Posts with the category “daily-devotionals”

As I write this, I am on my second stretch of waiting to have a pacemaker put in. Because of COVID, what was a three-month wait has become of five-month wait.While waiting I prayerfully planned a way ...  Read More

Psalm 24:3–4 - “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn de...  Read More

My son was in the Buchanan High School Band. Every summer, the week leading up to the Fourth of July, the Buchanan Band parents would sell fireworks out of a booth at the Walmart parking lot on Herndo...  Read More

I was privileged to be born into a Christian family.  My father was a farmer as was his father and this went back several generations.  His early years as a farmer were much simpler and different than...  Read More

This is one of the best-known and most-quoted verses in the Bible on parenting.  On the surface there is a precious promise here: if we train our children in the ways of the Lord, when they get older ...  Read More

On Monday, April 8, the United States experienced a total solar eclipse, and while for us here in California it wasn’t very exciting, for those in the path of “totality” the sky went dark in the middl...  Read More

Do you remember your first car? It likely wasn’t the fanciest or the fastest, but you might remember it fondly anyway. My first car was, well…different.Our family car when I was growing up was a dull ...  Read More

My wife and I are just about a month away from celebrating our 17th anniversary. Last year for our anniversary we decided to see a concert and purchased tickets for the event. The really good seats we...  Read More

The Palm youth and I recently attended an in-town youth camp at People’s church called Breakaway Remix during Passover Week. During the camp, students got a chance to play games, eat food, serve the c...  Read More

There is so much food for meditation in this event, but I am struck today with one question after reading this: Why did God tell Noah to build the Ark?  God could have built it. After all, He made the...  Read More

My friend Katie was excited about her new job working with a Christian Home Care for Seniors ministry in the Chicago area. As she started to settle into her new position, she found out that her co-wor...  Read More

Jesus had healed blind Bartimaeus. He had gone into Jerusalem in a processional on a donkey, a celebration fitting for a king. He had done His wild cleansing of the temple, knocking things over and dr...  Read More

I am Italian through and through. As such, it has been ingrained in me to greet anyone who crosses my path—on the street, in a store, and especially in the church gathering. It has been four years sin...  Read More

This past Easter season I was blessed by seeing so many ways God’s people joined together to support and encourage one another as a family to provide an opportunity for the community to hear and exper...  Read More

The city of Jerusalem was awakened with the exclamation of Mary Magdalene, “I have seen the Lord.”  The electrifying news came only three days after the demands of the Jewish leaders that Jesus of Naz...  Read More

We just celebrated Easter last week and in the midst of the celebration and joy that we experience in our church services, it can be easy to forget just how dark the world is becoming around us. Howev...  Read More

During my preteen years, I participated in a competition called the National Bible Bee. Imagine a spelling bee with kids and teens reciting Bible verses instead of unheard-of words, and you’ll get the...  Read More

In college, some of my friends nicknamed me “the seeker.”  At the time I wasn’t a Christian, and even though I didn’t realize it I was searching for something missing in my life.  That’s why I joined ...  Read More

Growing up in church, I have had many experiences in and around Holy Week. When I was in grade school, on Palm Sunday our church would have all the kids’ Sunday School classes march into the worship s...  Read More

If you were a comic book character, what would your power be? Notice that I didn’t ask if you were a “superhero”. “Why the distinction,” you might ask. Well, villains have superpowers as well. And hav...  Read More

When I was thirty-five years old something happened that changed my perspective forever about my devotion to God.One morning I felt convicted about giving God my leftovers of time for prayer, worship,...  Read More

I once traveled with another pastor, “sojourned” with him. Our trip took us across the US to a state on the east coast. We attended a church conference there, which turned out to be a blessed experien...  Read More

In the early years of my Christian life, my prayers had a ring of the “too familiar,” even bordering on being monotonous. In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned us about using many hollow words and v...  Read More

We’ve all had some bad days.  Discouraging days.  Days when it seemed like everything went wrong.  Days of sorrow.  Days of regret.  Terrible days when tragedy struck.  But no matter how bad things we...  Read More

Our baby girl, Lottie, turned six months old last week. People told me the time would fly by, and now I realize how right they were. It feels like yesterday that I was holding her for the first time.T...  Read More

I don’t think anyone likes the feeling of being wrong, or the feeling of guilt having done something wrong. So much so that often our first instinct when confronted about something we have done is to ...  Read More

Zedekiah's relationship with Jeremiah reminded me of the relationship Herod the Tetrarch had with John the Baptist that Pastor Brian spoke about in a recent sermon. Herod was intrigued with John the B...  Read More

Most of you know that Lynette and I live in the foothills near Prather.  All around us are the signs of spring.  The winter rains have caused nature to come alive again.  The grass is green, the trees...  Read More

Have you ever listened to a song and had your face get all scrunched up as you think to yourself, “Nah…This ain’t it?” I’m obviously speaking from experience when I say this may have happened to me on...  Read More

There is nothing that prepares you for a natural disaster.  Oh yes, you can stock up on food and always have water accessible in your house and car. However, the emotional stress and sorrow of being i...  Read More

David Will of the Imperials sings one of my favorite songs called “You’re the Only Jesus”.Here are the lyrics to the chorus:“You’re the only Jesus some will ever see.You’re the only words of hope some...  Read More

I write this devotional on day five. It is the fifth day of our confinement, per the instructions for those who have COVID. Lynn and I both tested positive earlier this week. This COVID invasion happe...  Read More

I was in the Chicago area, teaching a community-wide leadership conference. During one of the sessions, a distraught woman approached me and asked, “Dr. Cecy, can you recommend a book for me? My life ...  Read More

As I read around this verse for context I was struck by how many truths we often recite as Christians are nestled within Romans chapter 8. I would implore you to read the entire chapter today and real...  Read More

Over the past number of days, I have been thinking about how easy it is to lose focus on what is important.  There is so much that is crying out for our attention.  It is easy to set aside what should...  Read More

Embedded in the western wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is one of the world’s largest cut stones.  It is 44 feet long, 10 feet high, 16 feet deep, and weighs 570 tons.  The stone is so massive t...  Read More

I can remember when my husband Gary would be on mission trips to Africa for several weeks. For the first third of the time I was able to get a lot of projects done. I would catch up on a good book I w...  Read More

I played a lot of board games growing up. It’s still one of my favorite pastimes. For some games, we developed “house rules,” rules we added to the game to make it more engaging, or to create obstacle...  Read More

Traveling is not easy. Beyond the airport hassles, lost luggage, and exhausting ministry schedule comes the challenge of maintaining a regular eating schedule.In my experience:Europeans have a heavy b...  Read More

Who is your favorite musical artist? One of my favorites as of late has been Charity Gayle. She has a song called “Endless Praise” that I could put on repeat and listen to over and over for hours. Do ...  Read More