Posted on 11/21/2014 11:35:30 AM PST by xzins
I have a confession to make. Im done doing devotionals.
It started a few years ago. I showed up for an appointment and learned I would have to wait for about 45 minutes. I headed to my car to find something to do during the wait (this must have been before smart phones, because now none of us ever wonder what to do with 45 minutes). I found a Bible in my car, so I brought it inside. I thought: Great, Ill take this time to do my devotional for the day. Then I realized I couldnt.
First of all, I didnt have my devotional book with me the one with two sentences of Scripture printed at the top of the page, and then a full two pages of someone elses thoughts and stories to give me something inspirational to meditate on.
I didnt have my special colored pencils and Bible highlighters. How could I do my devotionals without those? To make matters worse, the Bible I had stashed in my car wasnt the one I was used to using my devotional Bible the one where a third of every page was Scripture, while the rest was the devotional writing of the celebrity Christian author and editor whose name was on the cover.
Think about that. Thats how you know youve arrived: Your name on the cover of a Bible. Gods not your co-pilot, hes your co-author.
Somehow in that moment of waiting, sitting there bored with my Bible closed on my lap, I realized how ridiculous the whole thing was. I had gotten so dependent on these resources that would help me study Gods Word, that I had forgotten how to directly engage with The Source itself.
So I stopped doing devotionals.
I dont want you to think I stopped reading the Bible. This absurd moment actually made me realize how much I longed to reconnect directly with Gods Word. I cut out the middleman in my spiritual life and began reading the Bible for myself.
I love great writing about Gods Word. Ive been called to give my utmost, heard Jesus calling and discovered a life driven by purpose. All of these have made me a better Christian. But none of them contains all things necessary for salvation. None of them is the Word I long to hear spoken from the heart of my Creator and my God.
Theres a kind of devotional reading that satisfies a need to feel weve checked off a box somewhere in heaven. And then theres reading that truly brings us greater devotion to the God who longs more than we can imagine to connect with us. While I return from time to time to devotional reading of other books for inspiration to love God more, I find I am no longer satisfied just with someone elses words about the Word. Give me a spoon and let me dig in myself.
Im a little wary when I become too attached to one author or another for spiritual sustenance. A persons teaching on Scripture should make you hungry to hear more of Gods Word, not more of that person.
It just makes sense to me that the resources, the cups of water bearing life into a thirsty world, would point us back to the well of living water. Im done being satisfied with anything less.
Ya pushover! ;^)
I split my devotion time between Bible reading and inspirational reading. Bible in the morning, inspirational reading in the evening when my brain is tired.
Be sure to include prayer and meditation time as well.
Joel is NOT happy!
Not from me.
http://rt.com/news/207799-guinea-ebola-blood-steal/
There are more important things going on in the world that may affect us if there is a pandemic.
I’m in a Bible study. I used to read the workbook first, and then sometimes I wouldn’t get to the actual Scripture. I quit that. Now, I read the actual Word of God first. Then, as time permits, I go back to the supplementary materials. I think “somebody down there” doesn’t want us reading the Bible, and he can sidetrack good people sometimes, even by distracting them with sincerely helpful materials.
Praise God the Father through his Son Jesus I did the same and had the same feeling some time ago. The more I read the Bible the more I crave it, just can’t seem to get enough.
This tiresome schtick has grown old. It grabs us at first, but leaves he hollow with little substance.
Take a break from "upper room." Nobody said you have to read a devotional!
I think Jessica needs a short Spurgeon devotion page instead.
She makes some good points but it seems she saw doing the devotions as a chore.
Also why is it either or? Read the Bible each day and a good devotional too. The daily Spurgeon emails I get are wonderful. They make me dig deeper in my daily reading/study of scriptures.
But just using a devotional will not increase one’s literacy of the Bible.
>> I learned about a former Kamikaze pilot that went on to become a Christian missionary.<<
Wow. Good thing he was a poorly trained Kamikaze and failed his mission.
Don’t leave out Spurgeon. It’s more a daily sermon:)
Especially the widows. (Sorry, an old Clampers joke)
Yeah, the comment could have easily come from someone commenting on this thread by the sounds of it. People are harsh when they don’t need to be.
That too!
Just an Oriental ‘poorly catechized’ dude.
True. We tend to forget there are REAL people behind each and every comment.
Years of yelling at the tv and the news, where they CAN'T hear us, has formed this same response on the web; where they can!
face-to-face we would be a LOT nicer to each other.
This form of communicating leaves much to be desired.
I think she’s saying that a few verses and a cute story leave her dumbed down.
I imagine she would appreciate any in depth thought, reflection, idea, doctrine.
Personally, I like things that are a ‘quick shock’ to the thought process that leave me thinking about it more in depth. Sometimes that can be one of those traditional devotionals. I’ve had it happen with poety, with a song, with the retelling of a bible story, etc.
From a Spurgeon devotional (which comes from his sermons)
Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
Jacob, while expostulating with Laban, thus describes his own toil, "This twenty years have I been with thee. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee: I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes." Even more toilsome than this was the life of our Saviour here below. He watched over all His sheep till He gave in as His last account, "Of all those whom Thou hast given me I have lost none." His hair was wet with dew, and His locks with the drops of the night. Sleep departed from His eyes, for all night He was in prayer wrestling for His people. One night Peter must be pleaded for; anon, another claims His tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting beneath the cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever utter such complaints because of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have brought, if He had chosen to do so, because of the sternness of His service in order to procure His spouse-
"Cold mountains and the midnight air, Witnessed the fervour of His prayer; The desert His temptations knew, His conflict and His victory too."
It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having required all the sheep at Jacob's hand. If they were torn of beasts, Jacob must make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole. Was not the toil of Jesus for His Church the toil of one who was under suretiship obligations to bring every believing one safe to the hand of Him who had committed them to His charge? Look upon toiling Jacob, and you see a representation of Him of whom we read, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.