Devotionals

Devotionals gathers Christian Standard articles designed to encourage daily faithfulness through Scripture, prayer, and reflection. Here you’ll find short, accessible readings that connect God’s Word to everyday life—offering wisdom for discipleship, comfort in hardship, and reminders of the hope found in Christ. These devotionals aim to help readers stay rooted in the gospel, grow in spiritual maturity, and practice consistent habits of worship and obedience.

December 26, 2010

Doug Redford

Return of the Gift

By Doug Redford Now that Christmas Day has passed, it”s time to move from thinking about giving gifts to the matter of returning them. Many of us will need to spend some time during the upcoming week returning a Christmas gift that happened to be the wrong size, color, or style. Stores usually offer tips to keep in mind when returning a gift, including: keep all the tags and original packing when giving and opening gifts (especially electronics, computers, appliances, and games), keep receipts, and check the time limit on returns (some stores limit returns to 30 days after a

December 20, 2010

Christian Standard

Worthy of Honor

By Terry O”Casey She was nearly divorced, forced to become an immigrant in her teens, welfare poor, left alone with seven kids, and witnessed her oldest boy”s gruesome execution. Eventually, her descendants split up. In a heated custody battle lasting to this day, some of them still aren”t allowed much time with Mom.  Who is she? Join me, Bible in hand, for some holy imagineering. Two families: Joe and his dad, Jacob (Matthew 1:16), headed over to her dad”s house. Jacob spoke: “Heli1, my son would like to marry your daughter. If you agree, we”ll draw up the ketubah for

November 25, 2010

Christian Standard

A Date with God

By Daniel Schantz “For I have espoused you to one husband” (2 Corinthians 11:2, King James Version). Paul describes our relationship with Christ as a kind of marriage, and marriage goes through certain phases. YOUNG marriage starts out with celestial expectations. You see no reason the honeymoon can”t last forever. Every day is a “date.” She makes breakfast for you, then you go jogging together before heading off to work. You buy each other expensive gifts to prove your love. Passion is strong, and nights are interesting. You talk a lot, but some of those talks turn into quarrels, and

October 9, 2010

Christian Standard

Shut Up

By Janet McMahon Have you ever watched one of those dating shows on TV where two people are on their very first date? Invariably, either the guy or girl goes on and on and on talking about himself or herself. It”s painful to watch. In fact, it”s so painful you either must look away, turn the channel, or yell at the TV screen, “Just shut up already!” There is no way the chronic talker is getting a second date. Even though we hate watching someone talk too much, it”s often exactly what many of us do in our relationships. We

September 15, 2010

Christian Standard

Sad Because She Left Us

By Mark A. Taylor My wife and I discovered something wonderful when we returned to our church after three vacation Sundays away: people there missed us. Amid all the friendly pats and hearty greetings”””Welcome back!” “We loved your pictures on Facebook!” “Was your trip wonderful?”””I thought about this column I promised to write when we returned. This continues a discussion begun in last week”s issue. There I reported on and reacted to author Anne Rice”s public announcement of her decision to walk away from Christianity. She said her faith in Christ is “central” to her life, but “following Christ does

August 25, 2010

Christian Standard

A Heart for God

By Michael Mack Read Michael Mack”s sidebar, “Life in All Its Fullness.” ______ What do you want to be known for? What would you want people to say about you when you die? What do you want written in your obituary? At different stages of my life I would have responded to that question differently. But today, I want to be like Enoch. You don”t hear too many people say that, do you? People will say they want to have the faith of Abraham or the power of Moses or the wisdom of Solomon. But Enoch? I love what Genesis

August 25, 2010

Christian Standard

Life in All Its Fullness

By Michael Mack This is a sidebar to “A Heart for God“ ____ Life to the full, the abundant life, more and better life than you”ve ever dreamed of. You cannot lead a person, small group, or church to experience the fullness of God”s love and grace unless you are living it yourself. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus presents three ways to respond to his offer of abundant life: 1. Come to me . . . and I will give you rest. Life to the full comes only through Jesus. Your response to him is to seek God and stay connected to him.

August 18, 2010

Christian Standard

Lookin” for Squirrels

By George Ross I”m sitting in a motel a long ways from home with a laptop and a deadline. (I”m on a staff recruiting trip interviewing two guys for two key positions for our ministry leadership team.) I”m wondering if I should acknowledge in this article what I”m struggling with. So here I sit in the motel facing a big mirror on the wall as I look beyond my computer. I”m OK with the deadline and the risk factor, just not the mirror! A visual of myself at 6:30 am brings no inspiration! A Specific Sign In recruiting for a

July 11, 2010

Christian Standard

Seven Days of Praise

By Daniel Schantz MONDAY“”My favorite seed catalog arrived today and I am astounded at the offerings. Things like cucumbers with big spikes on them, red noodle beans as long as my arm, speckled trout lettuce, watermelons with stars on them, and Asian snake melons 4 feet long. There are coal-black tomatoes, mother-of-pearl poppies, and a plant called Job”s tears that produces beads, which you can string into a necklace. I can almost hear God laughing out loud as he made these wacky plants. And I want to stand up and cheer. “Way to go, God! Cool cucumbers!” “O Lord, how

