Featured Devotionals

Check out all of YMI’s content pieces tagged under Featured Devotionals. We hope you’d benefit from the written and visual content we have under this topic: Featured Devotionals.

ODJ: coffee house


A pastor wanted to break his church out of their formal traditions and nudge them in a fresh direction. He sensed that the congregation’s formality was discouraging the local community from walking through the church’s doors. So he began to take small steps to help them change. 


One Sunday morning he replaced the lectern with a small, café-style table. Cup of coffee in hand, he

ODJ: one diverse family


A question I often hear (and also ask myself) regarding diversity is this: “God calls us to reach out to those who are different from us, but how far are we supposed to go?” Is it enough to serve and minister to people who are different, or are we called to do more?


Acts 2 is a wonderful guide for us. It seems on the surface that there are two separate and distinct accounts in th

ODJ: blameless

Pastor guilty of bilking money from elderly woman . . . Church elder convicted of accounting fraud . . . Pastor of megachurch accused of financial misappropriation.
Headlines like these tell of an insidious sin that has plagued the church since it began (Acts 5:1-5; Romans 16:17-18; 1 Timothy 6:3-5).
As a minister of the gospel, the apostle Paul was careful to ensure that his conduct an

ODJ: when bad guys win

How do you feel when you play by the rules, but the cheaters win? Not pleasant, huh? But things like that happen in life—sometimes bad guys win and the good guys suffer.
David knew all about this reality. On two occasions he did the right thing by sparing Saul’s life, only to see Saul return to his comfortable palace while he had only a cold cave to call home.
Can you relate? Perhap

ODJ: silencing the barren womb

Dear Sheridan,
I know that you and your wife have never been able to have children. My husband and I haven’t been able to either, and we’ve tried almost everything to do so. The hardest thing I find is that the pain and the longing never seem to go away. I resonate with what Proverbs 30 says: The barren womb is never satisfied. I know you and Merryn have been able to move on

ODJ: hearing God’s Word

As a Christian radio broadcaster, I get to encourage listeners by presenting truths from God’s Word, and—in the process—I’m also encouraged and built up in my faith. Berni Dymet, a broadcaster, author and speaker, recently tweeted that he’d recorded a number of radio messages and that he’d been ministered to as he read the Word of God out loud. Hearing God’s Word is a powerful antido

ODJ: quick . . . and slow

If you engage in any form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.), you’ve probably read something that made your blood boil. I’m not sure that we’ve figured out how to have meaningful conversation around divisive topics in the virtual world. Is it even possible?
For believers in Jesus, James provides an appropriate online ethic: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to

ODJ: selfish servants

The lighthouse keepers had survived harsh and lonely conditions on a meager salary, endured the incessant roar of the foghorn and rowed their lifeboat onto stormy seas to rescue sailors. But the keepers had also resisted efforts to install a new lens that would have doubled the amount of light their station could have cast. Why? The keepers had made a financial arrangement with the maker of the ol

ODJ: the bedrock

Our recent move to the countryside has been an adventure in many ways. The stars are amazing in the open sky, bugs and spiders exist in abundance and water from a well tastes pretty good. Recently my son’s friend was visiting from the city and we explained to him how our well works. My husband and I both paused as we considered how it symbolised a spiritual truth. The work crew had drilled down