Devotional

Books for Christmas and New Year

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There are less than 10 days to Christmas, but if you have two day shipping and still need some gift ideas you can get these in time. Or, if you are wanting to ‘start the New Year right’, I have some devotional recommendations for you. Click on the links below to read my review of each book and get more information.

First, here are three short daily devotionals for you to start off the New Year:

Psalms in 30 Days, probably not better way to start a New Year or new devotion time than the Psalms.

Daily Liturgy, this is a great 40 day devotional that is not tied to any season

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, This a a Lent devotional, so you’ll have more time to order or read something first.

Or, if reading isn’t really your thing (thanks for visiting was is not basically a book review site) or you don’t have the time right now, or need something to fill a commute; try the Tune My Heart podcast. This is a 30 day liturgy and prayer podcast, all of them are less than 10 minutes and are a great way to start your morning.

If you are looking for something related by not a devotional, try Disciplines of a Godly Man, which is a very popular book and now my most popular post of all time.

If you are looking for some good non-fiction, Why Nations Fail, has been in the news recently as the authors have won this years Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Finally, four more books that I haven’t reviewed yet, but are worth mentioning:

Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves; this is probably my favorite book I’ve read this year. The subtitle is basically accurate, if any of it interest you, get this book. The final chapter is a little long and meandering, but the rest of the book is great.

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution; I’ve been meaning to write a review of this for years, but it is so impactful, I think it’ll be a multi-part review or maybe something different all together. I think very few books explain parts of our current cultural moment like this. Just a head up, it isn’t too long, maybe 400 or so, but it is on the more difficult side for reading. He interacts often with past philosophers and theologians. Don’t let that be a deterrent, just know if you don’t have a lot of familiarity, it can seem like a slog at parts.

Dune; this is one of my all time favorite works of fiction. The second movie is out, both movies are based on the one namesake book. If you liked the movies, you should check out the book. Or you haven’t done either, it’s worth grabbing to see what the hype is about.

A Christmas Carol; also one of my all time favorites, and I had to throw in some sort of Christmas book. I read this just about every year and watch two or three versions of the movie, the Muppets probably being my current favorite. Some of the scenes/dialogue are taking exactly from the book, which is something like 60 pages. So, you can rip through this in an afternoon if you were so inclined.

Hope this helps with last minute Christmas ideas, or books to start in January. I don’t think I’ve made a post quite like this, so let me know if it was useful or not.

Book Review: Daily Liturgy Devotional

/ J.K. / 1 Comment

Rating: Must read

Level: About 4-5 pages per day, easily less than 15 minutes depending on your own prayers; mostly easy read, the ‘concise commentary’ is accessibly to all, but some of the prayer book style language may be unfamiliar to many.

Summary

This is a slightly different take on the 30/40/season prayer book, which adds some nice variety while also making it a great reference book for the future. The book is broken into eight thematic sections of five days each – The Gospel, Faith, Love, Hope, Wisdom, Holiness, Perseverance, and Witness. There is also an intro which is relatively helpful (at least explains the few Latin words), but is also the dedication, which is slightly odd, but not really a big deal. The book concludes with footnotes and a further reading section.

Each day includes prayer, a scripture reading, followed with a ‘concise commentary’, a memory verse, prayer prompt, a hymn, and then a space to write thoughts/reflections (according to the author; there are no lined or sectioned areas). On the first of the five days for each section, you will pray the Gloria Patri, Agnus Dei, and Lord’s Prayer. The other four days follow the adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication model. Each section has a recommendation on what to pray as well as a prayer from the Bible or someone in history.

My Thoughts

Two criticisms out of the way first, it slightly bugs me that he didn’t do faith, hope, love. Second, and this is more for Crossway, they need to go ahead and just make an entire modern version of the Book of Common Prayer (I know the ACNA did one in 2019, and it is great, but I’m talking a brand new version, not just revisions). Especially the Psalter, which I’ve heard rumors for years that Crossway was working on. If anyone had the time, money, focus of mission, and theology to do this, it’d be them.

That’s it, those are my critiques. I’ve mentioned it my other reviews of these Family Liturgy’s or Seasonal (church calendar, not meteorological) Liturgy’s and especially the Psalm’s devotionals, this prayer book revival trend for us Evangelical Protestants has been incredible. I like everything about it. Learning common/ancient prayers, the modeling of prayers, the liturgical nature, it is all good.

The devotionals I grew up on, the one line of scripture and then a paragraph of commentary have a time and a place; especially new or immature believers, or those in especially busy times. However, the deeper more engaged, broader focused liturgy’s are what we really need more often. We need more depth, more prayer, more words from those who came before us. There is a reason our Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and other Protestant brother’s and sister’s never abandoned this model. The rediscovery and growth in prayer book for conservative Protestants has been wonderful. I think this is especially true for those second generation ‘independent’ or ‘non-denom’ mega church style believers.

This book is great in that it has those eight themes to study for a week (five days, but if you are like me, weekends are hectic, and I use this as a week day devotional). The mix of biblical and historical prayers is solid and helps to teach you ways to pray. The strange part was trying to sing the hymns. I tried to sing out loud by myself, but couldn’t often bring myself to do it. If that isn’t an issue for you, great. However, it is a good reminder that this works wonderfully as a family devotion/worship.

If you a new to the prayer book style or have read all of them, this is still one to get. Probably one of the better intros to the style, if you are new. If you are familiar, this a good one, especially with the themes and the slight change to prayer structures. All around, this a must read/have for those looking to expand or continue a serious prayer life. Also, this is being published Dec 2, 2024, so go buy it and start it the first week of the new year, since you will probably have the goal of increasing your devotional in 2025.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: On the Christian Life

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Rating: Must Read

Level: Very Short (<75 pages), relatively easy (editor uses footnotes for lesser known classical figures)

Summary

Where this book comes from is a little confusing, but it is an excerpt from Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, which is sold in modern times as two large books. However, Calvin wrote it in four section, with 80 ‘books’, which are essentially chapters. On the Christian Life comes from section three, books/chapters 6 through 10. This is not the first time this portion has been sold separately, variously titled the Little/Gold Book on the (Mature) Christian Life. The contents of the book are meant to be devotional and how we should live lives as Christians. 

The editor has chosen to keep the chapter numbers, instead of ‘translating’ them as well, so the book starts on Chapter 6 – The Life of the Christian, 7 – The Sum of Christian Life, in Which we Discuss the Denial of Ourselves, 8 – Bearing the Cross, 9 – Meditation on the Future Life, 10 – How We Must Use the Present Life and Its Means of Support. This book also includes the editors introduction which explains a little more about Calvin and the history of this book. The table of contents also list ‘How We Obtain Grace’ as if there is Calvin’s intro, but that is just a title page and comes form the name of Section three. However, ‘The Life of the Christian’ (Chapter 6, or the first pages of this book) functions somewhat like an intro from Calvin. 

My Thoughts

This may just be a pet peeve of mine, but I really don’t like keeping the chapter number as they are in the larger book. Surely I’m overthinking it, but having lead Bible/book studies for a long time, having names not match chronology seems confusing. While I’m nit-picking, small books like this often work better in leather (real or fake), especially to be read devotionally. Purely a preference of mine, but figured I’d through it out there in case Crossway reads this. 

This is a really a great intro to Calvin. For a man famous for publishing/writing, we really don’t have much from him. Technically, we wrote commentaries on (almost?) all of the Bible, but those don’t get much popular press. He wrote the Institutes which many people know, but few read. This makes him sound scholarly, as he was, but he was also a pastor with a heart for devotion, and that comes out in this book. A short, cheap, easy to read book is a good way for anyone to learn about any author. The Institutes are far more accessible than you may think, and this excerpt does a good job showcasing that. 

It is a newer translation, which I found very readable. I believe Crossway published this first, because a wholesale new translation is forthcoming. The editor has also added helpful footnotes for modern audiences, as well as keeping Calvin’s original ones. There were a few interesting translation choices, where they would footnote a word and then explain the original in a footnote, and it seemed to me that the original should have stayed or even made more sense sometimes. That being said, I don’t know all the context, and the newer word probably conveyed the original meaning better. Just thought it was interesting, as most translating is. 

As far as the content, the chapter on self denial is worth the book on it’s own. I can’t imagine something that present day American Christians need to hear more. As with the rest of society, we deny ourselves nothing and attempt to fulfil all our want in the pursuit of happiness. Bearing the cross is a good reminder that there are Christian who suffer in the world. The final two chapters blur together somewhat in my reading, but again I think it is something lost on Christians today, that focus on the future. As in, New Creation/New Life, not a few years in the future. It is difficult to not think of only the hear and now. 

This little book has been essential reading for a few hundred years now. I think it is something every Christian should read. 

 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

 

Book Review: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

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Rating: Must Have

Level: Easy (though helpful to have familiarity with liturgy); Long (400+), but each day is less than 10 pages

Summary

This is the third book by Gibson and Crossway of a liturgy for daily worship. The first, being a general 31 day guide called Be Thou My Vision, the second one, like this one is focused on a part of the church calendar, O Come, O Come, Emanuel (see my review here), which went roughly from Advent to Epiphany. I have to admit, I was confused by the dates of this book. The subtitle is A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost. I thought this would be a good Monday to post, as Pascha is (I thought) another name for Easter and Pentecost is the 50th day after Easter. However, this is actually a Lent (timeframe) devotional, though Gibson writes “this [book] is not intended to be associated with the traditions of Lent..” I find this an odd and confusing choice.

This book is neither a 40 (or 46, as Sundays don’t count towards Lent) day Lenten Devotional, not is it a 50 day Easter (Pascha) to Pentecost devotional. Instead, it is a 48 day devotional that starts on Ash Wednesday, proceeds 42 days, and then has special service days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Resurrection Sunday (Easter/Pascha), Ascension Sunday (the Sunday after Ascension Day, which is 40 days after Easter),and Pentecost Sunday.

After a preface and acknowledgements, the books starts with an intro (titled Remembering Jesus), where Gibson makes something of a defense of ‘holy’ days, or having special days of remembrance. It is a really interesting chapter, and if you are in the reformed community, you know that there is a pretty sizeable split with strong feelings on both sides of ‘holy days’. 

The following chapter is a very useful (especially if you aren’t used to Liturgy) ‘how-to’ on using the format, which includes: meditation, call to worship, adoration, reading the Law, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, creed, praise, catechism, prayer for illumination, scripture reading, praise, prayer of intercession (and then further petition/prayer), Lord’s Prayer, benediction, and finally a postlude (doxology).  

There are also appendixes for tunes to various parts of the worship, Bible reading plan, and Author, Hymn, & Liturgy index.

My Thoughts

I still find the subtitle odd and do not understand why they would give it such a name. As noted above, Gibson doesn’t want this to be a traditional Lenten style devotional, but it would seem to me that explaining the difference in the book while giving a clearer title would be more helpful. Another confusing aspect is at one point he refers to this season as the ‘Pascal Season’, which coincides with Lent. This is again odd, as most English speaker use Easter not Pascha, and Easter Season (or Eastertide) is the time from Easter to Ascension Day. It is truly a perplexing decision. That being said, it is another wonderful book. I couldn’t come up with much new to say about how it works, so see below for what I wrote about O Come, O Come, Emanual: 

Honestly, if you attempt any personal or family worship this is a must have. I am a big fan of the structured (liturgical) worship, especially for family devotion. It really doesn’t make it easy to lead or do with your family or community. Really my only (minor) quibble with this is that with 16 parts, it might be just a little too long. However, if you are doing this with a family with young children or you find yourself short on time, there are always parts you can cut. That being said, some sections are only a line or a paragraph long; this shouldn’t take an hour or any extended time. 

If you are unfamiliar with liturgy or structured daily worship this is an outstanding way to get into it. Unless you are from a pretty free-flowing Baptist/non-denom/mega-church background you will probably recognize parts (if not all) of these sections. If you are Anglican, you can see the clear influence of the BCP (which is probably the best book that exist for personal and family worship). 

I know some people don’t like the repetitive nature of some parts of guides like these, saying and can be rote or unfeeling, but really that is up to you. If you don’t take it seriously, or just mindlessly repeat things, then yes, the downside is that it can be meaningless. However, the upsides are a daily reminder of how to worship God, what He has done for us, what so much of the church today and most have always believed and recited, and of course – scripture reading. This is more important than every in church life, especially if you do this as a family/community and use it to help shape and guide children in their beliefs. This is true of any structured worship, but I think is even more important for this time of year, when we are pulled away in so many directions, with so many competing interesting. As I said above, if you are looking for personal/family devotion/worship, this is a must have. 

