Corona Devotionals

Did your mom or dad ever say this phrase to you in a stern voice: " Don't make me repeat myself ..."?  It was a sentence that was more of a command and a threat: all in one.  This phrase is constructed of words but seems to carry an almost-physical presence (punch!) with it.  (As if-- we  don't  want the person speaking to have to repeat themselves... or else it will be bad  for us . ) " Don't  make me repeat myself" is a phrase that makes  us listen, and we know  that what is being said is muy importante.  (That's Spanish for "very important".)   Even if we have not been threatened with this phrase-of-warning...we can get the gist of the intended (strong) message: listen well the first time...or else. Well, God doesn't threaten us with His Words in the Bible (As in: " Don't make me repeat myself. .."), but God also doesn't mince His Words.  He doesn't sugar-coat His Truth, and He definitely doesn't pussy-foot ...

PLOP! What a complete  mess.  In fact--if one of my kids had done this, I might have grounded them.   As I was working at my computer and eating breakfast: mid-stream between scooping a spoonful of yogurt and making-it into my mouth...it dropped.  The yogurt plopped ...RIGHT onto my computer keyboard and all over the keys. In between the keys.  Under the keys.  All over.  Yuck.  And, now what ?   I had made a complete mess, and it was the messiest of messes.   I worked to clean it up but I just couldn't wipe the entirety of yogurt-goop-remnants off, away, out, and out-from-under the keys and from the keyboard.   I had really made a mess, and (in truth) I wasn't sure that full recovery and clean-up was actually possible. ~~~ Well--maybe my current computer keyboard may never be completely unblemished (un-yogurted) again...but (VERY good news!):  we can be. The complete mess that I accidentally inflicted on my...

Isn't " vessel " a great word?  It just has a unique sound.  Vessel . What's a " vessel "?  Well, it's a  word that (mostly) means "container", such as blood vessel . Antique vessel . Sailing vessel . Cargo vessel . And back in the Bible days, v essels were used to contain many daily things, like water, wine, and storage. And back in the Bible days, s ome vessels in Bible times were made of gold or silver and used as beautiful decorative vases. They were displayed in locations of honor.  However, most (Biblical) vessels were made of clay, and they came in different sizes and shapes and they were created and made to be containers for practical, everyday purposes, and to hold things like water and wine. But all vessels are designed to be containers for something . And what a particular vessel contained (held within) determined if that vessel was a vessel of honor or dishonor . Did you know(?) that throughout the Bible, our lives are oft...

Sometimes rest and refueling is needed.  ( Do we need it today? ) There are times when God's call and requirement on our lives is almost too much, too exhausting, too tiring, too draining, or...as Ezekiel said: too overwhelm ing to handle. Sometimes we just have to take a step back and rest, and that is okay .  A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure.  ( 44)  Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.   (45)  “Who touched me?”  Jesus asked.  Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”   ( 46)  But Jesus said,  “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”    ~Luke 8:43-46 I would never equate our experiences to those of Jesus, but if we have served Him by serving others...if we have served in ministry outreaches (large or sma...

What do we  possibly have in common with a guy who eats paper, is  obstinate and hard-hearted ,   and has a hard forehead ?   Alot , I hope.   Ezekiel was a regular guy who was living his everyday life for the Lord (almost 600 years before Jesus walked the Earth as a man), and then God called Ezekiel to get bold   about sharing God's Truth with people.  And not just any people... his  (Ezekiel's) people: the Israelites, who--not so coincidentally: were also God's people. But, guess what?  The people didn't want to hear it.  They wanted to keep doing and living in their  ways (sin), and not in God's ways.  And God t old Ezekiel the people would resist him.  But God also told Ezekiel to tell them about God's Word anyway.  Teach them anyway.  Preach to them anyway.  Why?  Because (God said):  at least they will know they have had a prophet among them (Ezekiel 2:5). I don't know...does any of...

Ah, baby cakes.  No--I'm not sharing a cute nickname that I have for my husband or a childhood term for one of our kids.   Baby cakes .  It's what my gramma and papa used to call the little white powdered sugar donuts that they would put out for breakfast sometimes when we slept over their house. I don't think that they made up the term, "baby cakes", (it might have been the brand of little powdered sugar donuts), but it was what we  all called them. Baby cakes.  It's such a great name and those little white donuts lived up to the great moniker.  Baby cakes were delicious.   They were so good.  I can remember sitting at my grandparents' counter or kitchen table, and when your teeth and taste buds sank into a baby cake--that soft, moist, sweet, tiny powder sugar-caked donut...well, it was just heaven.  But that was 30 or 40 years ago.  I haven't thought about baby cakes in quite  a while.  However, while grocery ...

Okay, don't think I'm crazy, but has God ever given you a dream/vision/notion/idea/or an invitation that we knew was from Him?  We can call it (try to define it as) whatever we want, but if God gave us a vision, I think we would remember it.  We might possibly remember the exact date that it occurred.  We would probably remember how old we were when we saw it.   If God gave us a vision ( Has He? ), we would most likely also know who we were with when we saw it, and I would think that we would remember exactly where we were at when it "happened".  If God whispers something to our spirit, we would know it and we would remember the details of the vision and of the moment we were privy to it.   ~~~ Ezekiel was a priest for the Israelites during Old Testament times.  As a priest, he had studied God's Word, and He was familiar with the (historical) ways of God.  Ezekiel was a man living for God and sharing the Word of God with others. ...