Devotions from Genesis: It’s Not Just Ancient History

Devotions from Genesis: It’s Not Just Ancient History

Nicole Love Halbrooks Vaughn. Mustang, Okla.: Tate Publishing, 2010. 216 pp. (Paperback).

It is unusual to find a book of devotions based on one book of the Bible other than Psalms, but in this book, Morgan County native Nicole Vaughn has written a series of devotionals based on the book of Genesis.

Vaughn was inspired to write the book by her own discovery in a study of Genesis, which the author says “impacted my life greatly and ignited a passion to encourage others” to study the Old Testament.

The book is organized into three main sections. In the first, the reader is led to discover the character of God through the creation, the fall of man and the flood. The second section moves into discovering faith and obedience through the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the third turns to the coming of Christ and trusting God in the midst of trials as seen in the life of Joseph.The devotions are not dated, which leaves the reader to move through them at his or her own pace. Each devotion takes one verse and presents a short devotional and a prayer based on it. The study is not exhaustive; the author chose one to three verses per chapter for a devotion.

The devotions are a mixture of scholarly Bible study and heartfelt appeal to the readers through personal anecdotes and stories. A study of Genesis would be greatly enhanced by the use of “Devotions from Genesis.”