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Have you hit a wall in your personal or spiritual life? This devotional from Daily Encounter reminds us that we need to be open to the possibility that change in our own lives is sometimes necessary to move forward.

The devotional cites Rick Warren asserting that most churches fail to grow beyond a few hundred members because they fail to make the necessary organizational changes to make it possible, not because the Gospel message has lost its appeal. In the same way, sometimes we sabotage our own spiritual development or evangelism efforts because we don’t recognize when it’s time to make changes:

No, we don’t want to make changes where change is not to our advantage, but there are times when we do need to make changes. When it comes to communicating the gospel, while the message itself never changes, our way and means of communicating it have to change in order to communicate effectively to the particular group we are addressing. One size doesn’t fit all!

Also, whether we approve or disapprove, many things around us change and if we don’t adapt, we get left behind….

A few years back, Moody Monthly, the highly respected Christian magazine, discontinued its publication after its 103-year history. Why? Because of the economy, the proliferation of Christian magazines, and because of technology. Moody Monthly, like so many other ministries, has had to turn from printed hard copy to electronic means of communication, not only to become more effective in their ministry, but also to survive.

Read the full devotional at Daily Encounter.

Are you evangelism efforts falling on deaf ears? Is your devotional life stalling out, or your personal life running up against an insurmountable obstacle? A little change in how you think and act might make a big difference!

One of the most popular resources in the Gospel.com community has always been its collection of devotionals.

The list of devotionals published by community members includes Our Daily Bread, Meet with God, the Lifetime Guarantee Daily Devotional, and many, many others. Starting today, we’re going to post an excerpt from one of these many different devotionals on the blog each morning.

Today’s devotional is from Daily Encounter, a weekday devotional written by Richard Innes of ACTS International:

As is commonly known, one of the biggest killers of ideas is the excuse, “We’ve never done it that way before.” 


However, profound ideas can come from the strangest places. Creative genius comes to people who are open to new ideas and different ways of doing things. For example, in 1964 the freighter Al Kuwait which was carrying 6,000 live sheep capsized and sank in Kuwait’s harbor. The sunken ship with its decomposing cargo began to present a serious threat to the country’s water supply through its desalination processing plant.

To overcome the problem the ship had to be raised and moved to a safe place without falling apart and dumping its poisonous contents into the nation’s water supply.

Karl Kroyer, a Danish engineer working in Kuwait, came up with a novel idea. He pumped 27 million ping-pong balls into the freighter’s hull which slowly raised it to the surface.

And where did he get this idea? From a Donald Duck comic book. Somebody sank Donald’s boat and he and his feathered friends raised it by filling it with ping-pong balls!

When it comes to creative living, a better place to get great ideas is in the words and examples of Jesus in the Bible. It pays to know it and hide its truths in our heart. One’s life is greatly enriched when it is lived in harmony with God’s Will and Word.

Read the complete devotional at ACTS International, or browse the Daily Encounter archives for many years’ worth of past devotionals.