But God, What if … ?

Exodus 4:1

Moses answered (God), “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

I must confess, I love it when these important men of the Bible question God. Not because I want to encourage others to do the same. I mean, there’s no point, right? But when I see someone of great faith have weak moments, I know there’s hope for me. So no, I don’t use this as an excuse to be sloppy. I see it as a call to be more, as was Moses.

So Moses had a what if moment. I can relate. That’s why I’m forty six and only now starting on a path of ministry that others started many a year ago. I know the what ifs.

“What if no one cares what I write?”
 
“What if everyone hates my style?” As though each and every person had the same opinion about anything.

“What if this is a big waste of time?”

“What if people think I’m ugly?” Okay, I’m a little vain.

These are the chains that bind us—Satan’s tools. When God calls us out to do something, there are no what ifs. Only what will be. He knows the outcome already, otherwise He’d never have given us the task.

Does it mean the aspiring writer will be a million-dollar royalty-making published author? (Hmmmm. How ‘bout it Big Guy? All right, all right.) No, it doesn’t. In fact, I know my calling has already touched lives through information disseminated on my blog and the tightening of relationships with people around me. I’m still feeling the call, so I guess there’s more.

Yes, I hope for the contract with a dollar sign in front of six-figures—okay, I’ll take five—somewhere on the page (preferably going to me and not just the publisher). But even if that never happens, I’ll know I’m being used by Him. And like His Grace, it’s sufficient.

Tell us about a WHAT IF moment God used in your life.

Check out Connie’s other Moses-related blog post:

What Did Moses Do Anyway?

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Molly's interview with Christian author Mike Dellosso, the author of Scream, will be posted on April 28th. Molly says Scream will scare the freckles off your nose, but it will also inspire you. Stay tuned.

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Grab your pots!

Tuesdays with Tiffany
by Tiffany Colter, the Writing Career Coach

Last week I posted a blog on my main writing site where I basically gave a dose of tough love. If you haven't read it, go check it out. I didn't tell my regular blog readers but that book was written by a pastor and was addressing the Body of Christ.

For the last 5 years our family has struggled to adopt a special needs daughter, and then to raise her. We've struggled through my husband's cancer diagnosis, treatment and healing. We've battled financial giants, unemployment and maintaining our testimony in the midst of it all.

We are now in a place financially where we can see the end of the battle [financially] but we aren't quite there in the physical yet. I've spent a great deal of time seeking God and His wisdom. I know that the key to our success and victory in this will come with faithful obedience to God and His call. I also know I'll have a role to play in executing His plan.

This last week as I sat alone with God I began to meditate on the story of a woman who had lost her husband and faced losing all she owned and all she loved [her sons] to a creditor. [2 Kings 4]I cannot imagine the misery the woman must have felt. The situation seemed impossible. She sought the prophet for a word.

The prophet said to her "Tell me, what do you have in your house?" [verse 2, NIV]

The woman only had a bit of oil.

The prophet replied to her, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."

Go to the Bible and read the rest of the story in detail. When she obeyed God multiplied the little bit of Oil she had in the house. She was able to sell it to repay the debt AND live on what was left. But the key was to USE what she had, ASK for help when necessary and OBEY the unusual direction from the prophet. This woman's blessing was only limited by her willingness to respond to what she was told.

That morning the woman was losing all she had, by evening she had more than what she needed.

That is the power of our God.

Knowing that, why aren't you following her example?

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group's next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website. [www.TheBalancedLife.com]
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog. [http://tiffanycolter.blogspot.com]
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.[http://writersrest.blogspot.com]

Romans 14:12 for writers

Tuesdays with Tiffany
By Tiffany Colter


Romans 14:12 [Amplified]
12And so each of us shall give an account of himself [give an answer in reference to judgment] to God.

We will have to give an account one day.

That's what the Bible says. This past sunday my Pastor was teaching on this verse [among others] as he talked about what Jesus taught on finances. [My pastor is actually blogging so if you'd like to check him out click here.]

He was talking about what we invest. And when he came to this verse he said "We should make the most of every opportunity."

I scribbled that down and decided "I must blog on this."

Think about this, authors. God has given us a gift and one day we will have to give an account to Him. What will your accounting look like?

Played computer solitaire-3 hrs
emailed friends-4 hrs
thought about writing-7 hrs
talked about writing- 1 hour
Prayed-5 minutes
Bible study- 10 minutes
Watched TV-2 hrs
Wrote-??

I tell you one thing. I'm ready to write! I heard pastor's message and I was excited to write. I wanted to write. I realized this was a gift He gave to me and He not only expects me to do something with it. He's COUNTING ON ME!!

Yes, God is COUNTING on us to use the gifts He's given us.

And we will have to give Him an accounting.

Guess I should stop blogging and get back to work....How about you do the same.

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter

Read Tiffany's full novel "A Face in the Shadow" one chapter at a time by going to http://tiffanycolter.blogspot.com

See you next Tuesday.

Running to the arms of God

Tuesdays with Tiffany
by Tiffany Colter

Sometimes I get scared.

Do you ever feel that way? Learning all the different parts of living the writer's life can be VERY scary. You're putting yourself out there daily to rejection and pain, with splatterings of victory.

Not trying to sound negative; it's just part of the writer's life.

A few nights ago I was in bed, sound asleep, when our 5 year old came in. She was scared. She'd had a bad dream and something bothered her in her room. She was on my husband's side of the bed and I heard her say, "Daddy, can I sleep with you?"

He made room for her, hugged her, kissed her, and brought her in to bed. For some reason I instantly thought of all of you blog readers. I saw something in that moment, that one mundane act...

When we are going through our lives there are moments when we become afraid. We feel lonely. We need reassurance. During those times God brings us beside Him and comforts us. We stay warm and close to him for a season. But we can't stay there forever. Just like happened with my 5 year old, after a bit God takes us back to where we were and let's us try again. Our daughter stayed in bed with us for an hour or two and then we carried her safely back to her bed. She needed to try doing it again, but she knew we were right down the hall if she needed us.

The same is true with God. He is there waiting for us if we need Him, but He knows it is safe for us to return...

Even when we're unsure of ourselves.

So if in your writing or marketing you feel unsure, you're scared...get close to God. Find your place of comfort...then trust Him when He carries you back to "your bed" and tells you to try again.

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter

How are we different?

Our pastor’s sermon yesterday was about a real turning point in the Israelites’ lives: whether to follow the advice of Caleb and Joshua and proceed with taking the land of Canaan (as God had promised it to them) or follow the advice of 10 other spies who were scared and said, “There’s no way we can attack these people and win!”

One of my favorite verses in the story is Numbers 14:24 (and this is the Lord talking): “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendents will inherit it.”

I wonder how Caleb was different from the other people around him, what gave him a “different spirit”? Scripture doesn’t mention Caleb very often, but it always says that he followed God and stood for what God wanted them to do. I think that relationship and the fact that he followed God “wholeheartedly” is what set Caleb apart.

The question then becomes: How am I different? That question addresses every area of life, but we’ll just think about it from a writing perspective. Many of us who write books for the Christian market know that our secular counterparts make lots more money than we ever might – and that’s how the world assigns our worth. We might wonder how we have the audacity to believe that God could have a message to share with the world through us – because we’re just a ‘nobody.’

Even if we write for the secular market, how are we different from all those other writers? How do we find ways for God to shine through our words and our work no matter who the audience is? Can we bring Him glory even if we’re just writing sports articles for the local newspaper or a brochure promoting a local business?

Sure we can! Our God is sovereign … omnipotent … creative … compassionate … and we’re here to bring Him glory. How do you find ways to do that in your writing, whether you’re by yourself plotting out a novel or in the middle of an office writing brochures or websites? I’d love to learn what works for you because I’m always looking for encouragement myself. :-)

Mission Impossible Monday: Standing still

One of my favorite Old Testament stories is about Moses and the Israelites when they’ve just left Egypt. They’d only been gone a short time when God directed Moses to turn back and camp by the Red Sea. God planned to harden Pharaoh’s heart and have him send armies to pursue the Israelites – not so the Israelites could be destroyed, but so they could see God perform a miracle and so the Egyptians would see that He was Lord.

Moses did as he was told, and God took the plan from there. Pharaoh sent all his horses, horsemen and troops to overtake the Israelites. The Israelites were stuck between Pharaoh’s army and the sea – and neither option looked good. They immediately began to whine at Moses, demanding to know why he’d brought them out into the desert to die and claiming they had wanted to stay in Egypt as slaves. “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” they cried (Exodus 14:12b).

Then Moses gave an incredible answer: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14).

What happened next? God told Moses to hold his staff out over the sea, so Moses did. The Lord drove the sea back with a mighty wind and dried the ground so the Israelites could cross in safety.

Not exactly the answer the people had expected, but it sure did work! And God definitely showed everyone exactly Who He was and what kind of power He had.

I wonder how hard it was for the Israelites to stand there, watching Pharaoh’s army bear down upon them and wondering what in the world was going to happen next. Did they have enough trust in Moses yet to believe the message he passed on, or did they still tremble in their sandals? Then when the wind came and the sea parted, did they nearly collapse in shock, or did they jump for joy? And how did it feel to walk through two tremendous walls of water that you knew were only being held in place because of God’s hand?

Lots of questions, and lots of lessons to be learned. But how does it all relate to writing? In quite a few ways, when I’m honest with myself.

I write because I believe God has called me to, just as He called the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. It looks like a grand thing and I’m excited about doing it, but sometimes my excitement can get in the way. I want to plot and plan and whip out things to submit. I love an idea and can hardly wait to put in on paper and share it with someone. I hope and pray for acceptance instead of rejection, and do whatever I can to “help” the process along.

But maybe that’s not my job sometimes. Maybe my job is to listen for God’s voice and just stand still. Stop worrying about plot points or character bios or how to write for a particular publisher. Stop wondering if I’ll ever need an agent and who that person might be. Stop trying to plan it all myself. Wait for God to take over.

Of course, sometimes I fall to the other extreme, and want to stop when God wants me to go on. I get discouraged when someone rejects an article or query, or when a reader gives me comments that aren’t what I’d hoped for. I let writer’s block get the best of me or let other things take away my writing time.

For whatever reason I find myself there, I need to turn away from the army that’s bearing down and look at the open, dry ground instead. I need to remember that if God has called me to this, then it is my job to follow His direction and do the best I can with the gifts He has given me. No matter how many rejections or disappointments I might face, God has laid out a path for me to follow – straight through the seemingly impossible obstacles and on to the version of the Promised Land He has for me.

I don’t know exactly what’s there or when I’ll arrive, other than it will be just the way God wants it. The God who has the power to move heaven and earth is the same God who will see me through. I just have to be still – and then follow.

What kinds of writing obstacles are in your way this week? Are you stuck between the army and the sea, wondering what to do or which way God wants you to go? We’re here to encourage and uplift each other, and consider it a privilege to pray for each other. Share your requests with us in the comments section, and know you’ll be in our prayers this week.