This week we join together to talk business, learn, be inspired and so much more. I believe one of the most distinct things about the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference is that we celebrate the divinely inspired word of God. I’m not just talking about the Bible. Let me explain.

Expand your vision and consider this: What you write today, tomorrow and from here forward could be—should be the divinely inspired word of God. Before you say that I speak blasphemy remember Christ Himself said, “You will do the works I’ve been doing and even greater things”. You are not just a good person who likes to write or feels called to write. Jesus said, “I’m giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing.“ The work He did was to use words so that people could know God. Certainly I’m not suggesting that what we write could literally be added to the Bible. I do however want to exhort you that God can use your words so much more than you can hope or imagine and likely more than you’ll ever know.

I believe our passion and calling can be so directed by God that we must visualize our typing on our laptops to be similar to Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai or Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Your vocation as a writer is some serious stuff. It is especially serious not because you have the power to impact hearts and minds but because you have been given the profound opportunity to be a conduit—a vessel to communicate an exacting message. Everything else (profit, reputation, influence, artistry), all of it pales in comparison to this great purpose.

Think about the depth of meaning found in DIVINELY INSPIRED WORD OF GOD:

• DIVINE – God wants to speak through you with otherworldly, supernatural, foreign and never before seen perspectives. It’s not just a tall order or a big challenge for you as a human. It is impossible unless you enter into His presence. It requires you to silence your voice and be the tool by which He writes His Word on the hearts of readers.
• INSPIRED– Understand that God will speak to you both immediately and through longer term nurtured editing and cultivated development. Be ready for the moment. Be quick to let God’s Spirit flow through you. Go so far as to anticipate the unction. Be capable to do spiritual shorthand. But – also know how to persist in the longing and listening. Agonize for accuracy. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than the pure word.

3 WORD: For most writers, words are the medium for meaning. Which ones are chosen and how they are used represent a gift and a craft. For the Christian writer the words we birth are much more. They bring life to the reader’s spirit, engender faith and provide the very presence of God.

4 GOD: Central to everything we write is a presence like no other and yet remarkably pervasive in the heart and mind of every reader. The invitation for how we should be as writers – the example we must follow was uttered by Christ, “He must increase but I must decrease. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts.”

Wow! Who could have known that God would choose to use us in this way. Being a Christian writer is such a tremendous calling.

One of my sessions this year, A “Brand” Knew You,helps you journey into this much deeper. Understandably there’s a lot of talk in the industry about building your brand. Yet God speaks of a different brand, “Place these words on your heart. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities.”

The brand you represent is how you will be known. We can thank God because it is how we are already known – hopefully by our readers but certainly by God, “Before I shaped you in the womb,I knew all about you.Before you saw the light of day,I had holy plans for you.”

Could it be that the divinely inspired Word of God is already celebrating you in all His glory?

At this year’s conference participate with confidence that God has written His name on you. Pray! During your remaining time at Ridgecrest get alone and find the thin places. God says, “I’ll be right there, looking after you.”

Brad Bloom, Publisher of Faith & Fitness Magazine, Shout! Outdoor Lifestyle Magazine and map Travel Lifestyle Magazine. 

He is president of Lifestyle Media Group, a ministry that develops and distributes content to help people fuel their passion to connect daily living and Christian faith. Bloom draws a distinct difference between secular and his faith-centered brands, “Life should be lived way beyond training harder, living adventurously and going further. That’s all good but God is great. We can be equipped to be great when we get beyond all the doing and actively Be Life – the life of Christ to others.”