You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness…
Deuteronomy 8:2
Recommended Reading: Psalm 107:1-9 “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,3 And gathered out of the lands,From the east and from the west,From the north and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;They found no city to dwell in.5 Hungry and thirsty,Their soul fainted in them.6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,And He delivered them out of their distresses.7 And He led them forth by the right way,That they might go to a city for a dwelling place.8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,And for His wonderful works to the children of men!9 For He satisfies the longing soul,And fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
COMMENTS: The Israelites wondered in the wilderness for 40 years basically going around in circles until all those who followed the 10 spies who didn’t believe God would protect them from giants who lived in the Promised Land. Only Caleb and Joshua and children born after that decision would be permitted to enter the Promised Land. They were the only spies who tried to convince the people trust God and follow Him into land He promised them. Moses, of course was obedient too but one brief act of disobedience during that 40yrs caused God to deny Moses from living to enter. He was allowed to see it but His life was taken by God before entering. Moses didn’t forfeit eternal life or heaven, only the privilege of leading his people into the land inhabited by giant but flowing with milk and honey.
But consider how God provided for the 3 million people Moses led out of Egypt. God was upset with them. They witnessed the parting of the Red Sea and destruction of Pharaoh’s army. They witnessed Moses carrying the 10 commandments down Mt. Sinai. They saw the consequences of making Aaron craft a calf of gold for them to worship. They had more than enough evidence to convince them to continue to trust Him.
But consider how God provided for them those 40 years. Each day God provided an Omar of Manna for each of them. That is equivalent of 30 train cars of bread for that many people. He did that every day and on Friday, the day before the Sabbath, He provided twice as much. Any food left over not eaten would rot overnight except for food gathered on Friday would be fresh til Sunday morning. Why? Because God told them to not gather more than they could eat that day except gather enough for two day so wouldn’t need to gather on the Sabbath, Saturday. They had to learn to trust God each day. God lovingly by firmly taught them and disciplined them with rotten food to dispose of when they disobeyed and gathered more than they should.
Parents give children privileges for responsible obedient behavior and withdraw some when they act irresponsibly or disobediently. Purpose is to teach their children wisdom and how to make wise choices. Such wisdom doesn’t come automatically with age but only with experience and some consequences to act as a deterrent from foolish choices. Such lessons are what God needed to teach those people. Lessons He needs to teach you and me too. Not pleasant lessons but necessary lessons.
Sidney Cox migrated from England to Canada in 1907 at age 19, leaving his parents behind. He accepted Christ the next year and began a life of obedience to God’s lead. He married a Salvation Army co-worker, Violet Henderson, in 1915. For the rest of their lives they remained faithful to each other and faithful to God, serving in Canada and in the USA. Sidney died in 1975 in Birmingham, Alabama. The impact of their lives may not be famous but their faithfulness resulted in salvation of a huge multitude of people over the years and creation of some Sunday School children’s songs. Two I’m sure you are most familiar with are “Deep and Wide” and “I Love Him Better Each Day”.
Fanny Crosby is a more famous song writer whose songs still stir and inspire Christians to worship and nudge non-Christians to repent. Fanny was blind until she saw her Savior’s face welcoming her into heaven saying “Well done good and faithful servants…”
Who will great us the second after our eyes close in death?
“All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my Guide?” Fanny Crosby
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 402 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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