Straight Talk About God’s Will

Well, I’m happy to report that my book, Straight Talk About God’s Will, is now officially out and about. If you live in the Mitchell county area, you can purchase it at “Dellinger’s Christian Book and Gift Shop” in Spruce Pine or “Something Special Gift Shop” in Burnsville. If you don’t live in this area you can purchase it through online sites such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and textbooksrus.com. Jebaire Publishing is currently working to upgrade their website, but eventually the book will be available through them too. If you’d like to read a sample chapter, you can do so at this blog site.

I wrote the book to help the person who is standing at a crossroad in life. A decision has to be made. A direction has to be chosen. Which path is God’s way? Which direction is pleasing to Him? What is His will in this specific decision? Most of us have stood at one of these crossroads. If you haven’t, keep living, you’ll arrive there shortly.

The book’s chapters are as follows:

1. Something I Must Say

2. The Place to Start

3. The Desires of Your Heart

4. Getting Help From the Bible

5. Open Doors You Shouldn’t Walk Through

6. Open Doors You Should Walk Through

7. Seeking Counsel From Others

8. Putting Out A Fleece

9. Proving God’s Will

10. Inner Peace: Don’t Do Anything Without It

11. Waiting and the Will of God

12. Big Wind and Big Waves 

These chapters are all very much Bible-based and plenty of scripture is used. But I’ve also woven in various illustrations that are relevant and helpful. Some of them come out my own experiences in discerning and doing God’s will. At the end of each chapter, there are three application questions to help you apply the chapter to your specific decision. All in all, I think you’ll find the book very readable and, I pray, abundantly beneficial.

It’s a cliche’ to say, “If one person is helped by reading this book, it will have been worth writing it.” The fact is, though, that cliche’ applies here. The “Lord’s prayer” begins with the words, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Obviously, there is a kingdom element to those words. No matter how much good we Christians do in this world, God’s will isn’t going to be done on the earth the way it is done in heaven. But my prayer for the book is that God will use it get His will done more upon the earth. If He uses it to help just one person choose His will in just one decision today, that makes life on earth a little better today than it was yesterday.

I’d like to write a whole series of Straight Talk books: Straight Talk About Prayer, Straight Talk About Marriage, Straight Talk About Parenting, Straight Talk About Church, Straight Talk About Bible Study, etc. But we’ll see how this first one sells. I couldn’t ask for a better editor than Shannon Clark. She has been outstanding through the whole process. She’ll do her part and I’ll do mine. In the end, though, God is sovereign. If He wants me to write more books, He’ll have this one be successful enough to warrant another one. If He doesn’t, then it’s enough that I’ve already written one more than I ever figured to in life.

As a part of my contract, I received five free copies of the book. As I stood there holding them, I couldn’t help but think of the immense amount of work that it took to get us to that point. When I showed them to my boys, Ryan took one and immediately started flash flipping through the pages. I said, “You have no idea how many hours, days, weeks, and months of work it took just for you to be able to stand there and do that.” He just grinned and stopped flipping.

I am so grateful to God that He gave me the gift, experience, insight, burden, and time to write the book. I’m also grateful that He led the folks at Jebaire to publish it. Since this whole project has been His from day one, I know that He has His hands on it. That doesn’t mean that the book will become a best-seller, but it does mean that God will use it to suit His purposes.

Eric Liddell won the gold medal in the men’s 400 meters at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. That story is famously told in the movie Chariots of Fire. Liddell was a devout Christian who went on to serve as a missionary in China for many years. On the subject of his running, Liddell said, “I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.” I can truthfully say that I feel God’s pleasure when I write. That’s why I do it. It’s not to make big money or a name for myself. I write because I know it’s something God wants me to do. And, in the end, that’s all the motivation I need.