Over everything the glory will be a canopy. Isaiah 4:5, NIV
Recommended Reading Isaiah 4:4-6 “4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. “
COMMENTS: When we share our testimony with others at church or where life takes us, we filter out the uncertainty and just share the conclusion. The answers to prayer and victory over sin and triumphs. We hold back in sharing struggles that are still going on and answers still not given or given completely. We’d rather wait until the uncertainty is over. Such was not the case in scripture. The doubts and struggles of those we are very familiar in scripture are given in detail. Their fears and doubts and even failures as well as their faith and faithfulness along with God’s abiding presence and faithfulness and answers. Those stories all tells us God allows satan’s temptations and miseries within His constraints to strengthen and draw us closer to Himself. He also allows them so we have credibility and wisdom and understanding when witnessing and fellowshipping with others. He is preparing us for service and even for heaven. He is also preparing us for a deeper fellowship with Himself while on earth too. Yet, He assures us He will not permit us to be tempted and endure hardship greater than our ability to do so. But He doesn’t intend for us to face such alone nor without Him walking the journey hand in His. It has been told life is a cycle of being in trial to peace to preparing for another trial to going through another trial. It is also noticeable that not everyone goes through the same degree or intensity or frequency of trials. It seems some seem to have more than their share of trials while others are spared most.
It is true, our foolish choices and past sins, even though forgiven, still have lingering consequences. Yet, many endure trials they are victim to and not because of their sins or foolish choices. Yet, both are in God’s loving Hands and both have His abiding presence and Hand reached out available to us to guide us thru to the other side. He provided a hiding place for David in caves from King Saul’s army seeking to kill him. Yet during those years of hiding, He had God’s promise that he would one day be king, but during those years there is no evidence he could escape King Saul’s relentless obsession to seek him out and kill him. Yet David remained faithful and in fellowship with God during those years. Recorded are some of David’s times of fear and weakness and anxiety that clouded his thinking and caused him to make some foolish choices like fleeing to their enemy the Philistines for protection. Such stories confirm God’s mercy and forgiveness and faithfulness. God has not changed, and unfortunately, we are all too much like those of bible times. Satan hasn’t changed either, so the trials and temptations people faced in ancient bible times, and even those of great faith, are the same ones we face and endure. But since God hasn’t changed, His help and protection are still available to each and every one of us. Even more so, because of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, His Holy Spirit is even more accessible and available to us than for Old Testament followers. They had redemption from altar sacrifice. We have redemption directly by Christ’s sacrifice and His abiding presence by the Holy Spirit that came at Pentecost.
Verses 5-6 say, “Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion…a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain” (NIV).
We have God’s promise of His return and our deliverance from sin and death and promise of an eternal home and body being prepared for us while we reside on earth. We also have His promise to return and evidence that return is very close.
Every generation since Pentecost believed His return would be in their generation and have evidence to believe that. So, do we. So why would we think ours is different. The answer is the reestablishing of the nation of Israel and return of the Jewish race to rebuild that nation in their promised land of old. Scripture tells us when we see that, then that generation will not be gone before His return. That happened in May 1947. My wife was born May 29, 1947. I’ll leave it to you to speculate how soon before He returns or how many more years can pass before her generation is gone. There is nothing more needing fulfilled before His return, so Christ could return today. But His compassion and passion for us, I believe, causes Him to delay so more will have opportunity to accept His redemption, including many in my own family and yours too. Yet we are told He will come to stop the path to extinction satan will persuade the world’s people to take. To stop the war on Christ’s followers satan will wage. Satan is waging that war today, just look around and watch the news to prove that. The war is getting more intense and obvious as each day passes. We are satan’s enemy simply for following Christ. Whose enemy would you rather be? Satan’s or God’s. Christ calls us friends when we accept Him. That makes us satan’s enemy. We don’t have the option to be in both camps. We have to choose. Will we be satan’s friend or God’s friend. That is our choice and the choice of every living human. Let’s make the wise choice and make our lives and conduct and words and actions encourage others to make the wise choice and example the same too while HE tarries. Time is running out and His return is approaching. AMEN? AMEN!!
“When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea / Thou Who rulest wind and water, stand by me.”Charles A. Tindley
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 279 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/ 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.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials 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
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