Malachi 2:10-16 “10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.12 The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.”
COMMENTS : A true story is told of a widow with 2 children walking down a river shore struggling with deep depression and thoughts of suicide when she hears a ploughman on the other side of the river singing Hymns while working. His joyous singing and hymn’s words and music lifted her soul. Ploughman was not aware she was there but his witness and joyous spirit impacted her greatly. She went home and began praying for her children and the generations after them. She prayed for the next 12 generations, motivated by that ploughman and what he sang about. Her son, Grattan, become a minister and helped trigger the 1859 revival in Ireland. Many pastors and christians were among her decendents, including Dr. Os Ginness, a famous Christian author. “Wherever life takes us, our witness goes too—it is the legacy of a believer in Jesus Christ.”
We all can relate to experiencing those times when life’s problems and even tragedies are so overwhelming with little or no evidence to hope for better days ahead. Hopefully we won’t get to the point of considering suicide as a way of escape, but the world is full of people who are. Christ did not die for us to be filled with despair but with hope and joy. Christ’s followers of the first century did not face persecution and death in order to be filled with despair and hopelessness. No, those christians instead were stronger and filled with joy and confidence as they faced unbelievable suffering. They knew their final home was heaven with those they loved but most of all with Christ, who died for their redemption. That hope sustained and strengthened them. That hope gave them courage that makes no sense to those who don’t know Him. But resulting evidence in their lives was undeniable and caused Christianity to explode in that century and to now explode in countries who persecute Christians. Yet comfort and prosperity do not provide the need for Christ that is essential for us to seek and surrender to His love and mercy. We, as humans, must realize how much we need Him before we surrender our wills to His Will. The widowed mother in the above story was without hope and in desperate need when God placed her near a Christian who was simply singing while he worked, praising His savior singing hymns familiar to him from Sunday worship. He had no idea she was watching and was singing only because it brought him joy and enabled him to express his love for His Savior. God designed and built the opportunity and softened the heart of that widow to receive His message to her too. That message of love and hope changed her and gave her a reason to live. The impact on her was eternal but the impact on her children and their children generation after future generation was also eternal. What precious life changing ripples happened and are still happening because of her surrender? Those are the kind of miracles I believe God loves to do the most and does the most often. But they tend to be the unnoticed and untold miracles that most walk right past without noticing. But how often do we miss a beautiful sunrise or sunset or a rainbow or beautiful garden simply because we didn’t bother to look up or stop and let God’s beauty soak into our souls.
Take some time to stop and notice and reflect. God’s prefers His messages to you to be ripples and not tidal waves, but He loves you too much to sit back and let you drown in your own selfish wills and sin. Just maybe you are struggling with a tidal wave because you ignored too many ripples. Well, tragedy will come simply for living in a fallen world, whether from past sin or simply, like Job, because satan wants to pull us off the right path. Either way, stopping to enjoy God’s miracles opens us to see God working all around us giving us confident hope and courage too.
I look out my window onto a beautiful sunrise but a blanket of frost on the roofs and ground of my neighbors. Evidence of a coming winter and colder weather. I still have more preparation to do for winter in my own home as well as in our church property, but preparation that will enable it and my family and church family to endure the coming winter weather no matter how harsh it may be. But God is there to provide help and protection for no matter what will come this winter or next spring when the miracle of rebirth will once again spring up where death and bitter cold once prevailed. If Christ returns before spring, well, that will be even better and much greater miracle to behold if we are prepared and ready for it. BE READY!!
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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