The Writing hammer, chisel and polishing

Ray is sharing some thought with you this Thursday for me while I stay busy preparing a Bible study for a women's conference elective, helping with organising the Romance Writers of Australia Tassie Roadshow as well as booking airfares for trips to Queensland in August and October - the October one nice and early to use our Frequent Flyer points!

If my Bible College English lecturer was alive I think she would faint at me being a writer. I gave her my first college chapel devotional to ‘edit.’ Bad mistake! There were more red lines than black when she had finished. I still have it stored away as a memento.

What fashioned me in my desire to write? The ‘hammer’ was the environment of College with its lectures, discussions, essays. Four years of being ‘hammered’ wasn’t always good for the ego, but it was beneficial for writing. The ‘chisel’ has to be the King James Version of the Scriptures. It’s beautiful language gouged out the uncouth and fashioned the appealing in understandable and pleasant ways. The ‘polishing’ could be seen in my attempts to regularly write the front piece for the church paper.

I have a strong conviction about the printed word. It is powerful. It hangs around long after the writer is dead and forgotten. It can come ‘alive’ at any moment when a person picks it up to read. Over the years I’ve made an effort to have something in the church paper to ‘bite’ members, visitors and people who may just pass by and pick it up out of curiosity.

As I matured in my ministry, I found great insights hiding in Greek words. So many contain pictures that make the text vibrate with meaning and clarity! I wanted to share these with others. This went beyond the pulpit and mid-week study. I wanted others to enjoy God’s word in more than a superficial, feel good way. I was challenged to this by writers like of Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee and William Barclay. It is impossible for me to reach their stature in writing, but I enjoy being blessed by their shadows.

The final catalyst in getting me to put something out there to be published was my wife Mary. As you should already know, she is a multi-published inspirational romance author and my number one fan. Because I have a heart for expository teaching I used that to develop devotionals around themes I’m passionate about.
So out-flowed ‘Children – God’s Special Interest’ for anyone who loves children, “From Eden with Love” about the mystery and majesty of marriage, and ‘Captured by Calvary’, the heart of God as seen in the Cross of Christ. As any writer will tell you there are also others screaming to be ‘birthed onto paper.’ Whether that happens is yet to be determined.

I seek to make my writing sharp, succinct and scriptural so that the reader can have an encounter with the risen Lord. Do I succeed? You’ll have to read some and make your own assessment.

Ray (still polishing and hammering out the Word) Hawkins.
Ray's books are also available as E-Books from Amazon.