A Happy Milestone Day

Today is an anniversary of sorts.  Today I have been coming into your home for six months.  That is, I have been if you have been following this daily devotion from the beginning.  For me it has been a blessed, yes happy, six months of sharing the grace of Jesus Christ with you. 

As a pastor I was used to preparing multiple sermons each week so I didn’t think too much at the start about writing each day.  But a sermon is much longer than a devotional and therefore just a little less demanding.  What, you might say?  Well, here I get 400-500 words to say just what I want to say.  Everything has to be polished down to the clearest and yet simplest form.  There can be no lengthy explanations or illustrations.  Even when I speak at nursing homes or retirement centers I get ten minutes to speak and that is about 3000 words.  As an author of books I get to use 50,000 or more words.  It has been great to find the discipline to use 400-500 words and try to get across my idea.

I hope that these months have been as much of a blessing to you as they have been to me.  I will be finishing my devotions on happiness in the next two weeks and then am looking forward to starting a new series that I am now researching.  At the same time I am now working on books 4, 5 and 6.  The writing of book four is done and it is in the editing process.  Books 5 and 6 are forming themselves slowly and are each a little over half done.  You can find these books at my website, www.davidccraig.net.  Each chapter in books one and two is a devotional unto itself.  That seems to be the way I think and write.  They are longer, however, than I get here, about 1500 words per chapter.  Enjoy the books and enjoy the coming daily devotionals that will continue to appear here. 

Now may this rich blessing written by Loammi Ware be with you all.

“Father Almighty, bless us with Thy blessing, answer in love Thy children’s supplication;
hear Thou our prayer, the spoken and unspoken; hear us, O Father.

Shepherd of souls, who bringest all who seek Thee, to pastures green, beside the peaceful waters; Tenderest Guide, in ways of cheerful duty, lead us, good Shepherd.

Father of mercy, from Thy watch and keeping no place can part, nor hour of time remove us; give us Thy good, and save us from our evil, Infinite Sprit!”