book review: Voices of the Faithful

Daily meditations that take readers in one week from China, to Africa, to the Caribbean, to Central Asia are what set apart this book of devotional readings. Popular speaker and writer Beth Moore ties them all together in an introduction and short essays that precede each month’s theme. In this way readers explore topics like God’s character, prayer, persecution, spiritual warfare, Christmas around the world, and others.

The first-person vignettes about life in the mission field make for fascinating reading. Take, for example, the opening paragraph from the March 8th story about an incident in Africa:

“After several months in language school, we drove to a neighboring country to visit our future home. A few hours into our journey, a car occupied by four men brandishing an automatic rifle and a pistol pulled us over. Three of them got into our car, forcing us into the backseat” – p. 83.

Or the beginning of the October 30th entry by a worker in the Pacific Rim:

“On a trip to Thailand, my husband had a vivid dream. An angel repeated, ‘You must pray for your house; it is not protected. God had my husband’s attention. He spent the next two days, from time to time interceding for our house and family, asking God’s protection. He stayed longer in Thailand while the kids and I went back to our country” – p. 355.

The main purpose of each daily reading is to help the reader focus on some aspect of the Christian life. They illustrate how similar we are as people in the things we desire, struggle with, and fear. Though the settings are varied, the take-away for Christian living is universal.

In addition these devotions educate about customs, local conditions, beliefs and the missionary enterprise around the world. The provide lots of prayer fodder.

The contributors are identified in some way at the bottom of each devotion (sometimes by name, other times more anonymously as “A worker in (name of country).” Each reading ends with a brief prayer.

The book is a project of the International Mission Board (Southern Baptist Convention) and proceeds of all sales of the book are earmarked for it. An appendix-like section at the back focuses on missions with information about Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministries, a message from the president of the International Mission Board SBC as well as hints on how to pray for international missionaries and people groups, and suggestions for how churches and individuals can become involved in missions.

I am finding the devotional stories interesting and inspirational – a quick read at the beginning, middle or end of the day. Considering they were written by a collection of nearly 300 people, the writing style is amazingly consistent. My only criticism is with the size of the font chosen for the prayers. It’s tiny!

Altogether this is an excellent devotional to use for a year and then pass on to someone else. But be warned, the writers’ enthusiasm about living for Jesus is contagious. A whole year of readings gives the book ample time to change your life.


Book Facts:


Title: Voices of the Faithful: Inspiring Stories of Courage from Christians Serving Around the World
Author: Beth Moore, International Mission Board
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, December 2010, paperback, 480 pages.

ISBN-10: 0849946247 
ISBN-13: 978-0849946240

(I received this book as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review. Article first published as Book Review: Voices of the Faithful: Inspiring Stories of Courage from Christians Serving Around the World with Beth Moore and Friends, compiled by Kim P. Davis on Blogcritics.)

daily devotions in 2010

If one of your New Year's Resolutions in 2010 is to have a daily quiet time, Other Food: daily devo's may be just the place for you.

Starting January 1, 2010, Other Food will feature a new meditation every morning.  Based on Bible readings from the Canadian Bible Society, these devotionals will link a Scripture passage, focus on one idea from the text, lead in a brief prayer, and supplement the idea with inspiration in quotes, songs, links to check out, etc.

I'm really excited about writing these daily meditations - and would love for you to join me January 1st!

sneak peek

I'm having a lot of fun posting my children's devotional, Bible Drive-Thru. One of the things I enjoy most (and which takes the most time) is finding graphics to go with the stories. In my hunt for public domain illustrations, I've run into some wonderful sites with pictures that bring to mind Sunday School paper illustrations from my childhood, like this one, and this one.

In case you haven't gone over to take a peek at the kids' devotionals, today I'm posting one over here (I have had emails from a few adults who said they enjoyed them too!)

And if you know of any kids who would enjoy such a devotional, please pass along the URL: http://bibledrivethru.blogspot.com. It's updated daily.

(This devotion, "Perfect Timing," is for February 5)
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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 41:1-16, 39,40

TO CHEW ON: “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has made this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.’” (Genesis 41:39,40)

Two years passed after the cup bearer was set free, Joseph was still in prison.

One night Pharaoh had a dream. It scared him and he wanted to know what it meant. But when he called his wise men and magicians, they couldn’t tell him the meaning of the dream.

Then someone remembered a dream he had had, and the young Hebrew prisoner who told him what it meant. It was the cupbearer. At last he remembered Joseph!

Servants came for Joseph. They took off his prison uniform, put new clothes on him and brought him to Pharaoh.



Pharaoh told Joseph his dream – and Joseph told him the meaning! Then Pharaoh did something amazing. He made Joseph the second boss in the whole land.

I’m sure Joseph often wondered, will the cupbearer ever think of me? Will I ever get out of here? But when it was God’s time, Joseph went from being a prisoner to a prince in one day!

PRAYER: Dear God, You have a perfect time for everything in my life. Thank you! Amen.

SUPERSIZE IT: Luck, Coincidence – or God?
Sometimes when things fit together perfectly, we call it good luck, or coincidence. But such times are really examples of God putting things together in the perfect way, at the perfect time.

Can you tell a story of a time when God did this for you?

happy birthday Mr. Doré

Today is the birthday of French book illustrator Gustave Doré. He was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1832. Doré's drawings were noticed by the time he was five. He never took art lessons, but by the age of 15 he had published his first illustrated story. At 16 he moved to Paris and became the highest paid illustrator in France. Most of his drawings are wood engravings or steel engravings.

He was given the job of illustrating an English version of the Bible which was published in 1866. The hundreds of Bible illustrations he drew were used in Bibles of every language in the 19th century.



Because his work is now in the public domain, you will find many of his drawings bringing to life the stories in my kids' devotional Bible Drive-Thru.

Mr. Doré died in January 23, 1883. He was only 51.

new blog of daily devotions for kids!

Way back on March 13th of this year I announced that I had finished writing the first draft of my book of children's devotions, Bible Drive-Thru.

I put the manuscript away after that in order to get our house ready to sell and then we moved. It was not until about six weeks ago that I got that project out again. My plan was to rework it -- and then what?

I thought of submitting it to a royalty publisher, but no one has expressed any interest in all the places I've submitted a proposal. I looked (very briefly) into self-publishing. But it's too expensive.

During all this time I often day dreamed about how much fun it would be to blog these devotions. I could make them way more colorful and interactive than any publisher could afford, I reasoned. Plus, isn't the internet where kids hang out? If I made it available online, it would be accessible to kids of all kinds -- not just those whose parents or grandparents bought them a devotional book from the Christian bookstore.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to put up a couple of these devotions on the internet just to get the feel of how they would read online. And so the Bible Drive-Thru blog was born.

I was right -- they are a lot of fun to blog. I've been working on them since then, tightening, revising and adapting what I've written to work online.

Today I'm making that blog public. Right now it's in sample form and will be that way for December. This is to give kids (and parents) a chance to have a look and see if it's something they'd like to come back to on January 1st.

Then, starting January 1, I'll be posting a new devotion there every day for all of 2008.

So, you're invited to the Bible Drive-Thru blog. If you like what you see, be sure to tell the kids that you know, and their parents. (The target age group is Grades 4-6, although I'm sure younger able readers could read them too).

And if you have any suggestions on how I could make it better, I'd love to hear them!

switching roles

The Martha in Me

She (Martha) had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Luke 10:39,40


Too often Martha takes charge –
I schedule service with conditions
workboots clomp on everything
threatening my control
I curse the one who’s late
ignore the longing in my daughter’s eyes to chat
dismiss the women with Watchtower at my door–
not aware I’ve stamped out
embers of His presence

– while Mary sits confined to a corner of my heart
shaking her head in sadness and disbelief:
Girl, when will you learn
to serve Him you must first
let Him serve you.
You will not hear His zephyr voice
above the drumbeat of agenda,
motion’s clatter or ambition’s roar.
Open yourself to interruption, serendipity
stillness. Be flexible, available
to sit down or jump up
at His impractical bidding.

© 2003 – V. Nesdoly

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January is a month of prayer emphasis in our church. This week has been set apart as a week of consecration. Pastor has challenged each of us to spend it “looking under every stone of your life.” In his excellent Sunday sermon he talked about following Ezra's example in praying for personal and national revival. He suggested that for this week we change our routine in some way – eliminate some things from our lives and add in others.

I’ve decided to take the week off from this blog to spend some Mary-moments with Jesus. I’ll be back (I think) a week from today.

(Picture is from Jesus Life in Pictures - Cath Art Creations by Marianne.)

hannah faith

I love the story of Hannah. One’s heart can’t help but go out to this woman, the barren but most loved of two wives, whose rival rubs it in especially when they make their yearly trip to Shiloh. Then, when husband Elkanah gives Hannah a double offering, as if she had a son, Peninnah – the other wife – in her jealousy teases her, provokes her, doesn’t let her forget that she’s barren - BARREN!!

Oh the bitterness of it – to regularly see Peninnah’s belly swell with yet another child while hers stays flat. To live in this home squirming with young life, but none of it hers. And then to endure the cruel taunts of this woman – this apparently blessed woman, while she the kind one, the devout one, the loved one has nothing to show for it but empty arms.

This year she is desperate. While they’re in Shiloh, Peninnah’s pestering gets so bad she can’t eat. Even Elkanah’s chide, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” grates.

She slips away to the tabernacle to pray and silently pour out her bitterness – even vowing that if God will give her a son, she’ll give him back to Him for his whole his life.

Cynical old Eli sits at the temple door watching her. With an imagination tainted by the debauchery all around him, he sees only drunkenness in her emotional outpouring. Finally he can’t stand it any more. “How long will you be drunk.” he says, interrupting her prayer. “Put your wine away from you.”

Aghast, Hannah replies, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit,” and she explains how she’s been in desperate prayer.

Eli, quick to see his mistake and sense this broken woman’s heart doesn’t even ask her what she’s praying for. In an about-face he says, “Go in peace and the God of Israel grant you your petition which you have asked of Him.”

And so Hannah goes, back to their campsite, smiling, perhaps even laughing.

“What’s with you?” a suspicious Peninnah asks, as she watches the woman who formerly had no appetite sit down and finish a whole meal.

I love how Hannah believed. She didn’t question the words of Eli with doubts about the messenger – does God really talk to him? After all, his sons are rumored to be real rapscallions. She didn’t go about cutting down this shining hope inside her with memories of the past and how it had always been before. No. She acted as if the thing were already accomplished and she already had that baby close to her heart.

I want to have a faith like Hannah’s. A faith that notices the answer to my need in a verse that just happens to be in the day’s Bible reading, or the words of a song, or the sermon of a pastor, or the reading in a devotional book, or someone’s blog post, or ... and then accepts that answer as from Him in simple uncomplicated trust – like a child, like Hannah.

And, as is typical of God, Hannah’s intense burden for a child perfectly meshed with a burden in His own heart. As Jane Hansen writes (“Women in God’s Design” sidebar - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible)

“Barrenness was not only Hannah’s condition, but Israel’s condition as well. It was a season of spiritual need and with little prophetic activity, and God sought a voice to speak on His behalf to His people. Hannah could not know that her intense intercession for a child was moving in concert with God – bringing her a son, but also bringing forth the will and blessing of God for a whole nation. As she entrusts the longings of her heart to God, He moves on her behalf, but also advances His larger plan through her at the same time."

Isn’t that an exciting thought – that the intense longings of my heart may be the birth channel of fulfillment for God’s larger purposes? Isn’t God amazing in the way He works!