If I Were To Write A Book In The Bible

By Dr. Jacquiline Cox | Patheos Column: Listen Linda Speaks

If I were to write a book in the Bible, it wouldn’t be one of those quiet ones.

It would be loud.

It would be honest.

It would be dripping in oil from all the wounds I didn’t ask for, but God still used.

I’d write about the nights I wept so hard I could barely breathe. The foster homes that broke more than my routine—they broke my identity. The mornings I woke up next to grief like it was a pillow. The conversations I never got to have with my parents before they died. The guilt I carried from unanswered questions. The trauma I dressed up in productivity.

Because this is real life.

This is the Bible they don’t read out loud in church.

And this is why I wrote If I Were to Write a Book in the Bible.

This Ain’t Just a Book. It’s My Scroll.

I didn’t write this book to be cute. I wrote it because my soul demanded it.

When God told me, “Write it like a scroll,” I didn’t understand. I thought He wanted a devotional. A safe testimony. Something sanitized for Sunday school.

But what He really wanted… was my truth.

So I gave Him the raw pages.

I gave Him the chapter where I cried in the ER waiting room, begging Him to save the child I never got to hold. I gave Him the page where I wrote a poem over my mama’s name after she died by suicide—just two days before her birthday. I gave Him the line where I sat in my car outside the church, too ashamed to go in, too tired to pretend I was okay.

I didn’t hold back. And guess what? Neither did God.

What Happens When the Mud Becomes Ministry

When I asked God to send rain, I wasn’t ready for the mud. I thought I was praying for refreshing. But He knew I needed rooting.

The loss. The heartbreak. The betrayal. It didn’t come to punish me—it came to plant me.

That’s the part we don’t talk about enough. That’s the part religion sometimes skips over for comfort. But I refuse to lie with my pen. Because what God did in the dark is the very reason I shine.

I wrote from grief.

I published from pressure.

I anointed every page with truth I once tried to hide.

If I Were to Write a Book in the Bible is my offering. My alabaster box cracked wide open for the world to read. It’s not a memoir. It’s not a devotional. It’s a modern-day scroll from a woman who dared to survive, surrender, and testify—all at the same time.

For the One Who Feels Like Her Story Doesn’t Matter

Let me speak to the woman reading this who has a story she’s too scared to write down.

You. Yes, YOU.

You with the miscarriage you never grieved out loud.

You with the daughter-shaped hole in your heart from generational cycles.

You with the hospital bracelet shoved in the back of a drawer.

You with the ministry inside of you—but the fear of judgment louder than the call.

Let me tell you something God told me:

“I didn’t bring you through that just to stay silent.”

God is still writing through His daughters.

Through their tears.

Through their trembling.

Through their testimonies that don’t rhyme but still reach Heaven.

My Book Made History—Now I’m Making Room for Yours

If I Were to Write a Book in the Bible became a #1 best-seller. Not because I had a big name—but because God had a big assignment.

And now? I’m opening that scroll for others.

I’m calling 12 women—just 12—to co-author the anthology version of this book with me. If your life reads like scripture, if you’ve survived things that would’ve taken someone else out, if you know there’s oil in your story… this is your invitation.

This is your permission slip to testify in writing. To write like David. Weep like Jeremiah. Rise like Ruth. And speak like Esther—for such a time as this.

Buy the book now on Amazon

Visit the “About the Author” section or search If I Were to Write a Book in the Bible by Dr. Jacquiline Cox on Amazon

Want to co-author the anthology or book Dr. Cox for your next event?

Reach out via: www.listenlindapresents.com

Because when the oil writes… Heaven reads.

Selah.