Write What God Tells You to Write ~ Richard Spillman

Write what God tells you to write

by Richard Spillman

Image courtesy Pixabay.com

               As writers, we face more than our fair share of discouragement. We are rejected by agents. Our work doesn’t fit a publisher’s needs. Editors bleed all over our prose.  And even if we have a hundred positive reviews as soon as that third or fourth negative review rolls in we feel crushed under its weight. We write alone and we are rejected alone. Or so it seems.

               But as Christian writers (Christians who are writers not necessarily writers of Christian material) we feel we have a calling. We tend to pray over our writing and feel inspired by God to write. All the agents of discouragement are still there but one thing is different: we do not write alone. As such we should trust what God asks us to write and, even if there is discouragement along the way, we should write it, knowing that He will get us through the discouraging times.

               I’m going to illustrate this with a story of a significant event in my life. It doesn’t deal directly with something God asked me to write but it is something God wanted me to say, which is not all that different.

               Several years ago, I lead a small team to the Philippines on a short-term mission near the city of Davao.  After 17 hours of travel, we landed at the Manila airport at 11:30 pm. Our flight to Davao left at 4:30 am. We had a long layover.  We had to wait by the luggage check-in counter because without a ticket we were not allowed into the airport proper. But the counters did not open until 2:30 am.  We weren’t alone. There must have been one hundred people (and only twenty-five seats). To top it off the air conditioning wasn’t working.

               I was tired and hot. But I didn’t want to just sit there so I prayed and asked God if there was anyone I could minister to while waiting.  After praying I looked up and surveyed the scene. I noticed a couple leaning on the wall about 50 yards to my left. That’s when I felt God tell me to walk over to that woman and tell her He knew her deep sadness.  This was more than I expected or was ready to do. Questions flooded my mind. What if I was wrong? What if I insulted or frighten them and they called security? What if they laughed at me? It was too weird so, even though I had asked, I refused.  Still, He kept drawing my attention to them. 

               At about 2:30 am the ticket/luggage counter opened so we were able to get our boarding passes and move on into the main part of the airport. I walked to my gate thinking I must have heard Him wrong. There was a sense of relief that I didn’t have to make a fool of myself.

               As I sat at our gate for the remaining two-hour wait I started to pray asking God what He would have me do (I guess I hadn’t learned my lesson). Surprise, He told me to walk down the terminal to find that couple.  Now we were at gate S1 at the west end of the terminal. After some internal argument, I decided to obey and started walking to the other end hoping that I wouldn’t find them. As I walked by Gate S10 I began to breathe a little easier. They weren’t there. Then Gates S11, S12 … S15 went by and nothing. I was sure I was safe, until the very last row of seats at the very last Gate.

               There sat the couple. I had found them. There was no way out of this. I thought It’s now or never. I took a deep breath and walked up to the man.  I introduced myself and shook his hand then I sat down in front of the both of them and said, "This might seem weird but God told me to talk to you.”  As they looked at me through puzzled stares I knew they were thinking how do we get away from this guy.  I turned to the woman and said, "God wants me to tell you that He knows and understands your deep sadness."  No sooner had I got the words out of my mouth than I noticed the man's mouth open wide in stunned silence (throughout the rest of the conversation he remained frozen in that pose).  The woman looked at me and said, "What did you say?"  I repeated the message.  Then she asked me, "Are you a priest?"  I said, "No, I am a missionary."

               What she told me next changed everything about the encounter.  A tear formed in her eye as she said, "We are flying home from burying my father."  Now I knew what was going on, so I told her "God grieves with you."  She began to thank me over and over again.  She wanted my address so I wrote it on a piece of notepaper and gave it to her.  As I got up to leave I told her I would pray for her and she thanked me again.  Her husband continued to stare at me with his mouth wide open as I walked away.

               The lesson for me was clear. When God tells me to speak out, I need to trust him and speak out. And that lesson spilled over to my writing. When God tells me to write something, no matter how difficult it might seem, no matter how many times it is rejected by agents and publishers, I have to write it and submit it because I know that in the end, just like that woman whose spirit was touched by my words, God will see to it that what I write gets to those who He intended it for.

               So, when God gives you something to write, it most likely will be something difficult, maybe even something that will face opposition. Write it anyway because there is someone out there who needs to hear what you are about to write. There is someone out there who’s life will change because you did what God told you to do.

THE AWAKENED Back cover Copy:

Everyone dies once. But what if a chosen few were raised from the dead? 

Two thousand years ago Jesus resurrected his friend, Lazarus, who founded a secret organization: SOAR. Since then Jesus has added to the resurrected—The Awakened—to aid Lazarus in SOAR's battle against Satan's slaves, the UnVeilers. The threat is escalating. The UnVeilers have stepped up their attacks on mankind through a charming leader and a devastating series of bombings in Dubai and Tel Aviv. 

