Daily Devotions: Transforming Your Life Through God’s Word
Sept. 4, 2026
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Guest: Dr. John Mallonee
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 9/04/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, welcome to the Friday program of Stand in the Gap Today. I hope you’re all having a good Friday in this program as always, as every day we try to tackle faith and culture and truth with an unashamed biblical worldview, which is getting harder and harder to find. Many people claim to have a biblical worldview, but here at the American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap Media, that is our goal is to truly follow the Bible in finding what is biblical or not. Well, with that, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and today we’re going to be focusing on something very basic with a friend of ours who’s returning. And that is just the business of the day can distract us from getting in the word of God. And so today we’re going back to the basics. We’re talking about spending time daily in the word of God.
Our guest is returning. He’s a longtime friend of our folks here at American Pastors Network. In fact, I knew his uncle before I knew him and Sam, Sam Rohrer, introduced me to Dr. John Mallonee. It’s been like 10 years ago, almost exactly 10 years ago. He’s known Sam for a while. And John, you and I go back about 10 years. You’re now the pastor. John is now the pastor at Chapman Community Chapel in Central Pennsylvania. And John has been writing devotional material. And that’s what we’re going to look at, getting the word of God every day, devotions. He’s been doing devotional material since 2010. And now he’s taken all those years of experience, well over a decade. He’s put together a new book called 366 Daily Devotions for Super Ordinary People Who Love Jesus. And we’re going to talk more about that book as this program goes on, but he’s got it designed where it pushes you into the word of God, opening a physical Bible rather than just reading it on a page.
And we’ll talk about how you can receive ongoing daily devotions for free from John and more about his ministry. In fact, you could go right now if you want to john-malonee.com. You could go to our Facebook page. It’s on our Facebook page, but John-Mallonee, M-A-L-L-O-N-E-E.com to get more. But with that, John Mallonee, thanks for joining us. Thanks for coming back to Stand in the Gap today.
John Mallonee:
Thank you, Isaac. It is great to be back with you again today. And thank you so much for having me on the program. I tell you I’ve been a longtime follower of Stand in the Gap. I love you guys over there. And I tell you, the effect of Stand in the Gap is far reaching and it’s very profound. I run into people all the time. They just love it as well. So thank you for your faithfulness to this ministry and being a light in this dark world.
Isaac Crockett:
John, you and I have actually become good friends over the last 10 years. Well, we’ve been friends before lately, but for the last 10 years our friendship has grown. I’ve preached in your pulpit and I’ve met people, you’ve pastored a couple of churches in central Pennsylvania, people in your church that were followers of this program. I remember, I think it was the sheriff of your county telling me how he listens to it in his patrol car even, but we’re really excited to have you on. But I’m very excited about this topic because we get busy and we know that the Bible is important and we say, oh, we elevate the Bible and we have it. It’s a sacred book that has all the answers for us, but I want to talk about actually getting into it. But before we do that, as we’ve mentioned, you and I have known each other for a while.
Could you maybe talk to us a little bit about how we came to know each other through Sam Rohr? I don’t know if you remember, I was just telling Micah some about it before you got on with us today, but maybe a little bit of a trip down memory lane real quick before we get into talking Bible study and devotions.
John Mallonee:
Sure. Yeah. Well, I had known Sam just slightly longer than I had known you. We were at a pastor’s event together and Dr. Ben Carson was the keynote speaker. There’s about a dozen or so of us there. And I remember meeting you there for the first time and we just got to talk and hit it off and we’ve been friends ever since and just really great to be around.
Isaac Crockett:
And it’s funny because that seems like a whole other lifetime ago sometimes, the 2016 political schemes that were going on. And that was, I think just maybe days or weeks after Dr. Carson had been running for president and he had just dropped his bid, his run for president. At that point right before then, he had been like second in the polls next to Donald Trump. And so it was a very, very intense kind of time in American politics, but a wonderful time to meet with Dr. Carson and his wife Candy. We prayed, we sang hymns. It was a really neat opportunity for the pastors that were in that room. And then you and I got to know each other from there. Well, John, I cannot express enough about the need to have a daily time in the word of God. And that’s something that you believe.
