JESUS – THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

                                         

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

RECOMMENDED  READING:  I PETER 2:12 “ 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation..”

COMMENTS: Being a Christ follower – a Christian is an awesome blessing and privilege. To be able and have access to fellowship with the God of the Universe and have a personal relationship with Him is overwhelming.  To be able to know Him and for Him to know and be close to us 24x7x365 is life changing.   But there is more.  For God to come as Jesus to earth and buy our forgiveness and redemption by His own blood and to show us how to live while He lived on earth is such a key to knowing how we and everyone willing can gain such a privileged place.   To know there is room at His cross and throne for everyone willing to accept it to receive, so we are not robbing others that opportunity by embracing that privilege for ourselves.   In fact, by embracing Christ, we encourage others too as well.   Human aspiration to gain status or success or ambition is distorted and corrupted by motivation to achieve personal goal by preventing or hindering others from reaching these goals.  The human approach and motivation is selfish.

But God’s perspective – motivation – approach is for us is inclusive.   To embrace and welcome all sincere and obedient seekers and show each how to put other’s needs ahead of their own.  But even more, to put God’s Will above theirs.

So being a “Christ follower” means we have great privilege and have access to great wisdom and council and instruction and guidance, but also means we gave great responsibility and accountability because we are God’s ambassadors.  Our conduct reflects on Him, so when we act poorly or selfishly or sinfully, we are not the examples and encouragers and evangelists we are called to be. 

God does hold us accountable and expects us to live at the level He has enlightened and guided us to live.  Matthew 5:14-16 “14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

We are the light of the world that the world sees when we live as Christ has called and showed us to.  Christ is the light, not us, but how effectively His light shines in and through us is what we are referring to.  In order for Christ to shine in and through us, we must no longer allow the clouds and storms of sin to block His “Sonlight”.  We still have freedom to choose sin over obedience to Christ.  The benefits of obedience and submission shines on us and those we influence, but the consequences of disobedience and sin do also.  There is so much at stake, but we are not in it alone.  God does not leave us unprepared and defenseless.  If you doubt that, just look at the Paul and the disciples and the transformation they experienced and demonstrated.   They all went from selfish – short sighted men who didn’t have a clue what Jesus was teaching until the Holy Spirit came into their soul and transformed them.   From that day forward their word and conduct and motivation was amazingly more Christ like than possible before.  They faced persecution and suffering and even death with confidence and joy opposite to the fear and lack of confidence they demonstrated before.  So will we when we choose following Him and stop following satan too.  AMEN?  AMEN!

“Light reveals righteousness, and it also reveals sin. “  Theodore Epp 

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 594 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.

My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement

Published by donsdevotions

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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.

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