My Young Writer Returns!

My fifth grade son wrote this short story for school

Food Wars

In the weird world of food, an almighty and powerful corndog known as “King Weenie” has been warned by a lasagna spy that an evil and crazy man of the forest, a psychopath, known as “Pizza Fool” was going to attack his candy kingdom. King Weenie made a speech to the fruits, veggies, junk food and the others. They ran into the candy palace for safety. King Weenie gathered his army of tater tot warriors and green bean archers. Some of his men were on cheap Publix brand animal crackers. When they came out, Pizza Fool’s army of sour patch wizards and potato chip swordsmen were already there, they charged, food flung everywhere. King Weenie’s men shot off the flaming meatballs. This war went on for three years. Once they won the war, King Weenie was killed in his sleep by a gummy bear assassin from Pizza Fool. The gummy bear killed King Weenie with a golden tooth pick filled with venom from a snake. Many of King Weenie’s ancestors died by this weapon. When he died some kid picked him up and ate him.

Story by Timothy Phillips

(picture by Justin Bird)

The First Writer

I have been enthralled by this edition of John Owen’s Biblical Theology. Originally written in Latin and only translated into English within the past 20 years for the first time since Owen wrote it. It is chock full of great fodder for the historical theologian. Dealing only with things theologically relevant to the period of history between Adam and Christ. Owen addresses Theology in General, The Origin and Progress of Idolatry, The Theology of Abraham, The Theology of Moses, and Evangelical Theology to name a few.

My interest is smitten in particular by a section in which Owen treats a subject on The Digression On The Origin of Writing. He makes the assertion, a rather strong assertion that the very first time there was a written language with letters of any form or kind was when God gave the Law to Moses, that He wrote with His own finger. Owen says,

“The converse conjecture is that writing had no origin before the giving of the Law, and that the letters that God inscribed with His own fingers on the tables of stone were the first of all letters, properly so called. I am of the latter opinion, and so it seemed fitting to me to submit this view to a short examination.”

There is an instance that Owen addresses the Jude account of the prophecy spoken by Enoch in the book of Jude. The question raised would be, If there was no form of written language until the giving of the Law, how would Jude have known about this prophecy of Enoch’s since there is no record of it at all in the Old Testament? Owen reminds us that the Book of Jude was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he (Owen) says,

“There really is no good reason for us to believe that this prophecy of Enoch in either written or unwritten form through all of those centuries from the time when it was first given to that of Jude, or that Jude learned of it either by tradition or by reading it in a book. Is it not credible that he who first entrusted it to writing was Jude, and that he received it from no other source than the Holy Spirit, who produced both the prophecy at first and the inspiration by which it was written down later?…..There is no need of either written books or of tradition for the Holy Spirit to be able to repeat His own language!”

I have to say that it does seem more likely that the reason man does write is because writing is an aspect of the divine image of God, placed on man. God is always the first to be seen doing something and man is always trying to do what God does, usually from an evil motive to be “like God.” But really, is not the reason that man writes because God first wrote to us? I believe that even when an atheist is writing a book to discredit the idea of God, with all the learning and erudition of language he may have, the atheist is still proving the very likeness of God in which he was created. Not because of what he is writing, but because of the fact that he is writing; because God is the first writer. What other creature writes? None but the image bearers of God! So even the atheist, not only proves God’s existence, he proves an attribute of God by the act of writing.

So, do I like this book? No, I love it, and you will too! Get one if you can. I have not found whether or not it is available anywhere on-line to read for free as it is relatively, newly translated. But I am an advocate of turning pages physically and not electronically, so pick a copy of this up. It is actually pretty easy to read compared to the rest of Owen’s works due to the fact that it is a recent translation.

You can buy it here or here.

 

Blessed Tenderness

He whispers to me, “Let all this go,
There is grace for you that I will show”

And once in His arms the burdens lift
As some splendid supernatural gift

Without remorse and regret He saves
Through an enduring faith to me He gave

With faith enough to believe in His Son
That in Him His work on me is done

-brandon phillips

My Young Writer

My son, Timothy, was given a writing assignment in which he had to tell a fictional story about spending a day with someone from history. This is the result of his, hours long, endeavor.

The most amazing thing happened to me yesterday!  I woke up in the year 1860 only to find myself in the White House!  I looked around and realized I was in the East Room, which is the largest room in the White House.  As I walked down a hallway, I realized that the president’s office door was wide open.  When I walked through the door I saw a huge desk and sitting there was none other than Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president!  When I saw Abraham Lincoln sitting at that desk, it was like my heart stopped!

It all began with Abraham Lincoln asking who I was.  When I told him who I was, he told me to take a seat and gave me a glass of water.  As we sat he told me about his life.  In 1842 he married Mary Todd and had four sons, only one son lived to be an adult.  He told me about how he taught himself to read and write and also how he went to law school when he was older.

After that, Abraham Lincoln took a walk with me.  We talked about why people should not be slaves.   He told me that there was a war between the north and the south over slavery, it took place in 1861 and it was called the Civil War.  He told me that he wanted to end slavery so he sided with the people of the north.  Abraham Lincoln told me that Civil War was won by the north.

Suddenly one of Abraham Lincoln’s workers told him he was late for a meeting!  He turned to me and said he was sorry that he had to leave.  Once he went back to the White House, I secretly followed him, but when I went through the doors a shining light came bursting through like the sun was on the other side.   When I walked through the door, I found myself in my room with my two brothers.

In the end I told my brothers and sisters all Abraham Lincoln had done, like how he taught himself to read and write and how he helped end slavery.  But nobody believed I spent the day with him! Then I realized there was nobody in the world who would believe me.  My day with Abraham Lincoln made me feel amazed at everything he had done for America.

-Timothy Phillips