Nelson Word this month, release an album of many of America's top CCM stars. But behind this project is the inspiration of a book, which has become a devotional classic. Kathy Bubel reports, Matthew Barnes took the pictures.



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How do you stay mindful of the great love of God - so that you don't take it for granted or think that you can somehow earn it?

"We will never be able to do anything to deserve the love our Father has for us. However, he gives us complete comfort when we are able to, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, 'Shift the kaleidoscope and find fresh combinations of matchless grace.' It's at this realisation that we cry out to him, lord, draw me near,' and he gently replies, 'Hold on to me.'"

MICHAEL W. SMITH
"Move In Me"
"I am only human struggling to find/Confidence in all that I believe/So I have come to pray that you will come/And feed the hunger here inside me/To grow stronger in the faith/'Cause when you move in me/It's like a symphony/A timeless melody that soothes my soul/Though silent I can tell/That you're alive and well/'Cause I can feel you move in me."

24 December: "When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt him. When he says - 'Let not your heart be troubled,' if you see him I defy you to trouble your mind; it is a moral impossibility to doubt when he is there...'My peace I give unto you,' it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, an irrepressible confidence."

How do you ready your heart, in the middle of raging doubts without and within to feel God move in you? Does it mean that you have to turn off your brain in order to have peace?

"Not turn off, but turn on my brain...turn it on to the truth of his constant presence and provision. In tough times, I do need to turn off what isn't important and go away by myself, usually to my farm or for a drive in the country. There I can freely worship and commune with God and very often feel his touch. The truth is, he's always as close as I find him in those times."

PHILLIPS, CRAIG & DEAN
"Shine On Us"
"Lord, let your light/The light of your face/Shine on us that we may be saved/That we may have life/To find our way in the darkest night/Let your light shine on us."

26 December: "If I walk in the light as God is in the light, not in the light of my conscience, but in the light of God - if I walk there, with nothing folded up, then there comes the amazing revelation, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin so that God Almighty can see nothing to censure me. To walk in the light means that everything that is of the darkness drives me closer into the centre of the light."

What do you think it means to "walk in the light" or to have the light of God shine on us?

"As long as we walk in darkness, we cannot comprehend the depth of our darkness. The darkness so enshrouds our mind and soul until we are without direction or common sense. It is only when we catch a glimpse of 'the Light' that we begin to see how desperately lost we really are. A ray from the 'Son' creates a hunger for more of his light. For he is 'the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.'" John 1:9
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