Bill Nichols - Devotions for a Healthy Faith

Get to Know God through His 66 Books

Bill Nichols, PhD

Devotions for a Healthy Faith:

Get to Know God through His 66 Books

2020 by George W. (Bill) Nichols

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning or otherexcept for brief quotations, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by GWN Publishing

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible. Copyright 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene Peterson. Use by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. worldwide.

ISBN: 978-1-7344522-8-0 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-7344522-9-7 (ebook)

My insights into the historical backgrounds of each of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the biblical truth I discovered, and the inspirational stories I shared in Devotions for a Healthy Faith were a result of years of diligent work and life-experiences of many of my fellow faith-writers, teachers, friends and family members. I am indebted and grateful to far more people than I can possibly acknowledge here. But I am especially appreciative for the following people.

First and above all, I thank my best friend and the love of my life, Phyllis Clark Nichols, who is a novelist, seminary graduate, musician, and my most patient writing mentor. Because of her tender tenacity, persistent encouragements, and our stimulating conversations, writing this book has been an enriching spiritual journey for me.

I am grateful to Leslie Peterson, my editor. I could not have worked with a more gentle and more thoughtful guide and yet highly professional expert.

I am thankful for Jordan Smith, my production and marketing manager who graciously and skillfully handled the many responsibilities that go on behind the scenes in the book-publishing world that most of never think about. Working with Jordan was my daughter, Christy Nichols Quinn of Q2 Promotions & Marketing, who produced the book cover using one of my original paintings as her inspiration.

I am beholden to those mentioned in the book, some whose names are not real and some who are family members and friends, but all whose lives and experiences are real and illustrate the reality of the truths of Gods Word and a healthy faith.

And always, I bow my knee in humble gratitude to my Heavenly Father who has led me throughout this process. During the writing of this book, I have fought a difficult battle with advanced kidney cancer that required major abdominal surgery, the miseries of serious chemotherapy, and the possibility of my death. Through the entire experience, the Spirit of our Living Lord has always been near, always comforting, always assuring, and always all I needed. What better time to be writing a devotional book? This has been for me a personal spiritual journey through His 66 books and a testimony to His all-sufficiency. I hope, in reading these devotionals and spending time in Gods Word, you too will have a deeply meaningful spiritual journey by getting to know God more fully and thereby growing a healthy faith.

Gods Greatest Desire for You

If God had written an introduction to the Bible, I imagine He would have said something like this: I give you this Bible to help you get to know me.

Our heavenly Fathers greatest desire for you is that you have a close relationship with Him. He knows you inside and out and wants you to know Himnot just information about Him, but to know Him in a personal, intimate, transforming, everything-you-are way.

If you look at some of the Bible heroes, you will see their greatest desire was to know God. The apostle Paul considered everything in life worthless compared to knowing God. It was his supreme longing (see Philippians 3:8). After Jesus returned to heaven, the apostle Peter told Jesuss followers that what they needed above anything in life was to get to know God. Peter said, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him (2 Peter 1:3 NLT ).

Some think God gave us the Bible as an answer book to explain things. Others think the Bible is Gods instruction manual designed to help us know what we should and should not do to have a successful life. But perhaps those were not His primary motives for giving us His Bible.

As valuable as the Bible is for explaining, instructing, inspiring, comforting, and challenging us, not one of those benefits encapsulates the main value of the Bible. God gave us His Holy Word because He loves us. He wants us to know the truth about Him from His own perspective and to help us get close to Him. Your best ideas, thoughts, and theories about God will always be far from an accurate knowledge of Him. Without His personal revelation of Himself, you would not be able to know Him on your own.

If you want to get to know anyone in more than a superficial way, you need to spend time with that person and closely examine the person over time. A quick glance now and then will not work. You need to observe the way that person acts and reacts to adversities, evil, and suffering as well as fun, love, and pleasantries.

The same is true for getting to know your God. G. Ernest Wrights classic book The God Who Acts became internationally famous for clarifying an almost forgotten but important truth in his day. He explained that other religions say we can get to know God by studying, contemplating, thinking, and theorizing about Him. But Wright showed how the Bible teaches the opposite. Our heavenly Father gives us sixty-six storybooks and personal letters that are mainly historical records of His activities.