Our books outlive us - just ask Job!

 Job was being maligned by his friends because God had decided to let Satan test him in horrendous ways. The expressions of faith that came out of Job's laments as the ordeal continued have challenged and encouraged people for millennia. May my words do the same. One of the passages he is recorded as having spoken is this about writing books: 

"Oh that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! For I know tat my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God" - Job 19:23-27 New King James Version.

Job knew that his skin was like the cocoon of a butterfly. Once his metamorphosis was complete, his cocoon could rot without compromising his life. Job knew that he had a secure, everlasting future thanks to our Redeemer, whose crucifixion and resurrection were guaranteed before the world was made, in the same way that an author knows the resolution of the plot of a novel prior to writing the story.

Writing our words in books gives us writers an eternal influence that lasts beyond our earthly existence. This is why it is so important to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He calls us to write. 

Just imagine if these men and women had not written their words in a book:

• John Bunyan
• Frederick Douglass
• C.S. Lewis
• Dorothy Sayers
• Madeleine L'Engle
• Andrew Murray
• Hudson Taylor
• George Mueller
• Jeanne Guyon
• Hannah Hubbard
• Watchman Nee
• Amy Carmichael
• Elizabeth Elliott

There are so many writers from every culture and every time whose words continue to impact us every day. What if they had not obeyed the call to write? 

If you are called to write, write. If you don't know how, consider purchasing the book I was prompted to write several years ago to give a devotional approach to writing under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Called to Write? Don't Know How? by Lesley Barker is available at book-klatch.com/authors/lesley-barker and at Amazon.

Writing books is an eternal calling

 Have you ever noticed that there are books in heaven? Some are sealed. Some are open. But they exist and, as Solomon wrote, "of the making of many books there is no end." He was not being cynical. He used the Hebrew word for eternity, without end.... So, my conclusion is that to be one of God's writers is an eternal calling. We will be able to keep writing forever. May my preparation here on earth set the tone and the direction for the books He will assign me to write in heaven! If God has called you to be one of His writers, may you embrace that calling with joy. Learn the craft. Write what He assigns you. Become skilled in following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and let God determine who finds, reads, and hears your books. Let Him receive all the honor for allowing you to write an important book. Then trust Him for the next assignment.