In my
school days, I loved reading Our Daily Bread (popularly known as ODB)
produced by Radio Bible Class (RBC) ministries. It was a devotional calendar-style booklet arranged for the
whole year. Year after year, I would save money or ask my parents
to buy for me this precious devotional book. Each morning before I step out of
my bed I would be reading and would be praying after it.
I was so
devoted to reading this book that one of my friends used to make fun of me
saying, “ODB to him is like a medicine to a patient of cysticercosis.” (We grew
up with that disease around us. Doctors would prescribe a tablet and syrup
instructing us sternly to ingest before we step out of bed.) There were times I
would like to get into the washroom, but I would not unless I completed
the daily reading schedule of ODB. I was so passionate about reading
it because it blessed my soul very much. I would even promote it by giving as
Birthday gifts or Christmas presents to others.
After
years of reading it, one day a Christian leader told me to graduate myself from
reading ODB and to start studying Bible myself. And so, ODB has
become a history for me. The impact ODB had on me was so great that one day I
decided to write a devotional piece of my own. This is one of them. I wrote it
before my seminary days.
CONSIDER YOUR WAYS!
Years ago, my
brother and I got an opportunity to repair the punctured tire of a
motorbike. We were unable to unscrew it. We questioned our strength and kept on
pressing with all our might but in vain. A passer-by who happened to be a
mechanic, seeing our plight came to help us. He took up the lever and tightened
it much to our surprise. Then, he told us to unscrew it. We never knew that to
unscrew a tight screw it has to be tightened first, then to let it loose.
Sometimes, in
our journey of life, we come across where we cannot move further. It’s not
a time to keep on pursuing. It’s a time to stop and consider our ways whether
we’re heading in the right direction or not, and how far we’ve gone.
The Bible says in Lamentations 3:40 “Let us search out and examine our
ways, And turn back to the LORD.” It is a time to turn back and tighten our position to
unleash our potential to the fullest.
Now, you
can surmise why I blog “With the Word: A Devotional Reflection of Scripture”
series every Friday. I write for three reasons: Firstly, it drives me to engage
the word of God practically. Secondly, I have learned that Devotionals are
effective for readers, and loved by Christians around the world. Thirdly, if
the gigantic pastor like Spurgeon and MacArthur are in the favor of producing
Devotional books, well, there should be.
I do not
dare to mention such name, for me to start writing a devotional piece
and put up on the blog for anyone to read it. By far, theirs are much
superior, and I encourage you to read them (Morning and Evening, by
Spurgeon; Drawing Near, by John
MacArthur). The distinctive of With the Word (WTW) includes Exposition,
Illustration, Application, Exhortation, and Summarization. Most of them are
less than 300 words.