*I received a free copy of this book from Crossway, in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: Journey to Bethlehem

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Rating: Put it on your list

Level: Easy, Short (5ish minutes a day/30 days)

Summary

In some ways, this is a typical 30-day devotional, with a section to read, then reflection, etc. However, I think Ryken has done something unique in his choices. It is easy to find a 30-50 day devotional that has writings from numerous authors in the past, but Ryken has only reserved 10 of the days to pure thoughts of others, the remainder of the days are reflections on hymns or poems. 

The book is broken into three sections, the first being Hymns, then what he calls ‘Classic Prose Devotionals’, and finally Poems. Each day follows the same format – the text (e.g. Joy to the World, an excerpt from On The Incarnation, The Magnificat), then a commentary/reflection, then a brief ‘devotional takeaway’, before a final note and word of scripture. There is also a short intro into each of the three sections. Finally, what he calls ‘notes’ which is essentially a bibliography, if you want to find more info, as well as two indexes – one for the people in the book, another referenced scripture. 

My Thoughts

I’ll start with the only thing I didn’t like, and that was the choice of categories. Choosing Hymns and then Poems, is too similar to me (he acknowledges as much in his into to Hymns, stating, ‘Every Hymn begins its life as a poem.’ That is very minor and nit-picky, maybe I just like symmetry too much, but I wonder if the book would have been better off as just hymns/songs/poems. 

Other than that, the book is great, it should be on everyone’ s list/rotation to read around Advent/Christmas. Ryken is a great write, and maybe an even better editor. I really appreciate the summary takeaway and then ending with scripture. His choices for each day are interesting and spread out (there are so many options), but there are plenty you will be familiar with, while adding some that may be new.

I knew six of the Hymns (and four are probably one everyone sang at a Christmas Eve service), the Prose included big names (Calvin, Luther, Augustine) but then other maybe not everyone has heard of (Bernard of Clairvaux, Spurgeon, Athanasius). Interestingly, he added the Nicene Creed to this section, which I really enjoyed. Similarly, the Poems included works of Chesterton, Milton, and Eliot, but I didn’t know any of the others. Except he put the Magnificat in this section, which was a good and interesting point to make. If you aren’t familiar with that name, it is the historic name for the section in Luke 1:46-55w here Mary responds to Gabriel after being told she will give birth to Jesus (it also kind of answer the question Mary Did You Know?, but I’m not trying to start a fight a Christmas). 

Overall, I highly recommend this book, the devotions are short enough to fit into a busy time and his choices of authors and especially hymns/poems makes it interesting and different enough compared to the so many other great and traditional ones out there. So, if you didn’t get to a devotional reading this past December or you did and are looking for something different next year, this is a book to put on your list. 

*I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Book Review: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

/ J.K. / 2 Comments

Rating: Must Have

Level: Easy (though helpful to have familiarity with liturgy); Long (400+), but each day is less than 10 pages

Summary

This is another outstanding book by Gibson and Crossway, similar to Be Thou My Vision, but this one being focused on Advent, Christmas, and ends on Epiphany. For those unfamiliar, that is January 6th, so to have a round number of 40 days, it may start before ‘official’ Advent. That was the case this year, Advent started yesterday (which is late in the chronological Calendar), and the book starts on November 28th, which was last Tuesday. 

After a preface and acknowledgements, the books starts with an intro (titled Waiting For Jesus), where Gibson explains his reasons/hopes for this book. The following chapter is a very useful (especially if you aren’t used to Liturgy) ‘how-to’ on using the format, which includes: meditation, call to worship, adoration, reading the Law, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, creed, praise, catechism, prayer for illumination, scripture reading, praise, prayer of intercession (and then further petition/prayer), Lord’s Prayer, benediction, and finally a postlude (doxology).  

There are also appendixes for tunes to various parts of the worship, Bible reading plan, and Author, Hymn, & Liturgy index.

My Thoughts

Honestly, if you attempt any personal or family worship this is a must have. I am a big fan of the structured (liturgical) worship, especially for family devotion. It really doesn’t make it easy to lead or do with your family or community. Really my only (minor) quibble with this is that with 16 parts, it might be just a little too long. However, if you are doing this with a family with young children or you find yourself short on time, there are always parts you can cut. That being said, some sections are only a line or a paragraph long; this shouldn’t take an hour or any extended time. 

