Month: July 2015

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

How to Convert Your Dream HOUSE into a Dream HOME

Heceta Head, Oregon

The presence of Jesus in our houses makes them feel like home

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

“Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'”
John 14:23 English Standard Version
Heceta Head, Oregon
Heceta Head, Oregon

This is my dream house. The Heceta Head Light Keeper’s House was built in 1894 and now serves as an upscale B&B (a mere $200 to over $300 a night in the summer which includes a seven course breakfast). I stayed in this house on a weekend youth retreat before its B&B days. Each window presents an amazing seascape of the Pacific Ocean.

But what makes a house a home?

There are a number of us reading this blog who have a dream house, if not in reality then in the recesses of the mind. You could build that house exactly as you imagine it, yet it might never become your home.

There has been strife in my house over the years, and I have a feeling that my family isn’t much different than many of yours. What has made a difference in our home is the grace of God. His love has converted our house into a home.

It is the grace of God dwelling in your house that turns it into a home.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re living in your dream house or a low rent apartment, God excels at making wherever you live your home with his presence.

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

I Don’t like Things That Go Bump in the Basement!

LUtherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany

Jesus is the light that dispels the darkness of our lives

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

“O LORD, you light my lamp. My God turns my darkness into light.”
Psalm 18:28 God’s Word to the Nations
LUtherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany
LUtherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany

I’m not a fan of basements. I like living rooms with lots of light. I know that there are basements that have plenty of natural light and your’s might be one of them, yet there’s still not enough light for me. There are to many things to go bump in the basement, and I don’t know what they are.

This cellar is underneath the Luther House in Wittenberg. This cellar had no natural light. I’m sure that it was a nice, cool retreat on hot summer days, but I can’t imagine spending time here.

We have cellars of our own creation. They’re not physical cellars but those which we build in the inner core of our lives. We might not like to enter these cellars but we do anyway. At times the darkness can be overwhelming. We might even feel that the darkness is getting the upper hand.

Not only does God light the lamp, he is the lamp. He dispels our darkness. He is not afraid to enter our cellars where sin resides and dispel the darkness that lives there. Darkness cannot stand in the presence of the light of God’s love.

I don’t know where the darkness dwells in your life but I do know where it resides in me. Thank God that he delights in making darkness flee.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Grow Like an … Aspen?

Jones Park, Pikes Peak, Colorado

Like Aspen trees, our growth in Christ comes from our roots in him

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

“The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit!”
Isaiah 27:6 New Living Translation
Jones Park, Pikes Peak, Colorado
Jones Park, Pikes Peak, Colorado

The Rocky Mountains are known for their massive aspen groves.  These groves are beautiful anytime of the year.  In the spring, when this picture was taken, the leaves take on a bright green color followed by a deeper green in the summer and yellow, orange and even some reddish leaves in the fall.  Winter itself reveals a different view of the aspen as white bark and twisted branches make for an interesting picture.

The power of the aspen is in its roots. New trees arise from the aspen’s roots and they grow like a weed.

This has always been the goal of God for his people.  His heart is that we take root and from these roots we bud, blossom and bear fruit in the world he created.

You can’t miss an aspen grove when traveling the highways of Colorado.  In the same way people ought to recognize the church of God which, rooted in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, buds, blossoms and bears fruit for others.

May the church grow like a weed.  Spirit, grant this to your church!

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner