Month: May 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Living in Right Field

South Park, Colorado

The steadfast love of the Lord is our hope.

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

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?“ 
Psalm 13:1-2 New Living Translation

The drizzle surrounding this deserted house created an atmosphere of abandonment, much like a baseball player in right field. When I played little league baseball, a player in right field didn’t usually get much action, other than picking dandelions or buggers. The coach didn’t pay much attention to the right fielder until that rare left handed hitter came to the plate. Then the coach (and the right fielder) prayed that the batter would strikeout rather than make contact.

South Park, Colorado
South Park, Colorado

Being in “right field” can be a lonely place. It’s the place of King David, the author of psalm thirteen. It’s not a long psalm, but it’s one that gets the point quickly. He feels the hatred of his enemies. He is in a place of abandon. Half of the psalm is his plea, “How long…?”

It’s a lonely place to feel abandoned by God. We know that other people will abandon us and sometimes we expect it, but we don’t think that God will abandon us.

Though David feels abandoned in the first part of the psalm, he realizes that God has not left him in the last portion of his song.

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.” 
Psalm 13:5-6 English Standard Version

Indeed, God has dealt bountifully with us. Even though we might feel like we’re dwelling in right field, may we sense the steadfast love of the Lord giving us hope.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Not of This World

Remembering those who are persecuted for Christ.

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

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”
John 17:14 English Standard Version

It might feel like we Christians are from the moon. Jesus even states that we “are not of the world.” This feeling of being from the moon or some other planet can both come from within us or be generated by others.

May 27Christians are often marginalized. People do not want the Christian voice to speak out the message of God’s love in Jesus. Though their bumper stickers might call for everyone to celebrate diversity, coexist and be tolerant, there are many people who are not open-minded toward the gospel.

However, we don’t necessarily need someone else to tell us that we’re from the moon – we do a pretty good job of that ourselves. We stay hidden in the shadows, believing that we should never talk about our faith. We don’t want to offend another person.

The world of which Jesus speaks is not the physical world around us, but it is everything that stands in opposition to the message of God’s love in Jesus. It’s this world that hates us because it first hated him.

Today we remember those Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. Their churches have been burned, their loved ones imprisoned, and some have suffered death for the name of Jesus.

Not only do we remember these Christians, we weep with them and we pray for them. When their churches are burned, our churches are burned. When their loved ones are imprisoned, we are imprisoned. When they die, we die. We are the body of Christ and when one part of the body hurts, the entire body hurts.

I beg you today to pray for your bothers and sisters in Christ who understand the truth of Jesus’ words, who know the power of the world’s hatred. Pray for their protection and release from persecution.

All they want is to freely worship Jesus.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Desperate Prayer

“I cry out unto you, O Lord!”

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

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”
Romans 8:26a

You may ask yourself, what does a picture of this somewhat small bathroom have to do with prayer?

photoIt was in this unlikely place a week and a half ago that I met God in a most profound way.  My 98 year old father had just taken a bad turn for the worse.  In retrospect, he may have suffered another stroke a day or two before, and was having much more difficulty getting around the house.  He was not able to move his feet when I was transferring him and struggled to do what had been relatively simple just a few days before. My wife and I had been up numerous times over the last two nights attempting to help this once strong, self-sufficient man.

It is always difficult to change established habits and it being Saturday night, I automatically helped Dad prepare to take his shower in the cramped bathroom.  I was by myself with him, and there had not been a problem previously in moving him.

But when I attempted to move him from his wheelchair onto the shower chair, he panicked and clutched at the wheelchair, and then one of the braces on the tub.  He partly fell toward the tub, with me desperately holding onto his gait belt and his waist. Somehow I was able to get him onto the shower chair, when to my horror, I saw that he had scraped his arm on the foundation of the bathtub brace and his fragile, 98 year old skin had broken and a 2 inch by 2 inch raw wound was bleeding all over him and me.

For a moment I was afraid for him, then angry at myself and at my helplessness and predicament.  Suddenly all of the tiredness and fear and grief flooded over me and I knelt on that bathroom floor and began to cry.  I felt like a child again, desperate to please my dad and feeling like a failure at my own inadequacies. I was weeping and telling Dad how bad I felt and he looked as perplexed and scared as I felt.

In one rush of pain and desperation, I cried out to God.  “Jesus, help me, help me, help me!”

And He came and helped me.  He calmed both me and my dad.  He showed me what to do to bind up Dad’s wound, to finish the shower, to move him safely to bed.

And I experienced the true meaning of that verse, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”  When I was weak and forsaken, I cried out to Him, and He came.

And He will come for you, even when you are weak and forsaken, when you cry out to Him.

Come to me, Jesus, when I am weak and helpless.  For the sake of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Text and Picture Copyright Steve Nickodemus