#devotion

Devotional Options For Those Who Have Fallen Behind

We have just passed the mid-point of the year and I know of many whose devotional plans for 2021 have either fallen apart or been set aside. Some of these people wish to restart and finish the year strong, but know they have no hope of picking up the pieces and completing their year-long devotional plan. So, for their sake, I scoured Westminster Books to come up with some options—options that will provide them with a day-by-day devotional resource they …

What’s The Point Of Family Devotions?

We don’t have little kids around here anymore. In fact, most of the time we now just have one kid around here, and she’s well beyond the little years. We’ve moved past parenting tiny children and into parenting young adults. Toilet training, bike-riding, and grade school drama have given way to navigating graduate programs, assessing romantic relationships, and even planning wedding ceremonies. Our family life has changed dramatically. But one habit that has stuck is the habit of family devotions. …

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Help! I’ve Fallen Behind On My Bible Readings!

It is surprisingly difficult to turn a good intention into a life-long discipline. That isn’t to say it can’t be done. But it will be hard, there will be setbacks, and it will take both backbone and resilience. Now is probably a good time to remind you of that. If you are like many Christian people, you made a commitment this year to read through your Bible. Good for you! That commitment is worth celebrating! Wanting to do a good …

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 …

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’ …