Month: February 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Color of Night

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

God shines even in the darkness of our lives.

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

“Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.”
Psalm 74:16 English Standard Version

I don’t know what caused these night sky colors to shine as they surrounded the full moon in the Garden of the Gods. I have an idea that the moon, the city lights, the darkness of the eastern high plains, and the camera itself contributed to this chromatic scene.

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

We think of the night as filled with shades of gray not color. Yet, even in the darkness God has established light. The moon and the stars are God’s gift in the night.

When we experience the darkness of life, colors might seem gray. The struggles we endure have a way of robbing us of color, of robbing us of contentment, peace, and joy.

The psalmist reminds us that the darkness of the night belongs to the Lord, whether that darkness results from the earth’s rotation, or the struggles of the soul.

The darkness of sin cannot rob us of the colors of God’s grace in Christ. For those of you struggling with shades of gray, may this picture give you hope that God’s mercy shines even in the darkness.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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Podcasts

PWTE Podcast Episode 019: The Importance of Integrity

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February 15In this Praying With The Eyes podcast Richelle Hecker and Pastor Doug Brauner talk about the importance of teaching children and grandchildren about our faith in Jesus Christ, and to do so both by what we say and what we do.

Blog: The Importance of Integrity

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Importance of Integrity

For our children’s sake, we ought both live and speak our faith.

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

[Moses said,] “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 English Standard Version

I was recently reminded by an acquaintance that if we say something is important to us, then we also need to act like it is important to us. This is especially true when it comes to communicating the faith to our children and grandchildren.

February 15When it comes to teaching our children about God and his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, it’s important that we both speak the words that God has spoken in the Bible, and that we order our lives around those words.

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that marriage is important, but we don’t work hard at our relationships with our spouses?

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that helping the poor is important, but we do nothing to minister to those in need?

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that forgiveness is important to us, but we can’t forgive others when we’re offended.

When it comes to communicating what we believe and how our faith affects our lives, what we say is as important as what we do. We cannot have one without the other.

Jesus communicated the faith best when he spoke about the importance of forgiveness, then sacrificed his life that we might experience forgiveness.

This is not a call to quit speaking the faith because we can’t live what we say. Sometimes we need to communicate to our children and grandchildren that we fail to live what speak, and speak what we live. However, this binding together of what we speak and how we act is a call to live with integrity.

Our integrity has a powerful influence on the next generation of people who are growing up in Christ.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner