With this daily devotional book, you have to take the mediocre with the excellent.
It's entitled, God's Promises Devotional Journal: 365 Days of Experiencing the Lord's Blessings. A whole slew of Christian authors have contributed to the work, most of whom I'd never heard of prior to reading it. Among them:
- Anne Graham Lotz
- Robert Morris
- Jack Countryman
- Elisabeth Elliot
- Dr. Larry Crabb
- John Hagee
- Neil Clark Warren
- David Jeremiah
- Henry & Richard Blackaby
- Thomas Watson
- RC Sproul
- Richard Foster
- Mary Graham
- Patsy Clairmont
- John MacArthur
- Criswell Freeman
- Max Lucado
- Billy Graham
While much of the material could be deemed good, the book as a whole is not great. A few of the less notable reflections waxed on regarding the importance of boosting one's self-esteem/self-image, forgiving oneself, and the like. Regarding prayer, one author stated, "... if we persist in knocking, the promise is that God will eventually open the door."
One very well-known author paints a picture of God, looking down on Earth, "doomed, damned, crushed...He saw you and me, struggling beneath our load of sin. He made His decision [to become a man and atone for sin.]." The Scriptures clearly state that Christ's incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection was in God's plan, even before the foundation of the world!
These less-than-stellar excerpts were the worst of the bad ones. Most of the remainder (except for those authors I mentioned previously) were good and fine and nice. Just not excellent.
Subject matter aside, I would've liked to see more material in general. Each day has one page, with about half the page devoted to the author's words. The bottom half of each page is lined, so the reader can record his notes/reflections/thoughts each day. If used, this book should certainly be supplemental to one's regular devotional diet and not the main course.
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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