Devotional Bible Lessons
by Gini Crawford, MSW
Following are links and abstracts to a number of devotions I have written for women over the last few years. These are written. I have also recorded a number of audio devotions listed on separate page.
Got Empathy! It's badly needed in our fallen world
This devotion has an obvious theme, empathy. Empathy is described from various angles from its definition to how it effects our country, government, churches and especially us individually – our wellbeing, our relationships and last but not least our relationship with God. It shares how and why having empathy is a powerful trait that can change countries, but even more importantly, how it changes our hearts towards people and God. Empathy is a healing response in a fallen world. Many illustrations are used to bring empathy alive.
God Hasn't Changed in the Pandemic
This devotion was written during the 2020 COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic. It describes Who God is by emphasizing God never changes even thorough the world is changing and is in crisis. It explains how God is good even if things aren't good. It answers the hard question of God being sovereign during the bad times, and how His sovereignty takes care of us through it all. It explains where God's loving care is in the Pandemic. It gives you practical spiritual advice through many Bible passages on how to deal with the Pandemic.
The beautiful bride and adultery
(we can all commit adultery towards God)
This devotion talks about why and how we are Jesus' Beautiful Bride, and about the beautiful wedding dress He has given us. It defines what covenant means and what the Hebrew word hesed or God's unfailing love means. It explains why and how we can commit adultery towards God, and what we need to do when we find that we have.
God's forgiveness and our sin
This devotion teaches about God's forgiveness. It explains where sin came from, why we are enslaved to it, and how we are set free from it. It discusses no matter how awful your sin is, God will forgive it and erase it from your life like He did King David's sins. Lent is also discussed.
Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn
from it. Proverbs 22:6
This devotion on parenting has as its theme Proverbs 22:6. This verse is explained in detail, especially the words train and way. It talks about how and why to train your children in the Lord from the context of Proverbs - so they will not depart from God. It gives the parent some concrete ideas for their own life with God and their kids. This devotion could be used for a baby shower.
Be anxious but do not sin
This daily devotional on anxiety talks about the psychological and physical definition of anxiety and how the definition fits with the Bible. It details anxiety and how anxiety is not sin, but instead the mind and body reacting to sensed fear. This is reaction anxiety. It also clarifies when anxiety becomes sin, or sinful anxiety. It covers when and how anxiety started. Matthew 6 and Philippians 4 are used to show you how to be anxious without sin. It also gives four Biblical principles with applications on how to stop sinful anxiety and lessen reaction anxiety. It also explains how Jesus had reaction anxiety and how He dealt with it, and wants to help us with our anxiety.
Rejoice! Jesus rose from the dead (NEW)
This Easter devotional explains why we can know Jesus was dead from scripture so we can know He rose from the dead. It describes what Jesus knew and had to endure from crucifixion; an illustration from the movie, The Passion of Christ.
The Easter factor ... Jesus and our resurrection
This Easter devotion talks about our resurrection and afterlife. It explains why we need to believe in Jesus to give us eternal life in heaven with God, instead of eternal punishment away from God in hell. It clarifies why Jesus had to rise from the dead so we could be raised from the dead. It describes why we are eternal beings at length and what that means. It discusses the resurrection of a Christian in detail along with the rapture and the resurrection of a non-Christian.
The love of God is described
This Valentines devotion describes God's love. It emphasizes that words of love need to be backed up with acts of love, or a person doesn't feel or think they are loved. It describes God's love as words that are lived out in His actions of love, especially His Son dying for us even though we were His enemies. It defines the Hebrew word for love hesed and the Greek word for love agape. It discusses the meaning of covenant from God's perspective.
New Years resolutions
that God endorses
This New Years devotion talks about what sort of New Years resolutions God would want you to make. It discusses a few of my personal resolutions and what I humorously learned from them. It compares physical vs spiritual resolutions and the advantages to both of them. It explains with an illustration that as Christians our true problems stem from an obstinate heart towards God (sin), not a lack of self-improvement. It ends with four detailed life applications to help you make New Years resolutions that promote godly living and change.
The true spirit of Christmas
is the Holy Spirit
This Christmas devotion talks about our need for the true Christmas Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in a humorous but informative way. It answers some questions that we all need to know to have the true Christmas Spirit fill our lives. These questions are: Who is the true Spirit of Christmas? And why does He live within us? How can we make Jesus the reason for everything in the season, and let Him fill our lives throughout the New Year? It discusses what it means for Jesus to step out of eternity and to be born so He could become one of us. It explains how the Spirit fills us and why we need to let Him.
Prayer and thanksgiving go together like a turkey and Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving devotion has as its theme Colossians 4:2 - this verse is explained in detail. This devotion talks about how and why to be devoted to God and devoted to prayer. It explains how prayer and thanksgiving go together. It clearly defines the Greek words for devote, watchful and thanksgiving. It shares how and why we can pray with thanksgiving, even in hard times. Philippians 4:6-7 is talked about.
Life and death?
This devotion gives answers everyone needs to know about life and death. This devotion talks about the most important thing we need to know - how to have eternal life instead of eternal death and punishment. It gives the salvation message by explaining what eternal life is and where it comes from; and what death is and where it came from. It defines what belief means and what belief in Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible means.
