by Alan Langstaff

Myles Munroe was one of my favorite preachers. I first went down to the Bahamas to see him in the early eighties. Across the years, I was invited to minister down there, and he also ministered for me in Minnesota. On one occasion when Dorothy was writing the book “Called Together,” she heard Myles say, “Don’t die with a book in you,” and she kept writing and eventually finished the book “Called Together.”

Those words – “don’t die with a book in you” can apply to us. Let me show you how. Remember that there are two main kinds of books for the Christian:

a) Biographical (or Autobiographical)
b) Teaching Books (which come in a wide range)

BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES IN THE BIBLE

So much of the Bible includes the stories of great men and women of God. Aren’t you glad that in the days before computers and the internet (and even before the printing press), people took the time and effort to record the great stories of the Bible? There were people, scribes, whose task was to copy those stories, so much so that we have a written copy today.

From the earliest days of Genesis to the final book, Revelation, we have recorded the great stories of the Bible. These include the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It included Deliverers like Moses and Joshua, and the kings, especially King David. Likewise, we have the stories of great Christian leaders, like Peter and Paul, the story of the beginnings of the Church, and the promise of the return of Christ. And of course we have the stories of Jesus. His life and death and His raising from the dead. The story of Jesus we have written down for us to read 20 centuries later. 

These writings, later called the Bible, are the record of the events, etc. that we build our faith on. The Bible becomes the book, like no other, that is the Word of God, that gives us the truth on which we build our faith.

Writing is obviously key to our faith, and we hold on dearly to the Bible, the Word of God, as the basis for what we believe.

We are indebted to those in the past who wrote all of this down for us today.

We not only have “stories” – i.e., the record of events that took place – but the “teaching,” etc. of what God delivered people to proclaim. We not only have the teachings of Jesus, but we have things that were declared long ago – prophecies, psalms, etc. All of this adds up to the Word of God.

BIOGRAPHICAL BOOKS

In addition to the inspired Word of God, we also have been blessed by the biographies that have been written about Christians who have served the Lord these last 2 millennia. 

So there we have the stories of great Christian leaders like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, and many others going back 20 centuries. All of them bring a knowledge of the growth of the church through that time.

If you were a Lutheran, how much would you know that was not first written down?

If you were a Methodist, how much would you know unless you read about John and Charles Wesley?

This is another way of describing history – the record, etc of past people who lived long before we were born.

TEACHING BOOKS

It doesn’t matter what they are called – i.e. textbooks, how-to-books, etc. They are all there to teach us something – i.e., what we believe, how to do certain things, etc., etc. We all know that from school days, where we had textbooks, etc. 

But they all have the same purpose: to teach us something, all the way from philosophy to how to accomplish a certain task (the bookshops have sections on “How to” books). 

WRITING TODAY

Now, you might ask where are you trying to take us? So let me lay a challenge on you by telling you a story.

My father was born in England and migrated to Australia. He eventually enlisted in the army in the First World War. He and the others with him were on a boat which was headed for Gallipoli.

Before he got there, they decided to evacuate the battleground. My father eventually was sent to France, and for his efforts he was highly decorated and received the Military Medal.

That was basically all I knew about my father’s place in the First World War.

When I got older, I regretted the fact that I had not taken time to get him to tell me about his life journey. In actual fact, I knew very little except the basics. Soldiers generally do not like to talk about their experiences in the war.

My nephew in Australia did some research regarding my father, but it mainly covered the main points.

So, I have this regret. I never asked my father (or my mother) to tell me the story of his life. Looking back, I have this regret, and I trust I will find out what I missed when I get to heaven.

What about you?

Could it be that God wants you to put on paper the story of your life so that future generations could read about it and realize what happened in previous times?

You may not be a great writer, but that doesn’t stop you from writing down the story of your life. Future generations would be interested to know what is in their family tree. Why not do it? They will be grateful that you shared it with them.

MY OWN PERSONAL STORY

Nearly 60 years ago, I was invited to a meeting at a local charismatic church that I was familiar with, having been there many times. They had a number of Pentecostal Preachers from the USA at the church, and they set aside a night for prophetic ministry. I had not met them before that night. They did not know me and vice versa.

I received a number of prophetic words that night, but one particular word didn’t make sense to me. A prophet gave me “writing.” I was writing letters, etc. He saw me writing.

Well, I didn’t particularly like writing and did very little of it, especially since we didn’t have computers where corrections could easily be made.

Move ahead to over 40 years later, I started to write the Langstaff Letter and have written close to 500 letters during that time. Whether I liked it or not, I became a writer. In time Dorothy started to write about our life and ministry in Australia, she embarked on a task she had never faced before. By the way, she was a better writer than I was, and in 2008 we published her book entitled “Called Together.”

She had written about our time in Australia, and I decided to write the story of our time in America. It took me years to do, especially how to finish up the story.

In 2024, we published it with the title “The Best is Yet to Be.” By the way, you can get this on Amazon, or we have some free copies of Dorothy’s book, “Called Together,” available through Kairos Ministries. Just write to us.

Now I want to stress this one point. One of the main reasons for the books was that we had a record to leave with our family. They can see where we came from, what we came through, and how God used us during that time. We wanted them to know.

CLOSING THOUGHT

As we said at the beginning of the article, the words that Myles Munroe gave to Dorothy, “Don’t die with a book inside you.”

How about it?

How about making a pledge today to write your story, long or brief, down for future generations to read. Don’t die with a book inside you.