Jerry B. Jenkins, Writer extraordinaire

Day 25 of 40 days of Lenten Posts

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! John 4:34-35

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Mountain of Authors at the Pikes Peak Library.

The keynote speaker was Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the Left Behind Series.

This was the first time I met him in person. He is a fun speaker and a prolific writer.

He has authored more than 175 books with sales of more than 70 million copies. Twenty of his books have reached the New York Times best-seller list (seven of those debuting at number one).

His newest book is The Brotherhood/A precinct 11 novel. This is a police thriller set in Chicago, it is the first of a trilogy. I’m excited to get into this book. I now have a signed copy.

I was impressed by this man who has given his life to the gift God placed within him. He is using writing to bring glory to God.

At the beginning of this journey he had no idea he would be so incredibly successful, he set his mind and heart to the task and God honored his heart with overwhelming success.

Mr. Jenkins does not keep this gift to himself but encourages other writers through the Christian Writers Guild and the annual Writing for the Soul Conference.

Is writing a novel easy? If Jerry Jenkins were asked he would have told us it is work. He knows how many words he has to produce per day to meet his deadlines and he works toward that.

Here is something for us to keep in mind. He said only one author in a hundred meets their deadline. As Christians, wouldn’t it be great if we always met our deadlines. It would be nice to hear it said: Christian writers are always early or on time.

I am so pleased with the quality of books by Christian authors that are showing up on bookstore shelves.

The Spirit of God within us will lead us to the stories that need to be written. Our part is to learn the craft of writing and put down the best story we can and do it without delay. With the help of writer’s groups, critique groups, conferences, agents and editors, our dream to have those stories published for the Kingdom of God can become a reality.