But the invasion doesn't stop with international terrorism. The UnVeilers are searching for a secret that Jesus embedded in Lazarus’ journal that not even Lazarus knows—and it will determine the fate of mankind. After a failed cyber-attack against SOAR's computers, Lazarus and his team of experts must find the secret before the UnVeilers do. What clue is he overlooking that could turn the tide of this ageless conflict? 

The souls fighting with Lazarus are weary, but the war against evil is far from won. Can Lazarus and his team set aside their longing for heaven and put a stop to these satanic attacks before it's too late? 

Author Bio:

 

Richard Spillman is a retired Computer Scientist who typically writes Christian non-fiction (Do What Jesus Did is available on Amazon) as well as a Christian blog (spillmanrichard.com). His latest passion, however, is Christian fiction. His first novel, The Awakened, will be released on October 1. The story asks the question: “What if Lazarus didn’t die a second time?” He was led to write it after avoiding being kidnapped by ISIS in the Philippines and then receiving death threats (to behead him in standard ISIS fashion) during the rest of his missionary service there. Besides the blog he is active web at spillmanauthor.com, on Facebook at bit.ly/spillmanauthor, on twitter (https://twitter.com/awakenedtrilogy) and instagram (http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-3176880720/spillmanrichard/photos) where you can see pictures from his missionary travels around the world.

The Paradox of Suffering

The Paradox of Suffering

by Richard Spillman

In Romans 5:3 there is a statement that, to be honest, is difficult to handle. Paul says “we rejoice in our sufferings,” with the clear implication that we should all find joy in our pain. This might be easy to say before any suffering begins. It might be easy to understand once the suffering is over. But joy in the midst of suffering? I just don’t know. Perhaps it depends on the level of suffering?  Maybe there is a way to dull the pain so joy can emerge? What does God want from us when the pain runs so deep we can hardly breath?

These are questions that can’t be answered until you are actually overwhelmed with suffering. Only then can you begin to search for some spark of joy. Anyway that was how I came to find purpose in my suffering.

My mother trafficked me through most of my childhood. I was repeatedly raped as a child, exposed to things no child should see, had any sense of trust of anything or anybody shredded. It’s a pain I still carry with me after all these years. The fact that I survived, I'm told by my therapists, is a miracle. I should have ended up on drugs (never even tempted) or ended my life (sad to say tempted). I didn't because God protected me. You see He had a plan. I did pay a price - most of my childhood locked away in forgotten memories that will stay there (I hope and pray they stay locked away. My greatest fear is that I will remember), years of therapy, struggles at the brink of death. But all the while, God was there.

Now here is the most important part … and he has redeemed the experience. Giving me the grace to survive and have a relatively successful life might be enough but He had even grander plans. Today, I often can tell when someone has been sexually abused as a child. In those instances, and there have been many of them, when a door opens for me to share my story one-on-one with a victim the most frequent response I get is tears and a "I've never told anyone this but ..." Much to my continuing surprise, God somehow uses me to unblock lives that have struggled under the weight of an often unspoken horror. Those are the times I glimpse a purpose in suffering. Those are the times I find redemption for pain.

Given the chance to do it all over again would I choose this path? No. Do I thank God for the experience when He uses me to help others? Yes. Therein lies the paradox of suffering. One that I can't unravel but one that I have found peace living with. 

For me, the answer always lay in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." To become an instrument of God’s mercy and compassion – that is the key to joy in my own suffering.

God comforted me and continues to do so and my joy comes from the gift to comfort others who at one time lived in the depraved, distorted world of my youth.

So this is my prayer: Lord, mold me into an instrument of your mercy. Let me minister to the broken hearted. Let my pain melt into a river of compassion.

Richard Spillman is a retired Computer Scientist who typically writes Christian non-fiction (The Passion of Job and Do What Jesus Did both available on Amazon) as well as a Christian blog (www.spillmanrichard.com). His latest passion, however, is Christian fiction. His first novel, Awakened, is waiting for a publisher to pick it up. He is represented by Jim Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. The story asks the question: “What if Lazarus didn’t die a second time?” He was led to write it after avoiding being kidnapped by ISIS in the Philippines, and then receiving death threats (to behead him in standard ISIS fashion) during the rest of his missionary service there. Besides the blog he is active on Twitter (https://twitter.com/awakenedtrilogy) and Instagram (http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-3176880720/spillmanrichard/photos) where you can see pictures from his missionary travels around the world.

Behind the Story - Overcoming Obstacles - Richard Spillman

Courtesy Pixabay

 Overcoming obstacles – the story behind the story

By Richard Spillman

     This is a story about apparent defeat followed by ultimate victory.   It reminds me a little of the story of Joseph when the enemy tried to destroy him but God used the means of Joseph’s destruction to raise him to the heights of power.  What happened to me at work was not nearly as dramatic but it is, at its heart, the same story.

     I taught at Pacific Lutheran University for 35 years.  In the Spring of 2006, I committed myself to dedicate the first 5 minutes of each class to share a story about how God was working in my life at the time.  I told my students that while the technical material we were going to cover in class was important, it was not nearly as important as their relationship with God.  During that time God gave me a fresh story to share during each class session. 

     Then in October 2007 a student complained and I was called into the chairs office.  He told me that I must stop because my contract contained a clause which, in effect, said I could not preach in class.  If I didn’t stop it would be grounds for dismissal.  It didn’t make any difference that this was a “Christian” school or that faculty were free to ridicule the Gospel all they wanted and did without consequences.  I checked and he was right, the small print in my contract, which I must admit I had never read, forbid any religious instruction in my classes.

    I was faced with a dilemma.  Should I continue to talk about God or should I honor my agreement and stop.  I decided that I would not be a good witness if I did not keep my word, so I sadly stopped.  I had no idea of the miracle God was about to perform.

    The surprise ending to this story was set in motion months before I was ordered to stop talking about God in my class. Earlier in the year, the University sent out an email to all the faculty announcing that PLU had received outside funding to develop “service-learning” classes in which students would be required, as part of the class, to volunteer in the community.  The university had enough funds to support four such classes and invited faculty to apply.  At the time I decided I could revamp my privacy class to focus on the lack of privacy in the homeless community and have my students work with organizations that served the homeless.  I had no idea the impact that decision would have and the way it would produce an amazing victory for Christ. 

     I learned that my course was one of the four selected for funding under which I received “bonus” pay for teaching the class.  The University was very excited about my proposal because it was the only one to come out of the sciences.  They had expected that “service-learning” classes would be limited to the social sciences and the humanities.  My first such class was scheduled to begin in January 2008.  

     Suddenly, the same University that threatened to fire me if I talked about God in class was now paying me to speak about God in class. I could now talk about how God was working in the homeless community because that was part of my class proposal. But that was only a small part of the victory.  Now the students had to go out and work directly with the homeless of Tacoma.  Just a few blocks from school was a Christian organization called the Crossing.  The Crossing provided clothes, showers, laundry facilities, food, and prayer for the homeless.  It needed volunteers and I suddenly had 15 students who needed a place to volunteer.  It was a perfect match.   Now, rather than just getting a short 5 minute story, most of my students would spend 3 to 5 hours a week at the Crossing watching God work.  They would have stories of their own. 

    In fact, I asked the students to keep a journal of their service time which they handed in at the end of the course.  I only began to realize the full extent of the miracle God had performed when I read those journals. He touched the lives of my students in a way that my little 5 minute stories could never have.  One young man took four days to work up the courage to approach one of the homeless clients at the crossing and engage in a conversation.  On that day he wrote in his journal “I am beginning to feel like there is a purpose for me.”  By day six this student began to think deeply about his belief in God.  He decided on that day that he would start to pray for the homeless and for the work of the Crossing.  Another student was amazed at the power of God to change lives.  She wrote, “I realized that these people [the volunteers at the Crossing] were changing lives around by believing in them and teaching them about God and the power of prayer.”

     Two students talked about the prayer they received from the workers at the Crossing.  One was a Chinese student who had very little knowledge of God yet she was so moved when Garrett, one of the pastors at the crossing prayed for her.  She ended her paper with “God’s blessing be with us.”  The other student that was moved by the prayer he received wrote, “Marcia prayed for me because of my lack of faith and prayed that God would show Himself, and guide me to pray and worship Him as my Lord and Savior.  The more I came to the Crossing and talked to others that worked there, the idea of religion didn’t seem so far out of reach for me.  This is something I’ve struggled with for awhile now, and I feel that with some time and help from people like Marcia and Garrett, I can overcome my stubbornness towards religion and find my faith in God to become true.” By the end of the class a number of students had either accepted Jesus or rededicated there lives to serving Jesus.

     Across the board, the lives of my students were changed far more than they would have been by my little 5 minute stories.  When I was ordered to stop what I was doing I felt powerless and hopeless.  Little did I know that God was ready to explode in my classroom. What the enemy had tried to destroy had instead multiplied 10 fold.  I really learned to understand what Joseph meant when he told his brothers as recorded in Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result.”

Richard Spillman is a retired Computer Scientist who typically writes Christian non-fiction (The Passion of Job and Do What Jesus Did both available on Amazon) as well as a Christian blog http://www.spillmanrichard.com   . His latest passion, however, is Christian fiction. His first novel, Awakened, is waiting for a publisher to pick it up. He is represented by Jim Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. The story asks the question: “What if Lazarus didn’t die a second time?” He was led to write it after avoiding being kidnapped by ISIS in the Philippines and then receiving death threats (to behead him in standard ISIS fashion) during the rest of his missionary service there. Besides the blog he is active on twitter: https://twitter.com/awakenedtrilogy   and instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spillmanrichard/  where you can see pictures from his missionary travels around the world.