I am up in the mountains in southern California writing my book Hope For My Hurting Heart. I could not resist taking a few moments to take some pictures this morning. I was busily writing in my little cabin and I heard some noise out back. I walked out on my little porch and could not believe the show! There were a guzillion blue jays and squirrels chasing each other and just having the time of their lives. It was so fun to watch. So I pulled out my little Nikon camera that goes just about everywhere with me and snapped some pictures. Here are some of the best. Isn’t this bird beautiful! I’m calling it a blue jay but after looking around online I actually think it’s a Stellar’s Jay.
What personality these animals have especially the squirrels. There is one squirrel in particular that jumps on to my back porch and sits there looking in my window. Anyhow, this is a great place to write even though I am mostly indoors typing away on my little laptop. I do enjoy the view outside and the sound of the creek outside my window. Every now and then I stop and walk down to the creek and sit in one of the chairs, enjoy the beauty, and commune with the Lord, talking with Him about things and just enjoying His Presence. I like to take what I’ve written, print the pages out, then go down by the creek and read with fresh eyes. It’s been quite a journey with this book and is something that the Lord has been writing in my heart for a long time.
I’m so excited about the new book I’m writing, Hope For My Hurting Heart. I was so encouraged to read the Comments after my last post on Journey Of A Book. Those comments came just as I was beginning this new book. When I begin a new book there is a mix of excitement and healthy fear - it is quite daunting to begin a new project when I have just completed another one. I’ve been thinking about Hope For My Hurting Heart for a LONG time and have been planning it in my mind and on the computer for a number of years. It’s so interesting to begin writing. I have my outline that I work from. However, there is a point where the book takes on a life of its own. The Holy Spirit is at work in a powerful way to lead and guide me in the writing and organization. That happened with this book and it was so exciting. Week Two was going to go a certain way and then the Lord showed me something that would make it SO MUCH BETTER and much more effective. When He does this it seems it doesn’t happen until I am deep into the writing. And then, it often requires more work on my part but the result is well worth it. That’s as much as I’m going to say because I want those who read this new book to get the full impact of the 30 day journey. I am confident the Lord is going to take this book on His journey to hearts that need the hope of His promises. Honestly, I think we ALL need the hope of God’s promises - I know I do, day by day. This book is designed to show a person how incredible the Bible is and how living in it will revolutionize your life. Anyhow, the book will be available sometime in 2007 - I’ll find out more about the release date in the next month or so. I wish it could come out in a month. Maybe that’s why the Lord gave me the word, “Wait” as my word for the year. Doesn’t that make you smile. I like everything to happen yesterday and my word is “Wait.” I have learned a lot about waiting - for me, it means:
Watching
Always
I
Trust
I am watching eagerly to see what the Lord does. I want His plan, not my own. There is a lot of surrender that has brought me to that place, but I can truly say that my heart’s desire is 2 Corinthians 5:9 - “Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
On a more personal note, I am having the greatest time writing this book. There is this little bagel restaurant close by with wi-fi and great coffee. And here is the best part - they open at 5:30 AM - that’s a restaurant designed just for me! Now you’ll learn something that only those who come to this blog will know - I get up VERY EARLY. And so, by 5:30 AM I am hungry! And guess what else - they make the best breakfast burritos. I’m not always in the mood for them but I had one yesterday and it was good! So I’m getting one again today! And I will sit there and read what I’ve already written and make the necessary changes. Then, it’s onward and upward.
Thank you to everyone who is praying for the writing of these books. I feel as though we really are doing this as a team. How could I write without all of us praying for the Lord’s work? And so, as the Lord takes these resources far and wide, expands the territory of this ministry, we can thank Him for His answers to all the prayers. To God be the glory!!
I am excited to share with you that yesterday I finished writing the first in a new series of books of quiet times. The working title for the series is A Quiet Time Experience and the first book is A Heart That Hopes In God – Truths From The Psalms To Anchor Your Soul. This new series of quiet times is designed for those who are busy in life but desire to know God intimately and recognize that daily quiet time with the Lord is essential to achieving that goal. What I’ve done in this new book is to shorten each quiet time just a bit. However, each quiet time still requires “time†and intention to draw near to the Lord and open one’s Bible to live in God’s Word. Each quiet time is designed according to the P.R.A.Y.E.R. Quiet Time Plan and contains devotional reading, Bible Study, prayer, and application.
Each book I write has its own journey. It begins when the Lord gives me the idea for the book. Actually I should say that it begins as the Lord teaches me truths from His Word and builds them into my life day-by-day. These truths are things I think about, study in my quiet time, and write articles on in our quiet time magazine, Enriching Your Quiet Time. I’ve been thinking about some of these things for literally years before they ever make their way into a book. Somewhere along the way the Lord gives me the idea for the book. Then, I brainstorm it by outlining it using my computer. I have file folders in my computer for each book idea I’m working on. I keep all kinds of quotes, illustrations, personal experiences, and study notes in each of these files. Finally, I schedule a time to actually write the book. It takes what I call “extreme discipline” and when I am writing I go to what I call my writing cave. My staff knows when I am in that cave because I barely come up for air until the book is written. It is extremely intense and a lot of hard work but a complete joy. I have such a sense that the Lord guides me in the writing of books - it’s incredible how phrases from very obscure verses will come into my mind and quotes from books I may have read 10-15 years ago will come into my mind.
I love it when the book is finally written. It is by no means complete. There is an intense editing process and at least one, sometimes two pilots of each book - these pilots help me see the book in action in the lives of others. This is very important to the process. Josh McDowell taught me this early on when I developed the quiet time notebook. He told me to get out there and teach the quiet time principles - what happened when I did this is that I learned how to communicate life-transforming truths in such a way that people “got it.” I learned what works and what doesn’t. I’m still learning and I love every minute of it!!
The new “Quiet Time Experience” entitled A Heart That Hopes In God - Truths From The Psalms To Anchor Your Soul will be available in October 2006 from Quiet Time Ministries. I’ll post it up here to let everyone know.
And now I’m on to my next book, a new 30 day journey Hope For My Hurting Heart - Experience God’s Promises For Life’s Circumstances. This book will be the third in the 30 Day Journey series released by Harvest House Publishers. I am SO VERY EXCITED to write this book. This book will be a theology of hope and will focus on the promises of God. I greatly desire to explore with others God’s view of hope. I hear people say “I’ve lost my hope.†I am convinced, however, that a Christian can never lose their hope. They might not get what they want, but real hope cannot be lost anymore than God can be lost. Our hope is in the Lord and His promises and neither will ever fail us. Solomon noted this powerful truth when he said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised ; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant†(1 Kings 8:56). Joshua noted in his farewell address that not one of God’s words had ever failed (Joshua 23:14). Hope is all wrapped up in the promises of God and I cannot wait to write all about it. Hope For My Hurting Heart is just around the corner - look for it sometime in 2007!
I often think of the words in Hebrews 13:7, “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” I still can’t get D.L. Moody out of my mind ever since my firsthand experience of handling his message notes when I visited Moody Bible Institute. What stands out to me is his faithfulness to do what God had called him to do. And the fruit of his labor lives on long past the date of his departure from earth to heaven in 1899. Thankfully the Lord burned Ephesians 5:15-17 into my heart early on as I was graduating from college. “Therefore be careul how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” I have sensed the certain and swift passage of time from a young age and I thank the Lord for that because the truth of thoses verses has compelled me to keep my hand to the plow.
I think of an article I read by R.A. Torrey entitled “Why God Used D.L. Moody.” If you want to read it you can find it here R.A. Torrey’s Article, Why God Used D.L. Moody. Torrey shares this story about Moody:
Henry Varley, a very intimate friend of Mr. Moody in the earlier days of his work, loved to tell how he once said to him: “It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him.” I am told that when Mr. Henry Varley said that Mr. Moody said to himself: “Well, I will be that man.” And I, for my part, do not think “it remains to be seen” what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him. I think it has been seen already in D. L. Moody. If you and I are to be used in our sphere as D. L. Moody was used in his, we must put all that we have and all that we are in the hands of God, for Him to use as He will, to send us where He will, for God to do with us what He will, and we, on our part, to do everything God bids us do. There are thousands and tens of thousands [10] of men and women in Christian work, brilliant men and women, rarely gifted men and women, men and women who are making great sacrifices, men and women who have put all conscious sin out of their lives, yet who, nevertheless, have stopped short of absolute surrender to God, and therefore have stopped short of fullness of power. But Mr. Moody did not stop short of absolute surrender to God; he was a wholly surrendered man, and if you and I are to be used, you and I must be wholly surrendered men and women.
I think surrender to the Lord is such a huge factor in how we spend our lives. We’re each given so many days and so many hours to live out our life. Some people draw near to God, open up their Bible, and read and study and grow in their relationship with the Lord. As a result, they experience personal revival day by day and live out God’s plans and purposes for their lives. Others spend those same hours on many things that lead to nothing. I look at how D.L. Moody spent his life. And how Spurgeon spent his life. Oh how I want to spend my life well. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
