I love watching Father work!
Presently (January 14) there are 49 on faculty for the May 17-20, 2017, Colorado Christian Writers Conference with more to be added. So far that includes 6 agents, 18 editors, 14 authors, and 11 other professionals.
I’m working on the brochure and have spent the afternoon beginning the process of updating the website. If we have your USPS address, you will hopefully receive our 16-page brochure by mid-February. I’m working to open secure online registration by February 1.
Pray for me, please. Even though this is my 21st year directing the Colorado conference and 34th year directing the Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference it doesn’t get any easier. But then Jesus never promised following Him would be easy. What He has promised is always to be with us. We can trust that what He calls us to do, He will equip us to do.
I cling to His promises as the challenge of planning two conferences often threatens to overwhelm me and make me doubt I have what it takes. The hardest part, the same as with writing a book, is getting started. Well, finishing what we start is tough, too!
Do you feel called to “write His answer” and yet struggle with self-doubts? Truthfully, through working with hundreds of writers through the years, I find that those who really have a gift with words and a message that needs to be published are the ones most likely to be crippled by self-doubts.
I shudder when I think of how many times I almost gave up writing because my self-doubts were so loud and insistent. Why would anyone want to read what I wrote? What made me think that I could write for the Lord? I wasn’t qualified! How could He possibly use someone who was only a high school graduate? I felt ashamed and woefully inadequate.
How it must have grieved the Lord when I failed to see that the Cross turns my minus into a plus – when I believed the lies of the evil one instead of His promises. And how much time I wasted in my self-centered and selfish focus on my doubts instead of on the needs Father was calling me to address through the words He would give me if I would just trust Him.
Today I was reminded of the November 2010 ASSIST News interview, “Author of End Times Political Thriller Hits New York Times Best Seller List with His Latest Middle Eastern Novel.” Talking about the decision to write his first novel, Joel Rosenberg said:
Failure has a way of focusing the mind and I’d come off of ten years of political failure in Washington DC and I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m a Rosenberg, yet I am not a lawyer, a dentist, a doctor, an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, an accountant or even a stockbroker.
I’ve got no financial genes and I can’t do anything practical. I write ‘Op-Eds’ that people don’t read. I write speeches people don’t listen to; the only thing I know how to do is write and clearly badly. But these are my loaves and fishes and I don’t want to be a failure; I want to be a blessing.
So, I told the Lord, ‘I want to be a servant of yours, Lord Jesus, so could you take these loaves and fishes, limited though they be, and would you break them, and bless them, and somehow feed people with them.’
It was then that I got this idea of writing a political thriller; a Middle East-based terrorism story that would have the Gospel woven into it. I wanted it, as readers got deeper into the book, to see the spiritual temperature rise. But the problem was that I didn’t know how to write a novel as I’d never written one before. I’d never even taken a class on writing a novel and I didn’t even like to read novels. So that was a problem.”
Click here to read the rest of the interview. You’ll be encouraged.
Are you struggling to see Father at work in your life? Are you battling self-doubts, writer’s block, rejection slips, procrastination? My book, Write His Answer – A Bible Study for Christian Writers, has 33 chapters of answers I found during my journey of publishing 9 books and making over 1,000 sales to Christian periodicals. And to my amazement it’s been in print for 25 years! Click here for excerpts and ordering info.
Father, thank You for calling us to do what seems impossible and for Your faithfulness to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond as we choose to listen to You and not to our doubts.
Yes, I’m trusting Father will enable me to pull the Philly conference together, too. About half of the faculty is in place.
Another must-have gift for yourself – the hot-off-the-press Christian Writers MarketGuide 2017. I just received two boxes of the newly designed and much easier to use guide. Thanks, Steve Laube and Lin Johnson for your work on this needed resource. It retails for $22.99 but is available through the Write His Answer Ministries bookstore for only $17.99 plus $4.00 shipping. There is NO charge for shipping if your order for additional titles from the WHAM bookstore is $35 or more. 
Thanksgiving is not yet here, but the stores have already been decorated for Christmas for several weeks. Today I did some early Christmas shopping at Kohl’s to a background of Christmas music. (A 30% off coupon plus Kohl’s cash for my purchases is hard to resist!)
As you begin to think about Christmas, I want to encourage you to give yourself and your friends an early gift that will bless your journey to Christmas in life-changing ways.
Now we daily face the overwhelming task of building a platform. The time needed to write words worth reading is infringed upon by the need to have a growing presence on social media. We are driven to develop our “brand” along with a memorable tagline that will resonate with our “audience.”
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
Do you put off doing things because you don’t believe you can do them? Do you have half-written manuscripts waiting to be finished? What about ideas that you’ve tucked away – somewhere?
Guest Blogger
Many Christians believe this is a pivotal year for the United States of America, and it is not just because it is an election year.
Write His Answer 