Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, [Ezra] read from the Book of the Law of God. Nehemiah 8:18
RECOMMENDED READING: 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-17 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was.10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
COMMENTS: Tools are necessary do work bare hands can’t do alone. Driving a nail or remove a nail requires a hammer. Same is true of a screw driver and a screw. A tape measure and square provide a reliable standard and measure to build straight and true. The eye is needed but is not enough. My son-in-law once built a series of trusses that appeared good but he used a $2 tape measure than was not accurate. Those trusses had to be scrapped because they were not compatible with the rest of the lot of trusses made.
Imagine hiring a contractor who showed up without tools and without proper training to do contracted work. Even if his wage were less than other contractors, the quality of his work would likely be costlier both in time and cost to repair than a much higher priced contractor who does quality work consistently and on first attempt.
The same that is true for a contractor or for an employee is true if we are going to be Christ’s servants and do His bidding. Unqualified employees tend to become unemployed or even unemployable.
Do we want to be employed by God? Well, God offers wonderful fringe benefits and rewards. His reward are opportunities to offer eternal life and joy with the Creator of All. His reward includes eternal life in a home and place He is preparing for us. He also provides His Holy Spirit to council and guide and inspire and empower to do God’s Will. He also provides purpose and a legacy that will continue our work long after our time of work on earth is finished.
So, if you and I are going to work for the Creator of all, would you not think we need to go through a training program and acquire some tools to use? What is the training program and what are the tools? If we look at Saul who became Paul, we realize his knowledge and credentials were impressive with the religious leaders of his day, but totally lacking from God’s standard.
Saul first had to enter training thru the way of Christ’s cross. He had to be reburned by admitting his own sins and accepting Christ’s sacrifice for his sins. God used blindness to fulling bring Saul to a point of full surrender and repentance.
Saul then took 3 years during which he became acquainted with Christ personally by worship and study and prayer along with becoming acquainted with his disciples. Saul also became acquainted with the Holy Spirit, which transformed his existing understanding and knowledge of scripture. Saul became Paul, a new person with a fresh new attitude and perspective and understanding of who Christ is and what He came and did. Those 3 years transformed and equipped Paul sufficiently so he could go out and spread Christ’s gospel in a mighty way and endure persecution.
God has a job, a calling, a mission uniquely designed for each of us. A mission we were designed to do. He wants to equip us and will do so using life experiences, natural tendencies and interests, as well as His word and army of faithful Christians to encourage and assist in our training. Guess what. He also wants to use you to help training a younger brother or sister in the faith. Or maybe even help in healing of an older brother or sister who has become discouraged or weary in the work.
We do not earn our way to heaven. Salvation is a free unmerited and unearned gift Christ paid dearly for. We are only saved by His Grace and His Grace alone. The work we are called to do and the preparation for that work and our obedience to do that work are all our submission to Him as our act of worship and praise and as our loving response of appreciation. But an additional motivation and reason is love for others and sincere desire to show others God’s love and His Good News too.
We need to keep in mind God isn’t asking us to do work we dread or hate, but work of joy and of great worth. Work that brings life and work of eternal worth. Simple work of encouraging or conversation or simply listening. Simple work of caring and showing compassion. But work that requires some skills and tools of God’s design. Tools of compassion, but also tools of wisdom and discernment and insight that only God can provide. But using the tools of prayer and God’s Word to equip us.
So, spend some time with God each day to prepare for the day and to open your soul to the Holy Spirit’s direction and council for the day. We might just be amazed what work He has planned for us today. AMEN! Don’t show up for the job of life without the tools you need. Let the Word of God thoroughly equip you for life.
“The truly wise man is he who always believes the Bible against the opinion of any man.” R. A. Torrey
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 149 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 