I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 2 Timothy 2:9
Recommended Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-10 –“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.“
COMMENTS: When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He provided courage and confidence and inspiration and direction. The disciples and early questions went from fearful weak believers in hiding to bold preachers openly sharing Christ’s message in plain view. Sure, they knew when to do so and when to retreat and go another direction. Many examples of this are recorded in the New Testament. Evidence of this was true in Old Testament but rare and not by most even faithful Jews. Such reveals a big difference between Old Testament Covenant and New Testament Covenant. Before Pentecost and before Easter, God chose and anointed certain individuals with His Holy Spirit to a certain task and missions and work. Such individuals as Noah – Daniel – Moses – Jeremiah – Elijah – Elisha – Joseph – Esther – Ruth just to mention a few. When God came and called them, their abilities and conduct changed dramatically.
But after Easter, God became accessible to everyone willing to receive Him. Then after Pentecost, God’s abiding Holy Spirit became available to every believer willing to yield to His indwelling. Each must choose and submit as a act of will in order to receive and enjoy God abiding and guiding presence. That has always been true but now everyone can choose to have what only a few enjoyed in Old Testament.
North Korea is one of the most oppressive and dangerous places for Christians. Even more dangerous than most Islam dominated countries. In North Korea Christians are executed and any attempt to share Christ with others is met with torture and risk of execution. Many radical Muslim dominated countries are just as hostile as well toward Christians.
But even in the midst of such hostility, God is doing His Will. Christ is visiting Muslims directly as He did Saul on the Damascus Road winning thousands of Muslims to Christ. Radio and faithful Christians are winning many in North Korea to Christ. People are so hungry for hope and the message of a Savior that they are willing to pay the price of their lives to receive that hope and receive Christ’s words of life. South Korea Christians even put flash drives with the Bible in balloons and releasing them to fly into North Korea. They trust God will guide those balloons to His destinations, which is exactly what is happening. Evil leaders bent on stamping out Christianity couldn’t do it in Roman times. They couldn’t do it during middle ages when Islam was bent on world rule. They couldn’t do it in China during Communist domination or in Russia or in Nazi Germany during their reigns of terror. Many countries think they can do it today, but history repeats the truth that persecution only makes Christians stronger and spreads their faith farther and faster. 20% of population is Christian in China even though China communism focused on destroying Christianity in 1960’s and 1970’s and 1980’s.
Recently, however, the summit meetings between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un complicated the balloon launches because the South Korean government doesn’t want anything to upset the talks. Still, the Word of God is not chained.
Who knows what God is doing inside the darkest land on earth? North Korean missiles are no match for Gospel balloons, for the Gospel is not chained. Pray for North Korea!
We must keep reminding ourselves and others that we, as Christ followers, are on the winning side, especially when circumstances and future seems bleak and hopeless. God specializes in hopeless situations. Why? Because we humans generally only come to Him in desperation and willing to obey Him when circumstances are desperate. We don’t need to wait til times are desperate, but good to know God is a master at coming through during desperate times. After all, even in death He provides escape to a wonderful home and place He is already preparing for you and me.
Just as a dandelion needs the wind to spread its seeds, we need the wind to spread the message.
A South Korean evangelist
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 503 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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