Hebrews 1:2: “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”

Here is another reference to Jesus as Creator! It’s easy to focus on what Jesus did after He was born in Bethlehem and lose sight of all the things that He did before that point in time. Jesus has always existed (and will always exist), and was quite active in the days before He was born of a virgin. He appeared numerous times in the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord, and He also created the world. That means that Jesus is right there in Genesis 1 – and right there in Revelation 22.

Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

This goes back to a fundamental principle: we are saved by grace, not by works. The Catholic Church hates this doctrine because they teach that Jesus’ death on the cross was not enough to save you. They say that you must also be baptized, and live a life of good works, and do many other things, and if you do all that and stay in the church until you die then you might have a shot at being saved. (Catholicism teachings that believing that you are saved is a serious sin.) This is why they condemn the idea of “salvation by grace through faith” in the strongest terms, saying that anyone who believes that is going straight to Hell.

But yet this is precisely what the Bible teaches, in place after place after place. We are saved by grace through faith; it is not of works, lest any man should boast. We can see proof of this right there in verse 5, where it explicitly says our salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we have done”. There you have it! Or look at verse 7: we are justified by His grace. End of story. Our works play no part in the matter. This is why we cannot lose our salvation: we were not the ones that earned it.

Catholicism says that Jesus is not enough; you need works too. The Bible says that Jesus is all you need, and salvation is not of works. Catholicism says that if you go the “faith alone” route you will go straight to Hell. The Bible says that if you disregard faith alone and depend on your own works for salvation, you will be eternally lost. This is one of many reasons why I believe the Catholic church is not a Christian church at all. It flatly denies the foundational doctrines of salvation and condemns those who believe them in the strongest possible language. Any church that gets salvation wrong is not a true church at all.

Over the weekend I spent some time enhancing the part of the toolkit that generates mystery plots. The original version’s ability to generate plots was pretty limited, and it has now been expanded. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than it used to be. Here is a sample run of the application:

The Susanna Elliott Series
by Lindsey Herman

#1. The Mystery Of The Foreboding Causeway

Susannan is given a whispered message by a dying safety manager.
 

#2. The Sign Of The Aggressive Snail

Susanna gets caught up in a local feud that leads to a tragic train disaster.
 

#3. The Shuffling Collector

In an old Kenya mining camp, Susanna puzzles over a series of haunting events.
 

#4. The Secret Of The Old Pavilion

Susanna takes on a case that has baffled the police. 16 thousand dollars has disappeared without a trace, and the only clue is a missing old pavilion.
 

#5. The Clue Of The Glimmering Doubloon

Susanna flies to Jersey to obtain a buried weapon which could change the fate of the world.
 

#6. The Sign Of The Cedar Parchment

Susanna gets caught up in the disappearance of a valuable bell, and quickly discovers that the villains will stop at nothing to get what they want.
 

#7. The Quest Of The Whispering Harp

When dangerous agents try to snatch the blueprints of Dr. Barry Dunlap, he seeks the help of Susanna. The only clue is a volatile harp.
 

#8. The Mystery Of The Purple Helmet

Susanna discovers a horrifying new weapon that is being used by a landlord to copy scientific papers.
 

#9. The Clue Of The Exploding Rooster

Susannan is given a whispered message by a hospitalized leasing agent.
 

#10. The Quest Of The Creepy Viola

A cry for help sends Susanna racing to Gibraltar.
 

#11. The Secret Of The Silk Anthropod

Susannan is given the deadly task of tracking down an international bandit.
 

#12. The Mystery Of The Exploding Quartermaster

A cry for help sends Susanna racing to Comoros.
 

#13. The Quest Of The Wheezing Armada

Weird, menacing developments involving a group of fanatical assassins and a missing mask lead Susanna to a cave in Kuwait, reputedly haunted by zombies.
 

#14. The Mystery Of The Capricious Peasant

A ranch in Ukraine is under attack, and Susanna must find out who is behind it.
 

#15. The Clue Of The Clapping Cabana

In the thrilling city of Moscow, Susannan undertakes a baffling and dangerous mission: to ferret out a revolutionary new secret weapon. All that stands in the way is a deadly counterfeiter who will stop at nothing to get it first.

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

I spent some time over the weekend working on my book title generator (also known as the Writer’s Toolkit). Besides a lot of under-the-hood changes, I also fixed a number of bugs, dramatically enhanced the plot generator, and – most importantly – created an installer for the program. You can now actually install the application; it will create a link in the start menu, and it can be removed through Control Panel. (The installer is still pretty crude, but if I can get a full copy of Visual Studio 2010 I’ll try to make a better one.)

The program can be downloaded right here:

Book Title Generator, version 0.1, 459 KB.

I happened to glance at my blog stats this afternoon and saw that there was apparently more interest in my writer’s toolkit than I thought. One of the top searches for this blog are people looking for a “book title generator”.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to go ahead and release the alpha version of my generator. It’s definitely not done yet, and there are a few known bugs, but it does have some neat features.

You can download it right here:

Book Title Generator (zip file; 260 KB)

A few caveats: first, I’ve only tested it on Windows 7. It may run on other operating systems, but I can’t guarantee that. Second, it requires the .NET 4.0 Framework to run. If you don’t have it installed the program will tell you, and give you a link to go and download it.

Finally, the program has no installer. I wrote it in Visual Studio 2010 Express, and that edition of Visual Studio does not allow you to build installers. (I looked into getting the non-free version of VS2010, but the cheapest edition was more than $500. So I’m going to pass on that.) So, inside the zip file you will find an executable. Just unzip the file somewhere, double-click on the program, and it will run.

Enjoy! I’ll try to post more enhanced versions, as I have them. If there are any enhancements you’d like to see please let me know!

This page is ridiculously popular – it’s the most viewed page on the blog. I’ll make this easy for you, then. If you are looking to generate chapter titles, here you go:

Chapter Title Generator

That is a webpage I built that can generate chapter titles. It is pure javascript, and should work in all browsers. It is also completely free of charge. All you have to do is go to the page, check the box besides “Include This Many Chapter Titles”, and press the Generate button. That’s it!

Here’s a sample of the results:

CHAPTER 1: A PUZZLING REQUEST
CHAPTER 2: AUNT HOUSE
CHAPTER 3: THE PLOT FOR VENGEANCE
CHAPTER 4: THE FINGERPRINTS
CHAPTER 5: ARABIC INTRIGUE
CHAPTER 6: THE DANGEROUS TRAILER
CHAPTER 7: A HAZARDOUS MISSION
CHAPTER 8: THE PUZZLE OF THE LIGHTS
CHAPTER 9: THE GRUESOME AQUARIST
CHAPTER 10: LOST
CHAPTER 11: ON THE DERELICT
CHAPTER 12: THE UNWELCOME INTRUDER
CHAPTER 13: CANNONBALLS OF FIRE
CHAPTER 14: THE CATASTROPHE OF PATRICIA
CHAPTER 15: HIDDEN LETTER
CHAPTER 16: THE OTHER BARGE
CHAPTER 17: MORE DANGER
CHAPTER 18: DIRE THREATS
CHAPTER 19: THE PECULIAR MONOCLE
CHAPTER 20: MYSTERIES REVEALED

Enjoy!

Titus 3:2: “To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.”

Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: Paul is talking about speaking evil falsely, or slandering, or tearing people down. He is not saying to never rebuke anyone (for even Paul did this), or to never get angry (for even Jesus did this.) It’s worth remembering that Jesus called the Pharisees “whitened sepulchres”. Our Lord did not hesitate to condemn people who deserved it, and at times He used very strong language.

The goal in life is not to be nice and unoffensive at all times and to always get along with everyone; it is to be a light in the world and to stand up against the darkness. We should strive to make sure our speech is full of love and grace, but there are definitely times when hard truths need to be told. If you read the gospels you will find that there were a great many times when Jesus was not nice at all. Christ’s commandment to us was not “don’t ever offend anyone”, but “be the salt of the earth and the light of the world”.

Titus 2:13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

Notice that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is said to be our “blessed hope”. Today many Christians don’t believe this; they dread the return of Christ because they believe it will interrupt their lives. “There’s still a lot of things I want to do,” they complain. “Is it really so wrong to want Jesus to stay away until I’ve had my fun?”

My pastor addressed this very question and said no, there’s nothing wrong with that attitude at all. I strongly disagree. I think it’s horrifying that we’re so caught up with our lives that we actually don’t want Jesus to come back. Is what we’re doing really more important than the Second Coming, the raising of the dead, and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth? We are supposed to love God with all of our hearts; what kind of love says “Please stay away as long as possible”? That’s not love; that’s utter selfishness and cold-heartedness! No lover looks at their beloved and says “Please go away and stay away for a long time, because my life is much better when you’re not around”. That’s a horrible thing to say – but that is exactly how many people feel about Christ.

In fact, this attitude is so foreign to the Bible that it makes me wonder if these people are actually saved at all. One of the hallmarks of being saved is a passionate love for Jesus. The whole reason Jesus rejected the church of Laodicea was because they were lukewarm; they had left their first love. How can anyone think that they’re saved when they have no love for God? At the very least this means that there’s something seriously wrong with their walk with God. Telling Jesus “Please don’t come back” is siding with the devil, who doesn’t want Jesus to come back either. Do we really want to be taking Satan’s side on this issue?

