Promises to Keep: Daily Devotions for Men of Integrity

by Nick Harrison

Overview

A powerful new movement is sweeping across America:Christian men are coming together to make a difference in their families, churches, businesses, and communities.They are helping one another acknowledge a deep-seated need and hunger for spiritual nourishment and Christian fellowship. They are "sharpening" one another's understanding of what it means to be a man today.

The first book of daily meditations created expressly for men in search of spirituality, Promises to Keep draws together the words of hundreds of prominent Christian authors and leaders. Offering inspiration and motivation, this little treasure provides the spiritual dimensions lacking in the lives of so many and proves that men can be strong and tender, can lead without tyranny, can be authoritative without arrogance, and can have relationships with each other that are full of meaning, insight, and even love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060638856
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/10/1996
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.38(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nick Harrison is a journalist and author of the bestselling devotional Promises to Keep: Daily Devotions for Men Seeking Integrity. He lives in Northern California.

Read an Excerpt

January 1

A Clean Slate

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

As a Christian I believe my past is forgiven; I can start over with a clean slate. The mistakes of the past need not hold me back. Neither does my fear of failure — because as a Christian I believe God is in ultimate control of my life. While that doesn't mean I'll always win the championship or never get fired, it means I can believe the promise of Romans 8:28, which says God can bring good out of every experience for those who trust in him. So I don't need to worry about failing.

Without the burden of past mistakes or anxiety about failing in the future, I'm free to concentrate on doing my very best in the present. And I believe that's how a real, personal Christian faith can make it easier for anyone to reach his or her highest potential.

Having said that, I realize a lot of people think the idea of a "personal relationship" with God sounds disturbingly exclusive, somehow presumptive, and more than a little pious. I thought the same thing before I read what the Bible said and decided to become a Christian.

According to the Bible, this idea of having a personal relationship with God isn't at all presumptive. It was God's idea. And it's not at all exclusive. It's available to anyone who accepts God's offer.

As far as sounding pious, or giving the idea that a personalrelationship with God makes a person better than everyone else — just the opposite is true. Because the first step in establishing that relationship is admitting you're as much a sinner as the worst human being and you need forgiveness.

In fact, the most important lesson I've learned in my life is that God is so gracious that he accepts me, my failures, my personality quirks, my shortcomings and all.

It's hard for a perfectionist like me, but I have to admit I can never be good enough. No matter how sound my strategy, how much I study, how hard I work — I'll always be a failure when it comes to being perfect. Yet God loves me anyway. And believing that gives me the greatest sense of peace, calm, and security in the world.

Tom Landry, Tom Landry: An Autobiography

Editorial Reviews

Although Harrison intermittently reaches for ecumenism by incorporating selections from St. Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joseph Girzone and other notables from diverse Christian traditions, his result is far narrower. The meditational guidance chosen to amplify the thematic prefaces to each section and the Bible verses cited for each day exemplify the evangelical thrust of the burgeoning "Promise Keepers" movement, an interracial fellowship of believers that celebrates a "manly" brand of muscular Christianity. Predominant here are testimonials (leavened with hymn stanzas, poems and comic-strip panels) by PK founder and former University of Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney, PK president Randy Phillips, various sports stars, business achievers, ministers and evangelists, political figures and others, each of whom is identified in a useful biographical appendix. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Journalist and former bookseller Harrison gathers the testimonies of men struggling to understand and live out their Chistian spiritual identities into a year-long daily devotional book designed to guide other Christian men in their spiritual paths. Excerpts from writers as diverse as Tom Landry and Max Lucado prepare and instruct men to follow God's ways as models for leading lives of fidelity and integrity. Each testimony is accompanied by a verse of scripture, which sets the context for the devotional meditation. Harrison's judicious collection avoids the spiritual cheerleading so characteristic of the Christian men's movement called Promise Keepers and focuses instead on balance and depth in spiritual life. For most libraries.

Library Journal