Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
Recommended Reading: Proverbs 25:21-23 “21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.23 The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.”
COMMENTS: What is the purpose of a car horn? Is it to alert others of danger or to say hello to someone you know? Or is it to order someone or another car to get out of our way? A train whistle or horn has a primary purpose to warn passersby to get out of the way because of danger of the moving train not being able to stop quickly. Train engineers use their train whistle while moving through communities or pass train crossings to warn those wanting to cross tracks not to cross in front of a moving train. Engineer’s purpose in using the whistle to keep others safe from harm or death. He uses the whistle motivated by concern, not by anger or disgust.
The driver who uses his car horn often is motivated by anger or disgust and makes a big difference in response or effect of its use.
How often do we respond to rude or disrespectful or even mean actions or words of others in kind, thinking such a response is deserved or justified or even needed? Such justification may be motivated with a desire to discourage such behavior by creating a consequence to deter further rude or mean behavior. Yet does that every work or does it just encourage even worse behavior? Consider how common “road rage” is which often escalades to far worse consequences than original offense would justify in the mind of any reasonable or rational person. Permanent injury or death as a consequence of a rude action or word is not acceptable in any society or by any rational person, but that is exactly what is happening every day somewhere.
We are quickly on a path to become a society of intolerance and mean – unkind behavior towards each other. Acts of kindness and forgiveness becoming rarer and more unnatural in our society. Well, what should we expect after removing God from our schools by prohibiting His moral teachings and freedom to pray to Him and share His love with others. What should we expect after removing “the 10 commandments” as a moral code of conduct from schools and other public places and, yes, from our courthouses. Removing God’s influence from places of leadership results in foolish decisions being made. Wisdom is redefined as what feels and sounds good and not gaged against God’s code of conduct and guidelines. Removing evidence and examples of those before us recorded in ancient history books and in our Bible. History is being re-written removing any evidence of God’s influence and benefits to those who followed God’s lead and instruction.
Solomon was the wisest human who ever lived, except for Christ, but lost that wisdom when he allowed pagan influence into his palace and his life. By marrying many pagan wives, that influence first diluted and corrupted his wisdom, wisdom God gave him, and then snuffing it out. The same happened to Samson and his great physical strength failed due to the corruption of evil.
God will not tolerate evil for long. He will leave and His blessings and protection with Him. We likely will not notice or feel His leaving but will soon notice the consequences. Israel faced invaders and other dangers overcoming them when they rebelled and forced God to leave. God will not reside where He is not welcome. IS HE WELCOME IN YOUR LIFE AND IN YOUR HOME AND IN YOUR CHURCH?
Payback is never a good thing, especially when anger is hot. So, let’s choose to make a cooler and better thought response. A response God inspired instead of satan connived. A response not in kind but a response of kindness. Return an act of evil with an act of good. We might just turn an enemy into a friend but at least we will plant a seed of change for the better. If an enemy chooses to remain an enemy, God at least is then able to treat us like a friend instead of enemy. When we return evil for evil, we are making God our enemy too. That is NOT A GOOD THINK! So, would you rather have someone else as an enemy or God as an enemy? Well, when I say it that way, then it seems pretty insane to continue to respond in kind with evil for evil. To know about God vs. having a relationship with God is like the difference between night and day, between being in a terrible storm vs. being in beautiful sunny peaceful weather.
Christ is offering us forgiveness and a home in heaven, but He is offering us much more too. A relationship with Himself and a helping hand to live the new Christ-like life we love and desire from reading about how He lived.
“Injuries cost more to avenge than to bear.“ John Blanchard
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 312 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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