July 11, 2010

Christian Standard

The Boy with the Odd-Shaped Head

By C. Robert Wetzel Crew cuts were popular among boys in the late 1940s. What distinguished them from today”s short haircuts was that the closely cropped hair of the crew cut had to stand straight up. This necessitated at least two occasions of special care. It took a bit of thick hair gel to achieve vertical status, and a weekly trip to the barber to ensure the perfect shape. Hence all through high school, I made my Saturday visit to Charlie”s Barber Shop in Hugoton, Kansas, to nurture this dubious bit of fashion. I think I must have been about

July 7, 2010

Christian Standard

Hot Days, Fresh Thoughts

By Mark A. Taylor It”s summer, when days are long and nights are hot and every instinct says, “Slow down.” Some of us follow that lead, interrupting the grind of weekly production by taking breaks from school-year routines. It”s not that we stop thinking in summertime. In fact we may come across deeper insights when freed from the taskmaster of our assignment-laden, appointment-filled Day-Timers. Sipping iced-tea in the shade with our feet propped up and a good book or the Good Book on our lap, we decide afresh where to go and what God wants us to do. What should a magazine

February 21, 2010

Christian Standard

Breakfast on the Sea of Galilee

By Cheri Lynn Cowell I froze. My senses heightened. The Sea of Galilee spread out before me like the Table of Christ, as the rock is called over which the quaint chapel we”d just exited was built. From this rocky shore Jesus called out to the disciples, “Have you caught anything?” “No,” they replied. “Throw your nets on the other side of the boat,” he shouted. Peter and the other men had gone back to what they”d known before the ground-shaking events of the last several weeks””they”d returned to fishing. Yes, they”d been with the resurrected Lord several times. Yet,

January 31, 2010

Christian Standard

Balance

By Tom Ellsworth   “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).     Six days out of seven they hurried off to work. Toting their specialized tools and equipment, the men were visibly energized by their careers. They always left before dawn and never returned until the last rays of the sun had sleepily disappeared behind the surrounding hills. There were seven in all””men who were totally preoccupied with their jobs. Rumor has it they even whistled while they worked! Then tragedy struck. Late one afternoon when the men

December 20, 2009

Christian Standard

A Curious Gift

  by Daniel Schantz Christmas was a nail-biter at our house when I was growing up in the Happy Days. Around the first of December, my mother would hand us kids a Sears catalog. “Here, boys, I need some ideas of what you want for Christmas. Just mark your wishes with your initials.” We marked our favorites, and then the games began. It was an unspoken tradition that her job was to hide our presents and our job was to find them. At least that”s how we felt about it. It began when we went to town on Fridays. We

December 20, 2009

Christian Standard

Season of Love

  by Jennifer Taylor In this article, churches around the country share the unique ways they plan to “get their hands dirty” and serve their communities this Christmas. Last year our team discussed the huge amount of work we put into Christmas programs and decided to invest the energy in helping one of the missions our church supports. We wrote a drama about a local ministry that helps pregnant women choose life instead of abortion. It was not hard to make the connection between a young, unmarried college couple dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and the Joseph/Mary scenario. The local

December 20, 2009

Christian Standard

The Ironic Opportunity of Christmas

  by Ethan Magness For centuries, church leaders have been creatively using the cultural opportunities available to them to proclaim the gospel and the reign of the kingdom of God. Most of our current Christmas traditions developed in this way. Cultural practices (many pagan in origin) were adapted and redeveloped in the context of celebration of Christ”s birth. In fact, although the precise history is murky, it is likely the date of the celebration itself was chosen to co-opt the ancient celebration of the sun that occurred at the winter solstice. These opportunities to redeem the culture around us and

November 8, 2009

Christian Standard

God”s Pleasure Principle

By Karen Diefendorf I have a practice of concentrating on one of the shorter epistles or books of prophecy when I”m away from home and its usual routines. I can read through a whole book in one sitting each day or I can thoroughly concentrate on smaller sections of the smaller book each day while still completing the whole book by the end of the stay. Recently I decided to concentrate on Paul”s letter to the Ephesians. However, this time I found myself somewhat bored with what should have been a stimulating text. Perhaps you”ve had similar dry spells in

September 6, 2009

Christian Standard

Waiting to Go to Heaven

  by Ethan Magness I”ve recently developed an eagerness to go to Heaven. To my great surprise, I have begun to live actively hoping for my future in God”s kingdom. To clarify, it isn”t that I ever wanted to avoid Heaven. I wanted to go to Heaven someday, but I just wasn”t excited about it. I certainly didn”t want to go to Hell, and since the alternative was Heaven, I was glad to know where I going. I had some vague religious notion I ought to look forward to Heaven, but I wasn”t worried about my disinterest””in fact, I wasn”t

December 30, 2007

Jackina Stark

spiritual transformation

More Than All We Ask or Imagine!

We love before-and-after stories, but God’s transforming work is the most breathtaking. Jackina Stark reflects on Scripture and real-life examples of renewed minds, mended relationships, and Spirit-enabled courage to do what we cannot.

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