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The Steve Laube Agency

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Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Dan » Page 2

Dan

Grace is Amazing, But Hard to Explain

By Dan Balowon April 29, 2014
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Christian Holy Cross Engraved on Parchment

I am not a Bible theologian, so today’s blog is pushing me way out on the plank over the pitching seas of exegetical danger, so I apologize for offending those with seminary degrees and those who are infinitely better qualified to write on this subject.  As a friend stated in regard to another situation, I am indeed hanging heavy weights on thin threads.

I believe that one of the most difficult concepts to portray in writing or speaking is the grace that God gives to us not only at our salvation, but every day of a believer’s life.  People who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ will have no idea what you are talking about.

There is a good reason for this challenge. Since our sinful nature desires to put us in charge of our own lives, our own success, our own good works, we are “bent” to take control of our own salvation and our lives.  In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter two, verses eight and nine, we read about an arrow right through the heart of that desire, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So then, we as recipients of God’s grace decide to communicate about that to others and we sit down to write our book or sermon or script. We try to put grace into words so that it would make logical sense to someone else.

Then it hits you.

You are immediately reminded how costly this “free” gift actually was. You’re speechless.  Your fingers stop working on the keyboard.  You stand up and walk around the room, wipe a tear from your eye and say a prayer of thanks to the God who loved you so much that he sent his Son to die in your place, as if to say, “And by the way, here is a special gift for you…eternal life, my Son paid for it”.

How am I supposed to put that into a story without sounding downright unbelievable?  After all, we work for things in this life.

Courage, sacrifice, stamina, love, faithfulness…great stories are built around these things, but God’ grace is a tough one because it doesn’t depend on us.  We take no credit for it.

It would be a lot easier to write without grace being involved at all.  It is much simpler to explain something we can control. People work hard, get better and better, working their way up the salvation “ladder”, courageously helping others and generally being a wonderful person.  When they have done enough good things, have enough good-deed points, the climax of the story happens and everyone is happy and congratulated for a job well done. What a hero!

Actually, grace makes for the greatest stories. The thief on the cross to be with Jesus in paradise when just moments before he was going to hell. The relentlessly forgiving father and his prodigal son who didn’t deserve anything but was restored anyway. The Apostle Peter being allowed to say yes, he loved Jesus three times as each of his three denials from a few days earlier were wiped away one by one.

Grace is a great ingredient. It was paid for by someone else and it’s free. Use plenty of it in your recipe.

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Category: Dan, Personal, TheologyTag: Christian, Grace, Theology

Generally Speaking, Think of Someone in Particular

By Dan Balowon April 22, 2014
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  Any mode of communication requires an audience to justify itself.  Even someone shouting on a street corner will have someone hear them, if even in passing. An audience of one only goes so far. While everyone talks to themselves, if you do it too much, you will end up talking to a psychiatrist.  However, there are benefits of talking to yourself. Comedian George Carlin once said, “The …

Read moreGenerally Speaking, Think of Someone in Particular
Category: Branding, Communication, Dan, Platform, Writing CraftTag: Audience, Communication

Stories in Hiding Places

By Dan Balowon April 15, 2014
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Since I blog on Tuesdays and the next April 15 to fall on a Tuesday is not for another eleven years, I felt like I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Corrie ten Boom was born on this date in 1892 and died on this date in 1983.  If Evangelicals were in the habit of naming saints, she would be among them. For those unaware of this great Christian woman, she and her family helped many Jews escape the …

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Category: Book Review, Christian, Dan, Faith, Personal, Writing CraftTag: Book Review, Faith, publishing, Reading

What About Medium Stuff?

By Dan Balowon April 8, 2014
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Today I stand in support of medium stuff. There is no argument that big important things deserve our undivided attention. There seems to be some disagreement over small stuff…do we sweat it or not? According to the Stan Jantz and Bruce Bickel’s book, God is in the Small Stuff, we probably need to be paying close attention to those things. I am concerned with those things in the middle…the medium …

Read moreWhat About Medium Stuff?
Category: Book Business, Career, Dan, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, publishing, The Publishing Life

Laube Agency Signs Saul of Tarsus

By Dan Balowon April 1, 2014
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(Phoenix, Arizona) Steve Laube, founder of the Steve Laube Agency announced today that the agency has signed Saul of Tarsus to write in various Christian book categories starting with his debut release in Fall 2014.  Saul will be writing under the pen name of Paul, a name with special meaning to the author, given him after a dramatic personal experience several years ago while on an international …

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Category: Agency, Dan, HumorTag: Agency, Humor

Don’t Just Do It

By Dan Balowon March 25, 2014
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I don’t like the word “just”. Don’t get me wrong, “just” is a fine word, especially when used in a triple-word space in Scrabble.  It has all sorts of good uses and meanings…even used to fill time when we are thinking, along with the other great words and phrases of our culture, such as “like”, ”um”, “I mean” and ”you know.”  I simply do not like the word “just” when it is used to place limits on …

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Category: Career, Creativity, Dan, PlatformTag: Attitude, Career

How to Be A Reader’s Favorite Author

By Dan Balowon March 18, 2014
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Last week in this space, I wrote about how you could become a publisher’s favorite author (other than selling millions of books).  Today, we’ll go a little different direction and talk about what you would need to do to become a favorite author to your readers. A key difference between how you relate to a publisher and how you relate to a reader is that one is business and one is personal.  An …

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Category: Branding, Career, Communication, Craft, Creativity, Dan, Marketing, PlatformTag: Authors, Career, readers

How to Be A Publisher’s Favorite Author

By Dan Balowon March 11, 2014
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Three years ago, Seth Godin published his book Linchpin.  Since I follow Seth’s books and blog as a personal and professional challenge, I read it and was inspired by it’s concepts. In it, Godin speaks about some of the new realities in business relationships.  There used to be management and those who were managed.  But now, he says, there is a third group…linchpins.  These are people who make …

Read moreHow to Be A Publisher’s Favorite Author
Category: Book Business, Branding, Career, Dan, PlatformTag: Authors, Career, publishing

The Pessimist’s Guide to Things That Will Never Work

By Dan Balowon March 4, 2014
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This is the first in a three-part series on attitudes toward work, specifically for people in publishing.

Today, I am writing about pessimism.  If there were a book glorifying its virtues, it would be the title above.  It would be a thousand pages long with an updated and expanded edition published annually.

Full disclosure…I became a baseball fan of the Chicago Cubs in 1966, a year when …

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Category: Career, Dan, The Publishing LifeTag: Career

Basketball and Writing

By Dan Balowon February 25, 2014
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Next week is March and that means basketball “March Madness” around the country.  From high school to college, teams will compete in tournaments where excitement is at its peak.  

One of my hobbies is to work as the official scorer for the Wheaton College (Illinois) men’s and women’s home basketball games.  I started doing this back in the late 70’s, took some time away from it when our kids …

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Category: Book Business, Career, Creativity, Dan, The Publishing Life, Writing CraftTag: Basketball, publishing, Writing Craft
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