When Jesus saw [the friends’] faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Mark 2:5
RECOMMENDED READING: Colossians 2:13 – 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,”
COMMENTS: Stop and reflection on all the modern conveniences we enjoy that even the richest of people couldn’t have imagined 100 years ago. Conveniences like inside running water in kitchens and bathrooms and showers and toilets, gas or electric heat, electric lights, radios and television, cars and airplanes, telephones and cell phones now, super markets with all the variety of foods and items, More and more jobs can be done from home and paychecks and purchases made from home too. But also think about how many of these modern conveniences we take for granted.
In the community I live in we have one big advantage to remind us. The Amish community is large enough we see horse and buggies most every day. We interact with Amish neighbors often at stores. We have opportunity to hire Amish contractors to do building repairs and construction. But even those Amish workers take advantage of modern tools and rely on “English” partners to transport them to worksites.
But our Amish neighbors do remind us of importance they put on family and working together and caring for neighbors in need. They are good neighbors and moral people, providing us “English” with solid examples of the best way to live.
But we have a far better example and better neighbor to learn from. We have Christ. His sacrifice on the cross, even though completed 2000 years ago, still causes Him lingering pain because He continues to carry our sins as He forgives and cleanses us from our sins. The eternal damnation that awaits those who refuse His gift of salvation is worse that we can imagine while the eternal heaven and fellowship with Him and with Christians of long ago and Christians we know and love is also far better than we can imagine. The contrast between the two destinations from such a simple and easy choice for us to make is truly remarkable. But remember this choice is God’s own design and plan and choice. He chose to be our sacrifice and carry the hard burden and give us the light choice and burden. Why? Because His love and compassion for you and me and everyone is far deeper that we have experienced or can comprehend.
How tragic when we take His Love and Sacrifice for granted or deny Him. Why do so many do so? Pride is the worse reason. Then there is love of sin and pleasure with the addiction that develops. Then there are those who deny God exists because of selfish desire to be in control of their own life. Then there are those who fear God will require them to do something they are afraid to do or go to a place they don’t want to go. Lack of trust in God is another powerful deterrence to accepting God’s precious gift of salvation.
Oh if they would only realize that by refusing God, they are surrendering control to a terrible sinister evil force. They are surrendering to satan’s scheming plan. By refusing to trust God, who loves them; they are surrendering to satan, who hates them and wants to use them to hurt God because he hates God more.
The hardest part of forgiving another person is acting like the offense never occurred. But that is what forgiving someone means—restoring relationships to the status they enjoyed before the offense took place. It’s one thing to say, “I forgive you,” but it’s another to act like all the effects of an offense are completely erased. After all, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, love is known by its actions more than its words.
Jesus faced this dilemma when He healed a paralytic man. When He told the man that his sins were forgiven (and by extension, he was healed), He was criticized. He was accused of blaspheming by saying He had the authority to forgive sins—something only God can do. So, Jesus proved He had the authority to say, “I forgive you,” by doing something harder. He healed the man’s paralysis. After all, as Jesus explained, actions speak louder than words (Mark 2:8-11).
We cannot go through life without being hurt by others, but we should learn to forgive. Even more, we should practice demonstrating our forgiveness by our acts of loving-kindness. Look for opportunities to do both. Learning to love and forgive as Christ loves and forgives. How can we do that? Only with His Help and by reminding ourselves of how much He suffered and continues to suffer for us so we can have the assurance of heaven instead of the judgment we deserve. As we begin to discover Him through His Word and His abiding Holy Spirit and through a daily relationship with Him, we also discover more of His perfect Love and Goodness. We also discover how far short of these goals we still are. As we grow in faith, we become more like Him. But as we grow in faith, we discover just how much more we need to grow to be like Him. BUT HE LOVES US AND FORGIVES US JUST LIKE WE ARE AS IMPERFECT AS WE STILL ARE! THAT IS THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION AND THE MARVEL OF THE CROSS!! THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS FOR US TO ENJOY AND TO SHARE. LET’S NOT TAKE SUCH A PRECIOUS GIFT FOR GRANTED ANY LONGER! OK? OK!!
“Forgiveness is to be set loose from sins.” G. Campbell Morgan
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 390 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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