Get the best of… all in one volume.

NavPress has created a new line of products called devotional readers. This collection of books will highlight the most significant writings of NavPress authors as well as other well-known authors. These devotions focus on various doctrinal themes and are set in a daily reading outline. This pre-release sampler, How Great Is Our God, centers on the doctrine of God. Each daily reading gives the reader a profound understanding of the character of God while truly allowing readers to experience a deeper level of knowing God personally.

these 312 daily readings were carefully gleaned from the best writings of:

Henry BlackaBy, Experiencing God Jerry Bridges, Trusting God

cHarles colson, Loving God sinclair Ferguson, A Heart for God

Billy graHam, Peace with God andrew murray, Waiting on God,

J. i. Packer, Knowing God Working for God

JoHn PiPer, Desiring God r. c. sProul, Pleasing God

a. w. Tozer, The Pursuit of God dallas willard, Hearing God

how Great is our God9781615217304

$19.99

W e e k 1 4 / T h u r s d a y

Personal and Conscious

Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.

Jeremiah 9:24

God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, de-

sires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar

pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our

emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the

soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.

This intercourse between God and the soul is known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is

personal: that is, it does not come through the body of believers, as such, but is known to the indi-

vidual, and to the body through the individuals which compose it. And it is conscious: that is, it does

not stay below the threshold of consciousness and work there unknown to the soul (as, for instance,

infant baptism is thought by some to do), but comes within the field of awareness where the man can

“know” it as he knows any other fact of experience.

You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have

within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has

quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous

recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the kingdom of God. It is, how-

ever, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of

the infinite riches of the Godhead.

That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the

awful and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

a. W. Tozer, in The PursuiT of God

W e e k 1 9 / M o n d a y

A New Direction

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

revelation 3:19

What did Jesus mean by the word repent? Why does it appear over and over throughout the Bible?

If you look in a modern dictionary you’ll find that repent means “to feel sorry for, or to regret.” But the

original words Jesus spoke meant a great deal more than just regretting and feeling sorry about sin.

When the Prodgial Son repented, he didn’t stay where he was, surrounded by the swine. He got up

and left! He turned his feet in the other direction. He sought out his father and humbled himself before

him, and then he was forgiven.

The biblical word repent means “to change, or to turn.” It’s a word of power and action. It’s a

word that signifies a complete turnabout in the individual.

Too many modern Christians have lost sight of what the Bible means when it talks about repen-

tance. They think repentance is little more than shaking their heads over their sins and saying, “My,

but I’m sorry I did that!” and then continuing to live just as they’ve lived before.

True repentance means “to change, to turn away from, to go in a new direction.” To be sorry is not

enough in repentance. Judas was sorry enough to hang himself; It was an admission of guilt without

true repentance.

Even reformation is not enough. No suffering we can undergo will lead us to repentance. There’s

no torture you can give your body, no trials you can set for your mind, that will be pleasing to Al-

mighty God. Our sins were atoned for by Christ on the cross; there He suffered sin’s penalty.

When the Bible calls upon us to repent of sin, it means that we should turn away from sin, that we

should do an about-face and walk in the opposite direction from sin and all that it implies.

Billy GrahaM, in Peace wiTh God

W e e k 3 5 / W e d n e s d a y

Brutalizing God

Master, I knew you to be a hard man… so I was afraid.

matthew 25:24-25

Far too commonly we think of God as did the man in the parable of the talents who regarded his

lord as “a harsh man.” In the same way we demean God immeasurably by casting him in the role of the

cosmic boss, whose chief joy in relation to humans is ordering them around, taking pleasure in seeing

them jump at his command, and painstakingly noting any failures.

When we come to learn how we can hear God and what divine guidance really is, we must come in

such a way that we do justice to the revelation of God in Christ. Hearing God and seeking guidance are

an almost universal human preoccupation. It’s hard, however, to cleanse our minds of those motives,

images, and concepts that would brutalize the very God we hope to approach.

In the primitive rituals and the “Bible roulette” (picking verses at random for guidance) frequently

practiced by present-day believers, we see both the desperate urgency and the superstitious character of

human efforts to get a word from God, especially a word on what is going to happen and what we should

do about it. If necessary, some people are prepared to force such a word from him. Like King Saul, many

of us have our own versions of a witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28).

Hearing God cannot be a reliable and intelligible fact of life except when we see his speaking as one

aspect of his presence with us, of his life in us. Only our communion with God provides the appropri-

ate context for communications between us and him. And within those communications, guidance will

be given in a manner suitable to our particular lives and circumstances. It will fit into our life together

with God in his earthly and heavenly family. This is our first preliminary insight to help us in learning to

discern God’s voice.

dallas Willard, in hearinG God

W e e k 4 4 / T u e s d a y

A Glorious Duty

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

It is the duty of every person to live for the glory of God. If God made us for His glory, it is clear that

we should live for His glory. Our duty comes from God’s design.

What does it mean to glorify God?

It does not mean to make Him more glorious. It means to acknowledge His glory, to value it above

all things, and to make it known. It implies heartfelt gratitude: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his

sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:23). It also implies trust: Abraham “grew strong in his faith as he gave

glory to God” (Romans 4:20).

Glorifying God is the duty not only of those who have heard the preaching of the gospel, but also of

people who have only the witness of nature and their own conscience:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived,

ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For

although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in

their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:20-21)

God will not judge anyone for failing to perform a duty if the person had no access to the knowledge

of that duty. But even without the Bible, all people have access to the knowledge that we are created by

God and therefore are dependent on Him for everything, thus owing Him the gratitude and trust of our

hearts. Deep within us we all know that it is our duty to glorify our Maker by thanking Him for all we

have, trusting Him for all we need, and obeying all His revealed will.

John PiPer, in desirinG God

W e e k 4 5 / T h u r s d a y

Recognizing God’s Voice

Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people

Psalm 85:8

Sin has affected us so deeply (see Romans 3:10-11) that you and I cannot understand the truth of

God unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. He is our teacher. As you read your Bible, be open to the

Spirit as He teaches you the Word of God. As you pray, watch how the Holy Spirit uses Scripture to

confirm in your heart what God is saying. Observe what He is doing around you in the circumstances of

life. The God who is speaking to you as you pray and the God who is speaking to you in the Scriptures is

the same God who is at work around you daily.

The evidence of the Scriptures can encourage you at this point. The Bible illustrates that when God

chose to speak to an individual, that person had no doubt it was God, and it was clear what God was

saying. When God speaks to you, you can know He is the One speaking, and you, too, can understand

clearly what He is saying. Jesus explained, “The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the

sheep…and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…. I am the

good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and they know Me” (John 10:2-4,14 HCSB).

Knowing God’s voice is not a matter of honing a method or discovering a formula. Recognizing

God’s voice comes from an intimate love relationship with Him. Those who do not have the relationship

do not hear what God is saying (see John 8:47). Since God will uniquely communicate with you in the

intimacy of your walk with Him, your relationship with Him is of utmost importance.

There is no substitute for an intimate relationship with God.

henry and richard BlackaBy, in exPeriencinG God

1-800-366-7788

Devotional ReaDeRs Coming soon The Discipline of Prayer: A collection of the best writings on prayer The Doctrine of Scripture: A collection of the best writings on the Bible

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