If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Welcome to another Terrific Tuesday, where we take a look at God’s word, His kingdom or His people to see what we can learn about ourselves, Him and/or our relationships with Him.

A lady who has been working with me to set up a blog tour to promote my books recently asked me what I hoped to accomplish with them. That started me asking myself just what I did hope to accomplish.

Since putting Heaven Sent on the market a few months ago, I’ve mentioned it several times in my posts. I’ve even briefly described what the book consists of. But I haven’t ever shared with you what my hopes were in putting this book together and publishing it, so I thought I’d share that with you today.

My hope is first of all, to glorify God. That said, I see it as an inspirational or devotional book which will help readers climb out of down times and/or soar to new heights in their emotional and spiritual lives.

In a way, I wanted to serve the same sort of function the “Chicken Soup” books serve, leading people to feel better about themselves and the God who created them. Many of the stories included in this book show God at work on behalf of His people or show people being lifted out of down emotional times.

Other stories, including those written by my daughter and me, as designed to illustrate truths about God and His kingdom. With these, I hope the reader can learn something new or see a truth in a new light, thereby broadening or deepening his or her spiritual walk.

When I visit my 96 year-old mother at her assisted living home, I frequently read one of these stories to her and any of her housemates who are gathered in the living room, and every time I do, some of them thank me at tell me it was meaningful to them. I realize this is not a typical audience. Except for Mother and one man who is around 75, all the residents are in their eighties. They are also sort of a captive audience, since I enter their living room when I go there to visit. But I hope it will be meaningful to a younger audience also.

Church attendance and church affiliation are both in downward trends across the United States. As a percentage of the whole population, they may be at or near historic lows. Many Christians who actively seek to make Jesus the center of their lives shy away from church membership for a variety of reasons, but there are many more in our nation to whom the institutional church is anathema and who are kept from exposure to our wonderful Savior because of their dislike of that institution, or—as some would say—from organized religion.

While I have no interest in promoting religion, which is man’s effort to appease a distant God, I have a profound desire to promote Christianity, which is God’s reaching out to a lost race of people. Many of these will never be reached by what goes on in a church, because they aren’t interested in attending. They must be reached in other ways.

The best way I know to lead lost people to Jesus is to let them see Him is our lives and our actions. Hopefully, this book will also reach a few lost people and expose them to what Christianity really is, rather than preaching to them about what they are doing that’s wrong.

What reasons do you have for belonging or not belonging to a church? What do you do in the ordinary course of your life to show others the joy of a relationship with Jesus?

Do you have a New Testament passage or concept you’d like to see discussed here? Maybe something you’ve never quite understood. I’d love to hear from you about that, too. I’ll try my best to explain it.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.