Meet the Publisher of Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional

Today I’m happy to introduce you to my friend, the founder of Devotable and the publisher of Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional and Journal – Landen Melton. He is the creator and founder of Devotable and the publisher of three compilation books.

Meet the Publisher of Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional

When he’s not working on Devotable, he’s spending time with his 2 kids and wife, serving in his local church, helping others with their online presence through freelance web design, and drinking coffee. You can learn more about him through Devotable at devotableapp.com.

I have the honor and the pleasure to be a part of the Devotable writers’ team and a contributing author to the latest Devotable book Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional and Journal.

Remember to pin me for later!

Landen Melton on Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional

What kind of preparation do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book project?

This is the third book project that we’ve done through Devotable. At first, I had to do a lot of research, not only for the topic of the book but also about how to create the book and get it published. While self-publishing has made it possible for virtually anyone to create a book on the topic of their choosing, it has also demanded they do the job of what used to be done by a company of people. You are now your own publisher, editor, graphic designer, marketer, and much more. So there is a lot of research that goes into how to self-publish.

After learning the self-publishing ropes, what to do, and what to avoid through publishing our first devotional book, our second book became a matter of market research. I no longer needed to research and spend months figuring out how to put a book together. Now it was just a matter of learning and listening to my audience and asking them what they needed or wanted. What took about 1 year for the first book only took about 8 months for the second one.

The third and most recent book, Equality: Created Equal in His Image, was a project I felt called to do after so much turmoil and unrest in 2020.

I sat and watched so many people, even within the faith, become divided on topics that we frankly just shouldn’t be divided on. The world uses race, language, ethnicity, age, gender, socioeconomic status, and many other things to try and divide us, and that’s what I saw happening in 2020.

Fueled by the calling and desire for foreign adoptions, and a striking passion to advocate for children all over the world, I decided that I wanted a devotional and journal on the topic of equality so I could walk through all these issues with my kids. If I don’t teach them about the Biblical principles of equality, they’ll learn it elsewhere, and I don’t want that to happen. I want to be their teacher and guide for those touch subjects.

So I decided on that topic for the third and most recent book in our library so that we, as children of God, can not only educate ourselves on equality from a Biblical perspective but also usher our family and kids into conversations about it as well.

That project has been 8 months in the making and I’m so excited to get it out and share it with people.

As children of God we can not only educate ourselves on equality from a Biblical perspective but also usher our family and kids into conversations about it as well. @devotableapp #equality #Bible #bookreview #authorinterview Share on X

Why did you choose this specific book format–16 week devotional and journal?

I think it is important that we discuss topics and journal through them as we grow. This allows us as believers to not only logically reason through our thoughts but also allows us to put them down for later reflection. I chose this format so people could do just that.

I know in my prayer life, I tend to pray about the same things over and over. It becomes habitual and rote; just me going through the motions. I see this in my kid’s lives as well. We tend to pray for the same 5 things each night. This form of prayer is detrimental to our spiritual growth. It doesn’t challenge us to go deeper and unpack things in more meaningful ways in our conversation with God.

The journal is designed to spark conversation and then reflect on those topics as we work through the week. It’s meant to help me, my family, and others, to think and later pray about more profound topics than just a few items we have on the checklist. Now, not only do we pray for those things—grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, church, friends—but we also go deeper and pray for racial equality in our country, pray for age equality within our churches, or pray for adoption needs around the world.

That is the reason I created the devotional and journal style of the book, and will most likely keep with that format for many more works we compile in the future.

How did the work on this project impact you?

As I read through all the contributions and worked through editing them, I got a sense of all the kinds of biases I possess in my personal life. Not only has God been working on me for sin in my life that I must shed, but he’s opened my eyes to different forms of prejudice that I can hold even without really knowing I possess them.

We all have preferences in our life, from the people we hang out with, the friends we have, the socio-economic status of the people in our lives, even the race or gender of people we bond with. It’s just natural, and I don’t believe anything is wrong with that. I get along with different people and don’t get along with others.

But when I let those preferences get in the way of who I’ll share the gospel with, who I’ll go and have a conversation with, or even something as large as who I’ll go to church with, that’s when it starts to become a stumbling block for me and I believe a sin in my life.

As I read through these devotions, they put a finger on some things in my life, and hopefully things in others, that I need to address and put to death. The questions the authors pose at the end of each devotion help me realize those deficient areas in my life, and journal about those to confess that sin and remove that bias.

It has been a wonderful devotion for me personally, as well as my family, to help and challenge us.

What do you want readers to learn most from the Equality Devotional and Journal?

I want readers to know that we all struggle with some form of bias, prejudice, or discriminatory feelings in our lives. While I understand that most Christians don’t struggle with outright prejudice or practice discrimination in our daily lives, we all have some kind of issue that we must deal with. It’s in our very sinful nature, as humans, to struggle with such things. And we must confront those sins, die to them daily, and strive to see the world through the lens of equality that Jesus desires for us.

We must see the world, and more specifically, the people in it, through the lens of our Saviour. He came, bled, and died, for all mankind. He died for all races, genders, and ages. And when we truly grasp that, it gives us empathy for all mankind. We begin to see people for who they are, created in God’s image, instead of the deteriorated vision caused by this world.

I want readers to see that, and truly confront that in their lives, as well as understand that it is our responsibility to teach our children about those issues. We live in a cruel world, and our children will be exposed to those problems one way or another. I for one, want to teach my kids what equality looks like from a Biblical perspective, and not let the world teach them otherwise.

I believe if we as Christians stood up for equality all over the world and instilled those Biblical values in our family, we can have a global impact and see a revival of the faith, unlike anything we’ve experienced before.

When we genuinely see people through the eyes of Christ, it changes our perspective, our goals, and our daily walk.

If we as Christians stand up for equality all over the world and instill these Biblical values in our family, we can have a global impact and see a revival of the faith. @devotableapp #bookrecommendation #equality #faith Share on X

Landen Melton on Reading

I’ve tried and struggled over the years to be a non-fiction reader and I just can’t do it. I’ve only recently discovered my love for fiction reading; specifically science-fiction and fantasy.

I love the works of C.S.Lewis through Narnia as well as his science-fiction works. I also enjoy reading Mark Goodwin through his various Christian science-fiction adventures, as well as the classic (in the modern term) Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye.

For the non-fiction works I have been able to get through, I enjoy reading work from J.I. Packer, Francis Chan, and Pastor John MacArthur.

For devotional and Bible study works, I like going through studies put out by Paul David Tripp and David Jeremiah. Lastly, if you want to explode your brain, I love challenging myself in apologetics to grow my faith and understanding of God. I managed to get through the Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics in just under a month. It was a fascinating and thoroughly challenging read, causing me to evaluate why I believe what I believe about God, creation, space, time, and much more.

Meet the Publisher of Equality: Created Equal in His Image Devotional – Landen Melton. He is the creator and founder of Devotable and the publisher of three compilation books. @devotableapp #equality #bookreview #bookrecommendation… Share on X

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