And I’m just real quickly, what would you say? Why do you believe that getting into God’s word every day is such an important step for every believer?
John Mallonee:
Well, because when you understand, Isaac, that the Christian life is a relationship with Jesus Christ, it’s not just a sign up sheet for heaven. It’s a daily ongoing walk with him and relationship. You’re going to want to talk to him every day. You want to learn more about him from the Bible, what he expects, how to be a brighter light. You want to please him daily through obedience. We should want to as believers. I use the kind of cliche example of if we never talk to our spouse, what kind of relationship would that really be? It would basically be a piece of paper with nothing authentic, nothing believable to back it up. But it’s in those quiet moments when we’re talking to the Lord that he gives us that daily strength and that focus to engage this crazy hectic world.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, and we only have about a minute left before our first break, but you said he gives us strength and that reminds me of you make a comparison of physical strength and spiritual strength. And you wrote this book for super ordinary people who love Jesus. Can you just, in this little bit of brief time we have before the next segment, can you just talk to us about that? What happens spiritually when we get strengthened daily through the word of God?
John Mallonee:
Yeah. When we’re getting our spiritual nutrients, we can be really in tune with the Lord, but if we’re not getting our spiritual nutrients, we’re not going to thrive as the salt and the light we’re called to be. We’re going to become weak, ineffective in our witness. We’re not going to impact others as much as we could. We’ll try to lean on our own understanding, which is exactly the opposite of what Proverbs three instructs us to do. And so we have to invest in what is most important to us, just like we try to take care of our physical bodies.
Isaac Crockett:
Yeah. And there’s a lot of people that can relate to that. We can spend a lot of time, a lot of money with our physical strength and yet in a lot of ways it’s just some of the simple things, some of the basic things. Real quick here, we just have about 30 seconds. You talk about Romans 12: two tells us not to conform to this world. How does being in scripture every day help us not be pushed into this world, but be keeping our minds on Jesus Christ and what he’s done for us?
John Mallonee:
Well, whatever consumes the real estate in our heart is going to consume our mind, vice versa. Our minds have to be trained in God’s word. We have to be humble and realize that that’s where the answers come from. And we have to put forth the effort to really dig and discover those answers that he gives to us. So just like we study for a test, we have to study for life as well from God’s word.
Isaac Crockett:
That’s so true. Well, we’re talking with Dr. John Malini. He is the author of a new devotional book and we’re going to be digging into that book more in the next couple of segments, but he’s also a good friend of the American Pastors Network, good friend to this program, Stand in the Gap Today, and a personal friend of mine, a personal friend of Sam’s. And we’re talking to Sam as a pastor, but for every person, for every ordinary person who loves Jesus, what do we do? We need to stay in the word of God and we’re going to come back. We want to discuss with John what he’s learned in these over 15 years of writing daily, writing what he has learned from the word of God and letting it help others. So stay with us. We’re going to come back on Stand in the Gap Today and talk about this in a lot more detail.
We’ll be right back.
Welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today, our Friday edition. This is Isaac Crockett and I’m talking with Dr. John Melanie. He’s the pastor at Chapman Community Chapel in Port Treverton, Pennsylvania. And John, our churches are both off of Highway 15 in Pennsylvania. If anybody’s familiar with Central and Northern Pennsylvania, you’re in between Harrisburg and Williamsport and the church I pastor is on the very, very northern side of Pennsylvania. In fact, I live in New York and about half the people in my church come from New York and we’re also off of Interstate 15 north of Williamsport. And so we’re talking today though with John about the importance of spending time in God’s word, about devotions. And John, this is a big deal to you because you’ve been writing devotions since 2010. And as a pastor, that’s our goal is to get people into the word of God.
