If I have any obsession in life, it is the Bible.
This living Word of God is life to me. Its words speak to me. Its pulse stirs my blood as surely as my own heart pumps.
If I spend precious hours studying something, it is most likely Scripture-related. Better comprehension of Hebrew and Greek means a clearer comprehension of what an original writer was communicating. Better knowledge of history, geography and archeology gives me better knowledge of context. Better understanding of culture means better understanding of the people, their motives, their actions.
At some point, as I studied the Bible, a funny thing started to happen. The Bible's saints came as alive as His Word. Reading about people such as David and Abigail and Mary (sister of Martha) and Joseph (husband of Mary) and Samuel and Jeremiah started to feel like reading a Facebook status of one of my family members—remote, but with an immediacy that puts me right there with them.
Just as I'm always excited to connect in person with people who are family in Christ, whom I meet via the internet, I started looking forward to the day I would meet these brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Like the internet, the Bible has become a door through which distance and time diminish. The wind of Israel from 3000 miles and 3000 years away is not stale when I breathe it. To know these people whom I shall soon meet, I study the connections between various passages of Scripture. Combined with other biblical studies, and a little conjecture, I am able to fill in details of genealogy and life events and personality.
"Jesus told stories.
We are part of the body of Christ—
the part that tells stories."
~ American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW)
One day, my imagination started considering what the lives might have been like of these people I've come to love. I started writing down the possibilities, like the script of a movie. Without ever planning it or considering what it might mean to be a novelist, I wrote a compelling story in a voice that sounds to me not unlike the NKJV Bible I've read cover to cover, over and over.
Writing biblical fiction has crossed over from something fanciful to serious work. Publishing industry professionals have given me encouraging nods. And despite a number of pleas from me to let this go, the Lord seems to keep prodding me forward.
I cannot presume that those prods mean I will someday be published. But for now, I continue to step through the open doors which the Lord puts before me. This next week I will once again attend the ACFW writers conference, hosted this year in St. Louie.
My prayer is that the Lord will not allow me to miss His best will for me, whatever that might be.
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You may contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Anne, I've prayed for your trip to the conference, your work, your time away...
ReplyDeleteI am excited that you may be publishing a book based on biblical characters. If this is where to Lord leads you I promise I would add your book to my collection.
ReplyDeleteOdie
Thank you Lyla! Thank you THANK YOU tank u! : )
ReplyDeleteOdie, you wouldn't believe how long it takes to get a book published! If it happens, and if we're both still alive and have our eyesight, I promise to give a shout-out here. : )
ReplyDeleteYou have my prayers, dear Anne. For peace and strength, and for God's will to be made clear to you.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you richly!
Thank you, dearest Gwen. You will be missed.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hearing how the conference goes. I'm praying for you and for God to continue speaking to you and through you.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder if I will get to meet the people I've read about so often through the Bible someday in Heaven. How amazing it would be to finally meet!
Jenn, the ACFW conference is always an amazing time of connecting with people and learning about writing fiction in a way to impact people. God opens new doors for me every time I go. And I sure do love having worship time 2-3 times a day.
ReplyDeleteAs for meeting people of the Bible in Heaven, I have complete confidence and joyful anticipation to know that Heaven will give us plenty of time to share worship of the King with ALL of His people. I can hardly wait for the day of no more good-byes—of seeing the people I love, whether or not I met them here.