A few months ago my wife came home from a Christian women’s conference with a few books that were given to her.  As we browsed through them I noticed one that seemed to stand out.  It was a devotional called “Jesus Calling” with the subtitle: “Enjoying Peace in His Presence”.  Intrigued, I started to look through it.  Immediately I was horrified to find out that the words I was reading were supposed to be from Jesus, written in the first person, and yet were not directly from Scripture.  If you are a follower of Christ, this should be a major red flag to you!  I have noticed there is a children’s devotional of this as well, please do not make the mistake of buying this for your children!  You might ask: “Why?”… which is the reason I am posting this book review and beginning it with a bold “Not Recommend”!

False Prophecy
One reason I would strongly warn you to stay clear of this book is that it is filled with false prophecy.  A prophet is one who speaks the words of God to the people.  Therefore, false prophecy is defined as words that are proclaimed to be from God, but were not derived directly from Him as the actual Author.  The Scriptures are very clear on this warning to us.  Allow me to show you a few that should cause you concern for anyone reading this “devotional”.  In the times of Jeremiah, there were men who were claiming to speak for God (prophets) and have a positive message for the people.  They proclaimed that God told them of a quick relief & restoration that would come in just a few years.  Angered by these lies, and especially that they would speak as if quoting God, the Lord sends word through His true prophet, Jeremiah.  He was sent by God to warn the people regarding these false prophets.  Please hover over & click on the following Scripture references for examples:

Jeremiah 14:14–15, 28:15–17, 29:8–9, 29.15-23 

I could go on & on with much more Bible references, but to put it plainly, God does not look lightly on false prophets nor the false prophecy that they profess in order to deceive the people.  As you can see, He also doesn’t look kindly to those who adhere to such garbage.  ”Jesus Calling” speaks in the first person as if directly from Jesus Christ, and is not quoting Scripture directly.  By definition, this entire book of devotional material is false prophecy and blasphemy.

Idolatry 
Phase two of my “Not Recommend” is due to idolatry.  I am always leery of any Bible teacher, preacher, book, etc. that tries to promote our God in an unbalanced form.  This is very popular these days.  This is done by focusing on one or a select few attributes of God told in Scripture while blatantly ignoring others revealed in the Bible just as clearly.  Today, in our age, this is almost always done by promoting the “niceties” of Jesus.  This is done by promoting His love while sweeping His wrath under the rug.  Let me say plainly, there is nothing wrong with teaching that Jesus Christ loves sinners enough to die for them and save them.  However, we must understand WHY He needed to die in order to save them.  This involves God’s wrath upon sin.  This is only one aspect that is a glaring and obvious (easy) one to point out, but I think you get the point.  In light of this, my problem with such a book like this is that in its false prophetic declarations from “Jesus” it seems to all be sweet and nice, at least from the little that I observed.  This is not a balanced view of our Lord and thus creates an unhealthy & unbalanced theology.  I have warned my people at River of Life Church that they should beware of anyone who only quotes & teaches on the “nice verses” of Scripture.  This person seeks to create an teddy bear version of an idol called “Jesus” so you might worship Him rather than the true Jesus, the Eternal God of the Bible.

Bad Hermeneutics 
One thing that the author does do in this book is include some paraphrasing & referencing of Scripture.  She italicizes Scripture paraphrasing and includes a couple of references to singled out Bible verses.  If you attended my hermeneutic teaching called “Grasping God’s Word” on how we read & interpret the Bible, you already understand yet another reason why this book is problematic.  Day 1 begins by quoting the famous Jeremiah 29.11 “nice verse” while ignoring its full context, intended original audience, and therefore, its true meaning.  It also wrongly applies this verse directly to every single reader in the mix of its false message from Jesus.  This is a red flag and very dangerous ground as people trust this book as a “devotional” in connecting with Jesus Christ.  A slippery slope indeed.

Why Not Read the Bible? 
I will close this book review with a question that seems to be glaring at me.  If you want to read something daily that comes from God, that reveals Who He is, that are Words directly from Him, that is Jesus calling to you… Why not read the Bible!?