A BRIGHT FUTURE IS BEING PREPARED FOR US

                
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.  Isaiah 11:9

  • : ISAIAH 11:1-16     “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,The Spirit of counsel and might,The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
  • His delight is in the fear of the Lord,And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
  • “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;And a little child shall lead them.7 The cow and the bear shall graze;Their young ones shall lie down together;And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LordAs the waters cover the sea.
  • “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,Who shall stand as a banner to the people;For the Gentiles shall seek Him,And His resting place shall be glorious.”. It shall come to pass in that dayThat the Lord shall set His hand again the second timeTo recover the remnant of His people who are left,From Assyria and Egypt,From Pathros and Cush,From Elam and Shinar,From Hamath and the islands of the sea.12 He will set up a banner for the nations,And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,And gather together the dispersed of JudahFrom the four corners of the earth.13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;Ephraim shall not envy Judah,And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.14 But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;Together they shall plunder the people of the East;They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;And the people of Ammon shall obey them.15 The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,And strike it in the seven streams,And make men cross over dry-shod.16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His peopleWho will be left from Assyria,As it was for Israel, In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt..”
  • COMMENTS: Have you ever did major build or repair to your home? I have and currently am about 2/3 completed on most recent project.  My dad used to say after finish a budget of cost and time required to complete a project, multiply answer by 2.5x and result will be closer to actual.   I have to say his wisdom was true most of the time, but was based on his many decades of experience.   It always seems unanticipated cost delay and add cost to the project.2 Chronicles 7:11-22 “11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’

19 “But if you[b] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you[c] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All[d] who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.

So could it be we are dealing with Covid 19 is because we as a country and majority of countries turned from God and embraced sinful behavior?  Could it be we are at the cliff of the end times prophecies and return of Christ to take His church before the Great Tribulation spoken of in Matthew and Revelation and Ezekiel and …?  If that terrible time is at our door, then we can expect 2021 to be worse than 2020.

But if you read thru 2 Chronicles 6-8, you will conclude the way back is the same for us as was for Israel.  The way of repentance, turning from our sinful ways and turning to Him for forgiveness and a change in world view and in behavior – conduct and values.

Reflect back 20 years and values and conduct judged right and judged wrong and then compare to today’s.  Matthew 24 tells us in the last days good will be judged wrong and evil judged good.  Is that not just what is happening today?

I don’t know about you but my position is, like Joshua told the Israelites when they were about to proceed into promised land with God’s protection and covenant based on their faithfulness.  Joshua said “14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:14-21)

God is our refuge and strength.   The sooner and longer we realize that and follow Him, the better. So let’s be like Joshua and repent and commit to follow God with our families.  Make worship at church a commitment and commit to prayer and study scripture a daily commitment.  Make tithing our time and income our priority too.    

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Psalm 46:1

OK, no one is perfect nor can achieve a sinless lifestyle, but we can do much better.  Then again, seeking Christ’s forgiveness is number 1 and walking with Him daily seeking His council and strength to battle temptation is our ongoing focus.  The more we get into His word and obey nudging as cross paths with others, the less power and influence temptation has over us. Let’s set our focus on preparing for His coming and our entrance in Heaven in 2021.  No guarantee we will live to see 2022.  I’ve lost a few good friends in 2020, some of which seemed to be in much better health and strength than I.  Life is precious and given to us directly from God and only He knows when our last day will be.
He is a “very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Paul said, “The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:5-6).

If you feel troubled today, remember that the Lord is at hand. He is with you. He is near. Visualize Him standing beside you, and let Him calm your anxious soul and clear your confused and clouded mind   Then to enable you to hear and follow His council. Psalm 46 is one of those many passages that gives us reassurance of God’s abiding – constant presence and faithfulness.  Immanuel is one of many names God gives Himself, which means “God with us”.   Jesus endured the same temptations and suffering and persecution that humans in the worst of situations have and continue to face, so we have the assurance He understands and is committed to taking care of us. Jesus is our Advocate with the Father.  The Holy Spirit is our constant Companion and Guide and Counselor and Friend all the time.   All Three are one God and of one Mind and Mission. So, there is no need to feel alone or try to deal with life’s problems alone.  If we do, it is Because we choose to, not because we are alone.   AMEN?  AMEN!
Psalm 46: 1 – 7 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.[c] 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

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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