Digital Logos Edition
Sometimes you get tired, doing this thing we call justice. Making the case, fighting the fight, having to explain again and again why it matters. You feel burned out or disillusioned. Sometimes you just need a word from the Lord.
In these daily devotions, Donna Barber offers life-giving words of renewal and hope for those engaged in the resistance to injustice. When you face adversity, you can take courage. When you grapple with discouragement, you can find hope. When your legs are tired from marching and your knees bruised from kneeling, you can experience rest and healing.
Find here bread for the resistance.
“No matter how long we’ve been on the journey we cannot assume we’ve arrived. We must be constantly working to forget the wisdom and way of this world and constantly straining to grasp the seemingly foolishness that is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Page 12)
“Jesus instructs us not to seek or run after power but rather to come after him. When you get me, he says, you get it all. You come after me by receiving the least of these, not the rich and famous. By serving the orphan, the poor, the widow, the felon, and the refugee. You welcome me by welcoming the stranger and receiving them as your own. You get me, you become great. I am your prestige. I am your greatness. I am your privilege and power. I am your treasure. I am your reward. I am your glory.” (Page 11)
“Reconciliation is the platform on which we stand together surveying the possibilities of what could be, the launching pad into a new and more fruitful life. It begins with the awareness that though we were enemies to God, God now, through Christ, has given us a clean slate—not counting our past sin against us but accepting us as sons and daughters and working with and through us to love the world. It is completed as we extend this grace to others.” (Pages 56–57)
“Conversion is more than just a prayer that’s prayed in a moment. It is a surrendered will and a yielded vessel throughout a lifetime. It is the giving up and the giving over and the giving in. It is dying daily while becoming more and more alive. It is the miraculous work of God, by his Spirit and for his glory, which none of us deserve and yet into which all of us, regardless of the evil we have done or the sins we have committed, are invited.” (Page 60)
Some people write with beautiful words, and others speak through their character. Donna Barber excels at both. She writes with clarity and an unmatched depth of insight and has the reputation and longevity of someone who has something to teach us all. This devotional was exactly what I needed. Bread for the Resistance will refresh your soul and become the one book this year you give to everyone you know.
—Ken Wytsma, author of The Myth of Equality, founder of The Justice Conference