A Biblically based commentary on current issues that impact you

Toxic Devotion:

A Review of Sarah Young's—Jesus Calling

by Bob DeWaay

"And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42)

In the Bible, the term "devotion" is used for the early church's attention to and time spent on the means of grace. This included the apostles' teaching, which is our New Testament. Devotional books today are often devoted to private mysticism. Sarah Young's book is a good example. Devotion, in this case, has become a devotion to metaphysical impressions, not God's Word.

Furthermore, Young's daily devotional is written in words as though they were spoken directly by Jesus Christ Himself. This genre of devotional is not new. When I was a new Christian, Francis Roberts published such a book entitled Come Away My Beloved, which was based on the allegorization of the Song of Solomon. The book and sequels were quite popular. The first was written as if God Himself were speaking to the reader (using King James English), thus constituting new words from God beyond Scripture. At the time I thought that to be wrong and refused to read the book, though I read enough to be aware of its contents.

Similarly, Jesus Calling promotes mystical devotion to God and is based on words from Jesus beyond Scripture....READ MORE.

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