The Re-Tooled Devotion

You have probably noticed that there have been no devotion posts over the past two months and been curious as to why. Well, the answer is simply "time." Back in June I started a new full-time job at my church and time-management became a thorn in my side. I used to write my devotion late at night, when I was the most alert and awake (yes, I'm a proverbial night owl) but in those days I reported to the church later in the morning and early bedtimes were not necessary. Over the summer... they are. So my time to write the devotion was lost to the necessity to wind down earlier in the evenings and then go to bed. Not being a morning person (my brain doesn't work well before 10am), I was in need of a new time to read, meditate on and write the devotion, which took about 30 minutes per post.

Because of the time crunch I am now in, the Daily Devotion will be changing in form to become both writer-friendly and, hopefully, reader-friendly. Each day I will post two readings -- one Old Testament, one New Testament, and a short two-paragraph devotion. It will be more like a read-though-the-Bible tool to help both you and I dig deeper into God's Word. Starting tomorrow, the Daily Devotion will be back in this new format:

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OT: 2 Kings 22
NT: Matthew 1

"Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes."

The reign of Josiah was like a drink of cool water in the middle of a barren desert. His grandfather was Manasseh, the most evil king of Judah. But Josiah? He followed his great-grandfather Hezekiah and the God Hezekiah obeyed. When confronted with the truth that his nation had not followed the Law, Josiah does what godly men and women should do when confronted with the truth: he immediately fell in humility before the Lord. He wanted to know if there was anything he could do to right the wrong. The Lord said, "No." Judah would suffer for its apostasy. But Josiah would live to his fullness of years and die in peace.

The Lord is always gracious to those who follow Him -- to those who are called by His name. He held no condemnation for the faithful ones of the Old Testament and He holds no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus today (see Romans 8:1). Our God is just, just as He was with Judah, but He is also a God of Grace. He loves you and me. If you have trouble believing that, dust off the old Bible and read with me: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10)."

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Be God's!

John Newton