If you are unfamiliar with liturgy or structured daily worship this is an outstanding way to get into it. Unless you are from a pretty free-flowing Baptist/non-denom/mega-church background you will probably recognize parts (if not all) of these sections. If you are Anglican, you can see the clear influence of the BCP (which is probably the best book that exist for personal and family worship). 

I know some people don’t like the repetitive nature of some parts of guides like these, saying and can be rote or unfeeling, but really that is up to you. If you don’t take it seriously, or just mindlessly repeat things, then yes, the downside is that it can be meaningless. However, the upsides are a daily reminder of how to worship God, what He has done for us, what so much of the church today and most have always believed and recited, and of course – scripture reading. This is more important than every in church life, especially if you do this as a family/community and use it to help shape and guide children in their beliefs. This is true of any structured worship, but I think is even more important for this time of year, when we are pulled away in so many directions, with so many competing interesting. As I said above, if you are looking for personal/family devotion/worship, this is a must have. 

*I received a free copy of this book from Crossway, in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: Psalms in 30 Days

/ J.K. / 4 Comments

Rating: Must read

Level: Quick, easy; over 300 pages, but meant to be spread over 90 readings

Summary

This is a 30 day devotional through all the Psalms, with Morning, Midday, and Evening readings, based on the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and other prayer books. All reading start with a call to prayer, include Psalms, and the Gloria Patri. The Morning and Evening readings are slightly longer and include Confession, Blessing, Canticle, Lord’ Prayer, and what he labels Prayers of the Church, which is a prayer from either the BCP or someone in Church History – Augustine, Luther, etc.

My Thoughts

This may be my favorite devotional of all time. At least the format, and prayers, etc. outside of the Psalms; I’m not a huge fan of the CSB Psalms, but it certainly isn’t a bad version (there are worse ones that are far more popular). If you have ever used the BCP, this will be pretty familiar by mixing the Daily Offices (all four – Morning, Midday, Evening, & Compline) with the daily prayer (Psalms), but in a daily devotional format (not reading Psalms, then flipping to various canticles, collects). I really enjoyed Wax’s collection of prayers of the church; it was a solid mix of old, very old, newer, prayer book, and also famous and less known prayers. 

If you have never used the BCP, you may want to after this book. Being something of a BCP light, but with just the Psalms and not the full office readings (the whole Bible in a year) is a great introduction. This devotional is also a good way to introduce someone to Psalms readings. Reading through the Psalms monthly dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and has been practiced by millions of Christians. 

I am more used to the Morning/Evening breakdown, but the Midday was a nice touch, it was shorter than the others, so if I couldn’t get to it at lunch, I’d either read it when I got home from work or add it to the Evening (which I think is shorter than the Morning, but not by much). On average, you read five Psalms a day, so it works to something like a 2-1-2 (though obviously not that nice and easy as sometimes you may read up 9 in a day as in the 140’s, or may spend days in one Psalm, as in 119).

There is no commentary or thoughts written regarding the Psalms, as this follows the prayer book model, which may seem different to those more used to the modern ‘daily devotional’ style. I personally prefer this style, as the ‘daily devotion’ can be hit or miss and oftentimes it seems the author had a short passage in mind before picking a verse (or whichever Psalm, if it is one of the many Psalms devotionals). If you want to keep reading the Psalms, but prefer that style, Keller’s is probably the best and he stretches it to last a whole year. However, the prayer book style has been lost and often it seems daily reading/devotionals have become overly complicated. Martin Luther reportedly told people to say/read a Psalm and then say the Lord’s Prayer and get on with your day. Luckily, we are more literate and have infinitely more access to books/materials than even the richest parishioner from 500 years ago. That doesn’t mean we have to over complicate it, but being able to read all the Psalms (not just recite the few we have memorized from church) and other prayers/confessions is the best of both worlds. If you have any interest in the Psalms or daily prayer, this is a must read. If you already reading the Psalms on a monthly basis, swap this in for a month a year to great benefit. 

Book Review: Shalom in Psalms

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Shalom in Psalms: A Devotional from the Jewish Heart of the Christian Faith

My Rating – If you are looking for something

Level – Longish (about 350 pages)

Summary
The subtitle more or less gets tells you what you need to know about this book. The intent is to be a devotional on the Psalms from Messianic Jews.  However, there are no days (40, 365, etc) or actual dates (a year in the Psalms). It is just a Psalm and then a devotional/commentary that follows which is written by one or two (usually Seif and Blank) of the authors. The goal of the devotional is to get to the Jewish roots and understanding of the Psalms, and to that end, the authors us the Tree of Life version(TLV) of the Bible; for which Sief and Blank are translators.

My Thoughts
The TLV is an interesting version, you can check out their website to read about their driving principles. Some are fairly innocuous, using Yeshua instead of Jesus (or Miriam and Jacob, instead of Mary and James). Though, when you don’t change all names, it leads to the feeling of that guy that studied abroad and now over pronounces the few words he knows. Likewise they use Adonia for LORD/YHWH, and use a few other words such as Shalom, which are somewhat familiar, though others I did not know and they never offered and translation note or explanation. This seems like a major oversight if your goal is to bring this view to those who don’t already know. Looking around their site I could ascertain whether their translation was literal or dynamic equivalent, though I suspect it was the latter. Overall the translation seemed readable and understandable, with the few exceptions of untranslated words.

As for the devotional part, it isn’t quite there. There are two problems (ish), the first one being, that often this worked more as a light commentary than devotional. I know the line can blur, and I actually prefer the commentary type more, but that isn’t always what people are looking for. Not necessarily a problem, but something for which to be aware. The second, much bigger issue is that the book is not broken into any type of daily format. They could have tried to fit it into 365, or picked some other random number (40, 200, etc.), but instead just offered their devotion/commentary after each chapter. So, that means one morning you may read a Psalm that is a few lines with maybe a paragraph of devotion. Then a week or two later, you’ll read Psalm 119 (the longest verse in the Bible, longer than books such as James or Ruth) followed by pages of commentary.

Again, this can work fine as a commentary, but a devotional is really set more for the 5-20 minute a day framework. This really fails as that model, which wouldn’t be such a big deal were it not for the subheading. If you are expecting a 10 minute morning devotional, broken into nice segments, you aren’t going to get it. Depending on the day, I would read two of the Psalms with both devotionals, if they were short (thing the 80’s and 130’s) or for longer ones, sometimes I’d read just the verse, then come back the next day and read the commentary. Overall, I think it worked to something like 200 or so days, which works fine if you have  Lent and/or Advent devotional to though in as well.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but the format should have been different. If you know that going in and plan to work around it, it can work well for a devotional. If you really like the Psalms, or are just looking for something different in a commentary, or especially if you are looking for a Jewish (or at least modern Messianic Jewish) perspective it is worth picking up.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: My Utmost for His Highest

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My Utmost for His Highest

 

My review format is going to be a little different on this one because it is a daily devotional. It is 365 one-page devotions to be read each day of the year. They are all fairly short easy reads, spanning a wide array of topics.

The book was published in 1935 and was based on King James version of the Bible, but there are many options to purchase the devotional with updated language. My edition was edited by James Riemann, who has edited a number of older devotionals. You can find the book in old hardback, or newer paperback for as little as $5 most places, but I purchased the one pictured above, which will cost you about $20, because I’m a sucker for patent leather books.

I’ve read a number of year long daily devotionals, but I think I have to put this as number one. Which makes my more expensive purchase seem like a good choice, as I will probably come back to this every few years or so. As is typical for daily devotionals, you have all or part of one verse, then a brief mini-sermon that can sometimes be something like a commentary on the selected verse or it will be something a little more practical. Often, Chambers has a point he wants to get across, and the selected verse acts more as a proof text. Most of the verses come from the New Testament, and are concentrated mostly around the Gospels.

I think the pastoral nature of this devotional is what makes it so great. His style of writing, and the points he makes or doctrines discussed read less like they are preached from the pulpit and more like they are being spoken from the pastor directly to you.

I’m a big fan of daily devotionals as it is, because they are a great way to focus your mind before you start your day. Most cane be read in less than five minutes. I read them in the morning, even Spurgeon’s Evening by Evening, after I get dressed before I head out to start my day.

The strength of this book is the constant reminder of your need for Christ, what He has done for you, and how that should effect your daily life; what we should do in response to what He has done. That daily reminder of practical Christian living is what makes this devotional a must read.

I like having a book to hold and read, but if you want a digital option, you can actually sign up to receive the content via email from Utmost.org.