Featured Devotionals

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ODJ: “Christ” offends people

A few years ago, a prominent Christian group removed the word Christ from its organisation’s name. The organisation defended its name change, citing research which revealed that 20 percent of non-Christians were alienated and offended by the name of Christ. So they stated that they were merely looking for a name that would make the organisation more effective in sharing the gospel.

ODJ: remember

Last week I took my adopted son Wasswa and his buddy Joseph (whom my friends adopted from Ethiopia) to the beach where I grew up in Florida. Watching the boys as they splashed in the gulf, played in the sand and curiously poked at a dead jellyfish that had washed up on the shore, I marvelled at God’s work in their lives.

Both boys had traumatic beginnings. By the age of four, whil

ODJ: exploding misconceptions

How do you help people understand who Jesus truly is? How do you break through the half-truths and misconceptions?

You do what Jesus did—you tell stories.
Jesus told parables to shake awake hearts so they could see what they needed to see. To shake the self-righteous from their arrogance, He told the story of a good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). To shake the small-hear

ODJ: stressed

Work for the believer is an opportunity to live out our God-given talents. At the same time, our jobs can be a significant source of stress. As we’re responding to different personalities or economic challenges in the workplace, our responsibility as believers is the same regardless of location or job description: love and reflect Jesus well.

Because Jesus is the “visible

ODJ: shea butter promises

Pastor Kofi has helped to plant 25 churches in Ghana and Burkina Faso, as well as a home for orphans and a school with 1,000 students. But he doesn’t have much money to manage all this.

So he welcomed an opportunity to provide a family member with shea butter for sale in America in exchange for a share of the profit. This versatile product of the shea tree has medicinal and cosmetic

ODJ: silent night

During the final home court basketball game in December, America’s Taylor University basketball fans practise a tradition they call “Silent Night”. Once the game starts, the crowd stays completely silent. All that’s heard are the echoes of the basketball bouncing on the court, the squeak of the players’ shoes and the occasional chatter among players and coaches. The gymnasium stays quie

ODJ: the soul’s worth

O Holy Night” is a Christmas hymn we need to sing loudly. We need to sing it during Advent and Christmas—and if I had my way, we’d belt it out every month of the year. These lines tell us a deep truth:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
’Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
When God, in an act of ultimate humility, came to us as a

ODJ: saved by a compass

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During World War II, Waldemar Semenov (a retired merchant seaman) was serving as a junior engineer aboard the SS Alcoa Guide when a German submarine surfaced and opened fire on the ship. The American merchant ship was hit, caught fire and began to sink. Three hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina, Semenov and the other sailors lowered lifeboats into the water. Fortunately the lifeboats wer

ODJ: the touch of love

A hug is a powerful thing. Picture a sobbing mother and father clutching each other as they stagger in grief. A third person walks up, a pastor or close friend and throws his arms around both of them. Their sorrow is too much for words, but his touch says enough and all that should be said.

Matthew said that “people were bringing all their sick” to Jesus—the Greek liter