And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15
Recommended Reading: JEREMIAH 31;31-34 “31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
COMMENTS: I live in a wonderful part of the world, where all 4 seasons unfold each in a much different way. Winter is a cold lifeless time with water freezes solid, trees and plants seem lifeless and dead, animals must dig through snow and frozen soil to find hidden nuggets of food, and people must dress in warm cloths to venture out. But snow is a beautiful sight to behold. Spring is a favorite time. Trees and plants and flowers all come back to life and transform a barren landscape into a beautiful blanket of life. Sounds of spring include chirping birds and other animals. The aroma of flowers fills the air too. Summer brings warm temperatures and opportunity of enjoying outside work and play. Children playing also is evident. Fall brings crisp temperatures and the beauty of tree leaves changing color. Harvest of crops come to a climax too, but the warning of coming winter starts to be prophesied in the air and landscape.
This cycle of seasons reflects God’s hand at work and predictable and faithful involvement in His creation. Every spring the fresh creation of new life reminds me just how much God enjoys creating. He continues to create not only every spring but with every birth of a child and even every birth of animals. God so enjoys creating new life but also enjoys reviving new life in old things. I believe He especially enjoys creating new life in our old sinful lives too. Scripture tells us heaven rejoices when one sinner is saved. “7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” Luke 15:7
I wrote a sermon some time ago “Spring Shouts CHRIST IS RISEN!” To experience Spring is a perfect time to celebrate Easter as well. I am convinced from eternity past, God had Spring in mind as the time when Christ would be crucified and raise again. Just as a rainbow reminds us of God’s promise to never destroy the earth again by floods, Spring reminds us God’s promise that Christ’s death is sufficient sacrifice for our forgiveness and His resurrection is God’s promise to give us eternal life when we accept His gift of forgiveness.
God is not surprised nor unprepared for the future. He has already been there. We, however, are unprepared and unaware of what the future holds. Wise planning helps us prepare and have sufficient reserves help us deal with difficulties, but our best and only true way of preparing is to put our trust in Christ. As I reflect on the above scripture from Jeremiah 31, I am encouraged and reassured at the realization God is in control and has a plan in place. A wonderful plan for you and me God not only has a wonderful plan in place but is working faithfully to implement that plan and has been doing so from eternity past.
I think one of the wonderful discoveries we will make in heaven will be learning how God planned and implemented His plan. I think it will also be wonderful to talk to ancestors and those mentioned in scripture and discover how God’s plan was fulfilled in their lives and rippled down through the generations and impacted our lives too. Then how our lives rippled to those after us.
God is so worthy of our love and praise and so faithful to us. It is easy to neglect or take Him for granted, but we need to work hard not to. Season changes can be our reminder not to take Him for granted. I encourage you to discover reminders to help you remember Him too.
God’s New Covenant is the covenant of Christ’s sacrifice and redemption. A covenant requires agreement by both parties. Christ gives the terms and we accept those terms. The terms we agree to is to admit our sins and surrender our wills to His will. His gives us forgiveness and eternal life. We give Him our broken sin corrupted lives. We get the best of that deal, but He gets what He longs for, us! Do you ever wonder why He loves us so much? That is a mystery, but we can only marvel and be grateful He does!! Where would we be and what would be our future if He didn’t? I hate to even imagine.
Christ is the Mediator of the Father’s New Covenant with greater and more detailed promises (Hebrews 8:6). Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Christ sacrifice was once for all. No sacrifice under the Old Covenant could do that.
Be glad we are now living under the New Covenant. We are forgiven not because we deserve or earned it, but because Christ paid for it and we asked for it. AMEN? AMEN!
“There is no death of sin without the death of Christ. “ John Owen
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 188 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 