Hearing the Music

Well, I’m a little bit behind schedule on the new devotion book, but I’m close. Really close! The book will be up for sale on Amazon before the end of this month.

As I worked on formatting this book, I was able to experience it the way a reader would. I let the words and the beautiful photographs minister to me. The result was a sweet sense of peace and a fullness of the love of our Heavenly Father. It was wonderful and I really needed it.

This should tell you that the Holy Spirit is all in this little book. How could I write something that would comfort me? Only the Holy Spirit can breathe words that give life after you’ve seen death.

When you lose a loved one, everything changes. The way you thought life would be is no more. The music of the future you once anticipated is dead and suddenly it seems there is nothing left but black silence.

But if you listen you will hear it: the Song of the Stream; the river of Living Water flowing toward you; the sound of life itself bringing hope to your broken heart.

Let the Lord Jesus minister to you, friend. Let Him surround you with refreshing and hope. You probably think you’ll never be able to stop crying, much less smile again. I am here to tell you that you will smile, though your smile will be different. It will be real and it will shine compassion on someone else who is trying to hear the music.

Phyllis Keels

The Song of the Stream, written by Phyllis Keels, with photos by Kim Lance, will be available on Amazon soon.

TLOD Bible Study Guide Excerpt

I thought you might like a little preview of what’s coming from the Bible Study Guide to the Lady of Daldriada. Here is just a taste:

From Session 6:

John 4:10 NASB Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

What quality from the scriptures above do you see revealed on page 136 (second scene of chapter 17)?

It’s easy to trust God when we are walking through a paradise. How about in the desert places?

Poor Anwas (friend of the hero) has been tossed around, backhanded, thrown in a cell, and chained like an animal by the enemy. Even so, he recognizes the loving kindness the Lord who provides water for his thirst.

What the Lord did in this scene for Anwas is such a beautiful picture of the living water Jesus offers us. No matter where we are (in an emotional or spiritual prison; trapped in a lifestyle of sin like the woman at the well), Jesus gives us the clear, sparkling, pure, thirst-quenching water of life. He gives us Himself.

Dealing with grief is like living in a desert all the time. On one hand, everything seems dead, dry, and hot. Everything you touch burns you, because it has been scorched by the sun. Or it pierces your skin like the thorns of a cactus. Everywhere you look, there is the lack of water…

But as I travel through the desert of grief, the Lord Jesus guides me straight to oasis after oasis. He covers me with His wings so that I walk in the shade. He causes springs to come up from the dry ground, and He feeds me with sweet dates from the palm trees.

I meet other travelers there. We talk mostly about how much closer the Lord Jesus is to us here in the desert, than we’ve ever felt Him anywhere else. We start to focus less on how little green grass there is and more on finding others to show them where the oases are.

But it takes trusting in your Guide to live in a desert that you know you’ll never leave. It takes choosing to stay by His side in the shadow of His love and gentle kindness, where you don’t merely survive, you thrive.

Question: What kind of emotional or spiritual desert have you been in?

Application: Take a moment to number the blessings your Heavenly Father gave you in that desert.

Phyllis Keels

The Hands that Type

As I was writing on the novel this past weekend, the Lord reminded me of how much I love writing with Him. He amazes me in how He puts His truth into the story, how He molds the characters through their hardships.

Watching these beloved characters come to an understanding of how God reveals Himself is just the most fun. I know that sounds odd since I’m the one writing the story and I’ve made these characters up. But I’m not the one doing the creating, the Lord is.

I’m only the hands that type the words. Even my own imagination is a gift from God. Because He made me to see pictures in my mind, because He formed me to love honorable characters; because He made me to long for people to love Him, He weaves Himself as the constant thread throughout the story. That is to His glory.

When someone reads our writing and says they see God in it, well, that’s the most wonderful thing a writer can hear. That’s what I meant last week when I said that we need to become invisible.

Learning to listen to His voice, His leading, we begin to hear the contrast between His writing and ours. Since I made the conscious choice to seek the Lord before I write, I’ve been able to feel when I start to interject myself into the writing. When I do that, the words are dead.

Only when the Lord writes is there life in the story or the work. When I write it, it’s as dry as dead leaves. It has no meaning, it has no pulse, and it has no depth. It is just a pile of words.

But when I am connected to the vine, The Vine, life runs through every word, shoots through every scene and soars above everything meaningless. Each time I read it I am filled with joy at what God has done.

I am happy to be the hands that type. These hands get to feel the living water flowing through them on their way to do the Father’s work. The process has nothing to do with me except that He allows me to be present when it happens.

So, how does one get there? How does one be present to receive, and then pass on the water to others? I honestly don’t know except that Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

I asked. I sought. I knocked. He is faithful. If He promises something, He will do it. Be certain of that. If you want the Lord to speak through your writing, ask Him.

Talk to other Godly writers who have experienced it. Read Godly writing. Knock on the door and ask the Lord to let you into that place where He will write through you.

Believe that He will do it and then take joy in the presence of the Lord. Thank Him for His kindness to you and then rejoice again. He wants to share this with you and He wants you to know how great His love for you is.

After all, you the writer, are one of His beloved characters.

Phyllis Keels