Letter Writing

NOV. 22, 1981, 6:40 AM
FARM, STUDY

You know, o son, that you are to write letters, as part of the mission that I have purposed for you. Let Me expand on that act so that you see its importance and significance. Perhaps it will even stir you to some writing of letters, this day and this week.

The letter is, among other manifestations, a form of Scripture. My servant Paul had such genuine concern for the churches he had helped Me to start that he wrote letters to them, and these contained such important teaching material that I guided them into becoming Scripture. Your Ruminations are a form of scripture, and I am guiding copies of it into the hands, hearts, and spirits of some whom I want to know what you are beginning to know. Just make a few more each time, for the demand will arise, even for “back issues”.

Ruminations is a particular letter, with a particular purpose. It shall communicate well. But personal letters are a form of personal evangelism that you have the developed ability to carry out, and I urge this commitment onto you. Letters are a form of conversation, so it is important not to let too much time elapse from the time you receive a letter until you respond. The fact that many others, with motivations to do so, do not write to you about Ruminations must not deter you from keeping up your end of the correspondence. Do unto others as you would wish they would do unto you… truly. Take the initiative.

A verbal conversation is experienced… and remembered in part… but a letter can be reread and therefore reexperienced. And reexperiencing is a key learning behavior and a fundamental need in evangelism. This is a way to be an evangel of Mine.

Letters need not all be the same length, and length is not a necessary criterion for quality. It is better to write three relatively short but communicative messages than only one long rambling one. The latter is a luxury that you must afford occasionally, but be aware that each length, even the postcard, has spiritual merit.

Years ago you commenced a very promising form of teaching/learning material… the letter. You did three excellent ones… and then no more. Consider using that form in your environment class… and in International Health. The letter can have a quality other attempts to get and hold attention cannot match. Consider this.

Writing a letter has value for you, personally, as well as for the ones receiving. In a letter you consider and then write down an observation, an experience, a judgment. This writing down helps clarify this matter for you. Perhaps what you have written is not the truth, you find. Then have the integrity to scrap that page and rewrite it more truthfully. Always read letters that you write over in their entirety, at least once, before sending. As I have suggested, it may be a learning experience about, as well as for, you, and it also helps set in your mind what you said, for when you do not make copies (and I urge you to do so) you will have trouble remembering all that you wrote. And recalling may be important to the understanding of the response, should one come.