Devotionals

A Morning and Evening Devotional Time Part 2

by Jerry Walch
08/22/19
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Memory Scripture:

“Studyto shewthyselfapproved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2Timothy 2:15.)”

In this part of this series I want to touch upon Bible translation and selecting the translation best suited to you, Bible reading plans, and Bible study guides. To have a successful devotional you need to have a plan to guide you. Most important of all you need to have a Bible that you can understand, so we will start there.

Bible Translations: Which one is best for you?

Today there are more than 450 English translations of the Holy Bible and they are all good translations of the original texts. Which one is best for you then? I, personally prefer the Authorized King James Translation. There is just something about the Old English language that makes God's Word more beautiful for me, but I'm not everyone. Most people today, especially younger people have problems with Old and Middle English languages. It's hard for them to understand. Most Bible schools and churches today opt for the New American Standard translation or the New International Version of the Bible because it is written in modern English and easy for everyone to read and understand. Choosing between the New American Standard Version (NASV0 and the New International Version (NIV), I would probably go with the NIV. My recommendations to every new believer is to try out as many translations as they can until they find the translation that peaks to them. Bible Gateway online has over sixty of the most popular English Translations that you can read for free online. Check them out and sign up for a free subscription while you're there because Bible Gateway has many other study helps that you will be able to use and they're all free.

Bible Reading Plans

When I started thinking about what I wanted to say here a line of dialogue from an old TV series came to mind. “I love it when a plan comes together.” Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, played by George Peppard, used that line all the time in the TV series “The A-Team.” That's the only show hat I know of where thousands of rounds of ammo could be fired, hundreds of explosions taking place and numerous car crashes happening and no one was ever killed or even seriously injured. It was pure, unadulterated innocent entertainment. But, seriously, I think that line is appropriate when talking about Bible Reading plans. There are hundreds of them to choose from and they all come together to help you master God's Holy Bible. There are over fifteen major plans to choose from on Bible Gateway alone and they are all free to download and print out. For the new Christian I recommend starting with one of the Through the Bible in a Year Plans that balances each day's readings with passages from both the Old and the New Testaments. One of my favorites is published by One Year Bible Online and downloadable here. Along with working with a Through the Bible in a Year Plan you need to have a daily Devotional Guide of which there are many good ones.

Which Daily Devotional to Use?

There are many excellent daily devotionals that are available both online and in print and many of them are totally free to subscribe to. Even Oswald Chamber's classic devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest” is now available free online. Oswald Chamber's is my favorite but, o9nce again, the language may prove a stumbling block for many. What I propose to do here is to simply provide you with a list of some of the best and link them to their websites. Check them all out and then go with the one that's right for you.

1. 
   

   The Our Daily Bread is one of everyone's all time favorites. It's a great way to kick off a morning devotional time but it's so much more. The Our Daily Bread site offers in-depth Bible studies, reading plans and other guides that you can use during devotional times. It's one of the ones that I have used ever since becoming a Christian back in the day when all we had was the print edition to work with.



2. 
   

   Oswald Chamber's :My Utmost for His Highest” online. This is my favorite. It's a classic. Be sure to check this one out.



3. 
   

   Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotionals is another excellent set of daily devotional guides that you can use to fire up your time spent with God.



4. 
   

   Crosswalks,com offers hundreds of different devotionals that you can choose from, Some are for men only. Some are for women only, while other are for families. There's one for every devotional group so check them out.

There are thousands more on the web to choose from, just Google Daily Devotionals, but check the ones I have listed above out first because they are all ones that I have first hand knowledge of and can vouch for.

Bible Study Guides

There are thousands of good Bible study guides available today but one of the best sources for free Bible study guides is Amazon. Com if you have a Kindle Reader or the the Kindle App on your Smart Phone, desktop computer, laptop computer, notebook computer or I pad. Just go to Amazon.com and search for free Christian E-books.

In closing

I have one last site for you to check out. This is a new one for me but it's slated towards the babes in Christ and I highly recommend that you take it for a test drive. It's called First15. It's written using language that everyone will be able to understand and covers everything the Babe in Christ needs to know about—Scripture, prayer, worship music, Calls to Action, and much much more. First15 is designed to help you have a 15 minute devotional time that both you and God will find satisfying.

Up Next

Next time I will wrap up this series by talking about keeping a devotional journal, scripture memorization, prayer and the benefits of a group devotional.