Poetic Meditations on Selected Scripture: A Thirty-Day Devotional

This devotional of poetic mediations grew out of forty-five years of expository preaching and self-reflection. The author’s intermittent attempts at poetry reveal both his best and worst parts. These poems reflect experience as a follower of Jesus, an inward battle with sin, shame, sadness, defeats; yet, always the word of God leads to the gospel of Jesus Christ and his victory, his forgiveness, his power, his love, and his hope. Never without the realization of sinfulness and the sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ, many live daily on a continuum between these two poles of striving by faith to rest in Christ and agonizing over the heart’s inclination to wander. By God’s grace and through his Spirit, that movement may be more toward victory than defeat.

In 1970, Jesus Christ rescued John P. Davis from the dominion of sin and began a work of gospel transformation which continues to this day. John has planted and pastored churches for forty-six years in both urban and suburban settings and in mono-cultural and multi-ethnic settings. He is thankful for a good theological education, especially in his ThM studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. He has been the husband of Dawn for forty-seven years and is the father of five children and a grandfather of thirteen.

Stephen M. Davis is an elder at Grace Church in Philadelphia (gracechurchphilly.org). He holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Columbia International University and a DMin in Missiology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of eight books including four on French history: Rise of French Laïcité in the Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series, The French Huguenots and Wars of Religion, French Protestantism's Struggle for Survival and Legitimacy (1517-1905), and The War of the Camisards (1702-1704): Huguenot Insurrection during the Reign of Louis XIV.