Month: January 2017

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Good Stuff

Taste and See.

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

“Taste and see that the Lord is good….”  
Psalm 34:8a; New International Version

Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit.  It looked good to eat, we are told.  Did it taste like death?  I’m guessing not.  Forbidden stuff often fools us into thinking we are enjoying ourselves.  The fruit itself was not death, after all.  Eating it brought death.

The elk in this picture made several attempts to reach the branch you see in its mouth.  About the fourth try, it was tasting the good stuff.  He knew it was worth the effort.  Experience taught him that, and maybe his mother in his youth!

It may seem odd to be invited to ‘taste the Lord’, but it is a common Biblical image for feasting on the Word of God’s promise and trusting in the Lord.  As part of his call to ministry, Ezekiel was invited to eat the scroll of the Word of the Lord.  It was like honey to him.  Peter refers to Psalm 34:8 in his first letter (I Peter 2:2).  What we feast on has changed, Peter says, now that we have tasted that the Lord is good.

The Word is in action in the Lord’s Supper.  There we can taste indeed that the Lord is good, as we share in the foretaste of the heavenly feast.  The Lord likes the image of eating and feasting.  The foretaste we share in the Eucharist is a reminder that God doesn’t want us to wait until heaven to enjoy life.  We taste and see that the Lord is good right here and right now.

Reach out today.  Reach up today.  Reach higher to the Word of the Lord.  Take it in, let your soul feast.  Taste, and see that the Lord is good indeed.  Then list some of your feast’s menu.  List the ways you taste today that the Lord is.  Then pray, praise and give thanks.

Text and Picture Copyright Donald Schatz

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PWTE Daily Devotion

“It’s Going That Way!”

Though we make plans and set goals, we leave everything to the will of God.

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

There are not as many people playing golf today as in the past. This fact might be due to how expensive golf is or to golf’s élite status. Golf course owners realize that if they don’t capture the attention of young golfers, this trend might continue. Enter S.N.A.G., an acronym that stands for Starting New At Golf. It’s hoped that by getting young children to play S.N.A.G. they will eventually play regular golf.

Whether that happens or not, playing S.N.A.G. is a blast. Loveland, Colorado has a specially designed S.N.A.G. course at one of their municipal links. My family and I played a round to celebrate our oldest grandson’s birthday.

Playing S.N.A.G. golf can be fun way to spend an afternoon with your children and grandchildren.
Playing S.N.A.G. golf can be fun way to spend an afternoon with your children and grandchildren.

This picture is of his younger brother. I don’t know where he learned this pose, but he was sure that he was going to hit his tennis ball into the hole. He made this pose more than one time. He’d place his ball on the tee, point his finger, and swing three or four times before hitting the ball.

It never made it to the green let alone the hole.

I know that if we don’t have goals we won’t achieve much. Yet having goals doesn’t always mean we will achieve them either, nor does it mean that our goals are God’s direction for our lives.

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog– it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 
James 4:13-15 New Living Translation

My father would often say something like, “We’re going to play golf today, if the Lord wills” and he meant it. He taught us children that it’s okay to plan yet everything is in God’s hands. I know that he had plans for his business and he worked those plans. Sometimes those plans came true and at other times they didn’t. Yet in everything he trusted God’s will.

As you go about your day today making plans and setting goals may you ultimately leave the results in God’s hands.

Text and Picture copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Seeing Color in a World of Brown

Hope gives us the ability to see the color of grace.

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

“Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
Psalm 103:2 New living Translation

There’s not a great deal of color around Colorado this time of year, even if the border sign reads, “Welcome to Colorful Colorado.” When there’s snow, it’s white. When there’s no snow, it’s brown. Even the evergreens are tinged with brown. It’s easy to forget that flowers once bloomed in our flower beds, vegetables ripened in our gardens, and leaves quivered in the wind.

January has been a bleak month for many people and it is easy to lose sight of God’s grace.

Whether it’s the after effects of the election, the cold days, or short nights there’s plenty of anxiety producing events that affect our lives. These events keep us from seeing the color of God’s grace.

Though we might not see the evidence of grace, the Holy Spirit fills us with hope that we will one day see the beauty of God’s loving kindness.

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved.”
Romans 8:23 New Living Translation

We all go through periods when our lives reflect the color brown rather than the Portland Rose Garden in June. Paul writes that we, like creation, groan until that day when we’re released from this bondage of a world of brown. We live in the hope that we will enjoy the manifold colors of heaven.

Even though we might not see the color of grace today, grace is the foundation of our hope one day being in the presence of the Lamb who was slain for us.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner