Last year, I wrote 5 Advent readings for our church, which we read in our services just before we lit each candle. Each candle (before Christmas) points to an aspect of the prophesied Redeemer:
The center candle, which we light on the Sunday on/after Christmas, represents Christ, the greatest gift.
Over the next 5 Saturdays, I'll be sharing each of these. My prayer is that they encourage you and focus your heart as we remember that, not only was a Redeemer promised, He was given; and, when He returns, He will bring each of these aspects to their perfect completion on this earth!
From its inception, this site has been known as Daniel's Weekly Devotions. However, it has been many years since I have posted weekly. Starting with the full title and subtitle, “Daniel's Weekly Devotions: A word from the Word each week”, I removed “Weekly” and “each week”. Once I had done that, I decided that I liked “A Word from the Word” better than “Daniel's Devotions”, so I flipped it around to arrive at the title you see above.
Posting may not be any more frequent, although I do hope to improve on my current blistering pace of 3 in the last 4 years.
This has been an interesting year. I have been sticking with the 1-year reading plan (for the most part, but catching up when I fall behind). It's been very enjoyable, but I almost feel like the pace is too fast to really let things sink in. As I read, I've been making notes of certain verses that stand out, places to which I want to return and dig deeper. Additionally, the Lord has provided some paid work (hallelujah!), which has taken up some of the time I would have used to formulate coherent devotionals. Don't take the lack of posts as a sign that this site has been abandoned; there's a lot kicking around in my mind that I hope to unpack and explore in the next few years here.
As an aside - if you follow either my personal blog or my tech blog, you've already read the “We're back on WordPress” posts. This blog is included; it's now back to running WordPress after a year on BlogEngine.NET. All the old links should redirect to new ones, and the goal is that you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't said anything. :)
I leave you with a quick word of encouragement from yesterday's sermon.
10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
On the suggestion of a friend, I subscribed to the Daily Audio Bible (DAB) podcast. In this podcast, Brian Hardin reads the Bible through each year - 2010 is the fifth year. It's been a blessing to me to listen to God's Word, as well as enjoy some of his comments as well. (I'll have to own up to skipping a good bit of the commentary, especially when I was trying to catch up a few days.) It was great to be able to listen while I did other things; however, this was a mixed blessing. I found that I would sometimes get distracted with the “other” thing that I was doing, and would mentally check out of the podcast. During one of these distracted times, I felt the Lord telling me that it was time to take the next step.
For this reason, beginning 2 Jan 10, I'll be beginning a 52-week Bible reading plan, reading it the old-fashioned way, off words printed on paper. My main Christmas gift this year was an ESV Study Bible, and this will help put that to good use. One of the aspects of DAB that I liked was the community; I knew that, although I might be the only one listening to my computer, there were thousands others that were listening to Brian. Although my participation in that community could be described, at best, as a lurker, it encouraged me to have it there. To help encourage others, I've created a group on Facebook called Read the Bible in 2011. This group will function as a community where we'll encourage each other along this journey. I'd like to invite you, my reader, to join me in this journey. The group is closed, but if you request access, just send me a separate message so I'll know who you are.
While the goal is to read through the Bible in a year, we don't want to go so quickly that we don't have time to stop and listen to what God is trying to tell us in the passage of the day. So, the stated goal of reading through the Bible in 2011 is not really the goal; it is merely the means to the greater goal of allowing God to speak to us. I'm looking forward to it - won't you join me?
I've been thinking a good bit about where this blog is headed, and I thought I'd share these thoughts with you.
When I started this, I had what turned out to be very lofty goals for it - a devotional week-in, week-out, well-thought-out and based on what I was currently studying in the Bible. With other responsibilities and activities that I have, I simply have not been able to meet that goal. This isn't to say that the goal isn't a good one; I just have fallen short of it. Weekly devotions will remain the goal (and the name), but there will be a change. While Wednesday at 7am will remain the unofficial schedule, each devotion will appear when I have completed it; if I complete it early, it'll be on time, but it may be late. The best way to keep up with this is via the RSS feed. I also will post links via my Twitter account, and the NetworkedBlogs application automatically posts entries to my Facebook profile.
I've also been doing some research regarding versions of the Bible. I still like the Holman Christian Standard Bible, but over the summer, I was introduced to the English Standard Version. While the HCSB's goal is a more contemporary English sentence structure, word-for-word for the most part but thought-for-thought where the word order may be confusing, the ESV is a literal word-for-word translation, similar to the way the King James Version was translated. Far from confusing, I have found it to speak to me in a way the HCSB has not. Beginning in 2011, I will switch to using the ESV as the default version for my devotionals.
I am grateful to have seen God use these devotionals to bless people that I have never met. I will post what I feel He is leading me to post, when He enables me by providing the thoughts about which to write and the time to pull it together into a coherent post. I pray that, as we head into 2011 and beyond, that God will use this site to bring others to Him, and encourage His own to a deeper relationship with Him.
Welcome to version 2.0 of Daniel's Weekly Devotions! I've cleaned out the cobwebs, put on a fresh coat of paint, and gotten it ready to return to being an active part of the Internet.
The first change is the URL. This used to be under my personal blog, which made configuration more challenging. The new URL is devotions.summershome.org. I've implemented redirection for all the old category and post links, as well as the RSS feed. Anything that this doesn't catch will be redirected here to the main page. If you run into a link that didn't redirect the way you thought it should, please let me know.
The next change is the theme. The previous theme was based on the famous Kubrick theme, which was the default WordPress theme for many years. This theme is called Fresh Citrus, and it has its sidebar on the right; the comments now support Gravatars, country flags, and a different background for comments by the post author. I've also updated ShareThis to the latest version and changed the icon layout.
The third change was a move from WordPress to BlogEngine.NET. While WordPress has served me well, I really like where BlogEngine.NET is headed. The migration was quick and easy; I spent more time customizing the theme than I did moving the data over. I plan to put migration details over on The Bit Badger Blogthe DJS Consulting Tech Blog at some point in the future.
There you have it - a summary of what's new here. Devotions will resume 25 Aug 10 with a look at Romans 3:16.
Author
Daniel is a man who wants to be used of God however He sees fit.