Corona Devotionals

Mighty King, lover of justice,  you have established fairness.   You have acted with justice  and righteousness throughout Israel.   ( 5)  Exalt the   Lord   our God!  Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!  ~Psalm 99:4-5 ~~~ Does it matter?   ...Our kids doing their homework and someone else copying it?  Or vice versa?  In the end should I care?  Should they?  Does it matter?   ...In our workplace: to get our way, or to get ahead: white lies or manipulation of numbers/people/time.  Who will know?  Who will care?  Should we?  Does it matter?   Within our family or amongst friends, or on our teams/ with co-workers and employees: Do we have "favorites"?  Is there justice  for all, or is there favor (even sometimes) for just a few?  Has anyone noticed?  Does it matter if they do?   Does it matter?   Church every Sunday or just the...

Look to the Light today.  I needed reminding...did you?  The details and disturbances and demands of life were encroaching upon me.  It felt (in my spirit) like there were a bunch of bullies surrounding and enclosing-in on me.  Actually... they were here:  pounding on my peace.  Waves of fear/dread/worry/and woe were crashing over my shores, and I was not experiencing (any) peace, even though I desperately desired it. I sat down in the quiet of morning and prayed for God's help because I knew only He could provide it.  Bible?  Check.   Journal ?   Check.   Coffee ?   Che... That's when I saw it: the light.   While praying for help, I drew my mug nearer in order to take a sip of coffee.  But gazing into the brown liquid... I saw the light. Literally, there in the center of my coffee was a reflection of the light that hung over my head.  I sit here and study and pray every morning, but I've...

Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good.  ( 4)  These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children,  ( 5)  to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.  ~Titus 2:3-5 Who were the women that influenced us when we were younger?  (Younger in years...and also younger in the faith.)  Were there women that gathered us near with their love and leaned-in so that we might learn the laws of life?  Being a good wife, trained up as a mom, wise, pure , hard working, and always, always looking to the word of God . ~~~ In church last week I noticed two different grandmothers in two separate rows, but their mission appeared to be the same.  They were actively  teach ing oth...

The   Lord   made the earth by his power,  and he preserves it by his wisdom.   With his own understanding  he stretched out the heavens.  ( 16)  When he speaks in the thunder,  the heavens roar with rain.   He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.   He sends the lightning with the rain  and releases the wind from his storehouses.    ~Jeremiah 51:15-16 We look for the science (instead of faith) behind these verses, and we have for centuries...but who can find it?  Prove it?  Explain the making of the earth? In the end, (and in faith), the only answer that truly makes sense is... not to believe in a spontaneous explosion that "happened" to create lifeforms, and species ,and seasons, and stars, and triggered "evolution".    The science that makes the most sense is that  the   Lord   made the earth by his power,  and he preserves it by his wisdom.   With hi...

I'm not a wine drinker, but I've been thinking about the wine-making process today.  Grapes are pressed and smooshed to release as much juice (without breaking the seeds, which causes a bitterness to the flavor or juice/wine).  Because grapes need pressed but not destroyed, the idea of stomping the grapes was developed.  People walking (and stomping) on grapes has been practiced since ancient times as one of the best methods of extracting juices because human pressure is gentle enough not  to break to the grape seeds but to  grind the grapes enough to release the highest amount of juices. The idea and term of grape stomping is termed "pigeage" in French , which means "punching down".  This is an appropriate term for describing the process, because that's exactly what must happen to a grape for new wine to be made: it must be punched down.  Pummelled.  Smooshed.  Ground.  Trampled.  Hit and continually pressed...in order for th...

Because we had alternate activities to attend afterwards, my husband and I drove separately to church this week, and the roads were bad.  Terrible actually.  Overnight snow had fallen, but freezing rain had created a top layer of crunchy ice, and as a result...most people were not  out driving.  Even though I know the road to church well, it was sometimes very hard to see my lane.  I followed my husband's tracks the entire way there.   At times I could not see the center line, the edge lines, or any lines at all to help in discerning where the road was...but my husband's tracks were always there, right in front of me, and just beyond where I was.  A fresh imprint showing me the way, even on a blizzardy, blustery morning. We do not all live in locations with snowfall, but all of us fall prey to the storms of life that can cause our path to become hidden from view at times.   Health, finances, love, loss-of-love, aging, grief, fear...you ...

The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!   Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”   ~ Proverbs 26:13 What are we assuming today that is keeping us from advancing?   What are we worried about that is halting the plans that God has already made for us?   Will we thwart them (again) with our own thinking? Have we hypothesized ourselves into a hypnosis of stagnation, isolation, or pessimism, simply because we always dream up the worst-case-scenario and allow it to affect our plans and life? That's ugly.  And it's sad.  And it is unfaithful to the Lord. We miss  what God is doing (and what He wants us to be doing) when we fear/worry/make-up/manifest negative non-realities.   The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!   Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”  ~Proverbs 26:13 Spoiler alert: There is NO  lion in the road.   I sometimes tell myself that I should keep a journa...