Devo for the Rest of Us: The Next 40 Days on Your Journey of Faith

by Vince Antonucci

Overview

You are loved by a limitless God!
Yet many of us don’t live our everyday lives in that reality. The “rest of us” subconsciously believe half-truths about God and ourselves, sabotaging our lives in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

For the next forty days, spend time every day discovering what life can be like in light of God’s love for you.

Devo for the Rest of Us is designed to increase your knowledge of God and help you establish habits that will keep you connected and growing in your love for him for the rest of your life. If you’re new to faith or coming back to God after some time away, this book will be a perfect fit for your spiritual needs. If your faith is more established, this book will be a challenging refresher on what living for God means. It will deepen your love for God and your commitment to living the life he has for you.

With these devos, you will start your days refreshed and renewed, revived and rejuvenated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496412010
Publisher:	Tyndale House Publishers
Publication date:	01/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB

Read an Excerpt

Devo for the Rest of Us

The Next 40 Days On Your Journey of Faith

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By Vince Antonucci, Jane Vogel

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2015 City On A Hill Studio, LLC
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4964-1095-5

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CHAPTER 1

WEEK ONE

Hungry

We sense that something is missing. We're lacking something we know we need.

But many of us struggle to name that longing.

What if what we're hungry for is God and what only God can give us?

And what if we can have it if we just turn to him?

Day 1

LONGING FOR LOVE

Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again."

John 6:35

"Daddeeee, I'm hungeeee."

Silence.

"Daddeeee, I'm hungeeee."

My then three-year-old son was entirely cute and a little annoying. About twenty times a day he would call out from wherever he was in the house.

"Daddeeee, I'm hungeeeee."

"Dawson, you're fine," I would respond. "You ate just a little bit ago. We'll be eating soon. You're fine."

Silence.

"No, Daddeeee. I'm weally hungeeee. I'm starving, Daddeeee."

My son was a bit melodramatic. But, on the other hand, maybe he was on to something.

In fact, what I think he was on to is the human condition. We're hungry. We're all hungry. And I believe what we're hungry for is love. Perfect love.

Ted

Ted sat at the production meeting before our service. Before we talk through the elements of our service, we always recognize and cheer for any new volunteer. That day, Ted was doing a "first serve" running the sound board. He was an ex-hippie from San Francisco who used to run sound for the Grateful Dead.

We cheered for Ted. (Normal.)

He blushed. (Normal.)

He gave a little speech. (Not normal.)

"Thank you," he said. "I started coming a few weeks ago because my sister in Texas insisted I try this church. I'm not a church person, and didn't think I'd like it at all, but I did. I just want to be up front with you guys. I don't believe any of the stuff you believe. But I'm hoping maybe your faith rubs off on me."

I asked him why, if he didn't believe, he kept coming back.

"Well, I ..." Ted paused. "I've never felt as loved as I do here."

Wookin' Pa Nub

Back in the eighties, Eddie Murphy used to do an impression of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals. If you remember the Little Rascals, you know Buckwheat never mastered the ability to pronounce certain words. One Eddie Murphy skit was a commercial for a fake "Buckwheat Sings" album featuring the hit "Wookin' pa nub in all da wong paces. Wookin' pa nub."

That's exactly the problem. People are looking for love, but in all the wrong places.

We long for love. A deeper love than we receive from other people. We long for a love that is truly unconditional and utterly dependable. A love that draws us in and drives out our fear. A love that is pure enough to fit well in our hearts and big enough to fill the gaping hole we find in them. We yearn for perfect love.

And so we look. As children we look to our parents, later we look for our love need to be met in romantic relationships, and still later in our kids. Some of us try to substitute success or food or money or drugs or fame for love, but no matter how much we get, we still find ourselves longing.

The love we're looking for is too perfect for anything in this world to be able to satisfy us.

It's a love that only God can give us.

And he wants to. The Bible says God wants to lavish it on us and pour it into our hearts. And God's love is big enough to meet our love need. In fact, it's bigger than we can even understand.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I Finally Found What I've Been Looking For

Two weekends ago I preached a sermon challenging people to bet their lives on Jesus. (I'm in Vegas; people here understand gambling metaphors.) "We all bet our lives on something," I said. "We seek our identity and meaning from something. We pour our lives into something. We're trusting something with our lives and for our eternity. Make Jesus your something. Bet your life on Jesus."

