The first 'devotional' book that I ever read through was by Corrie ten Boom.....titled...God Is My Hiding Place. This would have been in 1982....and I still remember how its simplicity and purity affected me. There have been times when I would intentionally in my mind....and I still do even today....seek to return to those first days of a child's love for Jesus....putting aside only for a short period of times....the necessary and arduous defense of doctrines....and the warnings that consume me today.....more concerned at the moment to heed the admonition to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2....(the first letter of the seven letters to the seven churches)....that they had left their first love.
Over the years there have been other devotionals that came in very handy. Devotionals by John MacArthur and R C. Sproul and others....and recently by Charles Spurgeon....a devotional on the Psalms....which is a treasured gift. Well today I was given another devotional book as a gift....and I can tell after only the first ten pages that it also will be wonderful and a great blessing. It's no surprise because the author is someone whose sermons and writings and teaching have been a constant source of blessings for many decades....Scottish professor and author and pastor and teacher at Ligonier.org....Sinclair B. Ferguson. The title of the 2024 devotional is....Things Unseen....One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life.
A devotional is usually a vignette a day for the whole year....a time when we can rest....and with the help of another brother or sister in Christ....see through the fog of the night....off in the distance even to....as Bunyan would put it....the Celestial City itself!
We cannot live on devotionals alone. A older woman....who apparently has been a 'searcher' for a long time....told me only a week ago how she reads little well-known and widely distributed devotionals every day. I advised her to throw them out....(I've been praying since then that that was the right thing to do)....and I went out and bought her a good devotional/Bible study book....(this by John MacArthur also.)
Twenty-five years ago my wife and I owned a Christian bookstore. It was all books by men like MacArthur and Sproul and Spurgeon and Ferguson....and I would on a daily basis....watch someone come in....and browse through the books....and pick up one or two to peruse more carefully what was inside....and then they would leave....and I would at times even be heartbroken....not because there was no sale....for we did not have that Christian bookstore to make money....(although it would have helped)....but to do what I am doing here....recommending something that could change the course of one's life....and in doing so bring glory to God!
One last thing....the Spurgeon sermon that I listened to yesterday....which I have added below....has almost the same title of Corrie ten Boom's book. I don't believe in coincidence....so I am thankful to have the opportunity to add this sermon....with the recommendation of the book!
