{"id":18177,"date":"2025-05-12T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/?p=18177"},"modified":"2025-05-28T19:25:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T00:25:46","slug":"but-these-are-written-that-you-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/es\/but-these-are-written-that-you-may\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBut These Are Written That You May.\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Philippine author and entrepreneur Ardy Roberto has experienced God\u2019s wonders personally\u2014including seeing readers come to faith in Christ. \u201cGod awaits for us to write about the miracles that He\u2019s done in our lives,\u201d Ardy says. \u201cYou\u2019ll never know if one person\u2019s eternal destination will be changed because he picked up and read your book.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What if the book you wrote would be read by only one person? Would you still have written it?<\/p>\n

Recently after speaking at a church service in Tokyo with my wife, a Filipina lady with smiling eyes and a hop in her step approached me and said, \u201cI became a Christian because of your book!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow! Which book?\u201d I asked, wondering if it was one of my \u201cevangelistic\u201d books.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney That\u2019s Never Short[1],\u201d she replied, much to my surprise.<\/p>\n

After she introduced herself, I couldn\u2019t help but ask Joanne the question that must be in your minds too. How could a book on money cause a person to surrender their life and put their faith in Jesus and now identify themselves as a Christian?<\/p>\n

But because my wife (a celebrity)[2] and I were being pulled in different directions, I listened to her story distracted and dazed. The details I could not recall, but her face, which glowed as she spoke, was imprinted in my memory. Later that night, I got a FB notification and was tagged in a post[3] by Joanne. She wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first Christian book that I have read from cover to cover way back in 2012: Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin (Money That\u2019s Never Short) <\/em>by Ardy Roberto. I was then a penniless university student and so the book captured my interest. Little did I know that not only would I learn how to manage my finances but also learn about God\u2019s generosity as He lavished His love upon us through His Son, Jesus. Sir Ardy did not only spark my curiosity in financial freedom but also, more importantly, the freedom from the (debt) of sin that can only be attained when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior. I remember praying that day for Jesus to come into my heart and save me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Praise God! I worshiped God and teared up after reading Joanne\u2019s post. This was God\u2019s reminder for me to return to the mission that He had given me decades ago: Write for the Lord. To \u201cpublish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all His wondrous works.\u201d (Psalm 26:7 KJV).<\/p>\n

Writing God\u2019s wonders<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I wrote Money That\u2019s Never Short<\/em> in 2008 after attending my first LittWorld Conference in Kenya. Upon my return to Manila, I was diagnosed with a parasitic blood infection that caused me sleepless, painful nights wherein, like Job, I rubbed my itchy back on brick walls until my skin broke and bled. It was a miracle that I was able to even write. But write I did\u2014even as my body and hands itched\u2014by the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

When John wrote about the miracles of Jesus in his book, he said, \u201cBut these are written that you may believe that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.\u201d[4] That was John\u2019s purpose for writing. It was evangelistic. To share the good news that Jesus IS the Messiah, the Savior they\u2019ve been waiting for!<\/p>\n

Then John ends his book with this somewhat nostalgic remark, \u201cJesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.\u201d[5]<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t our publishing houses be overflowing with books about all the \u201cmany other things\u201d that Jesus has done today, in our lives, in our churches? Yes, we shouldn\u2019t be running out of miracles to write home about!<\/p>\n

Like the time in 1994 when I encountered Jesus through a business failure; and surrendered my double life to him. I experienced what it meant to be born again\u2014a new creation who couldn\u2019t lie or cuss anymore, who wanted to pay off his debts, and wanted to share the good news of Jesus Christ in a 12 page letter. (This letter went on to become Living the Full Life<\/em>[6], a gospel booklet with more than 500,000 copies printed and sold. A whole family was saved, and in turn started a house church, because of one reader passing on a copy of Living the Full Life!<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Or the time in 2000 when my first wife, Tingting, was miraculously healed of lupus and enjoyed 12 fruitful years until the Lord called her home in 2013 for her \u201ccomplete healing.\u201d I wrote about that miracle in my book, The Heart of Healing<\/em>.[7] Or when God healed me of my grief and became a matchmaker to me and my new wife, Miriam. This miracle gave birth to the book: Real Men are POGI[9]\u2013 The Christian man\u2019s guide for courtship<\/em>. (Readers wrote letters such as: \u201cI was a sex addict; I had sex with different people\u2014and worse with other men. But because of your book, Real Men are POGI<\/em>, I\u2026accepted Jesus as my Lord\u201d)<\/p>\n

Or the miracle of a pastor I met and trained in Bhutan who became a Christian because of a Christian book that he picked up in the trash\u2014and after reading it traveled for 4 days around India looking for a church that would baptize him.<\/p>\n

There are many other miracles that I could share, but the stories are too many to fit into the 800 word budget I was given by MAI!<\/p>\n

Writing for one reader<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Martin Luther once said, \u201cIf you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the call that we as Christians in the publishing are challenged to do. God awaits for us to write about the miracles that He\u2019s done in our lives. You\u2019ll never know if one person\u2019s eternal destination will be changed because he picked up and read your book.<\/p>\n

When I saw the joy in Joanne\u2019s face as she shared with me how she became a Christian, I remember thinking to myself, \u201cWriting that book was worth it. If only for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ardy Roberto<\/em><\/strong> is a \u201c<\/em>writer for the Lord<\/em><\/a>\u201d \u2013 creating evangelistic content ranging from the best-selling gospel tract\u00a0Ang Buhay na Hindi Bitin\u00a0(<\/em>\u201cLiving the Full Life\u201d) to the award-winning novel\u00a0The Happy Entrepreneur. A retired entrepreneur and author of 11 books, he is also the founder of the mentoring program, Project Author. Today, Ardy serves as a volunteer trainer and speaker with Haggai International and Media Associates International, and with his wife Miriam oversees a house church on the Philippine island of Boracay.\u00a0This story was originally published in a magazine for LittWorld 2024, where Ardy also served as a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. <\/em><\/p>\n

Related stories and resources<\/strong><\/h4>\n