Christ the Lord

First of all, happy 55th wedding anniversary to my grandparents, John and Sue Moore! Thanks for building a legacy of love, devotion, perseverance through loss, and serving each other with joy. I'm proud to be your granddaughter.

Second, I have two more books for your summer reading. Does the name Anne Rice ring a bell to you? Anne Rice is a best-selling mainstream author of 28 novels, the first of which was Interview With a Vampire. (Remember that movie from the 90's with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise?) Rice returned to her childhood faith in Christ in 1998. Four years later she consecrated her writing to Him, vowing only to write for and about Christ for that point on. (Here is her bio and here is her profession of faith.)

Here is a quote from Rice's "Essay on Earlier Works":
"For me, the entire body of my earlier work, reflects a movement towards Jesus Christ. In 2002, I consecrated my work to Jesus Christ. This did not involve a denunciation of works that reflected the journey. It was rather a statement that from then on I would write directly for Jesus Christ. I would write works about salvation, as opposed to alienation; I would write books about reconciliation in Christ, rather than books about the struggle for answers in a post World War II seemingly atheistic world. My books reflect now, as they always have, what I see and feel and struggle to understand."

Anne Rice has written two fabulous books that have enriched my personal faith in Jesus Christ and helped me understand what life was like when He walked the face of the earth. The books are Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. I've always loved Christian fiction, but my husband has never given it the time of day. He got his hands on these books before I did and I've never seen him so excited and eager to talk about any book. And he loves to read. If Curtis likes these fiction novels, that's saying something!

The first book, Out of Egypt, is set when Jesus is seven years old and his family is returning to Israel from Egypt. He is just beginning to understand who he is. The second book, The Road to Cana, takes place when he is thirty years old. I'm not going to say much about it because it is just better to read it than to hear my book report. These books are written in first-person narrative, so they read like an autobiography.

If you are feeling skeptical right now, that's okay. Just get the first book and see if it does not get you thinking about, praising, and loving Christ more than you do now. There's a whole section at the end of Out of Egypt in which Rice shares her conversion story and explains why she believes Jesus is the Son of God. She also describes her research for the book in detail. It is awesome. To read about our Lord from such an exceptionally talented, intelligent writer is a treat.

So, if you have a long plane ride coming up or some extended time to lay by the pool or beach and read, I highly recommend taking these books along with you. You can find them at Barnes and Noble (or any major bookstore) or on Amazon.com. If you do get them, let me know what you think!