WE MUST BE CLOSE TO THE RIVER OF LIFE TO DRINK FROM IT’S WATERS

     jeremiah17_7-8

For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” Romans 9:15

 “7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:7-8 

COMMENTS:  There has been a debate for centuries between Calvinists (those who teach predestination) and Wesleyans (Armenians who believe in free will).  FYI, Presbyterians are Calvinists and Methodist are Armenians.  How do we reconcile God’s ability to plan and see future events and recognize God’s influence and still recognize we each have ability to choose God’s path or a sinful path?  That is a mystery but history and scripture support both beliefs.  Ardent Calvanists say backsliding or turning away from Christ either is not permanent or their salvation was not genuine in the first place.  Baptists may hold to the “once saved, always saved” belief as well.  How then do we reconcile all three approaches and understand what is true to scripture?  I have to admit I have not fully resolved the difference but do believe there is truth and validity to all threse approaches.   Where I am currently at on this debate is the belief that God knows what has happened and what will happen both in entire world and with each living creature so He is not surprised by anything we say or do.  I believe His desire is for all to be saved and obedient to His will and does all His Will permits to give us every opportunity to do that.  However, I believe if we choose not to, it is not because He doesn’t will it but because we ignore His opportunities.  I also believe He is longsuffering so will not give up on us this side of the grave.  I believe that also means we have the capability to receive salvation and turn away from sin.  When I was younger I feared if I sinned after being forgiven, I would we be judged  if I died before had opportunity to repent again.  That believe cause me much anxiety because I was not able to live the “perfect live” I knew God wanted me to live. Well, I have since concluded that God is a relational God, which means we start our relationship with him with repentance and forgiveness but daily having a relationship that keeps us from deliberately turning away from God or from walking away from our salvation.  I think the answer to the question- where in the path of disobedience could or would we lose our salvation resides only with God and is futile to debate.  So, our goal and focus should be to be in building a stronger relationship with God and not try to test where the cliff is or how close to it we can to live. His desire and passion and Will is for everyone of us to know and enjoy His mercies and also fellowship with Him.  Even though He knows whether or not we will be faithful to Him, He still deals with us based on how we respond to Him in present.  He knows we don’t know the future, so will not hold us accountable for future actions we don’t know nor foresee.  He only holds us accountable for what we do know and understand, which is the unforgiven sins of the past and current ones still involved in.  By seeking His forgiveness for those sins and submitting our wills to Him, we receive His most precious Christmas Gift available to everyone of us.  We also open our hearts to invite His Holy Spirit into our lives to guide and council and strengthen and inspire us to follow and obey Him going forward.  That is the amazing good news of Christmas and Easter.  THE REASON FOR THIS SEASON IS JESUS.  THE REASON FOR OUR LIVES IS ALSO JESUS.  He made us for a wonderful purpose.

Even though I am not clear at what point turning away from God could mean forfeiting our salvation, I do believe there is a point that after deliberate and repeated sinning when that would occur.  Scripture gives us clues of that.  So, again,  I come to the conclusion I don’t want to live so close to the cliff to test that.  I want to make sure I am close enough to God that I know when I need to turn back.  Again, I concluded the answer to that question needs to rest solely with God and let him answer it for each of us.   However, God want us to get as close to Him as can and not see how far away from Him we can be without falling off the cliff, right?? 

Arlene and I have been married approaching 40 years.  If either of us would have decided to see how little time we could spend with each other and still be married, you and I both know we would not be married now.  Have there been times we’ve disappointed each other or spent less time with each other than should have or felt at times less married than other times?  Sure, but our commitment to each other and staying in relationship with each other (and especially related to our common relationship with Christ) enabled us each to both keep our marriage strong and recognize and avoid anything that would harm or weaken that marriage relationship.  We have discovered nothing, especially pride, is as important as our love for each other and the marriage covenant we made with each other.   I think the same is true with our salvation and relationship with Christ.  I’ll leave it to you to either come to the same conclusion for your situation and circumstances.   Anyway, we do well to take some time to discover and become aware of the dangerous and open manholes we can fall into and move away from them and towards the River of Life, towards CHRIST.  Jeremiah tells us a tree with its roots nourished by a large river will not wither when drought comes.  This gives us a clue how we are to live and even thrive when hard times come.  That is the difference the influence our lives can be and how attractive our faith can become to those who know us and interact with us regularly.  Satan will do anything he is allowed to do to either destroy or ruin our lives, our relationship with God, and our witness.  Consider how ministries and successful careers and lives have been destroyed by sin, especially the sin of adultery.  Just in recent weeks careers of a considerable number of successful newsmen and congressmen and other famous men have been destroyed by sins hidden for many years but recently brought to light.   Our sins will find us out but God’s forgiveness received by our repentance and God’s healing  brings restoration.  Let’s work on making that true of us too, even if it means giving up some of the luxuries or other indulgences we have grown so accustomed to that we think of as acceptable or even as necessities.  I don’t necessarily think we need to beat ourselves up but do think we need to clearly see where our true love and source of life is?

Well, today is the day after Christmas.  The gifts are opened and family meal and Christmas sweets are part of the leftovers we will graze on for some time.  The reality of cold winter weather and for some loneliness will begin to take hold again.  The reality of personal and family problems and evil that is rampant in ours or nearby communities or maybe even closer to home begin to press in on us again.  But the Christmas message and hope that only Christ can give is still strong and bright and clear.   Nothing has changed with Him and His gift to us is still available if we only accept and open it.  If we have, being the light so others will see that gift and accept and open it too will bring us no greater joy and will bring Christ the greatest joy too.  Let’s not be in any hurry to take down or turn off the Christmas lights.  Then let’s keep them on in our souls so we and others will draw our roots deeper and closer to the river of life which is Christ’s eternal life and His Holy Spirit’s abiding presence.

Published by donsdevotions

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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.

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