Corona Devotionals

It's calf season!  I'm from Cleveland, but I don't mean Cavs season (like the Cleveland basketball team), I mean calf season, as in baby cows.   On a drive today, I passed quite a few farms, and every one that had cows...also had calves!  Curled up in a nap, milling around their moms, exploring the grass, and figuring out their (new) life.    Sometimes I see things in life or in nature and they comfort me, reassure me, and encourage me that  God's still in charge.   His order-of-things is still occurring, such as calves being born in the Spring.   The earth is the   Lord ’s, and everything in it.  ~Psalm 24:1   Lots of things can make us cringe or cause our hearts to drop when we see, read, hear or experience the broken world all around us...but new life reminds us that there is always hope, and take heart, Friends, because we know the hope-Giver. He existed before anything else,  and he holds all creation t...

We can stress about provision.  We can fret about division.  We can debate about derision.  And we can worry about just about everything.   There is much badness , it seems. But what if we remembered the  goodness  God's got in  store for us today...instead of being steeped in the badness? Let's  stop allowing life to knock the wind out of us, and today-- take a deep breath of God's promised  goodness. ~~~ How great is the goodness  you have stored up for those who fear you.  ~Psalm 31:19     How  much i s the goodness  you have stored up for those who fear you.        How  deep   i s the goodness  you have stored up for those who fear you.        How  abundant  i s the goodness  you have stored up for those who fear you.        How  available  i s the goodness  you have stored up fo...

Marriage—is it worth it to stay?   It depends on who you ask, and who is providing the instruction. Till death do us part? Really?  Isn’t that whole way-of-thinking (and compromising) in marriage a little outdated and even incorrect ? It depends who you ask.  Or… who is providing the instruction. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do in a situation, and sometimes we are taught, modeled, and assimilated into the wrong answers and definitions for situations, such as marriage.  I am saddened and disgusted (and broken, frustrated, angry and emboldened) to learn what some public education institutions are teaching these days, but this makes it all the more critical for us (and our young people) to know/be taught/STUDY about what God says in the Bible in reference to how to live life, and (in these Scriptures), how to proceed in marriage. ~~~  We learn about marriage from the people around us.  Some good, some bad.  My mom used to say that ...

One of our sons is doing a series at their high school Bible group that he cleverly titled "I Can't Believe It's Bible" (a spin-off of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter"), in which he or another student-leader share Bible accounts of something unbelievable in the Bible, like a talking donkey ( Numbers 22 ), or the Resurrection ( Matthew 28:1-10), and tie it in to a Biblical point. But (at his age) I don't think I will suggest Paul's topic in I Corinthians 7 to him for next week's lesson.  But (apparently) it's on God's docket for us  to review today.  I can't believe it's Bible , but God is reminding us of His teachings and standards for marriage and nookie.   Believe it or not.    But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.   ( 3)  The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.  ...

During the greeting-time at church this week, a woman recognized our son, approached him and introduced herself as an office administrator at his school.  She joyfully announced that the next time she saw him at school, "I'm going to say 'Hi'!"   I think she was excited to see a (school) student at her church.  There is an electricity in recognizing others in the family of God, and knowing that they are alongside us in faith.    And I just heard an unbelievable  story about a young woman from church who was on a mission trip to Turkey to serve orphans, but before she got out of the airport, she was detained and put in a holding cell because she had "lost" her passport on the plane.  I can't imagine what it might feel like to be held captive in a foreign country. But (prompted by prayer and moral compass) some of our state officials and politicians did what they could to serve on their section of the "wall" and calls were made, prayers were ...

Have you ever gotten caught being in the wrong place?   I have. I've been in conversations that have taken a gossip-turn (via my own lips sometimes!), and when I (finally) parted company, there was a pit in my stomach and a guilt in my spirit.  I had no business being there  in that verbal crossfire, and I benefitted no one by partaking in it.  We (as followers-of-Jesus)  know better. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,  but only what is helpful for building others up  according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  ~Ephesians 4:29 ~~~ Have you ever gotten caught being in the wrong place?   I have. For too long and with too many people, I have invested time, attention and myself  into people that were not interested in God, and therefore should have been un interesting to me.   But we linger, we procrastinate, we try-to-fix, and we savor-the-attention, even if it comes at great co...

What has God put on our heart today?   What cause/effort/person/people/call/prayer has God stuck in us, like a thorn that hurts and needs tended to? How can we assist/play-our-part/step-up in serving our Lord and in r epairing His Church/His people/His cities and His walls today? ~~~ Nehemiah was a normal guy with the not-so-glamorous job of being cupbearer   during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign (Nehemiah 2:1) .  "Cupbearer" meant that Nehemiah would sample beverages before the king, and if they were poisonous, Nehemiah would die first, instead of the king.   Not a very highly-sought-after position, but Nehemiah literally did it every day with a smile on his face.  But one day, Nehemiah got some news that wiped the smile off of his face.  He knew that the Israelites had returned to Jerusalem after exile, and that they were working to rebuild the city and God's Temple.  But what he didn't know was that there were hardships ...