Book Banter: Word of Honor

I borrowed three Terri Blackstock books from the library.

I just finished one of them (don’t worry, Aunt Sue, my homework is done for the week 🙂 )

In the afterward, the author writes:

I love to read, which is probably why I love to write.  But lately, I’ve been increasingly concerned that some of my readers spend hours a day reading my novels, and little or not time reading God’s Word (Blackstock, Word of Honor, pg. 353)

So often, we Christians soak up messages and ideas, and sometimes we even come under conviction, and wince a time or two.  But then we forget and more on to the next stimulus. (353)

Blackstock wrote Newpointe 911 series in the 90s, but I wonder if she still feels the same way.  My bet is she does.  And it wasn’t until I read her afterward that I thought about Ronnica’s post.  Of course Blackstock markets her books as fiction, but this is a perfect case of fiction not being just fiction.  And the fact that Blackstock talks about her own convictions about her books proves the case even more.

Word of Honor opens at the bombing of a Newpointe (LA) post office.  Three people are killed and one little boy (the only witness) lies comatose in a hospital.  Local lawyer, Jill Clark, finds herself in the middle of all the mayhem when, that night, a man comes into her hotel room and takes her hostage.  The man swears he’s innocent and asks Jill to represent him.  She agrees but later retracts her promise after she’s released.

Later, she wonders if the man is as innocent as he claims.

There is a particular scene in the book that really brings to light Blackstock’s message in her afterward.  Jill is visiting Jerry in jail and wonders out loud if Jerry knows who planted the bomb in the post office, why he’s not giving up the name.  Jerry begins to talk about the covenant and how he was carried between two pieces of flesh.  Conversation then turns to the loyalty to a Man who saved her life and how much time she actually gives Him.

” ‘How much time do you spend each day studying God’s Word? The question came like a spear through the air, impaling her right through her heart.

‘I’m a busy woman, Jerry.  I have people running me off of bridges and putting guns to my head…’

‘When life is normal, ‘ he said. ‘How much time? Fifteen minutes? Thirty?’

‘Sometimes,’ she said.

‘Sometimes what? Fifteen or thirty? And how much time do you spend in prayer?

‘I pray!’ she said. It was getting hot in the room, and she got up and turned on the fan in the corner. ‘You know, Jerry, meeting with you just wears me out.’

‘Just think about it,’ he said. ‘A man gave his life for you, and you mostly ignore him.’

‘I do not ignore him! I’m in church three times a week…’

‘So you think he died for you so you could walk in and out of his house three times a week?’

She knew her face was red. She snatched up her briefcase. ‘Look, just forget it.I thought I could represent you, but now I see that I can’t –‘

‘Why? Because I say what I see? Because I pointed out that you can’t possibly understand my loyalty to the man who saved my skin, since you obviously don’t have much for the one who saved yours?’ ” (232-33)

Jill is understandably upset and storms out.  Later, in her hotel room, she feels convicted and begins reading about the covenants in the Bible.  She learns through her friend, Dan, and her Bible reading about the covenant between Jonathan and David (2 Samuel 9).

I’ve read several of Blackstock’s book and I think this is the first one that has such a strong Biblical message (or it could be the one that convicted me the most).  In the Bible, one way to go into a covenant with someone was to switch clothes.  This symbolizes that everything you have belongs to the other and everything he has belongs to you.  According to Galatians 3, we are clothes with Christ.  He entered into a covenant with us.  Everything He has is ours.

Everything He has is ours.  Do we really stop to think about what that means?  I know that I don’t.  Especially in the light that everything that has been happening to us.  Everything He has is ours.  Everything He has is mine.  Everything He has in yours.

Have a blessed Sunday