Corona Devotionals

Then the  Lord  said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.  2  You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king...Set an ambush behind the town.”  ~Joshua 8:1-2 We cannot begin a mission, fight a battle, or possibly expect to triumph over an encounter if we have devised the battle plan by ourselves.  God is our Supreme Commander.  He alone ordains victory and defeat (and He provides lessons and teaching in both), but we must await (and seek) His plan of offense. Joshua had attempted an attack on this city once before and it failed.  But that was because Joshua had moved forward in his own strength and thinking.  God had not given him the go-ahead or an outline-for-attack.  And when we enter situations led by our own will and we are not led by the Lord, we will meet defeat too.  We recently enjoyed a gr...

If only we knew. If only we understood how carefully our Heavenly Father wants to care for us. To bless us, to take the load from our shoulders and to free us from the heavy tasks that we have piled upon our backs and minds. God whispers to us today--"Let Me have your load. " And if you are like me, you may relent from shouldering the load ...for a time. Or you may collapse under it. You may even honestly lay it down before Him and give it over. But we pick it back up, don't we? The worry/the relationship/the money/the health concern/the future/the past/the lack-of-control over something that we cannot accept the idea of accepting. What if we trusted God to handle that load ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I heard a...voice say, (6)  “Now I will take the load from your shoulders;  I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.   (7)  You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;  I answered out of the thundercloud  and tested your faith when there was no wat...

Be found by Jesus today. How long has it been since we let the overwhelming, relieving, redeeming wave of God's forgiveness wash over us? Perhaps so long that most days (now) we tend to sit in the Pharisees seat as we view others around us who are still on their way to meet Jesus, and we shake our heads in hypocritical distaste: Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. ( 2) This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! ~Luke 15:1-2 Are we impatient, intolerant, or condescending to such sinful people ? Is it commonplace to catch ourselves complaining about others and their " notorious sin " ? Would it be ridiculous for us to consider eating with them because we view ourselves as so much "better"? Or maybe we are "them" today. On the outside of faith and forgiveness looking in. Seeing Jesus "at the table" with o...

Are we experiencing defeat in our lives?   Does it seem lately that although we begin our daily battles on the offensive, we keep ending up retreating in defense? Could there be a hidden reason why?  Buried deep and out-of-sight?  Underneath  our layers and unbeknownst to those around us? The answer to that question is only known by us and God.  But we should stop fooling ourselves if we have been pretending that God is not aware of what we have buried beneath our surface.   And until we "unearth" what is separating us from Him, we will not have peace or victory in our days. ~~~~~~~ Joshua was leading the "next generation" of Israelites, and they were on a roll taking over cities and honoring God all along the way.  Then they got run off by a weak city with a small army, and Joshua didn't know what to make of it.  Where had God's protection been, he wondered?  He soon found out that God had removed His favor because there was sin "b...

My Gramma had a prim and proper side.  In her condo, things were decorated and arranged "just so".  I can still  "see" her perfectly set table with each piece of silver- and glassware arranged "just so" across the tablecloth.  She liked things to be presented perfectly, to be arranged and carried out "just so".  As Joshua prepared the Israelites to overcome the city of Jericho, their instructions from God were specific and "just so".   Now the gates of Jericho were all shut because of the people of Israel. No one went out and no one came in.  (2)   The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and soldiers.  (3)   Walk around the city. Have all the men of war go around the city once. Do this for six days.  (4)   Seven religious leaders (priests) will carry seven rams’ horns. They will walk in front of the ark . Then on the seventh day you will walk around the city seven times. And the r...

Everything is permissible, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up.  ~I Corinthians 10:23 (ISV) We flew home from vacation out of Las Vegas and while the bright lights, elaborately-themed hotels and talented shows are all larger-than-life and exciting, there is a palpable sense of sin and sadness that seeps from that city as well.   As I mused about our short stay in Vegas, I saw it as a perfect parallel to the life-journey of the Christ follower. It's not against the law to go to Las Vegas (even as a Christian), just as God doesn't forbid fun, joy or bounty anywhere in our lives.  In fact, He came to give it to us. ( I came that they may have life, and may have  it  abundantly.  ~John 10:10).   The truth is, I had a blast walking up and down "The Strip" of hotels, stores, casinos and restaurants, while drinking in the "culture" that is Las Vegas.  It is permissible to be there.  We ar...

From the first time she saw them, my mother-in-law has mused about "who" each of our children resemble, whether in looks, habits or mannerisms. Our oldest is soon to be 15 years old, and from time to time she still tries to figure out features that our kids "have" from others in the family or she wonders "who they take after" with traits that vary. Who do we "resemble" today? Once I ran into the parent of one of my childhood friends while my three kids stood in tow beside me. The man quipped that even if I had not been standing there with them, he "would have known they were mine" because their faces favor mine. Do my words/reactions/thoughts "favor" Jesus' words/reactions/love? Heredity. Sometimes similarities/family resemblances/heritages are positive, but sometimes we need to start fresh as a new generation is birthed. There are many traits of mine that I literally pray that our children do not embody because they...

It was 3:50 AM and my husband nudged me in the dark of our tent, which was "pitched" 20 minutes from the gorge of the Grand Canyon.  He needed to "use the facilities" which were in a building a short distance away, but who wants to walk in darkness alone?  A buddy on a pre-dawn walk to the bathroom was a wise idea. But when we stepped out of the tent it was anything but dark.  The night sky, while clouded over when everyone went to bed, was alive and dancing with bright-white stars, planets, and even meteors piercing the inky black drapery of sky and at times dancing across and falling from it.  I had seen billboards  earlier that day boasting "dark sky country" and now I understood their meaning.  We had been sleeping under one of the least light-polluted skies in the United States and we now stood under a breath-taking light show. We didn't know the names of the constellations that were spread out over our heads in connect-the-dots fashion, but we kn...