love. I love doing that! Just ask!!!!

Until next time,,,,,

~Crystal~