Then [Jesus] went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.
Mark 6:51
RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE: “30 And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed:36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.42 And they did all eat, and were filled.43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.” Mark 6:30-44
COMMENTS: The more I live, the more amazed I am at how choices made affect future events and how past choices impact current choices. Wrong choices tend to make good choices harder to make and poor choices easier to make. Likewise, wise choices tend to build off previous wise choices. Yet temptations still litter our days, don’t they?
A movie released a number of years ago called “Groundhog Day” depicted an individual who went to Punxsutawney, a small town in Pennsylvania, to observe an old annual community celebration of predicting if winter was nearly over or would linger another 6 weeks. In the movie, the actor had to relive that day hundreds of times. Each time he would change something he did or said, which would change subsequent events but eventually the day would end unpleasantly and he would wake the next morning to live the day over again. Eventually the cycle ended and he began living normally as others. I mention this only to be a reminder of how much even simple uneventful choices do impact our day and even how obedient we are to God’s nudging. I also am reminded just how well He interweaves our lives and our prayers with everyone else to accomplish His Will and Plan.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to witness the miracles and sit at Jesus’ feet listening to Him teach and share. Yet today’s scripture gives us a hint of the interruptions that shortened or competed with opportunities disciples’ desires for one on one time with Him. Previously I had failed to notice the disciples desiring to share their successes with Jesus, seeking His encouragement, when came an interruption which ushered in the miracle of feeding of the 5000. They wanted to be alone with Jesus to be encouraged by Him but had to put that off. How often is our time with Jesus delayed by distraction or interruptions of life. Yet how many more times do we put Him off when we do have time but aren’t in the right mind or attitude to fellowship with Him?
It is important to treat time and opportunity to fellowship with our Lord as precious instead of thinking we can do so any time we want, so no big deal to put it off. By delaying opportunities to fellowship, we put up walls separating ourselves from Him and enable other distraction to usher in more frequently.
When we treat our daily devotion time as sacred and give it priority over life’s duties and obligations, we are removing those walls and opening our minds and souls to receive His council and fellowship as well as receiving a blessing from giving worship and praise to Him. He desires our praise and worship and our fellowship, but we desperately need to give it for our welfare too. Through such we are nourished and fed. Through it we give Him opportunity to prepare us for our day and opportunities He provides to minister to others. Spending time with Him also sharpens our memories of past blessings and times with Him as well as impact of those times on days that follow. When we miss those times, we tend to forget and follow our own flawed logic and plan or worse, follow the distractions satan litters our path with. No one is exempt from satan’s temptations nor strong enough to resist. We all desperately need one with one time with Him and the abiding Holy Spirit’s continuous council and help to sustain each day’s journal down a right path.
I may be “preaching to the choir” but I think not because I am also preaching to myself. You see, it still is a battle for me to be faithful to each day’s devotion time with Him even though writing this journal is very helpful in keeping me faithful to that time.
“Meditation is the best help to memory.” Matthew Henry
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 293 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.
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 