Good morning! Today marks a special occasion for us! Yes, this is the 1000th post on the blog for bucky-dailydevotional.blogspot.com That's a lot of posting. The posts began in September of 2006 when someone made the suggestion that these be saved somehow. The e-mail devotionals had begun sometime before that and were getting a bit large for e-mail folders. Looking at some of the older blog posts, I wasn't writing a lot at that time, so the loss of some of the first devotionals may not be a big loss. However, a message of hope and encouragement may not need a huge amount of words. Few of us have the time to read a book each morning, even if I could write one every day. :-)
Some of you have been on the e-mail list since the beginning. Around the time I began blogging the e-mail devotionals, the e-mails were tossed from Cabela's. I could no longer write from my work PC before starting the workday, nor could I use any Cabela's e-mail addresses. While there may have been some argument for practicing my religion at work as many are allowed to do, my thought was to understand the company's point of view and obey my employer. Two years later, the author was tossed from Cabela's. So much for good intentions... One may have nothing to do with the other, but if that was a bit of persecution for our Lord's sake, then a great "Hallelujah" goes out to Jesus for that!
We have endured the spam wars, college, sickness, sorrow, and many other things over these three years and 1,000 posts. Losses of friends and family members, loss of employment, other hurts and pains of life, and even signs of the end such as: wars and rumors of war, earthquakes in various places, and the global urge for a strong, one-world government. In all of this, our thoughts have a tendency to roll downhill if we let them have their freedom.
Daydreaming thoughts often move from something nice to something very tragic or angry. Why does it have to be that way? Shouldn't our daydreaming thoughts go up and up? Thoughts left to their own devices like a ball on a hill won't go up, but will seek the lowest level. Jesus leads us up the narrow and steep path to victory in Him; our thoughts want to bounce back down to the pit of sin Jesus brought us out of. The devil uses this to produce dread and anxiety in us, better serving his purpose of chaos and deceit. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to bring our thoughts back to Him. This is one area that the infamous cat cannot serve as an example.
In the many devotionals, you have also endured the cat of a thousand examples. I have often written about how we should be less like the cat in some way or more like the cat in another. However, our first and best example is always Jesus. Each of us should yearn to be completely like Jesus in all things. The world thinks that means a lengthy list of "don'ts" and a loss of any fun in life. On the contrary, Jesus said that He came to give us life more abundantly. Sin only seems fun on the surface; the loss of sin from our lives is no loss at all. One day, Christ will indeed take all sin away and we who believe in Him look forward to that day.
Take a moment to thank God for all that He has done for us; and have a wonderful new day in Christ!
Bucky
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