Great Plains Daily Devotional for 10/26/2020

Colossians 3:23-24

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Many years ago the Holy Spirit put an idea in my head to create an easy read Bible for people who get discouraged by the genealogies, duplication, tedious detail, etc. Of course being a busy pastor I ignored the promptings. But God is persistent and through the years never really let me forget the idea. A few years after I retired the prompting returned with a gentle reminder that I was now retired and not so busy.

Well, I decided to take it more seriously, though I really thought it would be beyond my ability (silly me, God was behind this and with God all things are possible). Anyway after working on it for a few years I self-published a two volume Bible (two volumes because of the page limitation for self-publishing). My wife and I challenged two churches with free copies for anyone willing to commit to reading it. Our church had pretty good response but our former congregation had only one taker (rather disappointing though the target audience wasn't necessarily those in the church).

So to reach the intended audience I reworked the Bible to get it to one volume (less expensive) and made it available at cost through the publisher. I have no idea if any copies were purchased besides those we bought to give away. Recently I asked if a free downloadable copy and information about obtaining a printed version could be placed on our churches web site, which was done. Again, I have know idea if or how many persons have even check it out, much less read it.

I pondered how I would love to know, but was nudged again by the Holy Spirit to remember that it was to honor God and help people draw closer to God through the reading of the Word that I had done this.

All this background to ask this: Has God been nudging you to do something that you have resisted? I urge you to say yes to the prompting whatever your reservations. The joy of knowing that, with God's help, you have accomplished it and done you best to honor God in doing so is reward enough (no not just enough but everything).

Prayer for Reflection

Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46