Christian Living

Christian Writing Is A Noble Calling

by Jeff Drinnan
12/19/17
For Sale
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

Recently, when I went again to Max Lucado's book "Max on Life" for consolation for a loved one who recently went to the Lord, to the chapter "Hereafter", I also reread the addendum "The Write Stuff", where Max writes of the noble preoccupation of Christian writing.

The pastor and Christian author takes us back to the inspired writers of the Bible. The message came from God, but these writers used their own creativity, experiences, and style to convey God's message. These inspired writers wrote of their own life situation and taylored their writing to a particular situation, using their God given skills to concisely and clearly communicating, using  just enough words to apply the message from God. A high school English teacher used to tell us that our essays should be "long enough to be good".

John, Max wrote, wrote out of heavenly vision. Paul wrote "because of congregational angst. Titus needed direction; the Ephesians needed assurance, Timothy struglled, the Corinthians squabbled, and the Galatians waffled."

Good writing is hard work, Max admonished. To get it right, to fully use the gifts God gave us, the writer must be tough on him or herself, making the right choices, and editing, editing, editing. Red ink from editors can be painful, but is worth it. For Max, the joy of Christian writing is knowing that you positively reached someone with God's word.

That as of the writing of "Max on Life", Max wrote that thirteen of the fourteen chapters of his most recent manuscript "needed an overhaul. I was depressed for a week." But this is what it takes for a faithful servant to serve God this way.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" 2nd Timothy 2:15

FaithWriters has been a blessing for many. It's been for me. We who post articles here share our perspectives, experiences, thoughts about our faith. As father of the Biblical Counseling movement, pastor and counselor Jay E Adams wrote, the Bible was written to be applied to our lives, our walk with God. It's not merely an achedemic pursuit.

I've been working on a book about the homeless, focused on my personal experience with the homeless in my area, lower Bucks County, PA, over the past 3 1/2 years, reading books about the homeless and reading about this subject extensively online. Some homeless friends have told me that a book on the homeless is something that really needs to be done. Many people don't really understand the homeless. My goal is to help them understand the homeless and how to help them, from a Christian perspective.

"Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church." Ephesians 4:15

There is a battle going on between the world and the church. One battleground is the homeless community. The secular, worldly mental health industry has been making efforts in Bucks County to shanghai the homeless to keep them in business. They preach that homelessness equals mental disorder. The church, and individual Christians, have been reaching out to the homeless with the message of the gospel. God has placed me among them and has given me an informal, unofficial ministry with the homeless.

The Bible has solutions to the exigencies of life. Homelessness is one of them, and that's one thing I write about.