A Devotion May Be Someone's Only Bible

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Listen to What Jesus Says

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.  John 15:10

Photo courtesy of pixabay.Feeling barren inside one day as I wrote another article, I searched for relief.

Walking over to a sitting room that had big stuffed chairs—needing any other chair than my office chair—I sat and allowed plump cushions to comfort me. Starting to feel a bit better but still weak and burdened, I bowed my head and prayed to the Lord. All I wanted to hear was what He had to say. After a period of resting in His arms, I realized I needed a red-letter edition of the Bible.

The last fifty years have been a search for the context world for me. I had been taught that a Bible verse taken out of context was a pretext. Doing this and not searching to see how the rest of the Bible comments on a verse has led to cults and atrocities. Yet I had become addicted to searching for contexts to the exclusion of nurturing my relationship with Jesus. A sad state of affairs, my congested mind and heart sighed in unison.

Then I found what I had when I was a frightened seventeen-year-old boy who went away to a Christian college that was far from home. I held on to Jesus and what He had said when He promised to provide everything I needed if I would first seek the kingdom of God. That red-letter verse has been a life verse for me, and I still claim its truth as an old man.

Professional accuracy had gotten in the way of my first love. Searching the context to see if a biblical interpretation was accurate had become primary. I had missed yielding to the Spirit and abiding in the Vine so I could bear fruit secondary.

Red-letter edition Bible reading is providing what I need. This verse speaks to me as if I’m one of the privileged few who walked with Jesus on the dusty trails of the Holy Land. I hear His voice and feel His love as a fresh breeze stirs my heart and clears my congested mind.

Read the words of Jesus, and listen to what He says.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)


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Robert L. Segress

The Rev. Dr. Bob Segress served as a licensed psychological clinician for twenty-five years. Upon retiring, he served for fifteen years as a prison minister. Retiring again, he began writing full-time after a period of boredom. He has written: The Biblical Approach To Psychology while serving as a college educator, The Shelton Series, and, in 2012, Ten Years Inside Shelton Prison. Currently, he writes for several publications such as Halo Magazine.