As the summer turns into fall, I pray your lives are blessed in the work you are doing in the Lord’s kingdom.
During my evening prayer time in recent months, I have devoted many hours to thanking the Lord for the privilege of the work He has given me to do. Whatever hardships there may be, the privilege is always greater than the effort expended. I do not deserve to be so blessed.
Another thing that has been on my mind lately is the frequency with which I get cards, emails, text messages, etc. from various ones of you. I keep these notes of encouragement, and on days when I am discouraged, I need only get these out and read them again. You are so gracious in the expression of your appreciation. I’ve said it many times, but it’s true: no writer ever had such an abundance of encouragement. If I come up short, it will certainly not be because there was a lack of correspondence from those who care. These notes are wonderful treasures to me!
After a lull in the production of new pages for Walking in Christ due to a recurrence of some of my health issues, I am beginning to feel better. I know we’ll probably have a bit more hot weather before fall sets in, but fall has always been a season of invigoration for me. The cooler weather refreshes me and quickens my spirit. Between now and the onset of winter, I look forward to some steady progress on the book. People ask me how long it takes to write one of the daybooks, and I say that the time frame varies greatly. With each new book, I am always interested to see how many years of work it’s going to require. I never know until the end is finally reached!
I continue to be amazed at the writing resources now available through the technology of artificial intelligence. These tools require conscience and self-discipline to be used rightly, but their availability has been a boon for me. AI does not save me any time; indeed, its use adds to the time it takes to write a page. I do not always have the time to use it, but the availability of AI writing tools has changed the writer’s workflow in many ways.
AI will, of course, write from scratch anything you want it to (and often do a better job than the human writer could do) — but if you preachers out there are tempted to have AI do your writing for you, you should be aware that you have no copyright to such work. Copyright means you have the ownership rights to what you have personally written, but if it was not you but an AI bot that wrote the piece, you cannot claim rights to the work as its author, even if you made a few tweaks to the piece that AI produced for you. You may distribute AI-generated work; you just can’t claim to be its author. There’s a legal difference between an “author” and a “tweaker.” It’s a brave, new world, folks!
Because writing is a solitary, private endeavor, a good bit of what the writer does is on the “honor system.” But if anyone in the world could be counted on to do what’s right, even privately, wouldn’t that be the Christian?
I can’t tell you how much of a difference your support means in my ability to keep writing, writing, and writing! Some days the work is hard (certainly harder than it used to be!), and your encouragement is an important part of the solid foundation under my feet. I praise our Father for His supply of strength and sustenance through you!
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
WRITING GOALS
Pray with me that I will be given the ability to finish these works by January 1, 2040
- Walking in Christ — Book 6 in the WordPoints Daybook Series. Target: November 2026.
- Going Home — Book 7 in the WordPoints Daybook Series. Target: November 2029.
- Seeking God in the Psalms — a 52-lesson study — theme for each week, studies for Monday-Friday.
- Ecclesiastes — a full-scale commentary on the text of Ecclesiastes.
- Encountering Christ — what the Scriptures teach about Jesus Christ . . . and why we should believe it.
