Set Your Sail

"One ships sail east, another west by the self-same winds that blow..

It's not the gale, but the set of the sail that determines which way they go.."  Helen Wheeler Wilcox

Tonight, let's take a minute to discern your gift as a Christian writer. At the same time let's write not only for Christians, but for the broader audience as well. This will get you in shape to do the Lord's thing through your pen/computer. We all need to be craftsman, don't you agree?

The greatest Teacher who ever lived found the short story the surest way to reach the minds and hearts of his audiences. The earliest account we have of His life was probably written 40 years after his death, and yet the stories He told never faded.

What a craftsman He was! Listen closely---"a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves..."  Just 13 words. But, instantly you have a specific location, a central character, a crisis that demands resolution. "Which stripped him of his clothes and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead..." Fifteen more words:action, danger, man against death, mounting suspense.  And then what happened? Something in the listener cries out, and is not satisfied until the Good Samaritan comes to the aid of the victim and the great moral question, "Who is my neighbor", is answered for all time.     *Location, character/s, crisis,---resolution.

YOU--- the writer, are the main focus. Out there in the world there are literally millions of people who have turned Him off long back.They have given up on the church, and as a result there is a despair, a deep searching and restlessness adrift.

 You can be a good writer and you can do wonderful things for the Lord if you how to get your  computer running, and your mind moving in the direction of proclaiming the gospel through the written word. It's all in the set of the sail!