For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Matthew 15:19
RECOMMENDED READING: Matthew 14:1-12 “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.5 And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.6 But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.10 And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.11 And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.12 And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”
COMMENTS: Why is a democracy a better form of government over a dictatorship? After all, God rules heaven and will rule earth Himself. Well, maybe not completely because Jesus did say we will rule with Him when He sets up His rule on earth. Truth is a dictatorship works better with a wise benevolent ruler than with an arrogant selfish power-hungry ruler. Evil inspired rulers like Nero or Hitler have done devastation to their subjects and countries and beyond. Even good rulers like Solomon went astray and were corrupted by the power they had.
Truth is each and every human, no matter how wise or smart or discerning they are, are flawed and influenced by satan’s deceptions. When they think they can do well without constant input and council of the Holy Spirit, it is then they are at great risk of satan’s influence. Even good intentions can bring disaster without God’s wisdom and direction.
An example is Mao Zedong decided sparrows were pest and ordered them destroyed. He didn’t realize they were predators to locusts. With the sparrows gone, the locust multiplied and devastated the Chinese agriculture, causing famine and starvation. 30 million Chinese people died due to Mao’s mistake! Mao leaded on his own defective thinking instead of God’s wisdom. Why would a democracy be any better? Well, potentially not, but wisdom of a group of people would at least give the potential of those with more wisdom and greater insight to provide input closer to or including God’s wisdom.
Herod’s decision to steal his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, set a chain of sinful events in motion and compelled Herod to kill John the Baptist instead of letting John’s preaching lead him to Christ. Herod was becoming open to John’s message but a foolish choice changed his future and a multitude of others. God’s work was not hindered for He knew what Herod would do and worked even his evil choices into His plan. But if Herod would have chosen more wisely, he and many others affected would have had a much brighter future and Christ still would have fulfilled His mission.
Adolf Hitler grew up in a Christian family but his family failed him and he failed his family and nation. He chose to follow a satan inspired path instead of embracing the Savior who died and rose to offer him redemption.
With great power and ability comes great responsibility due to potential to do great good or great harm. We are accountable for what we do or say or don’t do or say. Hiding our gifts is just as great a sin as misusing our gifts. Both have the potential of harming not only ourselves but others God wants us to positively impact.
Scripture tells us: “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). The only hope we have for our actions and words to do good and not harm is to be and stay in constant fellowship with Christ through the Holy Spirit’s abiding presence in our lives. We accomplish that by keeping open to and seeking His council and refraining from acting until He sense His direction. Maybe we don’t need His help to pick the cloths we will wear each day or other simple unimpactful choices we make each day, but then again, how can we judge how God can and will use even simple choices to do His Will? Why not make it a discipline and practice to keep Him in all we do instead of trying to figure out when to rely on ourselves and when not too. We can’t bore Him. He won’t grow weary or tired of us if we go to Him too often. His passion is to be in fellowship with us. AMEN!!
“Every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God’s Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 288 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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