He…supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you. Galatians 3:5 .
RECOMMENDED READING: MATTHEW 8:14-17 “14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
COMMENTS: EASTER, the most important day and Holiday on the Christian calendar. The first century church celebrated Easter but not Christmas. There is no firm reason identified, but by the time Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire, December 25th was changed from a Roman pagan holiday to a Christian holiday observing Christ’s birthday. For this reason, the actual date of Christ’s birth is uncertain but historically is believe to be in the fall, possibly in September even though Christians have continued to observe Christmas on December 25th since the 3rd century. I hope this doesn’t shake your beliefs or faith and shouldn’t become an issue of debate or division. Christ was born to a virgin and rest of His birth recorded in scripture are factual and believed by faithful Christians universally. Christ’s death and resurrection are as well.
Every miracle Jesus did, including Easter, was in response to a problem presenting an opportunity for Christ. The miracle of the healing of Peter’s mother noted above was a good example. But also notice that those healings were not spontaneous but planned by God and implemented by Jesus. Also demonstrated was God’s perfect timing. From the healing of Lazarus or Jairus’s daughter or Peter’s mother or His own death and resurrection, all were a result of a problem with no human solution. God’s intervention with a solution but not before the absence of a human solution was fully evident. Not until we surrender our energies going to our own or another human solution is God open to intervene. But when He does, the result is a miracle. A solution not possible by any human.
Easter Is the ultimate miracle of God’s intervention because His Easter Miracle affected every human being by giving a way of eternal redemption man could not earn or provide and God’s law could only provide proof of man’s desperate need.
But God’s miracles were not even completed on Easter. He then provided His Holy Spirit to abide with and help and sustain each and every believer all the time and at the same time personally as a sustained miracle 24x7x365xlifetime. Why? Because He knew even after Easter, we would not be strong enough nor willful enough to sustain the Christian life. A forgiven and cleansed soul would not stay clean without His abiding Holy Spirit’s involvement. He knows we couldn’t keep the newly cleaned and remodeled house of our soul and life clean and pure. He also knew we could not maintain a personal relationship with Him without some one on one help. That sustain miracle needed was given at Pentecost and is still being given new each day to every believer, new and old. But like every miracle, it must be received in order to be enjoyed. But more than enjoyed, the Holy Spirit needs to be active in our lives instead of put on a shelf and forgotten.
Well, normally the day after Easter, everyone returns to work and kids go back to school and life gets back to normal. But not this year. The reality of coronavirus remains. The spread of this illness and staggering death toll continues. Isolation from friends and relatives and co-workers is a necessity and reality that still is weighing on everyone and forcing everyone to re-evaluate what is most important. Neighbors are bringing groceries and medications to the elderly and handicapped. Many are demonstrating their faith in acts of kindness without any recognition or compensation. Even the news reporters are taking notice and share some of these acts instead of reporting only on evil and dark news.
God is calling us back to the Cross. He is calling us back to revival and repentance. He is calling us back to His protection and the life He gives. He is calling us individually and as a nation back to Himself. Will we obey? It will take a miracle, but Easter is the season for miracles!
“When He saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace!” John W. Peterson
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
donsdevotions 