Month: February 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Finding the Path

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

 We focus on Jesus as we travel the path of life.

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

“O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.”
Psalm 61:1-3 New Living Translation

Finding our way in life can be overwhelming.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Because of summer rains and winter snow, the trail that I was following the day I snapped this picture was not always distinguishable. Did it go right or left? Maybe it went both ways. Which do I follow?

Doesn’t that sound much like life? I often listen to people agonize over the direction of their lives. They want the writing on the wall, or at least a whisper in the dark that will point them to a fulfilled life, yet they don’t know if they should turn to the left or to the right.

Though the trail might not have been obvious (its to the right of this picture), my direction was set by the rock formations ahead. I knew where I was going because my eyes were focused on the rock.

Satan, sin and death cannot reach us because God is our fortress. Though we might not see clearly the daily path of life, we are called to focus our eyes on Jesus.

He is our towering rock of safety. He is our safe refuge. He is our fortress.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

“That’s Not Fair!”

Blue Lakes Reservoir, Colorado

Faith holds on to God even when he doesn’t seem fair.

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

Janice and I ran into these mountain goats in the parking lot at Blue Lakes Reservoir. I was surprised that they didn’t run off and disappear. Instead, they looked at us and went about their business of looking for food under the gravelly surface of the parking area.

Blue Lakes Reservoir, Colorado
Blue Lakes Reservoir, Colorado

These were not the only goats we saw as a group of these hardy animals surrounded us. Some were full-grown and others were babies. The babies looked cute, but they also learned a difficult lesson that day.

The largest of the goats – I don’t know if it was a male or female – was rather pushy and dominant. When one of these young goats discovered food, the larger goat pushed the baby aside and ate the grub. It didn’t seem fair.

“But now, God has worn me out. You, God, have destroyed everyone who supports me.”
Job 16:7 God’s Word to the Nations

Job had a reason to complain. Life was not turning out the way he had dreamed. He had lost everything other than his life and wife. God was the big goat who pushed him aside from the good life he deserved.

Maybe that is the way we view God. We look at the circumstances of our lives and we blame God for the mess. He’s the big goat who pushes us aside, and because of him life isn’t fair.

God reappears at the end of Job’s story, but he doesn’t explain himself. God doesn’t owe us an explanation for our lives. Yet, God invites Job to hold on to him. He calls Job to trust him even when life doesn’t seem right.

That is God’s invitation to us. His invitation is to trust him even when it seems that he is pushing us around and keeping us from enjoying the “good life.”  This kind of faith doesn’t make sense (it doesn’t have to), but it’s the only faith that brings peace in the midst of the storm.

This kind of faith holds on to a cross where God handed over his own Son to death that we might live even when life isn’t fair.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Gravity Works

Ute Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado

God’s love in Jesus keeps us grounded.

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

“I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:16 New English Translation

The effects of gravity are at work in this picture. At some point these rocks, leaves and other debris were on higher ground but gravity continues to move them lower and lower.

Ute Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ute Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado

You and I know the effect gravity has on our lives. As we age our bodies compress a little. We might have been six feet tall at one point but now measure out at 5′ 11 1/2″. We might have always weighed in at around 180 pounds but the weight is positioned a little differently because of gravity.

Yet gravity also keeps us grounded.

God’s love is the gravity that grounds us. And it is because of his love that we believe in the vastness of Jesus’ affection for us even though we cannot fully comprehend this love.

It may seem in our lives that many things are dragging us down, yet in the midst of the struggles of life, it is this love of Christ that grounds us.

Gravity works.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner