Following is an article on truth that I wrote a while back, but it's important now because my new book's greatest asset is the true stories that appear in WHAT PRAYER CAN DO.
Here's the short summary:
What
prayer can do
By Ada Nicholson Brownell
Released Dec. 17, 2017
E-BOOK AND PAPERBACK AVAILABLE.
Pray. God answers.
True testimonies of events where God intervened.
Ennis Surratt, known as the “meanest man in town,” changed
in a moment. John Feliciano, blinded in an industrial accident, sees instantly.
Marjorie Eager’s family escapes death when God stops a forest fire. A mother
prays on her deathbed for her sons to meet her in heaven, and years later God
grabs Gary Hilgers out of sin and turns him around. More amazing chapters
originally published in The Pentecostal
Evangel, enough for every week of the year, with three bonuses.
HOW IMPORTANT IS
TRUTH?
By Ada Brownell
Christian writers wary of preachiness often avoid a gospel
message in their writing. Many, however, don’t know what “preachy” is. When I
first noticed editors’ guidelines advising against it, I feared they didn’t
even want to publish anything with a scripture in it.
Then a secular writer, Frank Luntz, author of Words that Work, explained how to avoid
being preachy: “Tell the truth,” he said, “but don’t do it in a condescending
manner.”[i]
How important is truth? Should we “spin” it so it will be
accepted? “Spin,” used so often these days by politicians and others is
actually “twisting the truth” or avoiding it.
Sometimes telling the
truth is difficult, in our writing and in life. We need to be dedicated to
truth, even in the family.
I can’t imagine how Mary felt when she had to tell Joseph
she was pregnant with the Messiah. She excitedly told her aunt Elizabeth, and
rejoiced so much her words became the Magnificat
(Luke 1:46-55). But Joseph considered breaking their engagement privately.
Nice the angel also visited Joseph with the news of the Messiah, so he believed
his virgin and quickly married her (Matthew 1:18-25).
The Apostle Paul usually offset hard truths by wonderful
revelation: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
John, the disciple, who spoke continuously about love and
penned John 3:16, didn’t hesitate to write hard truths: “If we say we have
fellowship with him (Jesus), and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth (1John 1:6). But he adds, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John
1:9).
Jesus certainly didn’t stumble at the truth, either. For
example, “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart
from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41). But went on to add the contrast
of hope, “And these shall go away to everlasting punishment: but the righteous
into life eternal (Matthew 25:46).
It might sound preachy, but it’s really not condescending.
Truth is a light that can save a sinner from falling into the dark chasm of sin
and eternal death. Truth is water to the
soul wandering in a dry desert of wickedness and unbelief.
The belt of truth is part of the armor God provides if we
ask.
What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
The scriptures were “God breathed” and are the only
effective pattern for living. The Word also is an example for our witness. So
for me, I’ll write the truth and hope I don’t do it in a condescending manner.
©Ada
Brownell October 2013
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