devotional

A Heavenly Party [Excerpt]

Joni Eareckson Tada’s vision of heaven vibrates with joy, and C.S. Lewis asks what we really want, in this devotion from the NIV Voices of Faith Devotional Bible: Voices from the Past and Present.  

My favorite part about Joni’s view is seeing the saints come together from across time: “There’s Moses toasting Martin Luther.” What Christians from history would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them?

-Adam Forrest, Zondervan

Joni Eareckson Tada

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Joni Eareckson Tada

Before we realize it … we shall find ourselves in the embrace of our Savior at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Heaven will have arrived. The Lord’s overcoming of the world will be a lifting of the curtain of our five senses…

Now, enjoy an unseen divine reality. Rev up your heart and picture yourself taking a seat at the Wedding Supper. As you pull up a chair to the banquet table, take a look at what’s on the menu from Isaiah 25:6: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine — the best of meats and the finest of wines” …

I get a charge just thinking about it! I wonder who will sit next to me, or across from me. I glance down the table and there’s my friend, Verna Estes, mother of seven, swapping baby stories with Susanna Wesley, mother of seventeen. There’s Moses toasting Martin Luther. St. Augustine giving a bear hug to that jungle missionary …

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The Kind of People Who Grow Good Fruit [Excerpt]

Ann Voskamp explores the deep-rooted link among surprise, joy, and humility. [Excerpt from Selections from One Thousand Gifts: Finding Joy in What Really Matters.]

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Ann Voskamp

Perhaps there is no way to discover joy but as surprise…

The humble live surprised. The humble live by joy. The humble are the laid-low and bowed ones, the surprised ones with hands open to receive whatever He gives.

He hands them the earth. The earth. [Matthew 5:5]

But is it any wonder? That word humility itself comes from the Latin root humus — the kind of earth that grows good crops. God gives the earth to the humus-people, the humble ones. Humility is that good humus that grows gratitude that yields abundant joy.

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The Secret to Being Thankful “For All Things” [Excerpt]

Ann Voskamp shares a discovery from her spiritual practice of counting gifts. [Excerpt from Selections from One Thousand Gifts: Finding Joy in What Really Matters.]

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Ann Voskamp

I had read it often, the oft-quoted verse: “And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). I would nod and say straight-faced, “I’m thankful for everything.”

But [in] counting gifts, to one thousand, more, I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things. A lifetime of sermons on “thanks in all things” and the shelves sagging with books on these things and I testify: life-changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time.

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Judas Iscariot vs. Simon Peter [Excerpt by Philip Yancey]

Excerpt from Grace Notes: Daily Readings with Philip Yancey (eBook).

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Judas was not the first or the last person to betray Jesus, merely the most famous.

To [the Japanese Christian novelist Shusaku Endo], the most powerful message of Jesus was his unquenchable love even for — especially for — people who betrayed him. When Judas led a lynch mob into the garden, Jesus addressed him as “Friend.” The other disciples deserted him but still he loved them. His nation had him executed; yet while stretched out naked in the posture of ultimate disgrace, Jesus roused himself for the cry, “Father, forgive them.”

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How’s Lent Going for You? 6 Encouraging Insights from Lysa TerKeurst

 

Learn More about Beyond BoundariesMade to Crave Devotional

Did you give up something for Lent? How is that going for you?

I chose to give up something I crave every day, and you know what? I'm not doing so hot. I feel like I've stumbled right off the wagon. 

If you can relate, or you feel like other cravings are breathing down your neck, check out these words from Lysa TerKeurst's Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

1. I've realized [my struggle with food] isn't as much about losing the weight as it is gaining truth – the truth of who I am in Christ and how I am made for more than this constant, self-defeating struggle.

 

2. It's the truth that reminds me a scale can measure my physical body but never my worth [as a person]. And it's the truth that God loves me the way I am, but He loves me too much to leave me stuck in a place of defeat.

3. [We have to] park our minds on the truth that our triumph in this trial matters. Triumph will produce a blessing… The blessing we have to consider is this: 'that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything' (James 1:4).

 

4.  I can recognize the beauty of discipline and crave the intimacy with God it unleashes.

 

5. I can rest assured though the journey will be hard, I will be held.

 

6. I had to choose to operate in the reassurance of God's love, the remembrance of God's grace, and the reality of God's power. And, according to Isaiah 41:10, God is the one holding me up, not the other way around. To that I say, 'Amen!'

 

 

Learn More about Made to Crave DevotionalMade to Crave Action Plan

Learn more about Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food

 

Learn more about the Made to Crave Action Plan, a video-based group study.

 

Find Lysa TerKeurst on Twitter (@lysaterkeurst)


(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared for information purposes only. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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Mothers: How You Could Get Published in the New NIV Mom’s Devotional Bible

 

Are you a mom? Love to write? A devotion about parenting or mothering written by YOU could be published in Zondervan's newly updated NIV Mom's Devotional Bible, due in stores spring 2013. We're excited to see your submissions! (Enter the contest by March 14, 2012)

 

What We're Looking For

Your devotional entry should be encouraging or inspirational in tone, and written from the perspective of a mother.

Your entry should be original, 250-300 words in length, and focusing on ONE of the following passages from the Bible:

  1. Deuteronomy 6:6–9
  2. Proverbs 22:6
  3. Proverbs 31:10–31
  4. 1 Corinthians 13:4–8
  5. Ephesians 2:8–9

The Lawyers Made Us Say This Part: Your entry must be in English, previously unpublished, and not submitted or accepted anywhere else at the time of this contest. And don't forget, your entry should be original to you and only about one of the five Bible passages listed above!

 

If Your Entry Is Selected…

Authors of the winning submissions will have their devotion and a short author's bio printed in the upcoming NIV Mom's Devotional Bible. Winners will also receive a free copy of the Bible.

So what are you waiting for?
Enter the contest at Facebook.com/MomsDevotionalBible.

 

Sample Devotionals

If you would like to see an example of what we're looking for, here are two:

Passage:
Genesis 1:26–31

A mother tends to define herself most easily in terms of externals: I am a mom. I am a wife. I am a daughter. I am a graduate. I am a teacher. I am a volunteer. I am what I do. I am what others need me to be. I am what I accomplish.

While these descriptions may be true, they are incomplete. They overlook the vital fact that we are made, inside and out, by God. We are created in his image and for his purposes.

When we gaze into the mirror of God's Word, we find that God has stamped on our being a reflection of his character, his essence, his being. That is not to say we are mini-gods in any sense. But just as children reflect the physical, mental and personality traits of their parents and even adopted children share the mannerisms and habits of their adopted families, so we who are fashioned by God manifest elements of his character in our beings.

Who are you, Mom? Genesis 1 and 2 spells it out. You are God's image-bearer (see Genesis 1:26–27). God expresses his being through both genders, male and female. You are a co-laborer with all of God's people in his world (see Genesis 1:28– 31).

When you live in the fullness of who you are, you show your children, your family and your world a full and accurate picture of your God.

So there, Mom. Take the definition for who you are from how God made you. You are a unique being fashioned after the God of the universe — inside and out!

Think about this: How often do you define yourself by the negatives? Who you aren't, what you haven't accomplished, what you aren't doing. How might this negative definition of yourself affect your mood as well as your daily choices? How might it impact others around you? Switch your sight to God's view of you and get ready for great changes!

 

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Victory over Our Cravings, One Mini-goal at a Time [Excerpt by Lysa TerKeurst]

 

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Do we have cravings, or do cravings have us? Here Lysa TerKeurst offers encouragement and tips for when beating our cravings feels like a pipe dream.

If you don’t have issues with food, I think you’ll be surprised at how relevant Made to Crave is for you, too. Lysa’s writing plumbs the heights and depths of our craving hearts. (Excerpt from Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food.)

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

 

From Made to Crave Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst

There are days I don’t feel victorious. Like the day when the upstairs toilet clogged and flooded my kitchen ceiling. Or the day I got stuck in traffic, yelled at my kids, and missed an important meeting. Those are the days when my long-term goals to get healthy don’t feel as important as my need for immediate comfort. I just want to blow my healthy eating plan out of frustration with something gooey, sweet, and cream laden.

I bet you’ve had something occur this week that doesn’t make you feel very victorious either. A sick child, a missed deadline, tension in a friendship, or a number on the scale that almost made you cry. I understand. But may I encourage you? Even in the midst of trying circumstances and bad days, you can be victorious.

You can be victorious even when the distance between your present reality and your desired goal seems so far apart.

How?

Set mini-goals. Losing twenty, fifty, one hundred pounds, or more can seem so far away. And faraway goals are hard to hang onto when life drains us and it feels like those French fries sure could fill us.

Set mini-goals physically by getting a strategy for making healthy choices. How can you prepare now to drink eight glasses of water today? What is a healthy snack option you’ll turn to when those afternoon salty and sugary cravings start calling? Are you going out to eat at a restaurant? Use the Internet to look up the nutritional information for their menu so you can make informed healthy choices. If hit with an unexpected temptation today, what healthy go-to script or Bible verse can you arm yourself with in advance to combat justifications and compromises?

Each mini-goal you accomplish today is a moment of victory.

 

[Spiritual Mini-Goals]

We can also set mini-goals spiritually. We will always be most victorious when we are in the center of God’s will. When we are in God’s will, we are able to see our trials from God’s perspective — through the lens of His grace and truth. But what is God’s will?

 

The apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks … for this is God’s will” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). This is an explicit description of what God’s will is. To be in the center of God’s will is to be [someone] who is joyful, prayerful, and thankful.

 

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