Recent Devotions
My sister, Debbie, and I were talking and chuckling a bit the other day when discussing our neglect to write something in our day planner every single day. The reason is that some days we do the same thing. We jokingly said we could write what we did on Monday and “ditto” on the lines beside the remaining days of the week. There’s not much excitement in the word ditto. We’re more likely to think ditto equals boring, uneventful, dull, and yawn-worthy. And yes, ditto does mean repetition, duplication, replication, and rerun. Hey! I see you blinking like a frog…
Have you ever heard someone say this? “It’s a win-win situation. I can’t lose!” I was thinking about this statement a while ago, but it was written on my mental notepad a little differently. It’s a WHEN-WIN situation. It sounds the same as win-win, but it isn’t the same at…
“Use both hands!” As a child, I heard this many times, getting on my bicycle and preparing to ride off with friends down the sidewalk in front of my house. One was thought to be ALL THAT if they could navigate their bicycle using just one hand on the handlebars…
Readers Loved
“I thought to myself, ‘Come now, I will try self-indulgent pleasure to see if it is worthwhile.’ But I found that it also is futile” (Ecclesiastes 2:1, New English Translation). Many people live with the belief that “things” make us happy. The more things we possess, the happier we become. They devote their lives to accumulating more and more, always chasing happiness through what they possess. Solomon speaks of this in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. He built houses, planted vineyards, constructed pools, added livestock, and amassed money and valuable treasures. He brought in musicians to entertain, and he surrounded himself with…
“But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.” (II Corinthians 2:14-15, New Living Translation) We all react differently to the various fragrances and smells our noses encounter each day. Some smells are pleasant; others stink and make us step back. (Think body odor or garbage.) A…
There is one particular area on a route that I used to take regularly that is breathtaking on certain mornings. As the fog is lifting from the river valley, the cattle are grazing in the fields covered in dew. The bluffs above the river are barely visible, with wisps of fog covering them. And the river itself looks serene, as though waking peacefully from its foggy covering. BUT…that same pastoral setting is an entirely different view as you enter the valley at night. When the fog settles over it all, visibility is severely limited. It’s dark, and appears eerily quiet.…
2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” Have you ever read a scripture and tried to view it through someone else’s eyes? That’s what happened this week when I read this verse. I imagine a lonely woman, struggling with rejection and a lifetime of poor decisions. I see a woman, wrestling with an addiction that has been kept quiet for years because shame has her cornered…
