The elders have approved a writing leave for me that begins Monday, February 17 and lasts four weeks. How grateful I am that the church supports me in the calling I have to write for the sake of Bethlehem and the wider Christian movement. To guide your prayers I will give you a glimpse into what I hope to accomplish with God’s help.

The main effort will be to finish a book on fasting, tentatively titled: A Hunger for God: The Life-Changing Power of Fasting and Prayer. Crossway Books is the publisher. Some of you recall that I preached eight messages on fasting in January and February, 1995. Those messages will be the basis of this short book (perhaps 130 pages). My prayer for this book is that God would teach me first, and then use the book to teach others how fasting is appointed by God to spread a passion for his supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples.

The second project will be to finish a book of daily readings that will be based on past STAR articles. Multnomah Press is interested in publishing this. My conception is that the book will have 120 two-page readings on all sorts of things, rooted in Scripture and exalting God’s centrality in all of life. My proposed title is: A Godward Life: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life. The long-range plan is to do three volumes like this (1997, 1998, 1999) so that when they are done there would be enough readings to combine the volumes into one and have a book of readings for each day of the year.

Finally, if there is any time left in this writing leave, I hope to join several others at Bethlehem in a project of editing and providing notes and introduction for Jonathan Edwards’s book, "The End for Which God Created the World". This book made a huge impact on my life back in the late sixties and early seventies. It has influenced virtually everything I have written. I would love to make it easily accessible to others and write an introduction that would inspire them to read it. It is not easy to read and takes a good deal of faith that it is worth the effort.

Those are the plans. Now the question is: will God work for me? I believe he will work mightily if you will join me in prayer. I will strive to be a good steward of this tremendous trust and privilege. God will show you how to pray. “Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.”

For the supremacy of God in all things,

Pastor John