#devotion

What’s the Purpose (and the Benefit) of Family Devotions?

What’s the purpose of family devotions? Probably no habit or discipline is so lauded, recommended, or even commanded among Christian families than this. But what’s the point of it? What is it meant to accomplish? Over many years of leading family devotions, I have been surprised to learn that it’s both more and less than I had expected. As Aileen and I began building the habit of family devotions, first as something that followed dinner and later as something that …

Pursuing Relationship

I recently wrote about Date Nights & Devotions or what the Lord has taught me about my relationship with him through dating my wife. In that brief article I simply sought to show that the purpose of our personal devotions does not need to be learning about God as much as just spending time with him. The great joy of personal devotions is not gaining facts about God but the joy of time spent together. This leaves a question: How …

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Ten Chapters Per Day

I’ve shared here before that I often find it difficult to find real joy and freedom in my personal devotions. At times things go very well, but then inevitably it seems that difficulties creep in and I find that I come to dread my time spent reading and praying. What is at some times delight is at other times the most difficult of duties. Over the years I have often tried programs, structures to keep me in some kind of …

A La Carte (1/11)

Prayer Cross This comes from the “truth is stranger than fiction” file. Secret History of America This sounds like some outrageously revisionist history. “Director Oliver Stone’s upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries ‘Secret History of America” promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler ‘in context.’ ‘Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy — these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history,’ Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.” John Piper’s Q&A at Angola Prison Here …

The Dearest Hold

I came across an interesting quote in Joshua Kendall’s book The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus. It is a biography of Peter Mark Roget, the man behind the creation of the famous thesaurus that bears his name. In 1824 Roget married Mary Hobson (who, like her husband, was of Huguenot stock) and, by all accounts, they had a very happy marriage. Sadly, the marriage lasted only nine years before Mary died of …

Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition

“I didn’t expect the truth about the Spanish Inquisition.” “NOBODY expects the truth about the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is dishonesty…dishonesty and revisionism…revisionism and dishonesty…. Our two weapons are dishonesty and revisionism…and your reckless apathy…. Our *three* weapons are dishonesty, revisionism, and your reckless apathy…and an almost fanatical devotion to deception…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as dishonesty, revisionism…. I’ll come in again.” “I didn’t expect the truth about the Spanish Inquisition.” “NOBODY expects …

Election Reflections

Yesterday I woke up feeling rather depressed. The previous evening I had sat in front of the television and watched Canada elect their fourth consecutive Liberal government. Despite years of gross negligence, waste and scandal Canadians showed their complacency, deciding that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. The polls leading to the election had suggested a neck-in-neck race, but by the time all was said and done, the Liberals took 135 seats to the Conservatives’ …

If Only…

Here in Canada we are rapidly approaching a federal election. The aptly-named Liberal Party has been in power for the past three terms and has been the predominant party in Canada since the 1960’s. Tired of the terrible corruption and lack of morality in the party, many Canadians seem to be turning on the party in favor of the not-as-aptly-named Conservative Party (now known as the Conservative Alliance). The majority of Christians will be voting for the Conservative Party because …