Last year I received a birthday present of 'Streams in the Desert'. I expect many readers know the book, it was first published in America in the 20s and later on in Britain too. It is a compilation of daily devotional readings for one year, collected by Mrs Cowman, a retired missionary, at a time when her husband was seriously ill. Based on KJV texts and quotations from writers of earlier generations, the language is beautiful but - some would say - out of date. The book I was given was a version in modern language, prepared by James Reimann in the 1990s, at a time when his second son was seriously ill.

The theme of these readings is very often how God uses our troubles as a means to bless us. In the new edition there is a list of daily topics, which includes 'difficulties' 60 times, and 'suffering' 20 times - but also 'faith' 60 times, 'prayer' nearly 40 times, and 'trust', 'waiting on the Lord', 'stillness', 'blessings' and 'victory' about 20 times each. It was clearly written to help those passing through a spiritual 'desert' - and which of us does not sometimes pass that way.

The daily messages can be inspiring, but sometimes the words in the original version are not quite clear. For example, the KJV text used for January 2nd reads: "And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst" (Ezek. 41.7). Doing a little study, one finds that this is an architectural detail of part of Ezekiel's temple, a vision which was given to encourage the Jewish exiles in Babylon (c.600BC) that God's favour would return to them. But the daily reading picks out the words 'still upward', and uses them out of context as a watchword for Christians - to strive to live their best, moving on to 'higher ground'. There are paragraphs from C.H.Spurgeon and J.R.Miller. In the modern version it uses the NIV, a lot clearer architecturally speaking, which reads: "The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor." The higher we climb, the more spacious the rooms!

Using the book prayerfully, and setting criticisms to one side, this year I have found Streams in the Desert a challenge and an encouragement. 
GC