We like to exposit the word of God on Sunday, but we want people to be in the word of God every day. And it’s a very, very ordinary thing that ordinary Christian people can do and should do. And so you’ve taken your years of writing, over 15 years of writing, and you’ve put it into this new book, 366 Daily Devotions for Super Ordinary People Who Love Jesus. And people can go to your website, john-melanie.com and they can find it right there or they can go to 366dailydevotions.com as well. And I’ll have you say more about that. But John, as we get into this, and you started writing devotionals back in 2010, it was originally just kind of on a weekly basis. Again, as a pastor, there’s so much that we have studied about a passage that doesn’t always fit into the sermon that we’re preparing.
And so I’m just curious, what prompted you to start writing weekly devotions in 2010 and then how has it grown? How has it developed over the last few years?
John Mallonee:
Yeah. Well, one day, Isaac, as I was studying, I just jotted some thoughts down and I started emailing them to people and it really caught on and they were like, “I like this format. It’s simple, but yet we get into the Bible.” And so I was doing that on a weekly basis. My secretary would publish it on the bulletin. People would be able to have that with them for the week. That was before I had two of my children, so I became even more active. And you know how it is with children, you have lots of material, both for preaching and for writing, lots of examples. So that’s a great question, Isaac, and the answer is super easy. Because of having a biblical worldview, I began to see everything through the lens of God’s word, which is what Stand in the Gap is all about.
And there was just so much to write and I wanted to get it out there. It became a daily thing. Even something as seemingly insignificant as mowing the lawn or that menial task gives your home curb appeal or how changing the oil in a car reminds me of how we need to perform spiritual maintenance in our lives. And when we’re in tune with the Holy Spirit, he gives us the scriptures that connect and it’s just so practical. And I believe God wants it to be practical. He wants it to be understandable. He’s not some distant mysterious being saying, trying to crack a code. He gives us his word. He wants us to understand it. He wants us to apply it. So after saying all that, I just wanted to encourage people every day because I figure we have seven days. We have church one or two days a week, but we have life seven days a week and we need to be in God’s word every day.
Isaac Crockett:
I’m picking up on the word you said applicable, this application. And again, as a pastor, I want to apply this. We don’t want to just talk in lofty terms. And one of the goals I’ve had in my life is when I get done preaching, I don’t really want people to say, “Oh, that’s something new that I’ve never heard of before. I never would have thought of that.” I hope that people say, “Oh, that makes sense. It’s right there. I could see how that applies to me and I understand what the Bible’s talking about there.” And so again, you started this with your Sunday sermon information and you know what? I have the rest of the week. I’ve got more of this to go. What did you learn in helping people go from more than just simply hearing biblical truth to what you’re talking about right now, that word applying it to our lives?
How have you seen that work? And even now, I mean, you have a large number of people all over the nation, all over the world that have access to your devotionals. And I’m just curious what you’re seeing from that move, from not just hearing it, but applying the Bible in our lives.
John Mallonee:
Yeah. So probably about a decade ago, I wasn’t always writing my daily devotions in real time like I do now, which means for me the day before they’re published. So I’ve already got tomorrow’s scheduled, ready to go out. It’ll hit people’s mailbox in the middle of the night. So no matter what coast they’re on, they’ll have that as soon as the new day comes around for, well, it’ll be Saturday when the next one comes out. So I keep those going every day and I didn’t always do that. I would write about five or six at a time. And a lot of times they would coincide with the points, not that I have a five point sermon every week, but I would expound upon that and really take the Sunday sermon and make it into a five, six, seven day series so people could be reminded of what we touched on, but then it would just continue to grow on top of that and add more scripture.
And it became a Bible study format kind of. And then we would put them in the bulletin and little trifolds, just try to get the word out there as best as possible so nobody could say, “I have no idea what the message was about last week.” They have it right in front of them every day. And so while I often touch on topics that I recently preached on, generally now the format is whatever the Lord is showing me that day, that’s what I write about. And the more in tune we are with him, we have that biblical worldview. We see the world through the lens of the Bible and everything such as even just a tiny bug can give us a spiritual application. And then I put that out there for people and they relate because we’re just ordinary people trying to make an impact for Christ in this world.
So when I say yesterday in my writing, it literally was that current because I like to stay as up to date as I can.
