We've counted down our readers favorite devotions over the past nine years, and have included a summary and a link to them. Many of our readers find that forwarding these devotions to friends who are experiencing the issue being discussed in a particular devotion is a new way of sending along "get-well" or "hold on" or even "congratulations" wishes. Is there a friend in need of encouragement from you?
15. No Defeat in Our Hearts Saying goodbye to loved ones is never easy, but knowing they know the Savior grants us the peace of knowing our parting is only temporary. Francis was a hell-fire brimstone preacher in the pulpit, but when he stepped from behind it, he represented all that was loving and merciful about the Christian faith. Even in his last days, when the pain wracked his body so bad we couldn't even touch his hand or hug him, he still found the strength to laugh at/with me and teach me still more truth. Lots of people talk these days about "finishing well"; Francis showed us how that looks and feels.
14. Only Port that Matters This explains why the more highly developed nations struggle with and rebel against Christianity even as revival sweeps through poor and oppressed people groups. People look to themselves when things are going well; they look to God when they aren't. It's in the storms of life that we see God's lighthouse most clearly, pointing us to the cove that is our "desired haven."
13. When Matt Damon Meets Jesus Most people aren't angry with Christ, they're angry with Christians. They've been hurt by our words or actions, or disappointed by our inability to live like Jesus taught, or are just plain jealous that we've found peace when they haven't. For whatever reason, they lash out at Christianity because they're mad at Christians.
12. The Last Christmas Tale Travel back to the foxholes of World War II in this tale of a soldier's final letter home, written at Christmas to his father, the pastor, and now being read to the congregation that watched him grow up.
11. The Hysteria Over Oprah, or TJHH The right response to Oprah (and other idealists) is prayer and candor, not the vicious attacks I've seen passing out of the mouths and emails of Christians who are ordinarily gentle. We should pray for God to sit in a rocker next to Oprah and gently remind her that everything that contradicts the Bible is just HH.
10. I Have Come to Help God is never satisfied with Christians who pull themselves up by their bootstraps; He expects us to reach back down and pull others up as well...even if nobody helped us out when we needed it! Let these five words be your daily mission.
9. Separation Canyon "If only they'd waited just one more day." Read the true story of the first group to make it through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. Sometimes hope is closer than we know.
8. Legacies The people who change our lives with their love often leave us too soon.
7. A Faith With Muscle Eight famous Christians sat on a podium hoping to influence others to give their lives to Jesus; but it was a teen-age sailor in the British Royal Navy whose quiet courage sent help to thousands of Canadians living along the Labrador coast.
6. These Five Things After the terror attacks of September 11, many people took another look at Christians and their churches. For almost four years I polled them about what they think they found when they looked. The five things they said were almost universally the same, and they should (and do) shake and humble those of us seeking to share "the hope that is in us."
5. I Only Want to Matter What dignity and grace I met that morning; I'm still soaking up the lessons I learned from this woman with a dust rag in her hand and a yearning to matter in her heart. May we never miss those yearning "just to matter" to somebody else; and may we never miss seeing those who also yearn to make a difference somewhere, big and small.
4. He Also Made Me Fast "Chariots of Fire" may have glorified Eric Liddell's principled stands and Olympic glory, but it was his understanding that everything we do matters to God that can light the torch in us.
3. Return to Honor In September, 2003, a terrible storm bore down on Washington, D.C. For the first time in the history of the Tomb of the Unknowns, soldiers guarding the burial site of these honored dead at Arlington National Cemetery were given permission to leave their posts for safety if Hurricane Isabel came. The guards response? Not a chance!