Friday, October 9, 2009

Gone to Press!

This week we finished editing and completed my new devotional book, Grace Today! It's now at the printer and will be out around Thanksgiving! I'm so excited about it. Here's a look at the cover:



This book is similar to Psalms Today, but a little meatier, it's about 100 more pages of devotional meat! Here's an excerpt from the new book:

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28).

It’s interesting what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “And we hope that all things work together for good to those who love God.” Nor does he say, “And we know that some things or most things work together for good!”

But he says: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God!”

“No verse in the Bible claims more than that, covers more territory, offers more hope and comfort. If what this verse says is so, then every cloud has its silver lining of hope, and every event in our life is capable of producing final and lasting good to our souls.”*

But look at what Paul is not saying: This promise is for everyone.

This promise has one very important qualification. Paul is not saying that all things work together for good for everyone. He is saying that all things work together for good to all those who have responded to the Gospel and put their faith in Christ!

The literal rendering of the Greek text clarifies this. It reads, “And we know to the ones loving God, all things work together for good...” For some reason the translators took the phrase, “to them that love God” and inserted it at the end of the sentence.

So a lot of times you’ll hear people just quote the first part of this verse and say, “Well, all things work together for good.” But that’s not actually true! When Paul wrote this he put in one very important qualification: “To the ones loving God all things work together for good.” If a person is not a child of God, they do not have this assurance. They are in a world where the devil, Satan, desires to work things so that they will not go to heaven!

If you do not know the Lord, chances are that things are not working together for good!

Let’s change all that right now. Pray this prayer with me and ask Jesus to come into your life: “Father in Heaven, thank You for loving me and for sending Jesus to die for all the wrong things I have done. I am sorry for what I have done. I want to turn my life over to You. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me; and that He was buried and rose from the dead. I’m asking that Jesus please come into my life and be my Savior and my Lord.”

*Clarence E. McCartney, The Great Texts of the Bible, 60.


I'm really looking forward to sharing the entire book with you next month. The Lord bless you!