Month: January 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

“One Is the Loneliest Number”

Sea Lion Caves, Oregon

The gift of forgiveness is at the heart of community.

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

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” 
Colossians 3:12-13 English Standard Version

I’ve seen plenty of California Sea Lions in my years of roaming the Oregon Coast. I’ve watched them surf, annoy fishermen, and gather in large colonies. This male was swimming near a popular gathering place for sea lions, a place properly called, “Sea Lion Caves.”

Sea Lion Caves, Oregon
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon

Earlier in the day I listened to the incessant barking of many sea lions around the docks of Newport. So, I expected to see the same scene at the Caves, but this was the only sea lion I saw. He was swimming alone, and looked alone.

Maybe he needed a break. He’d had it trying to attract females to his territory. Maybe he got in a bar fight with some of his buds. He looks like many of us feel. We feel alone.

Is it possible that we feel alone in the Christian community? How is it that we experience loneliness even when we’re surrounded by people who are the same as us?

The easy answer is to blame the person who feels alone. “They need to be more outgoing.” “They need to make the effort to get to know others.” “They need to…”, you fill in the blank.

Some of us reading this blog have felt so lonely that we don’t want anything to do with other Christians. It’s not that we’ve lost our faith in God, but that we’ve lost our faith in people who claim to know Christ but don’t live like Christ.

If the Christian community takes seriously Paul’s words to the Colossians, there might not be as much loneliness in the Church, especially if we’re willing to forgive each other as we have been forgiven by Christ.

Loneliness is the result of sin. Sin not only separates us from God, but it separates us from each other. It isolates us. Through Christ we are forgiven. And through Christ we strive to forgive each other.

A community wrapped in forgiveness cares about each other. A community wrapped in forgiveness understands that loneliness should not be a part of our life together.

May people who are lonely find the Christian community a place of belonging.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

“FORE!!!”

Tokatee Golf Course, Oregon

Our mistakes can’t keep us from reaching the goal.

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

“Brothers and sisters, I can’t consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don’t look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14 God’s Word to the Nations

This picture is of the par 5, 487 yard sixteenth hole at Oregon’s Tokatee Golf course on the McKenzie River, between the towns of McKenzie Bridge and Blue River, the course on which I learned to play. Many rank this course as one of the best in Oregon.

Tokatee Golf Course, Oregon
Tokatee Golf Course, Oregon

Maybe that’s why I can’t shoot under 100.

Though it has not been authenticated, people quote Mark Twain as saying that, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” It is a frustrating game. Your goal is to hit a tiny ball into a small hole that’s probably somewhere between 170 to 500 yards away, and you only have so many strokes to get it in the hole to be considered a good golfer. No one has ever accused me of being a good golfer. Yet, I keep playing.

I like a challenge.

The challenge of golf is the same as it was for Paul. To be successful you must forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the goal. Sometimes that’s very hard to do, especially when you’re standing over a two foot putt for birdie and you miss. That kind of mistake haunts a golfer for days.

We’ve made mistakes that haunt us not just for days but for months and years. Maybe we’ve failed in a marriage, gone bankrupt, or caused a serious accident. How was Paul able to forget his mistakes, his sins? He believed that they were forgiven through Jesus. He didn’t have to redo his life, only live the new life that God had given him through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The message of the cross turned Paul’s life around.

It is the message of the cross that turns our lives around. There is no mistake so great that it can’t be forgiven, buried, and done away with for eternity. It is the message of the cross that haunts Satan in his attempt to make us believe our sins are different, our mistakes can’t be forgiven. That’s a lie.

It’s this forgiveness that also points us to the goal that God has placed before us: the goal of living in his presence. We will reach the goal. God has guaranteed it.

So let’s enjoy this “round of golf,” and bask in the beauty of God’s creation, living for him as we know that we will one day be completely free of our mistakes.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Gravity Works

McKenzie River, Oregon

God’s blessings flow like a cascading river.

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

“He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water,
as from a gushing spring.
He made streams pour from the rock,
making the waters flow down like a river!” 
Psalm 78:15-16 New Living Translation

Gravity works 100% of the time. If you fall out of bed you will hit the floor, or something else below you, 100% of the time. If you fly out of a swing you will hit the ground 100% of the time. If you hit a golf ball into the air it will land in a hazard 100% of the time, well at least if you are Doug Brauner, and it’s not gravity’s fault.

McKenzie River, Oregon
McKenzie River, Oregon

The McKenzie River flows from Clear Lake in the Cascade Mountains until it reaches the Willamette River north of Eugene. It’s a 90 mile journey that drops 3,200 feet. At no point does the McKenzie flow up hill. It can’t. Gravity works.

In the same way, God’s blessings flow down. They must because it is in the nature of God to bless his creatures even when they rebel against him.

The story that the psalmist recounts is found in Numbers 20. The people of Israel have arrived at Kadesh on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. There wasn’t any water in this region and the people were ticked off at God, once again accusing Moses of leading them into the wilderness to die.

In a story that begs for more details, God commands Moses to speak to a rock that it might “yield its water…and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” (Numbers 20:8) Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses strikes the rock twice and a torrent of water pours out of the rock to satisfy the thirst of this wilderness weary people.

God blesses his people even though he accuses Moses of unbelief. Moses would not enter the Promised Land because of his unbelief and because he did not uphold the holiness of God before the people.

Yet, this did not stop God from blessing the people.

Despite times of unbelief and failure, God still blesses others through us. His blessings continue to flow. This is not an excuse to rebel against God thinking that it doesn’t matter how we live our lives, but a call to fall on our knees before the One who has made us and redeemed us and who is still molding us.

God’s blessings flow like an ever cascading river.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner