Month: May 2015

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Now This Is a Lighthouse!

Click on this SoundCloud link to listen to an audio recording of today’s Blog.

If you followed my link on Facebook to today’s blog you’re probably disappointed. You might have remembered the Yaquina Head lighthouse from an earlier blog which is much more majestic than this one.

If you’ve traveled the Oregon coast you might have thought today’s blog concerned the most photographed lighthouse on the coast, namely, the Heceta Head lighthouse north of Florence.

Not! This IS a lighthouse…literally. It is also the only existing Oregon lighthouse built on top the lighthouse keepers living quarters.

Built in 1871 (quite possibly the oldest structure in Newport, Oregon) it only served Yaquina Bay for three years as it was decommissioned in 1874. Interestingly, the lighthouse was recommissioned in 1996 and burns with a steady light from dusk to dawn.

God intends that his light shine from our homes.


“Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.” Isaiah 58:7 New Living Translation

So often it seems that we travel to the lighthouse to let our light shine then return home where Christ’s light appears to be placed under a basket.

God calls us to let our light shine where we reside because where we reside is where we have been redeemed, and where we have been redeemed is where God uses us to draw people to himself.

Join the conversation on our Facebook group: Praying With the Eyes

You can listen to the Praying With the Eyes podcast on iTunes on the 1st and 15th of each month, as well as at SoundCloud.com by searching for “Praying With The Eyes.”

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012-2015 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.

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Podcasts

Episode 001 PWTE Podcast – From East and West

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On this first Praying With The Eyes podcast Pastor Dave Hall, Pastor Jeffrey Meinz, and I explore generational differences and how they affect the Christian community.  We give most of our attention to millennial in response to a blog on the Ponder Anew website entitled, Dear Church: An open letter from one of those millennials you can’t figure out (link below).

Scripture:

  • 1 Corinthians 9:18-22
  • John 6:35-40
  • John 4:21-24

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Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Ain’t She a Beauty?

Click on this SoundCloud link to listen to an audio recording of today’s Blog.

 The Cape Meares Lighthouse hosts a first order Fresnel (pronounced Fraynel) lens made in Paris, France. It arrived at the Oregon coast by way of Cape Horn.  This lens traveled over 200 feet up a rocky cliff on a ramp made of local timbers and reflected the light of an oil lamp for the first time on January 1, 1890.
The lens is made of eight panels, of which four are bull’s-eye panels. These panels gave the Cape Meares Lighthouse its unique signature.
As beautiful as this lens is and as functional as it might seem over 200 feet above the ocean, it has been replace by a nondescript 57,000 candle power lamp that stands only fifteen feet higher but shines further out into the Pacific.
The sobering news for each one of us is that we are replaceable.
Or are we?

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13 New Living Translation

There are two realities for Christians. First of all we can be replaced. We are not indispensable. Someone else will take our job. Someone else will live in our home.

Secondly, and contrary to the first, there is no one like us. There is no one who can take our place now and for eternity. It is our uniqueness in Christ that we celebrate.

Inevitably we will be replaced in certain areas of our lives this side of the grave but we will never be replaced in the heart of God.

Join the conversation on our Facebook group: Praying With the Eyes

You can listen to the Praying With the Eyes podcast on iTunes on the 1st and 15th of each month, as well as at SoundCloud.com by searching for “Praying With The Eyes.”

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012-2015 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.