Chris Bolinger - Daily Strength for Men: A 365-Day Devotional

Chris Bolinger has created an instrument that God will use to change mens lives! Daily Strength for Men is a practical, powerful platform for leadership and life change. Nothing moves the heart of a man more than a deep dive into Gods Word, and that kind of intentionality is driven home on each and every page of the material. I highly recommend Daily Strength for every man, no matter what his particular season of life.

Dr. Craig Fry, president, Christian Leadership Concepts

If our hearts are the heart of the matter to God, men will find Daily Strength to be the spiritual omega-3 they need to heed the admonition in Proverbs 4:23 to guard your heart because from it flow the springs of life (ISV).

Doug Pollock, speaker and author of God Space

Daily Strength for Men helps the men in your church get spiritually healthy by pointing them to Gods Word every day.

Charles Arn, president of Church Growth Inc.
and author of Side Door

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

DAILY STRENGTH FOR MEN: A 365-DAY DEVOTIONAL

Copyright 2018 Chris Bolinger

978-1-4245-5753-0 (faux leather)

978-1-4245-5754-7 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 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 ISV are taken from the International Standard Version, Copyright 19952014 by ISV Foundation. All rights reserved internationally. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email .

Cover design by Chris Garborg at garborgdesign.com

Typesetting by Katherine Lloyd at theDESKonline.com

Printed in China

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By David Murrow

Spending consistent time in the Bible can literally turn your life around. Research indicates that men who engage with the Bible at least four times a week are:

57 percent less likely to abuse alcohol

68 percent less likely to stray from their marriage vows

61 percent less likely to view porn

74 percent less likely to gamble

These men are also:

More than twice as likely to share their faith and disciple others

More than four times as likely to memorize Scripture

Obviously, the Bible is good for men. But how do we get men to read it?

Chris Bolinger has written a devotional that guides men into Gods Word. Daily Strength for Men is unique in three ways:

Whereas most devotionals give readers a new passage each day, Daily Strength for Men camps out on a single passage for two days. Men read the same passage twice, which gives the seed a greater chance to take root in their hearts.

Bolinger mixes things up by focusing on devotions and prayer one day, Scripture reading and application the next. I appreciate the variety this brings to my devotional time.

Daily Strength for Men is drawn completely from the Old Testament. Bolinger mines these forgotten books and introduces men to the riches found there.

One more thing: Im a bit of an odd duck. Most men read their devotions in the morning, but Ive always been a Bible-before-bed kinda guy. Ive found these devotions make great evening reading and serve as a guide for my bedtime prayers.

I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I have.

David Murrow

Director, Church for Men

Author, Why Men Hate Going to Church

It was early on a cold Ohio morning in December, and I was meeting with my CLC brothers, as I did every Friday. We studied the Bible, shared our lives in our prayer requests and our discussions, and encouraged each other, often citing passages of Scripture. I had come to rely on the strength that I drew from these men, strength that I couldnt seem to get on my own. Christian Leadership Concepts stresses the importance of having a daily quiet time, but I had found it difficult to get much out of my own Bible readings, and my devotions had been inconsistent at best.

As I left that December meeting, I decided to find a devotional that would give me a daily shot of strength from Gods Word. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to be challenged to go further in my walk with Christ. I wanted stories of men who had overcome obstacles, who had kept their faith under pressure. And I wanted encouragement, because I felt discouraged by the weight of the challenges and stress in my life and the lives of my friends and family members.

After my two-month search for a devotional came up empty, I decided to write my own. I started by listing Bible verses that I found encouraging. Once I had a good set of those, I considered how each verse struck me. Sometimes, a verse made me think of a person who had impacted me. Other times, a verse made me think of a film, a song, or a story.

My notes became devotions. After a few months of work, I stopped to see where I was and discovered two things. First, every verse that I had used was from the Old Testament, thirty-nine books on which I and many other Christian men focus little attention. Second, even though I had written the devotions, each still made me stop and think how I could apply the verse to my life.

I decided each verse needed two days of treatment. The first day would be my thoughts. The second day would include Scripture passages for context and enrichment, and questions for reflection and application.

The result is Daily Strength for Men. I pray that it strengthens you and brings you closer to God, the source of our strength.

Check out DAILYSTRENGTHFORMEN.COM for additional resources, including a toolkit, which will help you get the most out of this devotional.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

When you read the first verse in the Bible, do you ask why? Why did God create the heavens? Why did God create the earth?

The answer to these why questions will astound you.

For decades, or even centuries, we have been told that there is nothing special about the earth. After all, there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe and 100 billion stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Orbiting around many of these stars are planets.

Our planet, therefore, is just one of trillions and trillions of planets in the universe. If there is intelligent life on our planet, then there has to be intelligent life on other planets. In fact, the universe must be teeming with intelligent life.