Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” Jonah 3:1-2
RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE Joel 2:12-27 “12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,“Turn to Me with all your heart,With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;Return to the Lord your God,For He is gracious and merciful,Slow to anger, and of great kindness;And He relents from doing harm.14 Who knows if He will turn and relent,And leave a blessing behind Him—A grain offering and a drink offeringFor the Lord your God?15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,Consecrate a fast,Call a sacred assembly;16 Gather the people,Sanctify the congregation,Assemble the elders,Gather the children and nursing babes;Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,And the bride from her dressing room.17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,Weep between the porch and the altar;Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,And do not give Your heritage to reproach,That the nations should rule over them.Why should they say among the peoples,‘Where is their God?’” 18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,And pity His people.19 The Lord will answer and say to His people,“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,And you will be satisfied by them;I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 “But I will remove far from you the northern army,And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,With his face toward the eastern seaAnd his back toward the western sea;His stench will come up,And his foul odor will rise,Because he has done monstrous things.”
21 Fear not, O land;Be glad and rejoice,For the Lord has done marvelous things! 22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;For the open pastures are springing up,And the tree bears its fruit;The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.23 Be glad then, you children of Zion,And rejoice in the Lord your God;For He has given you the former rain faithfully,And He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain,And the latter rain in the first month.24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. 25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,The crawling locust,The consuming locust,And the chewing locust,My great army which I sent among you.26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,And praise the name of the Lord your God,Who has dealt wondrously with you;And My people shall never be put to shame.27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:I am the Lord your GodAnd there is no other.My people shall never be put to shame.”
COMMENTS: God’s repeated mercies were showered on the Israelites over and over again. Yes, times of judgment and suffering and oppression and death also showered them, but scripture reveals that God allowed judgment and punishment as a last resort and not until repeated warning and opportunity to repent given by His prophets. Truth was they would not listen to prophets during prosperous and good times. They had neither motivation to nor visible consequence not to. But when judgment came, they were forced to recognize their sin and face God with repentant hearts. When they did so, God would hear and receive them back. This cycle happened over and over again for them. IT HAPPENS WITH YOU AND ME OVER AND OVER AGAIN TOO, IF WE TAKE AN HONEST APPRAISAL OF OUR LIVES. We too forget God during good times and neglect our time of devotion and prayer with Him. We too tend to only go to Him with needs and not with praise and thanksgiving. Negative motivation tends to be stronger than positive motivation. So why is that? Well, that is the mystery of our humanity, isn’t it? A mystery even for us who experience it, but not a mystery for Him. He knows and understands our weaknesses and power satan uses over us. But He also knows and provides a way out for us that are effective. But He does so while still providing us with free will and freedom to choose wisely or foolishly. That has always been t rue but even more so now that we have full access to Him at the Cross and to the Father’s Throne also at the Cross.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the first time (Jonah 1:1) and then the second time (Jonah 3:1). With the other prophets, the “second time” meant additional prophetic utterances they were to deliver. But with Jonah, the “second time” was because Jonah had failed to speak God’s word the first time. Jonah was a disobedient prophet.
God commissioned Jonah to go east to Assyria, to the capital of Nineveh and deliver a message of judgment. But Jonah fled west toward Spain because he feared the Assyrians. You know the story—Jonah ended up in the sea where he was swallowed by a great fish. Jonah repented and called on the Lord and was delivered. God gave him a second chance.
Don’t let your past keep you from trusting God for a second (or third, or fourth, or …) chance. The God of grace loves to forgive. He is not keeping count because He already knows how many times we will disobey before finally repenting and obeying. He is willing to endure our disobedience until that happens.
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 489 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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