Has it really been this long? March 15, marks the 21st year of writing The Lattereign newsletter. When I first started it in 1995, it was a monthly reminder for Sunday school teachers about upcoming events. I called it the Latest Word for Sunday School teachers. In June of that year, our pastor wanted to make it available for the church, so I started doing it on a monthly basis, until July. In July, I heard a message and in it Pastor Lappin preached about the former rain and the latter rain, and how the latter rain would be greater than the former rain.
Because we will reign with Him, I renamed the newsletter The Latter Reign. Over time I connected the two words to be Lattereign.
The first several months my paper was an 8 1/2 by 11″ sheet of paper printed on both sides. As I became more involved in writing, the paper grew to 2 pages that were 11″ x 17″ or 8 pages. Every week I wrote and printed the 8 pages. As many people probably thought, and I absolutely agreed, “are you crazy?” often came to mind. How do you find the time to write so much?
It was a passion to write. I didn’t need anything more than to do the will of God. I had to write. For as long as I have been able to hold a pen, writing has been a great part of my life. It has brought me through some dark times and joyous times, and if I can, through my writing, encourage someone to live for God, and keep moving forward in their lives, then I am blessed.
I have learned that everyone can be used in a ministry, because the Lord is generous concerning his giftings. What should happen is that we seek God to find the place where we can be the most effective. If it were left up to me to handle the music in our church, I would fail miserably, because I’m not talented in that field. But if you want me to write, I am confident that with prayer and supplication, I will find the words to say.
It’s not that hard for me, really. The most difficult part about writing is listening to what the Lord wants for me to write, instead of going off on a fleshly tangent when I see that something is not the way I want it to be done. After a while, I’ll finally come to my senses, and allow the Lord to speak through my fingers, and then all is well, as the words flow.
Many times over the years, I have maybe been blasting disagreement and condemnation on a page that is to be shared with the whole congregation, and then, when I am done with words, the Lord prompts me to take a breath and delete every bit of sputtering rage, and rewrite the article in his softer and gentler way that will be received. It doesn’t take long to write, once I have pushed self out of the way, to allow the Lord to use me as he sees fit.
In the Time of the Lattereign 