THE WITH-NESS OF OUR GOD

A Christian devotional based upon prepositional relationships found in the Bible.

Loyd, an educator, begins this book by sharing her lifelong love of grammar—an interest that led her to look carefully at the specific grammatical constructions of the Bible and their implications for Christians. This leads to an exploration of prepositional phrases used in Scripture. This seemingly banal project turns out to be filled with insights about the relationship between God and the faithful. The author’s primary example is “with,” as in the phrase “God is with us,” and she looks at the three Greek words which could be translated as “with” and how they differ from one another. She then goes on to analyze a number of other prepositions in the same manner, focusing especially on key lines, such as, “If God is for us, who is against us?” and “You are in Christ Jesus.” Loyd designs each of her nine chapters as a one-week devotional tool. She begins by laying out a grammatical concept and focusing on a key verse, then moves on to seven days’ worth of reflections, including study and discussion questions. Her prose style is solid though certainly informal and even folksy at times. She often uses examples from her own daily life to back up her points; for instance, in one case, she related an imperfect birthday cake she baked to Jesus, “who came to earth and put up with a broken, imperfect life for my sake.” At another point, she contrasts an old, threadbare nightgown with the comfort of life with Christ. Loyd is well-read within the evangelical canon, quoting authors as diverse as early-20th-century Scottish Baptist minister Oswald Chambers and present-day Christian pastor and broadcaster Tony Evans. She also ably explains the basics of Christian theology, placing substitutionary atonement within the context of “Christ died for me.”

An ingenious and insightful approach to Scripture.