I’ve updated the writer’s toolkit to automatically generate Tom Swift titles. It actually works surprisingly well! Here are the first two runs:

TOM SWIFT AND HIS CLIMATOLOGICAL ARENA
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HYDROLOGICAL GENERATOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPERCONDUCTING GRAVAIRPLANE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS TRANSCENDENT SHARD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC XENOGENERATOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS INFRASONIC DATABANK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS COGNITIVE PLATING
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MECHANICAL ROCKET LAUNCHER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC SATELLITE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT GUN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ACOUSTIC PLATING
TOM SWIFT AND HIS POLYMORPHIC TRUCK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ASTROBIOLOGICAL CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET CYBORG
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GRAVITONIC NEEDLEWAVE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS VOLTAIC BIOCAR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS RADIOACTIVE TURRET
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SYNTHETIC SINGLARITY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NUCLEAR WORLD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHANTOM SOLARWAVE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHANTOM SPECTROCRAFT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNIVERSAL NEEDLEJAMMER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PLANETARY SPACESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHAOS RIFLE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIOTIC SUPERSCOPE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MESON JAMMER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROBOT SPECTROMICROCHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTOELECTRIC SKATEBOARD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS POLYMORPHIC TRAIN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PORTABLE JET
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NEURAL CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ACOUSTIC BEAM
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NEUTRON DATATRANSPORTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS COSMIC GRAVSPHERE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PORTABLE ANTIMULTIPLEXER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS COSMIC SKATEBOARD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BALLISTIC BATTLESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRALIGHT SAIL
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GEOLOGICAL SUBTUBE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIOTIC ALLOY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS EXPERIMENTAL ENCRYPTION
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SONIC CYBERLASER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPERCONDUCTING TANK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS COVERT RIFLE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CYBERNETIC MAGNIFIER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS RADIOACTIVE COMPRESSOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBATOMIC COMPUTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS RADIOACTIVE SATELLITE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS VIRTUAL BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS QUANTUM POWER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS POLARON JAMMER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MINIATURE POWER PLANT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS POLYMORPHIC SPACESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BALLISTIC WALL
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBSPACE BLASTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WARP HOVERTRON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GALACTIC NETWORK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHANTOM CYBERDRONE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ZERO-POINT-ENERGY ASTEROID
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ARMORED DYNABATTLESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROBOT TRAIN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIOMECHANICAL POWER PLANT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHAOS COMPRESSOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MEDICAL COMPUTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHANTOM HYPERLINK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MECHANICAL BEAM
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTOELECTRIC COMPLEX
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CONTROLLED DYNABATTLESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NEUROLINGUISTIC AIRPLANE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC MUTAGEN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROBOTIC SPACESHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ADVANCED TORPEDO
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MONOPOLE AMPLIFIER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MEDICAL CHAMBER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FISSION FUNGUS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BALLISTIC SUPERCOLLIDER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPERCONDUCTING CHRONOAQUIFER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLEXIBLE CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS COSMIC ROCKET
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERONOMICAL CYCLONETWORK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ECHELON MICROVIRUS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLEXIBLE MULTIPLIER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPERCONDUCTING EXOSHARD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SILENT AIRBASE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ION ENERGY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROBOTIC SILENCER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ACOUSTIC GUN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CRYSTALLINE TRANSMITTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MONOPOLE TANKER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPER AIRPLANE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MINIATURE SINGLARITY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ECHELON TRANSPORTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS REPELATRON NANOSTRING
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NEURAL SPACEPLANE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS STRATEGIC BOREHOLE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HIGH ENERGY HANDGUN
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ALGORITHMIC CHAMBER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SILENT SUPPRESSOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ACOUSTIC ANTIENCRYPTION
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GRAVITONIC IMPACTOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS OCEANOGRAPHIC WORLD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GEOCHEMICAL LASER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PSI THEATER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PARTICLE ENCRYPTION
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ADAPTIVE POSIAIRBASE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS NEURAL SUPERCOLLIDER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOLOGRAPHIC HYDROGENERATOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HIGH ENERGY TRUCK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC MONOMARINE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC FIELD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ARMORED WARHEAD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS DIGITAL BOMB
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SILENT CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ASTROBIOLOGICAL CYCLOREPLICATOR
TOM SWIFT AND HIS QUANTUM HYDROCHAMBER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOLECULAR LASER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUPERLUMINAL HYDROJET
TOM SWIFT AND HIS REPELATRON OUTPOST
TOM SWIFT AND HIS RETROVIRAL SPLICER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROBOT OUTPOST
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MINIATURE TELENEXUS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MECHANICAL BUNKER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GEOPHYSICAL JET
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PARTICLE TORPEDO
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PLASMA SHARD

On to the next challenge!

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

The functionality of the writer’s toolkit has been expanded once again! It now supports the option of generating back-of-the-book praise quotes. This is where I put my newspaper-name generator into use – as a source of the quotes. Here is a sample run:

The Jake Mcleod Series
by Luis Curry

#1. The Quest Of The Luminous Fiend

Jake returns to Liberia to fight a legendary bandit.
 

“Luis Curry’s straightforward writing style perfectly enhances this chilling and mysterious novel…”
–Max Quinn

“‘The Quest Of The Luminous Fiend’ is a beautifully written and compelling tale that speaks in the magical language of the child in us to the adults who long to remember the mystical dream from whence we came. An inspirational literary feat. Bravo!”
–Beach Comber News

“‘The Quest Of The Luminous Fiend’ is an impressive work… Highly recommended.”
–Kelly Morton
 
#2. The Secret Of The Blue Brewery

Jake chases a fanatical bandit to Gibraltar.
 
 
#3. The Case Of The Crying Custodian

In Japan, Jake poses as a youth care worker in order to intercept a toxic pathogen which threatens the world with a horrifying plague.
 
 
#4. The Case Of The Dusty Cove

A vicious assault endangers Jake.
 

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

Titus 2:12: “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”

This is the point exactly. The Bible does not tell Christians that they might as well go ahead and do whatever they want, since they’re saved and the world is passing away and it doesn’t really matter. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” is the world’s attitude, not Christ’s. Jesus commanded Christian to deny themselves and follow Him – to choose a life of suffering and denial. We are to be sober and holy – not to give in to whatever sin sounds good at the time. We are in this world but we must not be of this world.

I’ve added another feature to the writer’s toolkit! It can now generate newspaper names. For example:

Bovee Wire

The Wewoka Progress

Bald Eagle Press

The Morton Park Eagle Online

The Lake Tapawingo Advertiser

The Sheridan Charter Guide

Smiley Times-Star Online

Valley Village Firefighter Today

Venice Vision

Guy Daily Journal

Lobo-Trinity News

The Wabash Shores News-Banner

Todos Santos Valley Courier

Eighty-Seventh Street Tribune

Siloam Business Gazette

Perintown Reporter News

The Lake Crystal Reporter

Summit Ridge Heights Post

Schoolfield Buzz News

Radical Business Gazette

Hagerhill Canyon News

Beach Comber News

Ector Daily Enterprise

Casa Blanca Tribune

Norfleet Voice

You might be thinking: why generate random newspaper names? There’s a reason I need them, and that reason will become clear in time. But, this is progress! Another step toward our goal.

As always, the book title generator can be downloaded free-of-charge from the top of the Free Books page.

Titus 2:8: “Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.”

Of course, this is not to say that our enemies won’t lie about us and say “all manner of evil against you falsely”, as Jesus said. After all, even Jesus was confronted with false witnesses. The key is that if we live as this verse commands then our enemies will have no way to condemn us. God wants us to live in such a way that our enemies have to resort to lying in order to condemn us. When this happens (and it very well may happen) the Lord said we should rejoice “exceedingly”, for our reward in Heaven is great.

Think of it this way: would you rather be presented with a false accusation, or a true one?

Titus 2:1: “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:”

These days sound doctrine is increasingly hard to come by. I don’t know of an antidote for this, except to say that this really emphasizes the importance of personal Bible study. Things have become so bad that you’re probably not going to hear sound doctrine in church. (For example, just look at all the churches that have no problem ordaining homosexuals to the ministry – or the pastors that preach that there is no Hell! This isn’t fringe activity; it’s actually becoming mainstream. According to polling data the majority of churches no longer believe that you need Jesus to go to Heaven. That is not “sound doctrine” – that is doctrine from the pits of Hell.) What this means is that if you want to learn what the Bible actually teaches then you are really on your own.

Of course, a great many Christians have owned Bibles their entire lives and yet have never gotten around to actually reading the entire Bible. Yet this is so important: how can you know what the Bible teaches if you’ve never read it? It’s not that hard to read the Bible; it definitely is a long book, but if you read three chapters a day you can have the whole thing read in just one year. Or, if that’s too much, you can read just one chapter a day and have it finished in three years. God spent thousands of years writing the Bible, and countless people died to make it happen; is setting aside a few minutes to read it really that much to ask?

Personal Bible study is absolutely critical. If we spend a lot of time in the Word then we’ll know what the truth actually is – and we’ll be able to spot false doctrine a mile away.