Month: January 2025

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

The reality rather than the feeling of security

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 32.

About once a week, someone knocks on my door encouraging me to install their security system in and around my house. Their spiel always includes the sobering report, “Many of your neighbors have had break-ins lately.” I used to be annoyed by them, but now I look forward to it. I want to answer the door barely restraining my Great Dane who can be insistent about getting to know our visitors. I’m pretty sure she just wants to make friends, but the salesperson doesn’t know that!

On a typical day, someone I know will say something about hand weapons. They will speak about a gun they’ve purchased or the price of ammo or a shooting in their neighborhood. It seems that I know very few people who aren’t carrying!

And how often do I pass through a metal detector? They’re built into just about every hospitals, stadium, theme park, and government office building, no to mention airports and cruise ports.

The business of home and self-protection is huge, and we’ve all bought into it.

Sennacherib and his Assyrian armies have invaded Judah, besieging the fortified cities. It looks like Jerusalem will be next.

Judah’s King Hezekiah stops up the springs the Assyrians could use for water, builds extra walls and amasses extra weapons and shields.

His pep talk to all his commanders went like this:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8)

Hezekiah doesn’t overlook the need to prepare for a siege, but that’s not the source of his security. He knows God’s people have an advantage. The bottom line: we’ve got God on our side.

I know it’s easy to forget that simple truth. The imposing threats around us block a distant God from view. In the same way, if we stay close him, danger shrinks to a manageable size. Scripture, worship, and prayer reinforce Hezekiah’s faithful statement, “With us is the Lord our God.”

A big dog might bring a feeling of security. But if I turn those letter around to “God,” that security becomes a reality.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

You’ll be missed

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Aron Lesin on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 20 and 23.

As I write this I am getting ready to officiate and preach at a memorial service. Family and friends will gather with tears of sadness and smiles of remembrance. It’s a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to a loved one, and release them to the care of the Lord.

Do you want to read something sad? How about this description of the end of King Jehoram’s reign: “He departed with no one’s regret” (2 Chronicles 21:20).

Or how about these words after the death of Queen Athalia: “So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword” (2 Chronicles 23:21).

What do you think it’s like to be someone no one will miss? What would it be like to be a person whose death no one grieves? I guess it happens every day. I’m sure there are those who are glad when the homeless population decreases. Few grieve the John or Jane Doe who dies on the street.

The pendulum swings both ways. Some can’t stop grieving the death of a loved one. They continue to celebrate birthdays and feel the emptiness of holidays for many years after a funeral. On the other hand, for others, life goes on without the deceased. They are not forgotten, but they only occasionally come to mind.

I can assure you of this: you’ll be missed. You have no idea how many peoples’ lives you’ve touched and the difference you’ve made. There will never be another you. You’ll be missed.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

That’s a nasty way to die

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

A “through the bible devotion” from 2 Chronicles 21.

All of a sudden, as I’m reading through Chronicles thinking, “I’ve heard all this before,” this leaps out at me:

After all this the Lord struck [Jehoram] in his bowels with an incurable disease. In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony (2 Chronicles 21:19).

Yuk. That wasn’t in Kings. Come to think of it, neither was Asa’s terminal illness:

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign (2 Chronicles 16:12,13).

So of course I wonder, “Who else died a gruesome death?”

  • Jezebel got thrown out a window (2 Kings 9:33).
  • Sheba had his head cut off and thrown over a city wall (2 Samuel 20:22).
  • When King Herod got a little too full of himself, God struck him down and “he was eaten by worms and breathed his last” (Acts 12:23).
  • Jael drove a tent peg through Sisera’s head (Judges 4:21).

And of course, crucifixion is a horrible way to die.

I love to ask middle-school students, “What would be the worst way to die?” They answer everything from getting eaten by a shark to being seal in an oil drum to sitting naked on a fire ant pile. They like to hear vivid biblical descriptions like those above.

I guess that’s one way to get them into God’s Word!

Posted in Stories

I was busy

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash

I went through my Google calendar to remember all that happened in 2024. I was pretty busy.

We made three trips to Rowlett, Texas (a western suburb of Dallas) last year. We returned from a post-Christmas trip on January 1. We spent holy week and Easter with them March 26 through April 2. And then we made a fall trip November 6-11. Each trip included a stay in a nice Airbnb condo.

We spent a lot of time at grandsons’ soccer and baseball games. The younger grandson played soccer in the spring and machine-pitch baseball in the fall. He did really well and scored a lot of goals in the spring, and hit well in the fall. Unfortunately, we sat and watched a lot of games in cold, windy drizzle in the fall. Yuk.

The older grandson (age 9) had a really good spring machine-pitch baseball season, and played on a kid-pitch travel team in the fall. He learned a lot and really improved with good coaching and lots of practice with his dad.

On January 2 we picked up our Great Dane puppy, Willow, from a breeder in Ocala, Florida. She was about ten pounds at the time. By the end of the year, she was 110. Yeah, that’s a big puppy! I thought, “Well, when she’s a year old, we’ll switch her to adult dog food.” Nope. They grow up until 18 to 24 months. And you know what? She looks a little skinny. I just upped her daily food to 4-1/2 cups of large breed puppy food twice a day. Yeah, she’s got some growing to do.

I stepped out of retirement to pastorally officiate at three memorial services last year. They were all folks I had known for many years. Sweet memories on sad days.

The big trip this past year was to Hawaii in July. A gracious friend who owns a house on the big island let us stay for nine nights. We explored green and black sand beaches, coffee, macadamia, and chocolate farms. A luau and an amazing helicopter ride over the active volcanoes made my 67th birthday extra-special. We enjoyed running around in a rental Jeep, too! Best birthday ever!

Along the way, I wrote 367 blog posts, taught middle school Sunday School, started as an online Bible Study Fellowship leader, sold a whole bunch of stuff we didn’t need on eBay, did a lot of walking with the dogs, worked out in the garage, and read thirty-one books.