I led people who wanted to make Jesus their Savior and Lord in a prayer, then told them to sign up for the baptisms that would be happening the following week.

After the service Ted walked up and said, "Where do I sign up? I'm all in."

It had been about four months since his first visit. Since then he had been reading the Bible every day. He dove into serving. He made some friends. One of our pastors shared the gospel with him over coffee. But mostly, he had felt loved, and he had learned about and experienced the love of God. And that's what he had been wookin' pa his entire life.

Last weekend Ted stood in front of a room full of people and shared his story. (He took fourteen minutes!) Ted said his whole life he'd had no interest in God because he had assumed God had no interest in him. But he had always longed for something he could never find. At our church he had found it. He said, "I just can't believe God loves me. I can't believe God wants a guy like me. I have something to wake up for every day now. I wake up with a smile. I can't wait to read my Bible. The reading plan will say to read like James 1. But it's so good I'll just keep reading, like all the way to James 12. Well, I don't know if there really is a James 12." (There is no James 12. Ted will figure that out soon.)

He said, again, and again, and again, "I just can't believe God loves me. I can't believe God would want a guy like me. I finally found what I've been looking for."

Call to Him

We're hungeeee. And God is what we're hungry for.

When my son would call, "Daddeeee, I'm hungeeee," and I knew he really was hungry, you know what I would do? I would get him something to eat. Of course I would. How can you say no when your kid calls out to you like that?

You are God's kid.

When you look up to him with big eyes and say, "Daddy, I'm hungry," his heart melts.

And he will always respond to that cry.

* * *

Now What?

* Read Jeremiah 29:12-13.

* What would it look like for you to seek God with all your heart?

* Prayer is talking to God. Some people make it more complicated, and it intimidates them into not praying at all. But prayer is just talking to God. God invites us to talk to him from our hearts, to talk to him about anything and everything, and to feel free to speak casually to him.

Prayer is a big part of how we grow in our relationship with him. Each day you'll be given something to pray about.

Hopefully, it will lead you each day into spending more time talking to God about other things, and over the forty days, into the habit of praying every day. Today, ask God to help you to be consistent doing all forty days of this book and for it to establish lifelong habits that will keep you connected to him.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Devo for the Rest of Us by Vince Antonucci, Jane Vogel. Copyright © 2015 City On A Hill Studio, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Week 1 Hungry

Day 1 Longing for Love 3

Day 2 Running on Empty 9

Day 3 Desperate for Forgiveness 13

Day 4 Hope to Carry On 19

Day 5 Seeking a Story 25

Week 2 Story

Day 1 God 33

Day 2 God Is Coming for Us 39

Day 3 God Has Come for Us 45

Day 4 God Wants to Live inside Us 51

Day 5 God Is Coming Back 57

Week 3 New

Day 1 A New You 65

Day 2 A New Heart 71

Day 3 A New Mind 77

Day 4 New Ears 83

Day 5 A New Spine 89

Week 4 Abide

Day 1 In the Womb 97

Day 2 God Stalkers 101

Day 3 Lay Your Head in His Lap 107

Day 4 Fed for a Lifetime 111

Day 5 Where Your Heart Is 117

Week 5 Community

Day 1 Not Good 125

Day 2 A Community of Grace 131

Day 3 Freaks on a Mission 137

Day 4 Everything Is Awesome? 143

Day 5 More Than Meets the Eye 149

Week 6 Obstacles

Day 1 The Benefit of the Doubt 157

Day 2 Dogs at War 163

Day 3 Juggling 169

Day 4 The Profound in the Profane 175

Day 5 Spiritual Amnesia 179

Week 7 Questions

Day 1 Can the Bible Be Trusted? 187

Day 2 Why Would God Provide Only One Way to Him? 193

Day 3 Why Does God Make Us Follow So Many Rules? 199

Day 4 What about Heaven and Hell? 205

Day 5 Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering? 211

Week 8 Mission

Day 1 Splagna 219

Day 2 It's God's Kindness 225

Day 3 No Darkness 231

Day 4 More Than One Way 235

Day 5 Too Important Not to Share 239

Discussion Questions 243

About the Author 249

What People are Saying About This

Kyle Idleman

I have known Vince for well over a decade, and I love spending time with him because he always has the most incredible stories of how God’s love is impacting people.