You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:5
When evangelist Vance Havner was advanced in age, his wife died. His grief and loneliness overwhelmed him, but he determined to persevere in his work with an increased longing for heaven. He wrote, “I once read of a man who lived beside a river but had little interest in the people on the other side until his daughter moved over there to live. I have lived beside the river many years, but this past year has heightened a thousand-fold my concern about the other side.”
RECOMMENDED READING: I THESS. 5:1-11 “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
COMMENTS: When most are young, they don’t think much about the future and especially not about heaven. Like the man noted above, they pay no attention at the people across the river until a loved one lives there. Heaven becomes more a reality when a loved one dies. I experienced the death of my dad’s father in 1963 when I was 12. Then my mom’s mother in 1976, my sister in 1993 and my father in 2002 and mother in 2007. But my closest friend, I went through grade school and high school with, died of drowning in 1972, when we were both 20. He was physically much bigger and stronger than I, which made his loss more a shock. But the reason we were so close was our common faith in Christ. The reality of heaven and confidence of our home there become more real to me after his passing. We had both come to Christ at an early age.
But as I grow older and realize I have more years of life behind me than ahead of me, as I have more and more friends and neighbors and family in heaven, then heaven becomes even more real and closer and home to me. I can appreciate those who have lost their spouse and/or children gain that appreciation of heaven even more so.
Arlene and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary next month. We can remember both our parent’s celebration of their 40th anniversary. My parents lived to celebrate their 50th and 60th, but Arlene’s father died a few months before their 50th. That realizations draws us to hold our time together even more precious but the confident hope of heaven gives us joy and even a sense of anticipation knowing our eternal home and far better home in heaven is something to look forward to and not dread.
The increasing aches and pains and limits of an aging body also is more noticeable and can also appreciate those, like my aunt, who expressing her longing for heaven more vocally in her later years. But we are not called to complain but to praise. We are called to show joy and hope and gratitude and not hopelessness or despair.
I am told one of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is depression and hallucinations. I have to admit sometimes I have the weirdest dreams, most of which are rather funny but never depression. I believe the reason is the hope Christ puts in my souls, and the outlook the Holy Spirit fills me with. Writing this journal and prayer and bible study, and devotion keeping this discipline keeps me accountable to do, all serve to keep me filled with joy and gratitude instead of depression. Likewise, as I reflect on the growing welcoming committee awaiting me in heaven with my Lord, how could I be depressed.
My mother, after my father died, replaced his more recent pictures with their pictures from their early years of marriage. When I asked why, she said she wanted to see him as he now is and she as she one day will be. She was suffering so on her last day and I tried to encourage her and told her I was glad she placed pictures of herself young. I would be able to recognize her when I get to heaven. She was very weak but her eyes lit up and she said, “Don’t worry, I’ll recognize you”. She only lived a few hours more, but I am confident she will be waiting for me along with my sister and father and aunt and countless other family and friends. But my Lord will be waiting for me and His welcome will overshow and profoundly fill me with worship and joy and praise above all else.
I have not earned such a hope, nor have you. We receive such a gift by confessing our sins and accepting Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the cross and forgiveness as an undeserved gift. When we do so, what we do for Him is out of love and gratitude and not out of duty or work for a wage. Motivation out of gratitude is so much more powerful and energizing as well. But even more, He then gives us His abiding Holy Spirit to guide and inspire and council and comfort and strengthen us as He walks each day with and in us. No one can understand this unless they have experienced His abiding presence. Then and only then can the work and good we strive to do have eternal value and impact because He is guiding us in it. Otherwise, to work with thought of earning our way to heaven will be empty and worthless. As foolish as putting a horse in the cart and trying to push it. Much better to let the horse pull the cart so we can ride and work can be done. Christ did the hard work of redemption and the Holy Spirit continues to do so.
So why do most still think they can earn their way to heaven? It is a deception satan is responsible for and is still able to effectively fool most with. Why? Because we, as humans, still like to earn our own way. We feel more satisfied at the end of a good day of fruitful work. Well, we don’t need to give that up. Fruitful meaningful work is still on God’s agenda for us, just not alone without Him. So much better if we only let Him. Don’t let satan trick or fool you. Put Christ on the throne of your life and keep Him there. So much to gain and so much to enjoy. Eternity is such a long time to plan for, but it will be here sooner than we think. Maybe today for some. Maybe today for all if Christ comes today.
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 115 blog posts i have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.
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/Don1951
My hope and prayer is, they will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
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
donsdevotions 