Isaac Crockett:
And John, another thing that you and I have in common is working in smaller churches and more rural areas for us, Pennsylvania, and there are many, many pastors throughout the world in a similar situation. It has led both of us to working jobs outside the church to help us financially, what sometimes people refer to as a tent maker, referring to the fact that the apostle Paul in the book of Acts, we see him making tents for a living so that he could have the ability to work in the ministry jobs. And you and I have done similar things as that, although I don’t think either of us has actually made or sold tents. But with your work, it does lead you to travel a lot of miles in a week. And so you spend a lot of time behind the steering wheel. And a couple of years ago you started doing devotions that you call driven devotions.
And since you spend a lot of time on the road and have that time to think and make observations, you see a lot of different things in the miles you travel and the states you go through. How do you take something very ordinary from just something you’ve seen maybe on the road or everyday life and how do you recognize that God is working in all things? The Bible has something to say about every area and give us that spiritual application that you do in these devotions.
John Mallonee:
I call it driven devotions because windshield time devotions just doesn’t have the same ring to it, but driven has a two part meaning to it. First of all, I get a lot of thoughts while driving. Secondly, we should be driven to live like Christ. We should be driven to follow him in our lives every day. And when we’re in his word, he does that. We should be driven by the Holy Spirit. So it’s kind of a play on words, if you will. But as you know, Isaac, anybody who spends any amount of time on their own knows that your mind has lots of time to think. It can be a blessing. It could be a curse. However, if our minds are transformed on a daily basis, like we mentioned, Romans 12: two, that thinking can take scriptures that we know and apply them to all we see around us.
There was so much inspiration going on that I rarely lacked for material for the next day’s writing. In fact, sometimes I would have to just jot down a note and say, “Well, for the following day, I’ve already got an illustration or an event that happened.” And it’s just neat to see how the Holy Spirit does that and using ordinary people like us to communicate God’s word.
Isaac Crockett:
When we come back in our next segment, we’re going to dive more into this devotional book that you’ve written, but just talking about devotions and these daily devotions you put out there for free online, you talk about ordinary and that’s a focus of yours and you use a lot of humor. People talk about dad jokes, you’re one of those people that comes up with a lot of good dad joke type of humor and you incorporate that humor, that just regularness, ordinary stuff into your devotions. Why is that such a practical thing in your preaching, in your teaching and devotions to make things understandable and ordinary to you?
John Mallonee:
I just try to be real and relatable. No pretense, just let’s be who God made us and be genuine and that connects with people and people connect with me through that. We don’t want fake, we don’t want phony. We want to be real and passionate about what we do. I’ve had people come up to me and they say, they were reading something I’ve written, whether it’s a previous book or a daily devotion or whatever, they say, “It’s like I’m having a conversation with you.” And I love that because we kind of get to know each other. We get to let each other into one another’s lives, which is, isn’t that what Christian community is all about, living life together, encouraging one another. It’s not about a once a week service. It’s about living life together for the glory of God. So we share each other’s struggles.
We don’t pretend to be perfect. I do tend to be sarcastic and I often say that it’s my second language, which is slowly becoming my first. But when it comes to the English language, I try to write the way I talk.
I did not claim to have gotten anything higher than a C in my senior English class. So I’m just going to write how I talk and people can relate to that, understanding that I’m not trying to win a Pulitzer prize. I’m just trying to communicate God’s truth in practical ways people can understand because at the end of the day, that’s what matters. Not if we use all the right words in the Sensaris, but that we clearly communicated God’s truth and apply it. I want to give you a funny note. My editor left me a note in my manuscript that was going back over that and making more changes and it said, “You use an insane amount of contractions.” But did I change things? No, I did not. That’s just me, so I left them there.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, when we come back, we’re going to talk to John about this new book. And again, I hope this is an encouragement to you to be in the word every day. We’ll be right back. Well, welcome back to our Friday Stand in the Gap, and we’re talking about spending time in the word of God on a regular basis, even if it may not be spending an hour a day, but a few minutes even, and reading God’s word, but reading it in a way to apply it using maybe a devotional. And in this case, we’re talking to John. John and I both as pastors, we like to preach and to try to take God’s word and exposit it and help people figure out what it’s talking about and how to apply it. That’s part of preaching is applying God’s word to our lives. And in this case, John has been doing devotionals.
