DEVOTIONS

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Today’s Truth

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon (Psalm 92:12 NIV).

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There’s an abundance of palm trees in Israel. I’m not sure why that surprised me as we traveled throughout the Holy Land, but it did. Not only was I blown away by the populous palm presence, but I was also blown away that palm trees don’t just produce coconuts! Did you know this? There’s actually a type of palm that produces dates.


What? Yep. Date palms are all over Israel. Farm after farm of them. And here, my whole life I just gave palm trees coconut creds.


Silly, Gwen.


I learned a few other interesting insights about palms on the day we visited Magdala, an ancient city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, near the small, present day

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Today’s Truth

“He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest” (Acts 5:2 NLT).

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After a night of intermittent sleep, I woke up feeling groggy and unsettled. I went through my morning routine including some vague prayers and Bible reading where my mind wandered more than focused. I answered a few emails, organized some paperwork, and participated in a zoom meeting. Then I wandered into the kitchen to make lunch but my eyes were drawn to the large screen sitting above the mantle. I began to make internal justifications why I deserved an afternoon off distracting myself with a television show.


I had work to do, but I could find another time to squeeze it in without missing deadlines.


I had minor surgery the previous week and probably needed some additional rest (even

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Today’s Truth

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17 NIV).

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I often hear people say, “It is what it is.” What they mean is, the situation is not going to change, so just accept it; get over it! Let me tell you why I don’t like the saying. “It” rarely is what it looks like it is. In fact, what we think the situation is, usually isn’t what it is at all.


The Old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi is a perfect example of something not being at all what it looks like it is. Because of a drought in their hometown of Bethlehem, Naomi, her husband and two sons, moved to Moab. Her sons married Moabite women, but in a ten-year period, all three men died. Naomi

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Today’s Truth

Today’s Truth Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings (Psalm 61:4 ESV)!

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Our boo boo bunny was pink and lived in the freezer. When my kids were small, I loved to take them to the park for play dates. Often there was at least a dab of drama, usually because someone got hurt. When they fell and skinned their knees, my littles didn’t run to their friends… they ran to me. They knew I would help clean up boo boos, get them a Toy Story bandage, wipe away their tears and hold them. Because I’m their mom. The one who loves them and could be trusted to care for them.


In Psalm 61:4, the psalmist cried to God saying that he longed to take refuge in the shelter of His wings.

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Today’s Truth

“The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart. Good people have good things in their hearts, and so they say good things. But evil people have evil in their hearts, so they say evil things” (Matthew 12:34-35 NCV).

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Fruit is one of my favorite foods. However, when I go grocery shopping, it takes me longer to get through the fruit section than any other storage area. Experience has taught me to quickly discard any piece of fruit bruised, mushy, or discolored.


On a recent trip to the grocery store, I carefully made my fruit selections when I thought that I spent more time choosing fruit than I spent choosing my words.


Words are power tools that can build and encourage. But unfortunately, words can also destroy and confuse. We have all been hurt and even defeated by words spoken in anger or words rising out of a wounded and bitter heart. I have been guilty of speaking damaging

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Today’s Truth

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Proverbs 15:1 ESV)

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I have spent a lot of my life trying to be better at standing up for myself.


In many ways, I have a “let’s just get along” personality. One of my core desires is to not have anyone else be mad at me. Ever.


I’m the girl who spent thirty years first trying to have boundaries, and then trying to enforce them.


I always thought boundaries meant I expected a higher level of behavior from people I was in relationship with.


What I’m finally understanding (did I mention it’s been thirty years?) is that I don’t need to be loud or demanding to have healthy boundaries. I don’t need to determine how other people behave around me. I just need to

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Today’s Truth

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NIV emphasis added).

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Chris, one of my friends, was in a seminary class when someone raised his hand and asked the professor: What is your best advice on how to be a good pastor?”


“Empathy,” the professor replied. “Have empathy.”


Then Chris raised his hand. “How do you get empathy?


With a trace of sad knowing in his eyes, the wise older man replied, “Suffer.”


Chris now understood. Empathy isn’t something you learn; empathy is something you live.


One of the greatest ways God puts to use what he puts us through is by creating in us a deeper sense of compassion than we would have ever known without the trauma. The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, meaning “to suffer

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Today’s Truth

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5 NIV).

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When I was a little girl, I loved nothing more than climbing the branches of a backyard tree. There I slipped into a world of imagination as I read books, my legs locked around a strong branch. It was my safe place.


When I grew up, I discovered the power of another tree – my family tree.


The truth was the branches of my family tree were gnarled. The hurts of generations were visible in the rings. I didn’t know how to make my family tree any different, but I did know that God cared about it just as much as I did. I talked to Him about it often. I told Him that I wanted to grow a new

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Today’s Truth

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV).

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While in Ravensbrück, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy dealt with appalling conditions. The women’s labor camp dorms were crammed into three high trough-like sleeping barracks with rancid hay as their bed.


The cramped conditions and lack of basic sanitation led to a lice and massive infestation of fleas. Corrie wondered how they could endure such a dreadful place.


Betsy prayed and told her sister they must “give thanks in all circumstances.”


Corrie wondered how she could possibly ever be thankful for the lice and the fleas?


Several weeks later, one of the supervisors was called in their barracks to view something Betsy was working on. The supervisor refused because the place was crawling with fleas.


Betsy then reminded her sister that it

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Today’s Truth

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter (Exodus 13:17 NIV).

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I looked at my husband in disbelief. My mouth might have actually been open.


After only a few weeks at his current position, he came home from work with the news he had been demoted. After working tirelessly for nearly a year to earn this position, it had been taken from him without warning and without reason.


In the days that followed my husband, Luke, and I wondered what could have possibly gone wrong. In our prayers we asked God, “Why?” It felt like God’s plan for us had taken an unexpected detour, and we couldn’t imagine how this could be good for us.


A few days later, however, at a routine doctor’s appointment with our newborn son, we began

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"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well…" 1 Thessalonians 2:8