Marriage is honorable. Hebrews 13:4
Recommended Reading Ephesians 5:22-23 “22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.””
COMMENTS: Marriage was designed and ordained by God as He was forming Adam and as He was making Eve out of Adam’s rib. The Bible is clear that He designed marriage to be a lifetime covenant between a man and woman to each other before and with God. In today’s society and time and culture increasing pressure is mounting to endorse marriage between 2 men and between 2 women not only in society as being legitimate and legal but also within the Christian church. Some protestant denominations have already endorsed and licensed same sex marriages within their denomination.
Well, plenty of dysfunctional marriages and abuse within marriages and family are all too common and even becoming more common than healthy marriages lived and honored as God intended. The Bible even talked about God’s conditions for allowing divorce but also states such is not what God desires or intends for His creation. Sin and evil influence of satan have corrupted mankind from Adam and Eve until present and shows only signs of getting worse. Debates of whether society should allow same sex marriage overshadows or drowns out any discussion and effort to work with people to try to bring marriage back to what God intended and mankind back to a relationship with God as He intended. Truth is, if everyone were in relationship with Christ, there would no need for such discussion. One day soon Christ will return and deal with the source, satan, and set creation back to state He originally intended.
But in the meantime, satan is still telling His lies and influencing each and every one of us to believe and follow them. God has given us the right to choose good or evil and even to allow ourselves to believe evil is good and good evil. BUT GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE AND IN CONTROL AND CHRIST WILL RETURN TO JUDGE AND STOP SATAN. THEN THOSE WHO FOLLOWED SATAN’S LIES INSTEAD OF CHRIST WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND FACE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS. But in the meantime will we accept Christ’s mercy freely offered and follow His council and instruction and commands? Will we follow Him to mercy and forgiveness and eternal life or follow satan to death and judgment?
Like it or not God has the power and authority to enforce His Laws and Will. He has at great cost provided us knowledge of those Laws and Will. I will not debate that but leave it to you and all readers of my journal to debate. It is not my responsibility to convey my conviction or beliefs on this subject, but am sure you all have figured that out by now. It is my responsibility, I believe, to remind you the Bible is the ultimate and final authority.
Look at some examples of an enduring lifelong marriage. There are few still left. Marriages that are Christ centered and positive impact such has on them as well on all who are in their field of influence? Then look at examples of those who follow other guides and influences. Which is better? Which is better to follow and example too?
A true story is told of a Clearwater, Florida couplc married on a beach but the day of their wedding ended with each in separate prison cells for fighting and drinking to excess. The arresting police commented such to happen on the same day is a bit unusual but such is all too common and devastating to couples and consequences on their children. Drink and drugs have destroyed all too many families and people and still do. But even more, focus on satisfying self desires and wants is not the purpose of marriage. God’s intent is to meet other’s need before our own. God’s design is for our needs to be met by meeting our mate’s and children’s needs first. Left to our own devices, we will also get it backwards and do more harm than good, resulting in our own needs left wanting too.
It has been said families who pray together stay together. Statement is not found in scripture but building a Christ Centered and Christ Guided marriage and family is found in scripture and is key to building an atmosphere and character in family and in each family member more Christ like and life given.
Proverbs 22:6 “ 6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
End of the day, we can guide and encourage and council but we each must make our own choices. There are too few good examples to show Christ’s ideal and too many poor examples. You and I need to work and make choices so our lives and families will be good examples and not bad ones. AMEN? AMEN!
“Find some way, even if it is for a few moments, to read your Bibles together as a couple.” David Jeremiah
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 344 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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