Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25
Recommended Reading: JOHN 10:27-30 “27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.30 I and my Father are one.”
COMMENTS: Christ continues to have vital role as our intercessor and champion with the Father. The Father only sees us through His Son and His redemptive blood sacrifice. There is no other way to heaven or forgiveness (John 14:6). But through Christ, we have continual fellowship with God and access to His Throne. Just as a leader’s child has access to his father even more than great leaders of other countries, so do we have priority as His children. We are His creation but also His first love. He loves us each one more than we can comprehend or love in response. But we need to love Him deeply and faithfully and obediently too. We need to love Him and He passionately desires our love in response to His love. The Trinity is impossible for us mortals to comprehend, but each reveals a different aspect of God to us. The Father shows ultimate authority and involvement and mandates order and judgment. The Son shows mercy and intercedes to the Father for us. But He will ultimately return to rule on earth with the Father’s authority. The Holy Spirit came to provide personal and continual relationship and help to each of us. The Holy Spirit makes scripture real and fresh and current and applicable to daily life. The Holy Spirit enables us to live a Christ-like life and sustain such a life. We only fail or fall short when we neglect our side of the relationship with Him and allow satan to gain a foothold in our mind. But even then, forgiveness and restoration of neglected relationships is the commitment of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Some Christian denominations hold to a doctrine of “once saved – always saved”, believing in eternal security. Others believe “backsliding” is possible or slipping back into sin and into an unsaved state from neglect of their relationship with God and going back into sinful behavior and conduct.
I believe we come to Christ freely by our own choice and by His encouragement. When we do, we gain eternal life and an eternal relationship with God that no one can take from us, except ourselves. We still have “freewill” to continue to choose or reject Christ. I believe, once we know Christ, it is easier to build and sustain that relationship. However, I also believe neglect of any relationship, whether with children or spouse or close friend or with God over time will result in the death of that relationship.
I reflect on how far David fell from his relationship with God after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and murdering her husband Uriah. He didn’t even seem to miss that relationship until Nathan, God’s prophet, came and woke him up with the story of the king with a large herd of sheep and the owner of one sheep. David then had to choose whether to humbly repent or dig his heels in and refuse. If David would have refused, God judgment would have reigned on him just like it did for his predecessor Saul. BUT DAVID DID REPENT AND EXPERIENCED GOD’S FORGIVENESS AND RESTORED RELATIONSHIP. Was he saved before? YES. Did he then become lost again? Well, we can debate that somewhat, but I believe God would not judge David until He had given him every opportunity to repent first. He even used a method to persuade him to repent that He knew David would respond to.
What method worked for you? Be glad He used that method to soften our hard heart.
He doesn’t want us to be in fear of falling from Grace (backsliding) but does want us to be alert to the danger and work on improving our relationship with Him. Fact is the Holy Spirit wants us to be in relationship with Christ as much as Christ does and far more than even we do. So, He will not give up on us. AMEN!!
Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”
“Unless we are saved by grace, we cannot be saved at all.” Charles Hodge
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 185 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/Dondevotionals/
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 