The Dew of Doctrine Devotional

Deuteronomy 32:2

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Every year around this time I have to seek out a new Devotional for the coming year. For some reason, I have it keyed to October. I'd like to say that I have it aligned intentionally with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. But, I can't say that this is the case. 

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה), (literally "head of the year"), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described in the Torah as יום תרועה (Yom Teru'ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]). Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on Sun, 29 September 2019.

I think it happens in the calendar because I have several school events at night around this time each year and I typically have gone to Books-A-Million to look around.  I won't drive home. Just stay in York and pay a visit to BAM.  My birthday is also October 11 and I suppose there is a review and a reckoning going on about the last year and the year ahead. 

I have been a bit frustrated in general by modern Devotionals, particularly in the lack of doctrinal emphasis. I know that doctrine gets a bad name. It is perceived by many to be at best dusty and dry and at worse, dated and even dangerous. Yet, like a body without a skeleton, we are going only to be jellyfish just floating on the waves, without bones and sinews. Doctrine provides orderly structure to the body of spirituality. Most peoples' spirituality, even Christians, is just glossed over self-centeredness.  At least in the US where we view almost everything as consumers.  

Doctrine teaches us that we are depraved and desperate without Christ. That only He provides the sustenance we need. Everything else is junk spirituality.  I mentioned in last week's blog that we hunger for more than just junk food both physically and spiritually. We can stuff our faces and souls with empty calories yet our hunger is not satiated until we eat something solid and substantial.  The Apostle Paul in several parts of his writings speaks of needing to eat the adult meat of doctrine rather than keep drinking the milk of babies. We are thirsty and need the deepness and substance of doctrine to slake our souls and to quell our hunger.   

I decided to get a Devotional based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism which is part of my faith tradition of Reformed thinking. I look forward to a year of being filled.