Sacrifice - the cost of freedom
This devotion gives some true life examples of people sacrificing their lives for others freedom. It describes how important this type of sacrifice is and how few people are willing to do it. It also answers the question, why some people are willing to love and protect others at this level by comparing their sacrificial act to Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us.
Mothers and fathers can be a godly influence on their children
This devotion teaches how mothers and fathers can be a godly influence on their children, and how they are their children's strongest influence. It discusses that children naturally want to be with and like their parents. It uses 11 humorous statements from kids about their mothers to show how families do influence each other. This devotion can be used for a baby shower.
Why does God allow us to suffer? Part 1
This devotion talks about why God allows suffering. It clarifies how all God's decisions are made from an eternal perspective for our good and out of love for us, so that we can have Jesus' character in our lives. Through 1 Corinthians 13:12 it discusses that God knew we would struggle concerning why He allows suffering, and when we reach eternity we will understand fully. It describes that God did not create us for pain and suffering, but that sin brought suffering into this world.
Where is God when I hurt? Or the silence of God! Part 2
This devotion answers the question "Where are you God when I hurt?" At length it outlines why we need to look at Jesus' suffering to understand why God allows suffering. It discusses the principle God is always with us, whether or not we feel or think He is. It describes how Jesus has experienced all the hurt, and pains we have had, so He can save us, comfort us and sympathize with us. It defines Jesus interceding for us right now as we suffer and it explains what sympathize and intercede means.
Agreeing with God about your sin
This devotion talks about the trend in America and in some churches, not to mention sin or deal with it. It explains why that is harmful (because sin is like a cancer). It clarifies why sin is still a problem for Christians even though Jesus paid the penalty for all our sins. It discusses how important it is to acknowledge our sins and confess them, so we aren't resisting the Holy Spirit's voice. 1 John 1:5-10 is discussed (what it means to agree with God about your sins, and what happens when you don't). It compares sin to a serial killer and emphasizes how important prayer is to be close to God, to get sin out of our lives.
The birth of Jesus started in Genesis
This Christmas devotion gives a quick but inspiring history of Genesis 3:15 - which is where the promise of a Savior began. It traces the descendant from Genesis 3:15 through history to Bethlehem. The foretold birth of our Savior is explained through the prophecies themselves.
The Child born on Christmas is Mighty God and Eternal Father (Isaiah 9:6)
This Christmas devotion talks about what it meant for Jesus (the God of the universe) to step out of eternity and to be born so He could become one of us. It does this by: explaining Philippians 2:6-8 in detail; by speculating what it meant for Jesus who is God to become an embryo, a fetus, helpless new born and so on. It explains at length what He did for us on this earth because He loves us.
God's love for us is seen in creation
This devotion talks about God's love for us is seen very clearly through His creation. It discusses how God created us very good and what that means. It explains how we are the pinnacle of God's creation and why He created everything for us to enjoy and to sustain us. It clarifies what it means to be in God's image.
Human sacrifices vs the One True God’s sacrifice
This devotion takes a look at what God thinks about human sacrifices from His Word. Human sacrifices are looked at from the movie, Apocalypto by Mel Gibson. Why people would sacrifice other humans, is covered. Then human sacrifices are compared to the one and only needed sacrifice, God sacrificing His Son for us. It discusses how our sins are paid for and forgiven through Jesus Christ's sacrifice.
Prayer, the gift of love
This devotion talks about giving someone you love, the gift of prayer. Valentine's Day is talked about in the framework of love. It discusses one of God's favorite gifts (prayer) and then explains how to give it.
Who is Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible
This important devotion explains Who Jesus Christ is from God's Word by looking at Jesus' characteristics. It discusses how vital it is we know who the Jesus is we are putting our faith in. This is because to be saved from our sins we need to believe in, the Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible, not some human author's invented or imagined Jesus. It explains specifically what Philippians 2:6-8 means especially what it meant for Jesus to become man but still be God. It talks at length about what it meant for Jesus to be born, live and die for us. It does this by comparing Jesus' life on this earth to Jesus' characteristics as God.
God is good no matter what happens... He is the source of all goodness!
In this devotion we will look at six Biblical principles on why God is good even when there is suffering. We will discuss what God being good means and that He is the source of all goodness, and apart from Him there is no good.
Why you must think rightly about God
In this devotion we discuss how important it is to think rightly of God, to know Who the real God is (His characteristics), and to not use our or someone else's imagination to make up a false image of Him. The book, The Shack, is used to teach how important the Bible is for understanding God instead of using other books like The Shack. If you understand who God is, it will strengthen you - to love and trust Him. It will also give you joy, hope, and peace, as well as change our life for now and eternity.
Eternal death is much scarier than Halloween
This Halloween devotion talks about death from all angles. It discusses where and why death came into being along with how to go from eternal death to eternal life. It talks about our soul/spirit and our body and what happens to them after death. It defines death as separation not extinction, because we are eternal beings. It explains what spiritual death means in the framework of God and how to stop being dead to God. It discusses what happens to us after we die physically. It talks about heaven and hell.