Overview
This hardback book, with 494 pages, is lovely - and it’s full of praise to God. It’s called ‘Sanctuary – Moments in His Presence’, and covers the entire year, dealing with one aspect of faith each day. It is a devotional title, and it enables me to recognise that God is always there, regardless of how I feel in myself today.
I know David Strutt reasonably well as we attend the same church in Liphook. David believes in divine healing (as do I), but like me he still has some concerns dealing with his own health.
In the past two years, ‘healing’ is an area of faith which I have gradually come to understand better. I continue to pray for God’s healing, and indeed in my case it could well have come - but at the same time there is always a future healing which seems just a little way off. In my view, David accompanies me ‘in the same boat’!
Throughout this book, there is the sense that you should search for your own healing, and God may answer you. How God does that is His own concern, and not one related to you. Overall, it’s solely down to Him.
This is the way of living by ‘faith alone’. Faith always seems to be ‘twin track’.
The Author
When David was 21, he had a ‘sudden and profound conversion to Christianity’. In parallel with his profession, he worked as a lay pastor and preacher in a number of churches. In recent years, David works with the elderly as a pastor specialising in the spiritual care of the older generation and end-of-life care.
His wife Alison died in 2004, and David is now married to Hannah. Between them they have nine children and many grandchildren. They have led and spoken at conferences, and minister the love and healing of God together.
David worked with the Acorn Christian Healing Foundation, and the book is introduced by Jennifer Rees Larcombe from Beauty from Ashes.
The Book
This is a delightful book, and it includes a page-divider to mark each of the days as you go through it. I like the idea that it’s a hardback! Some devotional books are not as well put together, but having read this title for nearly one month, I really do like the ‘feel’ of the book.
David writes as he preaches. Personally, I think that he is a very good speaker, but he doesn’t really preach! He explains the Word of God incredibly well, and brings it home to you as you sit listening to him. This book does exactly the same, and I strongly recommend it to you.
David was unwell when he wrote this book. He had planned to take his paints away with him on a holiday, but he sensed that the Lord wanted him to take his laptop instead. This book is the result of that exercise! I’m so glad that David did this. As a result, we have a wonderful book to read. Now having said that, you can - of course - pick up the book at any point in the year, and read your way through it.
The book is split into 12 months, and follows a daily pattern throughout. In terms of the Bible, David tends to move around the Bible text quite well, and in so doing, gives a real sense of the words of Scripture as they come across today. He is very good at this, and it’s worth reading David’s text to recognise how good and efficient his thought processes really are.
David listens to the Holy Spirit, and this comes across easily in the text. He speaks about his own situation, of how God has dealt with him in it, and he also looks carefully at the problems and issues that so many other people face. David is there ‘for you’, and he is not against you. That is my sense of dealing with David face-to-face - what you read in this text is exactly how David deals with all of this personally.
I trust that you will enjoy the book. In places, it’s quite powerful. There are times in it when clearly David understands exactly how I am feeling! I see this as a mark of the Holy Spirit in David’s life, and get from his writing the ability to change my own behaviour. What a great place for any writer to be at!
As I read this book, I have reached January 30th. Here is Psalm 103 that David puts in the book - and one which I wish to share with you today:
‘Kneel before the Lord, and forget none of His kindnesses, who forgives all of your perversity’.
Eddie Olliffe
Bookseller and Distributor for the past 35 years. Now Consulting Editor of Together Magazine. I blog on Christian Spirituality, UK Publishing and Bookselling matters.