“Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the front seats in the synagogues, and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” Luke 11:43-44
COMMENTS: Have you ever heard or said the famous statement “when times get tough, the tough get going”? This statement refers to self-focus and self-determination and will over weakness driving the “tough” to push on to success and achieving goals even when difficulties and circumstances prevent doing so. Philosophy behind this statement is effective but not complete. Looking deep and tapping into inner strength needed to succeed is key but a source of strength as well as council and help is available to us beyond what even the strongest of us can generate on our own. Daniel was greatly successful gaining power and influence while under the rule of pagan rulers for 70 years. He did so by remaining true to God and living a righteous life of integrity and trustworthiness. Such caused him to gain respect and trust and confidence from kings and people of influence. Joseph experience the same success while a slave in Egypt. Those jealous of power they gained could not find fault and failed even when tried to destroy them with lies and deception.
Jesus wasn’t always sweet and nice, except when it came to broken repentant sinners. The woman caught in adultery (John 8), the prostitute (Luke 7), and Zacchaeus (Luke 19) are examples. But then He was tough and blunt on unrepentant religious phonies. An example if recorded in Luke 11.
WHY DID JESUS DEAL WITH THE PHARISEES MORE HARSHLY THAN WITH THE TAX COLLECTOR?
1. THE PHARISEES HAD A HEART SICKNESS – They judged some sins more acceptable than others. They honored God with their lips for show while letting pride and selfishness keep them for admitting their own sins to receive forgiveness. They hid their own sins while exposing other’s sins. Pride is the one side that upsets God more than any other, especially when the prideful person does harm to a weak sinner seeking mercy and a way out of sin.
2. THE MORE DANGEROUS DISEASE REQUIRES STRONGER MEDICINE – Pride and selfishness are sins that blind offender to his own sins and causes him to judge other’s sins to his distorted standard. Pride was the sin that caused Lucifer to forfeit his home and position in heaven. Pride destroyed his love for God and replaced that love with hate for God and for anyone who follows Him. Look at the destruction satan has orchestrated in every generation since Adam. For church leaders, who were the responsible persons to guide people to God and minister to their needs, were taking advantage of them. They took their offerings and cheated them into buying their sacrificial offerings instead of following God’s standard and law. Result is poor sinners still deprived of having a relationship with God and having their sins forgiven while the religious leaders kept getting more powerful and richer expanding their evil influence. Jesus had compassion on sinners seeking a way out. Jesus not only had compassion on them but was trying to make the pharisees realize the harm they were doing and how serious God’s judgment on them would be.
Once we start looking at each other the way God does, we begin loving as He loves. We gain a motivation to show compassion and healing instead of judgment. We realize God has shown us compassion and healing for sins just as bad. We realize we are just as undeserving of His Grace as other are. We desire to please Him by doing what pleases Him instead of doing what pleases us. We put Him first instead of ourselves. We then start becoming more Christ-like and less satan-like.
Sound harsh? Well, consider for a moment how far above our best conduct His Perfect standard and example was and is. Consider how far from “Good” we are living. Consider how far from His definition for “good” that our definition is. So, who’s definition is right? Do I need to answer that? Of course, it is God’s definition. The Pharisee’s example and other religious lead’s life example were not worthy of following, BUT CHRIST’S PERFECT LIFE WAS AND IS WORTHY!
Well, Christ came and lived and died and arose so we could:
1. See what a perfect life looks like.
2. So, we could see and know God.
3. So, we could be forgiven.
4. So, we could have God abide with and in us via His Holy Spirit
5. So, we could have confidence of knowing we are forgiven and have a new body and home waiting for us in heaven.
6. So, we would have confidence of an eternity with our loved ones who are forgiven free for sin and sickness and death.
Christ came with the only way to meet God’s perfect standard that we could achieve – the way of Christ taken on our guilt and paying the price required with His own life. The way of the cross. The way of God’s Love. The way satan so wants to keep us from accepting and enjoying.
God will bless with a “well done” if we humbly and honestly walk with Him… and stand for Him amidst the onslaught of compromise and political correctness.
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com”. There you will find 448 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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