Corona Devotionals

Did you carve a jack-o-lantern this year? That smell of the seeds and those stringy veins inside...that hollow sound of the knife sawing through the thick wall of pumpkin. We've all carved a jack-o-lantern at some point in our lives, I'm sure. We've carved...but today, be carved. Picture yourself as a plump pumpkin sitting in the patch and let's experience "carving"... God's way. First of all, God picks us from the patch and brings us in!  Feel loved today--God chose us! You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit… John 15:16 God chose us as his children, but just as the first thing we do with a pumpkin-to-be-carved is to sc oop out all of the seeds and “guts” on the inside, that's where God has to start with us, too. Doesn't it feel gross inside when we hurt someone's feelings or purposely do something wrong?  We can try to ignore it (and we do try), but deep down, we know something just isn't r

We strive in so many ways to please God.   Strive: to make great efforts to achieve or obtain something/  struggle or fight vigorously (Oxford Languages Dictionary). We strive in so many ways to please God, but He is most honored when we step beyond all of our "efforts" and into full and committed praise  of Him.  That offering is most golden to our God.   When and if  we can personally come to Him, and join others in " rais ing our  voices and prais ing  the  Lord "  ( whatever that looks like in our lives today) ...then  the glorious presence of the  Lord   will  fill our lives. ~~~ King Solomon (and his dad, David) had spared no expense in constructing an ornate, lavish, extensive Temple to honor the Lord.   And they should have.  God is worthy.  More than worthy  of every effort, service, penny, gold-bar and tithe that we could ever offer Him. God gave us all that we have and are, and He is worthy of every effort we make to honor Him.   But He is most honored

What I love about the Bible is that it speaks for us when we might not have the words.  Not sure what to say to the Lord today?  Unsure of how to begin or where to start?   God already knows where we are at (emotionally/mentally/physically/spiritually), and He meets us right there .   And He has advice/encouragement/wisdom/ Truth  for us right there... right here , where we are right now, today. Say Psalm 16 as a prayer.  Ask Psalm 16 as a blessing.  Pray Psalm 16  as a prescription for our day: ~~~ Psalm 16 A psalm of David. (1)  Keep me safe, O God,  for I have come to you for refuge.   ~Psalm 16:1 Father, You (alone) know what is before me today.  Keep me safe .  You alone know the outside AND inside battles that I face.   I have come to you for refuge today.  Amen.  (2)  I said to the  Lord , “You are my Master!  E very good thing I have comes from you.”   ~Psalm 16:2 Lord, it is our privilege to be in service to You today.  You ARE our Master, but You rule over us in love, in wis

On the way to church a few weeks ago I got caught speeding.   It's kind of an oxymoron (contradictory term)...being stopped-by-an-officer  on the way to church.  I'm going there to learn righteousness...goodness... Jesus , and then I am breaking-the-law on my way to do all of those things at church.   Sounds about right (for me).   But, in getting stopped by a policeman (which does not happen to me a lot), certain changes occur in my driving habits thereafter.   I shape up.  I slow down.  I pay attention to the speed-limits and full-stops, and everything that I should have been paying full attention to before I was pulled over.   It's a wake-up call. I hate getting pulled over by the police, and I promise... it doesn't happen very often at all.  But throughout my life, whenever it does, I am re-centered  on being a good driver.   It never causes me to want to keep  driving too fast or to purposely break more traffic laws.  Just the opposite occurs: being held accountab

Surely God is my salvation;  I will trust and not be afraid.  T he  Lord , the  Lord  himself, is my strength and my defense;    he has become my salvation.”  ~Isaiah 12:2 Resilience. Fortitude. Perseverance. Hope.    These are ours as Believers and Followers of Christ. And we need them. ~~~ What did we "wake up to" today? If there is heaviness on our heart, fear in our minds, a cloud of depression over our heads, or we just want to crawl back in bed...be reminded today that with Jesus we have hope even when we don't feel any.    ~~~  "Though the mountains be shaken  and the hills be removed, y et my unfailing love for you will not be shaken  nor my covenant of peace be removed,”  says the  Lord , who has compassion on you.  ~Isaiah 54:10 Four weeks (twenty-eight-long-days) have passed since the worst hurricane in over 100 years hit Fort Myers Florida.  The physical devastation was catastrophic, and what about the emotional toll?  The shock of seeing your city, your

My Papa used to buy boxes of handmade chocolates from a local shop to deliver to his customers at Christmastime.  Face to face, he would thank them for their business partnership and loyalty.  It was a good (and delicious) business practice. I am often surprised at what I find the Lord teaching us through the Bible, and today  in  II Chronicles ,   it was good business practices .   We all deal/work/connect/partner/cooperate with others in some degree, and we can take some tips on good-business-practices from King Solomon and King Hiram today.  They were two kings in the Old Testament who did business together with respect, manners and humility.  Those virtues combined with hard work, supplies and good employees led to a beautiful working relationship between the two kings and a successful business venture and outcome.   Let's be a fly-on-the-wall (or a candy-piece-in-the-box) as Solomon and Hiram get down to (good) business. (1)  Solomon decided to build a Temple to honor the n

Now is the time to reproduce.  We need to be multiplying!   No, I don't mean that we should all be having babies (although you are welcome to!).  I mean, that as God's people we should always be sharing the light of Christ with others and encouraging growth in faith and maturity in our relationship (and theirs!) with God our Father.  Then we will be ready to step out in (our own) faith when the time comes (and it will). Keep meeting together at church/small groups/Bible study/ministries.  We should keep teaching ourselves, our children, grandchildren and others about God's Word and the truth and relevancy of it.  We should always be reading the Bible and learning for ourselves, too!  That is God's plan for healthy reproduction within His Church family. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  ( 25)  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is