Search Me Oh God!  

                                              psalm 139,23-24                                     

He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.”  Mark 7:9

RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE READING:  2 THESSALONIANS 2:15  “13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits[b] to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings[c] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”

COMMENTS: Old habits and traditions all too often take on a life of their own driving us to continue empty practices without even knowing why we do them.  I recall the story of a Christmas tradition of family gathering at “Grandma’s house” for Christmas dinner.  Ham was the traditional meat served and one end of the ham was cut off before cooking.   Eventually grandma became great grandma and mom became grandma and Christmas dinner was served at her house and then the daughters became grandma and mom became great grandma.  The tradition of the Christmas ham continued and one end of the ham was always cut off before cooking.  One Christmas a grandchild asked why the end is cut off the ham before cooking and no one knew or remembered why.  But finally, someone discovered great-great grandma’s pan she used to cook the ham.  They decided to use it to cook the Christmas ham and soon discovered the reason for cutting off the end of the ham. THE PAN WAS TOO SHORT FOR THE HAM.   All the years of cutting off the end of the ham without needing to because the reason was eliminated with a longer pan and no one bothered to discover or asked the reason for cutting off the end of the ham while great grandma was still alive.  Sounds like a silly story but is actually true and reminds us how silly and handicapping many traditions in the church established by humans are while forgetting or ignoring essential traditions established in scripture by God are.  Take some time to reflect and discover some traditions that are manmade in your church and discover if they are held sacred and if they still have value.  Also take some time to recall years long gone when church congregations were large and strong and people were being saved and discipled in growing numbers.  Then consider what traditions have faded and forgotten and consider if they were manmade or God directed?  We might just discover some traditions we need to let go off and some we need to re-discover and embrace. 

Do we still preach sin and repentance and salvation through Christ’s blood?  Do we still since the old hymns that teach these truths?   When is the last time your church has had an altar call?    Is the pastor using scripture as his text or just news events and writings of others?  Human traditions are not bad unless they lose their link to God’s traditions.  Even   God’s traditions can lose their effectiveness if we neglect the personal relationship with Christ those traditions are guiding us to establish and develop.  Repenting of our sins and accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord begins a relationship of love and worship and obedience that transforms our life and begins a journey of eternal life not known by us before.  When we neglect that relationship, we become vulnerable to satan’s pull and delusions and insensitive to dangers he puts on our path.  We become insensitive to dangers and no longer are aware of God’s warning and protection and walk away or out from under God’s protection and guidance.  Our actions and habits may continue but reason for doing them is forgotten or loss.   Not until difficulty or disaster stops us do we realize and come back to Him for forgiveness and healing.  Far better to stay faithful and avoid our natural wondering and rebellion and neglectful nature.  King David wondered away from God without realizing it and didn’t fear or avoid temptations or sin he wouldn’t have considered if had remained close and in relationship with God.  Result of adultery and murder and ….  He didn’t realize his peril or extent of his sin until confronted by prophet Nathan.  He ran back to God and repented and was restored in relationship.  Some consequences remained for him to endure even though he was forgiven.   We need to learn from David’s mistakes and realize our own vulnerability and be diligent and alert and work on our relationship with Christ.  Pray as David did as recorded in Psalm 139:23-24 “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

We need to always be open and hungry for Christ to guide into a deeper and more perfect fellowship and relationship.  He is perfect but we still have a long way to go to be like Him.  That means we still have areas of our lives we still need to surrender to Him.  He in His mercy and wisdom only asks what we are willing and able to do.  He knows our limits and doesn’t ask what He has not yet prepared us to do.  A child cannot do Algebra problems until he goes through the years of school learning simple math first.  Our fellowship and obedience to Him opens us to His loving but skillful hand to prepare and perfect us too.   Do we have faith and trust Him enough to let Him do so?  If we do, we might just discover Him preparing us for a greater work that will excite and amaze us.  Work that will give us greater purpose and fulfillment and joy.  Work that may be too scary for us to consider now but work He has already created us for and wants to prepare us for.  But work we may never know or do until we open ourselves to His skillful – loving transforming Hands. 

What is that work and what changes does He want to do to you?  I don’t know because I believe it is unique for each one of us.  For me that work began unfolding when our daughter asked me to begin keeping a devotional journal for her to have and share with her family.  A transformation began in me as I began to keep that journal.  If you are reading this, you know the result thus far and what I am writing and sharing ministers to me as I pray it does to you.   You see, God is still working on me and I still have a long way to go for I am still light years away from being like Christ.  But I continue to discover, as I draw closer to Him, ways I hadn’t realize that I still fall short and fresh attributes of Him I hadn’t realized that I need to strive to be like.   God is so far above and more perfect than us, that we should realize this quest is a lifelong but wonderful quest.

A recent devotion talked about entropy, a principle of thermodynamics.  This principle states that everything naturally deteriorates from a state of order to disorder, from a state of strength to weakness or decay.  This conflicts with theory of evolution or modern humanistic idea of man evolving or moving toward perfection.  Truth is God only has the ability to make us more perfect.  We are only capable of becoming less perfect.   Only God can prepare us for eternal life.  We are only capable of preparing for death.

Sounds pretty obvious now, right?  Following Christ is logical and obvious once we clear away the clutter and distractions that deter and deceive us.  I encourage you to do your own reflection and spend some time with Him making David’s prayer recorded in Psalm 139:23-24 your prayer and desire too.  I too am doing so.  AMEN?  AMEN!

“Hypocrisy is the loudest lie.”   George Swinnock

 

 

 

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 298 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

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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.

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