God Uses Your Writing in Your Writing Ministry

The title of this post sounds ridiculous I know. I’m sure this article will  get flagged by the A3 editors, but I did intend to make that seemingly redundant statement— God uses your writing in your writing ministry.

You may be finally convinced God has called you to minister through writing. You may be at the point that you are pursuing that call to write, but I am afraid  you may still feel you need to be someone else when you write.

You know God has called you. You are being obedient, but you want to have the style of someone else or the talent of your writing hero. You may even feel God wants you to be that other person, but that is not true.

There are many things that can be gained from reading the Bible in its original languages. One of the most valuable insights I have gained is the humanity of the authors. Now don’t for a minute let that diminish the divinity bond in the Bible’s pages, but God didn’t call His authors to be robots. In the midst of God-breathed text one can still find the personalities, the styles, the gifts, the talents, the skills, and vocabulary of those human authors.

All though there are many points in which this phenomena appears there are two passages that are my favorite.

The first passage which displays the humanity of the Bible’s authors is 2 Peter 3:15-16,

     … as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of       these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other            Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Peter writes that the Apostle Paul’s writings are hard to understand. This is supported when Paul’s books are read in the Greek. Paul is very wordy and has long, long sentences. In a New Testament Greek class it will be a couple semesters in before Paul’s letters are studied. The beginner begins with John, Mark, Peter, or James — not Paul or Luke.

Interestingly, Paul and Luke would be the academics of the bunch.

My next favorite point of Scripture where the humanity of its authorship appears is John 20:4,

...Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

 In this passage, John seems to make this footnote that tells that he ran faster than Peter. You would think an editor would have cut that passage out, but the Holy Spirit gave that very human note a green light.

Throughout the Old and New Testament each book bears the mark of the man who penned it. God used their writing for ministry. Peter didn’t have to write like Paul. Moses didn’t have to write like Samuel. James could be straightforward. Luke could be technical. Ezekiel could be unique. Zechariah could be out there. John could be simple. An older John could be grandfatherly. David could be poetic. Solomon could be wise and introspective. And you could be you.

God uses your writing for your writing ministry.