Crystal A Murray at ShoutLife.com

I am a 45 year old Christian woman who is happily married to David, (the handsome guy with me in the picture). I write, edit, teach, counsel, learn, sing, build websites, do graphic design (especially creating kaleidoscope designs like the one used for my wallpaper here), and--above all else--I constantly seek a deeper and closer walk with Almighty God.

I built my page here on ShoutLife to support my current writing project, Good Morning Christian Writer, a compilation of devotions and writing exercises written for an audience of Christians who write. Unfortunately, right after beginning the project, I was forced to deal with some serious health problems that, coupled with my job as a Chiropractic Assistant, put me very much behind in all my projects. Two neck surgeries later, I am now a full-time stay-at-home writer and working to make writing my top career priority.

With that in mind, I welcome you to follow my personal and writer's progress on Twitter...

follow CrystalWriter at http://twitter.com

In addition to the changes I've mentioned above, I am feeling a strong call to prayer and devotion to prepare for what may be some turbulent times for the United States and the world. For the first time, I do not fear these times but feel more inspired than ever to lift up Christ that He may draw all men unto Himself. In the midst of divisions and arguments within churches and religions, and with a horizon of change in front of us, I believe we should be seeking the old landmarks. Our God changes not and is the same yesterday, today and forever. Like Paul, I want to stay focused on the basics of knowing YahShua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ the Messiah) and Him crucified. Without Him, and the washing of His cleansing blood over my sins, I am nothing. With Him, as Yahveh Almighty looks upon me through that perfect blood, I am a new creation. I can take no credit for anything I do or even think, for His word says that even our desires to serve Him and power to do what pleases Him come only from His working in us. (See Philippians 2:13.)

Okay, well I guess I'll step out from behind the pulpit for a minute and welcome you, my guest, to my page here at Shoutlife. If you want to know a bit more about me and my projects, please feel free to continue reading beyond this point. I am now putting on my narrator suit and will finish telling you about this person I call "me" ...

As a Christian, Crystal believes she is a constant "work-in-progress" under the authoring and editing hand of her Creator and Redeemer. Crystal does not like religiosity or pretension and believes God feels the same way. This is especially true concerning Israel and the tendency of so many to teach and preach various types of "replacement theology." Even without the ability to have her own children, Crystal cannot see God as the type that would ever exchange one set of children for another. It is her desire to see every Christian share a love and support for Israel, and to see themselves as "grafted in" to Israel's root (for salvation is of the Jews) that they may be blessed as they bless Israel. (See Romans, Chapter 11, especially verses 1, 15, 18, and 24-26 for what Paul says on this subject.)

As a writer, Crystal almost always has a work-in-progress (WIP). She has seeds for multiple works saved in her text files and two NaNo novels started but never completed. (For those who don't know about it, every November is National Novel Writers Month. See http://www.nanowrimo.org for more information.) Crystal also writes poetry, like her parody of Psalm 23 for writers, and haiku, including a Scripture haiku project.

As an author, Crystal has planned an entire series of books along the theme of "Good Morning, Christian ..." which begins with her current work in progress, the devotional compilation mentioned above. Crystal will be a writer/contributor to the project, but is primarily an author/editor since it is a compilation of submissions from other writers. Crystal's heart beats strongly for writer support and hopes that with 366 devotions and writing exercises, the GMCW project will help writers get their pens to paper (or fingers to keyboards) on a regular basis. To query as to whether Crystal is still accepting submissions to this book (or others planned for the series), send an e-mail to "morningwriter at gmail.com" (in the correct e-mail format with spaces removed and the "at" replaced by @ of course) and request guidelines and samples.

As an editor, Crystal is often asked to critique and edit the works of others, a skill which she has improved by participating in critique groups at her local Louisville Christian Writers meetings. She also built and edits the website for LCW, and created the original website for the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. She has since turned the KCWC editing over to another ShoutLifer, Emily Akin, who is also keeping a great blog about current happenings regarding the annual June conference. When she edits, she sees herself as reading to search for hidden treasure that can be brought out and polished to make a writer's prose shine brighter than ever.

As a Creative Mind, Crystal is always coming up with one idea or another. She says she is made in the image of her Father, The Creator, and therefore has His creative tendencies. She often applies this creativity to slogans (some of which she added to her first "NaNo-Novel" in 2005). She recently decided the most meaningful slogan to her life should become the foundation for her first-ever professional website which is also a work in progress. The slogan is Live every moment of your life as if it could be 4-1 Soul and the website is http://www.41Soul.com. Please visit there and drop her a line to let her know what you think of the concept and of the challenge she has posted to all Christians.

As a child of God, Crystal desires to be the best she can be for God, circumcised in heart toward Him while keeping her walk with Him simple as stated in Micah 6:6-8. She believes in personal integrity, which means she does her best to be honest, moral, ethical, giving, and sincere. Crystal believes everything in her life has some connection to God, whether He put it there or whether He is just walking her through whatever it is. She believes God is constantly by her side, walking and talking with her, and listening to her. Her most important goal is in learning not to reject God. She feels that if He is so important she would want to spend eternity with Him, why should she want to spend one moment on this earth without Him. She, as many others on this earth, knows the pain of rejection and does not want to give that pain to her Loving Savior and Creator. For new believers she says, "You can accept God once, or you can stop rejecting Him forever."

Finally, some of Crystal's suggestions to avoid setting a bad example for the name and/or cause of Christ (since she believes God pays the ultimate price for this) include the following:

Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength;

Don't be judgmental (but be discerning as God leads);

Avoid arrogance and pride (but be confident in God);

Be humble (but not humiliated);

Be a peace-maker (though not necessarily a peace-keeper);

And as a final piece of advice, Crystal recommends that Christians of all people should avoid passing around untruths, hoaxes, man-made traditions, or urban legends. She says, "Verify everything you believe with God and His Holy Word." This works for the latest "Christian" fads as well as the many legends passed around the Internet these days. Remember, our personal integrity should remind us that God's Word says "These signs shall follow them that believe" and not "Them that believe shall follow signs."

In addition to prayer and Scriptural checks, when in doubt about something you "heard somewhere", Crystal recommends a visit to Snopes.com at http://www.snopes.com before passing along any e-mail forwards, like those about lost children, lead in lipstick, and needles in theater seats. Oh yeah, and just so you know, there is no famous Niemen Marcus cookie recipe that will teach corporate America a lesson, Madeline Murray O'Hare and the atheists do not have a bill to stop all religious programming, and Bill Gates is not sharing his fortune or sending people on trips to Disney World if they forward mail to everyone in their inbox. ;-) (Also, there is no such thing as an e-mail counter and e-mail petitions never actually get anywhere.)

And here's a little taste of Crystal's graphically creative side:

With a simple point and shoot camera and a wonderfully complex side-lit kaleidoscope, Crystal has captured some video images of the changing designs in her oil-based scope. Enjoy this video here, or visit her page at YouTube to see her other videos and to find information about her chosen background music.

Now, on a lighter note about ignorance, did you hear the one about the two best friends; one Chinese and the other Jewish? One day, the Jewish guy says to his friend, "I hate Chinese people. I mean, except you of course, because you're my best friend."

"Why," asked his friend? "What did the Chinese ever do that was so wrong?

"Well, remember Pearl Harbor?"

"Pearl Harbor! That was the Japanese!"

"Oh well," said the Jewish man, "Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese....they're all the same."

"In that case then," said the Chinese friend, "I hate Jewish people. Except you, of course, because you're my friend."

"But why? What did the Jewish people ever do that was so bad?"

"Well, remember the Titanic?"

"The Titanic? What does that have to do with Jewish people? They hit an iceberg!"

"Oh well," answered the Chinese guy. "Iceberg, Steinberg, Rosenberg....they're all the same."