And so we’re talking about that right now. And I would like to encourage you, if you’re listening, if you’re listening on radio, I want you to know that we have a lot of other sources that Stand in the Gap Media and the American Pastors Network. You can watch us on TV, you can listen to us on radio, but you can take these programs with you. Our Stand in the Gap app is really easy to get and to download to your smartphone. Our website is easy to use. We’re talking about devotions today. We have several partners that you could use. You could go to John’s website that we’ve been talking about. We’ll talk about that again. There’s another website you might want to use or encourage somebody you know who’s a leader, a pastor, business leader, even a husband or father. It’s called stayonmission.com. Stay on mission, no breaks, just all one thing, stayonmission.com.
And you’ll look there and you’ll see it’s connected to some of the programs that we’ve done here on Stand in the Gap Today. Rod Reason is the CEO of Daniel Defense, and he’s the one that started this. In fact, it was on a radio program that he mentioned that he had been texting devotions almost every day to a group of leaders, military leaders, business leaders, people like that. And so many people started wanting to be a part of it then after that radio program that he actually made a website and has been investing on that. And there are a number of. Rod was writing these devotionals by himself, but now there have been a number of men who have been on Stand in the Gap today, including myself, who have written some devotionals for that website. And again, it’s geared towards men in leadership positions or men who want to lead, even if it’s just leading their families spiritually.
But let’s go back now. I want to reintroduce Pastor John Malani. Dr. John Malani has been a friend of mine and a friend of this program and a friend of the American Pastor’s Network for a decade. And John, as you have invested so much time into studying scripture and explaining it from the pulpit, you also now for over a decade for, well, over 15 years, have been putting the work into putting out regular devotions and for a number of years now, daily devotions. And so let’s start with this new book that you have coming out. First of all, could you tell us where can people go online to find this book or to find your daily devotions?
John Mallonee:
Okay. So you can go to my website. Isaac, you’ve said that address a couple times, but I’ll reiterate it. It’s john-malanee.com and that will give you each day’s devotion. I update it every day. It also does have a link to where you can purchase the book. It’s brand new, so I’m still waiting on my copies. It’s available online and it’ll be available from me as soon as I get mine, but it’s very fresh, very new. So it’s just in the process of coming out. My goal was to get it done this fall so we could have it in time to circulate it before the new year rolls around. And so you can do that john-malaney.com or 366dailydevotions.com, which is simply just an order page, but you can find it there. You can sign up for daily free devotions every day right to your inbox at my website as well.
So a couple resources there.
Isaac Crockett:
I like that. So again, that’s John, J-O-H-N, dash Mallonee, M-A-L-L, like a mall, and then O-N-E-E.com or 366 dailydevotions.com. So let’s start with that title, 366 rather than 365. What were you hoping to accomplish and what caused you to put this devotional book together in the format that you did it in?
John Mallonee:
Well, my natural response would be to title it Driven Devotions, just to build on, I don’t want to call it a brand, but a theme that I’ve been doing for the past couple years and then include a year’s worth of material. But with all the yearly devotions out there, I wanted something catchier than Driven Devotions. And so Isaac, you understand this being a pastor, you want your sermon titles to be catchy and memorable. And so I wanted to catch the content in the title and call it what it was. And I love giving my sermons long titles on occasion, so I figured I would do that with this book. So I thought of the longest title I could that would roll off the tongue, and I’m still trying to get it right, but I was hoping that that title would stand out and people would pick it up and see what’s inside.
And of course, the reason I chose 366 is because poor leap year, we don’t want to leave leap day out. Every fourth year we get an extra day in February, and I want people to be equipped for that. And so when I designed the cover, I had this idea of crossing out the 365 and putting a piece of tape over it and putting 366, and that’s what I did and that’s how it came out. So hopefully it will communicate what I’m trying to accomplish there.
Isaac Crockett:
John, something interesting about your book is in many of the devotional books that I read that have the passage printed out nice and neat, and then the author will kind of go on and expound upon it from there. But in yours, you deliberately withhold the passage. I mean, you have the reference, but you don’t print the verse out on each page. Instead, you give the scripture reference and you expect the reader then to open their Bible or to turn on their phone app, their Bible app on their phone, and to actually read it himself or herself. Why was that important to you that you want people actually turning to the passage in their Bible?
John Mallonee:
Well, Isaac, I never want any study resources, whether commentaries, devotional books, even online resources, as helpful as all these are, I never want them to be a replacement for opening a copy of God’s book. Whether it’s an online copy or a physical copy, I never want anybody to replace that with maybe somebody’s summary or somebody’s though. I want them to see the text and they should all be tools to enhance our study of scripture, but never to replace it. So whether it’s a single verse, some days they’re a single verse, or whether it’s an entire chapter or a larger passage, whatever it is, I encourage the reader to use this book as a companion to their Bible, alongside their Bible. And another reason is because I wanted to keep each devotion on a single page. I have some really great devotional books that I’ve read over the years, and they’re more like intensive Bible studies.
And some days I just want to grab three or four paragraphs and see what I can get from that without feeling like I’m being inundated by a lot of study time or whatnot. So instead of spanning multiple days, I just want to give them something very succinct on one page. And I didn’t want to use up any of that page by writing out the scripture they can see for themselves, so I filled up the pages with the words of application to go alongside. So don’t use this without a Bible. You want to have that right there with you.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, kind of a follow up to that, John. We live in an information overload generation, and especially podcasts. Right now everybody has a podcast, it sounds like, that they’re doing or that they’re listening to. And what you’re saying though is that you want the content to actually be biblical. And so therefore you’re saying, and it’s kind of like when you’re in a church and they say, “Hey, turn with me too,” and you hear everybody flipping the pages. I like to hear that. I don’t like to just hear them just kind of quote a bunch of different things. I like to know that I’m looking at the Bible and it sounds to me like you’re saying that Christian content is not sufficient. It’s the word of God that brings a sufficiency. Could you maybe expound upon that?
John Mallonee:
Sure. Isaac, and of course we know if it’s good biblical content, it’s going to be grounded in the scriptures, but we can’t set that aside. And I think we all have at least one Bible app on our phone, they have all kinds of spiritual resources on them. Those are great. I use those, you use those. However, we do have a tendency to kind of glance over the actual text of scripture and we head straight for the application, but we need both. There’s a danger in simply reading about God’s word without getting into God’s word, just like when I preach, both of us, we’re expository preachers. And so we don’t just want to talk about the Bible. We want to read it, explain it, apply it, and obey it.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Well, John, we have a little over a minute left here in this segment. So just walk us through what’s a typical devotional like 366 daily devotions for super ordinary people who love Jesus. What’s it like? I know you use a lot of illustration and then you go into the biblical application. Kind of walk us through from the time somebody reads the passage at the beginning to the time they finish that page, what’s it like?
John Mallonee:
Sure. Well, a typical day might look like, as I’m putting this together and trying to get this so other people can see it, it might look like me driving in a big city where there’s people that don’t have homes and they’re on the streets. And as I sit at a red light, I have to make a decision whether or not, is there a legitimate need? Do I want to help that person? And all these things go through our minds and then scripture comes into our minds. And of course our flesh would say that apparent situation’s probably not legitimate. They’re probably just trying to earn extra cash. But you know what? The spirit sometimes says, “Well, what if they really have a need?” So depending on how I respond to that situation, then I may write a devotional about it and I may not put myself as a hero or in a positive light.
I might say, “You know what? I missed an opportunity. Shame on me. I’ve learned from that. I’ve been convicted, but how can we learn together?” Or maybe I’m going on a bike ride with my son or something and we got a workout and I’m like, “Wow, if we could do that physically, like we said earlier, what about our spiritual workout?” Simple things. They’re simple things, but I think we can best relate to the simple things. We remember them. And yes, there’s a deep time for theological study, but there’s time for simple Bible application as well.
Isaac Crockett:
That’s great. There’s always time, always time for the Bible. And you know what, John, I want to talk with you specifically about that, making time with God a habit, time praying and asking the Lord to open the word, to open our minds, sitting there maybe with a devotional book like yours and then reading through it, but just making that a habit of spending time with God. And it can be more than just once in the morning. It can be throughout the day, it could be all day, but how do we find that habit of spending time with God? How do we make that part of our day and really make it stick and make it meaningful? Those are some things I want to talk with my friend John Malani about when we come back. We’re going to take a quick break. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap Today.
All right. Well, welcome back to our Friday program. I’m Isaac Crockett and I’m talking with John Malani. He’s the pastor of Chapman Community Chapel and that is located in Port Treverton, Pennsylvania. If you’re familiar with Pennsylvania, it’s in between Harrisburg and Williamsport right off of Interstate 15. And we’re talking about having devotions or having a time set aside to spend time in the word of God and then apply it to our lives. John has written devotions since 2010 and now is the author of this latest book, 366, not 365, but 366 daily devotions for super ordinary people who love Jesus. So John, we’ve covered a lot of ground today. We’ve talked about why time in God’s word matters. We’ve talked about how you started writing these devotionals more than 15 years ago and how it led to this brand new book, this book that you can find out more about it, John, J-O-H-N, dash Mallonee, that’s M-A-L-L-O-N-E-E.com.
But John, I want to spend the last few moments that we have here on the program today, just focusing on somebody who’s listening and they say, “Well, I’ve tried doing devotions. I’ve tried reading my Bible. I’ve tried reading a devotional book and I just can’t find the time. I’m not consistent.” John, if somebody says, “You know what? I believe what you’re saying. In fact, I want to read God’s word every day, but I’ve tried and I just have a hard time staying consistent.” What advice do you give that person for them maybe starting today or starting tomorrow morning? What would you tell that person?
John Mallonee:
Well, first of all, bite off manageable pieces that you can chew on. So many people get really eager, really quick. Don’t try to read the entire book of Leviticus in one sitting and then expect to have an instant spiritual growth spurt.
Isaac Crockett:
Start
John Mallonee:
With a verse here, a verse there. Start with Paul’s letters or the gospels. Maybe just make a plan and say, “I’m going to read through this book, but I’m not going to speed through it. I’m going to read a couple of verses a day and then put it into practice because if we just read it and leave it there on the page, it really doesn’t do anything to change us. So take off manageable pieces there. Take out manageable pieces of the word. The consistency then, it’ll take care of itself. I think the statistic was if you do something 21 times in a row, it becomes a habit, but there are good habits and there are bad habits. This is a good habit to do and it will just fall in line. And so when we take those initial bites, we will see incremental progress and we’ll look back and see how God’s grown us in his word.
So in a couple words right here, be deliberate. A Bible app that I use, Isaac, I am sure you use as well, they have different features where they’ll send you a reminder every day
To help you in the busyness of life say, Hey, read this plan or check out this scripture passage because we get so busy, so it’s good to be reminded that there’s truth waiting for us in God’s word. And also, this might sound kind of harsh, but many of us as humans, just because of our culture, we’re guilty of poor time management. So instead of maybe watching 15 minutes of reels and cats and dogs, we can deliberately take that time and we have to be disciplined, but just read our Bible. It’s really sort of simple. It’s just a matter of doing it.
Isaac Crockett:
Yeah, I like that. And just that Christian discipline, Dr. Thomas White, he’s the president at Cedarville University and he’s a theologian and author of a lot of books, but he wrote a devotional book on the book of Joshua. And one of the things he encouraged and still encourages the students at Cedarville is no Bible, no breakfast. In other words, read your Bible even before breakfast and making that a priority, it then helps us face different temptations. Maybe we’re tempted to waste time on some things or tempted to get into things that we shouldn’t, whether it’s gossipy things or just all sorts of things that are thrown at us on the internet. But when we started in the Bible, it helps us make better decisions. Well, John, we’ve said it’s important to do this and you’ve talked about, you’ve given a lot of really good, helpful, practical information, but let’s just say a listener listening today says, “You know what?
By God’s grace, I’m going to pray and I’m going to ask God to help me be disciplined.” And he or she starts reading the Bible every day, maybe picks up your book, for example, and gets into the word of God every day, applies it, maybe has a devotional book like yours that helps him or her apply it to their life. What do you think might be different about that person next year, a year from today, after doing that consistently for 365 or 366 days if it’s a leap year, what might be different about that person who learns to make this a consistent part of their life?
John Mallonee:
Well, I guarantee they’re going to be transformed and I think others are going to see that in their lives too. They’re going to look at their life and say, “Wow, something’s changed in you from something as simple as just being deliberate, spending time in God’s word.” It’s powerful. We know that. It’s living, it’s active, it’s sharper than any two edged sword. As the Bible tells us, it confirms that of itself and it declares that. So when we get into it and with the Holy Spirit’s power, there’s no other option. It’s going to transform us. So in our actions, in our attitudes, in our affiliations, in our affections, this simple discipline, it’s going to produce results that will shape them into a more effective child of God. It’s going to give them a desire to be a light to others. It’s just a matter of starting that and just trying to get over this mindset of, well, I’m not a theology student.
That’s okay. The Bible was written on a pretty young level that even children can understand it. Ask the Holy Spirit to apply the truth and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Start small and then work up to that.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, you started a program talking about the analogy of exercise and supporting our physical bodies and that sort of thing. And this is the same idea. Start small, don’t take off too much. Something is better than nothing. And oftentimes it’s just one verse or one small passage in scripture that we get to meditate on it. That’s the whole point of meditating on things like Psalm one, meditating on it day and night is just thinking on that over and over. And so I like that. Just start small, start simple, but start with something rather than nothing. Well, John, we’re almost out of time here, but could you one more time let our listeners know how they can get your book, but also just where they can subscribe to your regular daily, free daily devotions and follow more of you. I know you’re on social media, you have the websites.
So could you just kind of give that information to us one more time and any final thoughts from you before we close our program?
John Mallonee:
Yeah, sure. Again, it’s 366 daily devotions for super ordinary people who love Jesus. So if you’re super ordinary as I am and you love Jesus as I do, you can pick this up. You can go to my website at john-malanie.com. You can go to the book website, which is 366dailydevotions.com, 366dailydevotions.com. You can get my free daily devotion sent to your inbox every day by subscribing at that website, john-melanie.com. The book has social media accounts @366devotions. That’s on both X and Instagram @366devotions. There’s links in every one of those to where it’ll take you right to the page. You can order it. If you know me, if you see me in person, I’ll have copies that you can get from me physically. Then you don’t have to worry about shipping, handling, processing and all the fees that the publisher takes. It’s actually going to be cheaper that way too.
And I want to save everybody money, of course. So that’s how you can get ahold of that if you’re interested.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, thank you for that, John. Thank you very much for taking the time to be on this program, but thank you for doing these devotions every day. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer as we close. Father, I thank you for your word, that it is living, that it can be alive in us, that it draws us in your spirit, that the same Holy Spirit that inspired the word of God empowers each of us to know the word of God and to know you and to be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that your spirit is conforming us through the word to the image of Jesus Christ, our savior. And so we pray that we would seek first your kingdom, that you would help us to make it a habit to start with your word and to apply your word to our lives, that it would be a light to our feet and a lamp to our path every day and in every way in which we live.
We thank you for John and pray that you would bless his ministry and bless this book that he has written and the devotionals that he is doing on a daily basis. We thank you. It is in the precious name of Jesus, we pray. We love you, Father. Amen. Well, thank you so much, John Malani, for being on and talking with us, and thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s program, I pray that you will share it with somebody else, maybe even go back and listen to it again. But until next time, my prayer for you is that you will be blessed by God, but that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.
Recent Comments