Month: July 2015

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Escaping with God Is More Than a Kumbayah Moment

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Times of intimacy with God are important in restoring our souls.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
Luke 5:16 English Standard Version
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Peaceful moments like this in the Garden of the Gods are not easy to come by, especially in the summer, but when they do it feels like you are alone with God.

This feeling of being alone with God might be similar to those days and nights when Jesus was alone with his Father.

I’m not talking about a New Age kumbayah moment of communing with nature as being the same as communing with God. Nature itself is a rather harsh place to live. There are animals in the Garden preying on each other, rattlesnakes ready to take a bite out of your leg and deer who love to leave little nuggets on the trail.

However, withdrawing from our noise-filled lives and being alone with God is critical for us to reenter life. Jesus’ life was filled with people making unreasonable demands of him and with people who had high expectations of him. He withdrew, not to commune with nature but to commune with his Father.

You and I need times to withdraw from the craziness of life so that we might become intimate with our Father through his Word.

Whether your “desolate” place is similar to the Garden of the Gods or your garage, may you find this intimacy with your gracious, heavenly Father renewing your spirit.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Embracing Hope When There’s Miles to Travel

Pikes Peak, Colorado

Hope in the promises of God helps us endure life’s journey

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and with hope I wait for his word.”
Psalm 130:5 God’s Word to the Nations

Many people make the mountains of Colorado their vacation destination. They come in the winter for the world class skiing and in the summer for rafting, climbing and fishing. Many of these visitors come from our neighboring state of Kansas.

Please understand that I have nothing against Kansas. I drove many miles through Kansas, traveling to visit my son who attended college in Oklahoma. However, it can seem like an eternity to reach a mountain retreat in the Rockies when driving through Kansas.

Chico Basin, Colorado
Chico Basin, Colorado

Then the first glimpse of Pike’s Peak or Mt. Evans appears and there’s hope. When these peaks first emerge they’re still miles away, but you can see your destination and embrace the hope that you will soon arrive.

Hope is powerful.

The mountain to which our hope looks is the word of God’s promise, yet it’s hard to have hope when we don’t hear that word. Think about how many hours in the day we’re bombarded with words that don’t flow from the mouth of God. These words influence our thoughts and behaviors, and we’re left with little hope when we follow these words.

God’s word of promise is always on the horizon, and it’s this word that gives us hope. The word of promise is the word of forgiveness in the blood of Jesus. This word of promise is the word that we’re never abandoned by God. This word of promise is the word that we’re going to see the Lamb who was slain for us.

The word of promise is the word of hope.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Who Said Fishing Is a Private Matter?

Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada

We learn to fish for people by following Jesus.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.'”
Mark 1:17 English Standard Version
Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada
Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada

Many of us guys, and probably a number of you gals, look at this man fishing for salmon and think, “now that’s the life.” We think of fishing as an independent activity, a time of getting away by ourselves with no one bothering us except the fish that can’t resist our bait.

Yet, learning to fish is difficult if you try to do it without someone’s help.

My father and brother taught me to fish, something I don’t do as often as I use to. They taught me by showing me what to do. They showed me how to tie the hook on to my line, how to put a worm on the hook and how to untangle my fishing reel. They taught me to follow them.

The operative words that Jesus spoke to his disciples are the words “follow me.” Learning  to fish for people requires following Jesus. We can’t learn to fish for people with God’s love and mercy if we haven’t experience that mercy and love from Jesus.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to follow him to his blood drenched cross that all the world might experience grace. We bring people to Jesus’ cross by first traveling that path ourselves.

You see, we don’t learn about God’s love in a vacuum. We learn about God’s love from each other where we experience God’s gift of community. Learning how to fish for people is rooted in God’s gift of those who’ve been fishing for sometime.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner