Month: April 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Looking For Clear Water

We see clouds. He sees clearly.

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

I love reflections in the water, especially those of clouds and trees. It’s a double blessing of beauty. Although on a calm and quiet day it may come close to being a perfect double image, there are always slight distortions. There are times in our walk with God we feel so close to understanding everything about Him and His beauty seems so vivid to us, just like the reflection in the photo. Then there are times when we feel we understand nothing and question His very existence.

Reflections DB3.5x7

“Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us.” 1 Corinthians 12:12 Contemporary English Version

So we read this verse and others like it and hold on to the promise that we will see Him face to face, understanding everything and, most important, knowing His love for us.

My late grandmother had a dream that Jesus came to see her. She took his face in her hands and said, “Let me look at you so I can memorize your face and know it’s you when I get to heaven.” She was amused by the dream, but we can be comforted that we do not have to see Him clearly on this earth. He knows us and calls us by name and takes us to be with Him forever.

Text and Picture Copyright Desiree Bustamante

 

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Possessing the Spine of a Cat

Christians are both flexible and inflexible.

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

“When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ.
Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.”
1 Corinthians 9:22 New Living Translation

Cats are contortionists. This is a picture of my cat, Cali (an original name for a calico, right?). Cali has been a part of our family for thirteen years, and in those thirteen years I’ve watched her do some amazing feats with her body.

  • CaliShe can bend her spine backwards so that her front paws can touch her back paws. (Okay, she’s not that flexible, but that’s what it looks like.)
  • Her tongue can clean every part of her body, which results in amazing hairballs in the summer.
  • She can sleep in any position imaginable, as shown in this picture.

However, this amazing flexibility doesn’t mean that Cali resembles jello.

God calls us to be FLEXIBLE and INFLEXIBLE.

We are never to compromise the Word of God. We believe that the Bible is God’s revelation of himself to humanity. We believe that this revealed Word of God points us to our salvation in Jesus Christ. Both the difficult and the comforting words of the Bible are God’s Word that lead us to our salvation. This message cannot be compromised.

The problem for many of us who follow Jesus is that we apply this inflexibility to all of our Christian walk.

We might consider Paul an inflexible person, but he wanted to be what God wanted him to be for the truth of Jesus to be heard. I’ve been to Germany, Peru and Honduras, yet I only speak a little German and even less Spanish. If I expected people from these countries to speak English before I communicated the love of Jesus, I would be ineffective. We speak and live the gospel message in the “language” people speak.

By the way, there’s one skill that’s important to learn when becoming flexible. It’s the skill of listening.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

The Reality of Our New Birth

Cripple Creek, Colorado

God sustains our new birth in Christ.

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

“However, when God our Savior made his kindness and love for humanity appear, he saved us, but not because of anything we had done to gain his approval. Instead, because of his mercy he saved us through the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and renewal.” 
Titus 3:4 God’s Word to the Nations

I can’t imagine how long it took the person to sculpt this butterfly in ice. Every inch of this butterfly was carefully crafted.

 

Cripple Creek, Colorado
Cripple Creek, Colorado

However, in a matter of days this new creation disappeared into a puddle of water. Maybe it started with one of its antennae falling off, or the wings drooping. However it happened, no longer exists.

Christians have used the butterfly as a symbol of the resurrection for centuries. This promise of the resurrection has worked a new birth in us, and unlike this sculpture, our new life will not melt away.

This new creation, this new birth, will last because it is based on what God has done not what we’ve done. What we bring to the table will melt like this butterfly, even as beautiful as it is. Even our best works that we bring to God will not last.

Through the mercy of God, who didn’t spare his own Son, we have been given our new birth and renewal. This is a new birth that is ours today and will last for eternity.

There are times that it might feel like we’re melting, that our faith is weakening, that we’ll never stand up to the heat of life. Just as it is the Holy Spirit who gives us this new birth, it is the Holy Spirit who sustains this new birth.

Like this butterfly, God has given you a new birth by carefully crafting you into a work of art. God’s mercy seals this work of art which endures forever.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner