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Bible Devotional Books: Should we use them in our time with the Lord???


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I have many friends and family members who use devotional books along with their Scripture reading in their 'quiet time' with the Lord. I used to, but found that at times, it  became more of a hindrance than a help. Do you use a devotional book? Reasons? 

Thanks in advance.

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I do at times. I am currently going through a year-long devotional book written by Shirley Starr called The Place. I have enjoyed her thoughts on the scripture reading. We also have Call to Glory available for our members. Scripture reading with a very short commentary, all written by Baptist pastors who only use the KJV (many whom we know personally, as also I know Mrs. Starr). One of our members is reading through the Bible for the first time using the layout in the Call to Glory. Just about every Sunday she brings up a thought or three that she's read that week, or asks some questions. It's been exciting to watch her grow as she spends more time in scripture.

At times I think devotionals can become a hindrance if the reader is depending more on the commentary than on the Word. However, I do think it can help people to keep on track. Not saying it's a necessity, but an aid. 

My husband has one that he reads through every year. It is a devotional that is centered around Creation, and highlights verses and then different sciences that prove true science is rooted in scripture. He doesn't use it for his devotions but rather adds it to them (as I do mine). 

I purchased some devotional books for women for our library. But it was only after going through them myself. I have to admit that they were very well presented and really made me think about the scripture I was reading and how it personally applied to my life. Those kind of devotionals are great, IMO.  And these are KJV, which are the only ones I could recommend. 

Heh - and I'm noodling on writing one myself...?

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7 hours ago, HappyChristian said:

I do at times. I am currently going through a year-long devotional book written by Shirley Starr called The Place. I have enjoyed her thoughts on the scripture reading. We also have Call to Glory available for our members. Scripture reading with a very short commentary, all written by Baptist pastors who only use the KJV (many whom we know personally, as also I know Mrs. Starr). One of our members is reading through the Bible for the first time using the layout in the Call to Glory. Just about every Sunday she brings up a thought or three that she's read that week, or asks some questions. It's been exciting to watch her grow as she spends more time in scripture.

At times I think devotionals can become a hindrance if the reader is depending more on the commentary than on the Word. However, I do think it can help people to keep on track. Not saying it's a necessity, but an aid. 

My husband has one that he reads through every year. It is a devotional that is centered around Creation, and highlights verses and then different sciences that prove true science is rooted in scripture. He doesn't use it for his devotions but rather adds it to them (as I do mine). 

I purchased some devotional books for women for our library. But it was only after going through them myself. I have to admit that they were very well presented and really made me think about the scripture I was reading and how it personally applied to my life. Those kind of devotionals are great, IMO.  And these are KJV, which are the only ones I could recommend. 

Heh - and I'm noodling on writing one myself...?

My mother sent my wife and I two devotional books a couple of years back. I read them, but not for devotions. I usually read one or two from each book during some of the slack time of the day. That way my mind is more on the things of God than on flipping on the television or radio. They do have some good things in them, and I have to say I DO like them. I've got a LOT of older friends who use "Our Daily Bread," and they seem to like that. I seldom hear them talking about any type of devotional time except to say that they read "Our Daily Bread," and that it only takes about 10 minutes of their day. This is one problem I find with devotionals. They don't encourage much study. 

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I personally hate Our Daily Bread as it literally has no substance. It is more like a happy thought for the day. There is one put out by Institute For Creation Research (ICR) called Days Of Praise - the same kind of format but more meaty. Word studies, studies on certain themes, sometimes a more indepth look at a hymn and the Bible passages behind it. I think it is also all or mostly quoted from the KJV (unlike Our Daily Bread).

I don’t think there is anything wrong with a devotional as long as it is a supplement to what you are reading - like comments on a passage, main thoughts, word studies, etc. - but it would become a hindrance if it was in place of your Bible (ie. if someone read that instead of their Bible and instead of reading it plus their Bible).

i personally find it hard to read through a devotional book on a set schedule. I love Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening (and Spurgeon’s other devotionals, Matthew Henry also has one). So many good devotionals in it - which I read here and there, keeping bookmarks in it - sometimes looking up the devotionals for certain passages (it usually has a Scripture Index at the back), but don’t read it daily. F.B. Meyer has an excellent one called Our Daily Homily.

Wiersbe’s With The Word is great - comments on each chapter of the Bible, word studies, main themes, etc.; however, the quotes can be misleading as he quotes from anyone and their dog, with no warnings whether that person is unsaved or not sound in the faith. The problem is not with the quotes themselves - from what I can recall there is nothing wrong said in the quotes; however, if someone starts reading other material by those quoted they could be seriously mislead - so I might not recommend this book to someone who was not discerning where they get their spiritual meat from.

Streams In The Desert and others by the same author contain poems and some comments, stories, etc. From what I have seen it is good, but I have never read it all. I kind of read it the same was as Morning And Evening, slowly work my way through, reading a few entries here and there.

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"Baptist Bread" is the best devotional but you can only get it in bulk.

"Days of Praise" is decent.

"Daily Bread" is nothing but stale crumbs.

Anything to encourage you to get into the bible at least a few minutes a day I see no problem with, however the best devotional and bible study is just sitting down and reading the bible, IMO.

https://www.baptistbread.com

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34 minutes ago, SureWord said:

"Baptist Bread" is the best devotional but you can only get it in bulk.

"Days of Praise" is decent.

"Daily Bread" is nothing but stale crumbs.

Anything to encourage you to get into the bible at least a few minutes a day I see no problem with, however the best devotional and bible study is just sitting down and reading the bible, IMO.

https://www.baptistbread.com

I've heard of Baptist Bread, and I think I read a copy of one of their devotionals. I believe a man from a church we attended a few years back had the copy. He suggested a few sites, and I really never had the time to check them out. They're still written down on a bookmark in my Bible.

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We used to get ICR's Days of Praise, but stopped a few months back. Mom still gets her copy, but we aren't putting it out for the church anymore. While we really enjoyed the information, we grew weary of the constant Bible correcting. I do know some folks who use Daily Bread, but we haven't even looked at it for years (so I don't know how things are going with them).

I agree that using a devotional can tend to make people satisfied with only what they read in the book for that day, but on the other hand, most of the time those who only read that wouldn't read anything else. So at least they are getting some scripture. We had some members who had no devotional life when my hubs became pastor, so this helped.

My husband was given a Baptist Bread while we were visiting a church on our anniversary trip. It's a 3-month booklet like Days of Praise (Call to Glory is monthly), but it is totally KJV and written by Baptist preachers/missionaries like Call to Glory. Randy is reading it to check it out, and he said it is very like Call to Glory.

One thing I like about the Call to Glory - we can get it in large print, regular print, and Spanish. And they publish a children's devotional that is pretty good.  They accept contributions (for the Call to Glory, only men who are in full time service can contribute; women can contribute to the children's devotional) of devotions (3 at a time for the quarter). If they use the devotions there is a small reduction in price for the church order. And you can order as many or as few as you want.

I really like Streams in the Desert. 

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1 hour ago, HappyChristian said:

We used to get ICR's Days of Praise, but stopped a few months back. Mom still gets her copy, but we aren't putting it out for the church anymore. While we really enjoyed the information, we grew weary of the constant Bible correcting. I do know some folks who use Daily Bread, but we haven't even looked at it for years (so I don't know how things are going with them).

I agree that using a devotional can tend to make people satisfied with only what they read in the book for that day, but on the other hand, most of the time those who only read that wouldn't read anything else. So at least they are getting some scripture. We had some members who had no devotional life when my hubs became pastor, so this helped.

My husband was given a Baptist Bread while we were visiting a church on our anniversary trip. It's a 3-month booklet like Days of Praise (Call to Glory is monthly), but it is totally KJV and written by Baptist preachers/missionaries like Call to Glory. Randy is reading it to check it out, and he said it is very like Call to Glory.

One thing I like about the Call to Glory - we can get it in large print, regular print, and Spanish. And they publish a children's devotional that is pretty good.  They accept contributions (for the Call to Glory, only men who are in full time service can contribute; women can contribute to the children's devotional) of devotions (3 at a time for the quarter). If they use the devotions there is a small reduction in price for the church order. And you can order as many or as few as you want.

I really like Streams in the Desert. 

Im surprised ICR has started correcting the bible. Henry Morris was a KJV man all the way.

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17 minutes ago, SureWord said:

Im surprised ICR has started correcting the bible. Henry Morris was a KJV man all the way.

He was, but he did do some correcting himself. His brother and son (and I believe grandson) went further. It's never harsh, nor even always obvious. But things like "better translated as" have really started popping up. If they would simply explain the meaning of the word or words, that would be fine. But when they begin to claim they can translate it better (because that is what they - and anyone else so says them - are saying) it becomes correcting. It does sadden me, for sure. 

We like their Acts  Facts magazine, too. They do not use the KJV with that at all. It's really disappointing.

 

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I set up https://SpurgeonsMorningAndEvening.com a few years ago. It's an autoblog that posts twice a day, and also has an email you can sign up for that sends the devotion twice each day. I was really surprised the domain was available. The site gets about 250 visitors a day and there's about the same number of people signed up for the email.

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No, Henry Morris definitely corrects the KJV in his writings - and adds a LOT of suppositions in his commentaries and books, guesswork to me is adding to the Bible.

I did not know Days Of Praise corrected the KJV - I still get the emails, but I never get around to reading through them. Read a couple here and there, but not consistently so I never really read enough for years to notice any questioning in those devotionals (though definitely in their other materials).

Do you have links for Baptist Bread and Call To Glory. I have seen one or both of them years ago, but never received them for myself, so only glanced at them. Someone once suggested I contact the one and submit some of my devotionals or write new ones for them - but I forgot about that as it was a few years back.

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18 hours ago, Jerry said:

No, Henry Morris definitely corrects the KJV in his writings - and adds a LOT of suppositions in his commentaries and books, guesswork to me is adding to the Bible.

I did not know Days Of Praise corrected the KJV - I still get the emails, but I never get around to reading through them. Read a couple here and there, but not consistently so I never really read enough for years to notice any questioning in those devotionals (though definitely in their other materials).

Do you have links for Baptist Bread and Call To Glory. I have seen one or both of them years ago, but never received them for myself, so only glanced at them. Someone once suggested I contact the one and submit some of my devotionals or write new ones for them - but I forgot about that as it was a few years back.

Here's the link to Call to Glory:  https://www.ctgpublication.com/content.cfm?id=297

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