Posts belonging to Category Writing



Understanding God’s Word Series

Understanding God's Word

I’m excited to announce a new series of books that will be appearing over the next months. Understanding God’s Word is a new series of books exploring various books and topics in the Bible. Each book in the series is adapted from actual sermons preached in the local church. These books are part commentary, part exposition, but mostly offer a clear explanation of the text, showing how it relates to other Scripture and to our lives today.

This style of preaching is modeled after Nehemiah 8 where the Levites under Ezra “read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read” (Neh. 8:8). These books are ideal resources for teachers preparing lessons, for pastors preparing messages and for personal Bible study.

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Currently available (click on the book images to view on Amazon):

Habakkuk: The Journey from Doubt to Faith   Fruit of the Spirit: Growing More Like Jesus   Name above All Name (Isaiah 9:6): An Advent Series   Lord, Make My Life Count!

 
Upcoming in 2024:
Biblical Foundations
Famous Mothers in the Bible (Vol. 1)
Lord, Make My Life Count
Life of Samuel
Real Answers about Heaven

 
Note: Click here for all books in the Understanding God’s Word series.
 

C. S. Lewis: Discouraged about Writing

C. S. Lewis was fifty years old, looking back on his writing career and wondering if he had anything left to offer. He wrote to a friend on January 14, 1949:

“As for my own work, I would not wish to deceive you with vain hope. I am now in my fiftieth year. I feel my zeal for writing, and whatever talent I originally possessed, to be decreasing; nor (I believe) do I please my readers as I used to…. If it shall please God that I write more books, blessed be He. If it shall not please Him, again, blessed be He. Perhaps it will be the most wholesome thing for my soul that I lose both fame and skill lest I were to fall into that evil disease, vainglory.” (Hooper, Collected Letters 2.905-906)

Later that same year Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia series, the work for which he is best known today.

Are you discouraged? Don’t give up! You never know what God still has in store for you to do!
 

How to Sell Lots of Books

Here’s how Mark Twain did it with the dedication to his first book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Cavalerous County, published in 1867.

“To John Smith: Whom I have known in divers and sundry places about the world, and whose many and manifold virtues did always command my esteem, I dedicate this book. It is said that the man to whom a volume is dedicated, always buys a copy. If this prove true in the present instance, a princely affluence is about to burst upon THE AUTHOR.”

Not a bad idea. If you’re writing a book, you may want to give it a try!

Note: If you have a book you would like to publish on the Ipad, Kindle or Nook, I can help: Ebook Formatting for the Ipad, Kindle and Nook
 

Sound and Sense

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.

(from Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism)