"My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children." Hebrews 12:5-6

A small child repeatedly misbehaves as the shopping trip continues down the grocery store isles. The Mom looks at the child and says, "One more time, and I am going to spank you." The child's mischievous face suddenly turns into a frown. The child replies, "Please don't whip me, I promise I won't do it again!" The Mother responds with a stern, but caring look. The child became discouraged for a moment, however, when the urge for that toy comes back and they begin to make that loud sound, because at that moment that toy is worth it all. But does the child ever think, is this toy worth the pain it's going to cause me and my mother. See both people suffer. The child. The parent.

All of you will begin to think reading this...My child won't ever make that scene. I would have "torn into him" the first time. Really? Would you? You respond: SURE! They aren't going to act that way in public. Thats embarrassing! Well, guess what? Everyday we disobey God in thoughts, actions, words, etc. We can even keep on going through that day and never turn to a sad face as a child does when a mother disciplines. We keep on going, as if nothing happened. Why is this? Well, because maybe we have come to a place where the discipline doesn't scare us this first time. Then, God speaks. God comes to us, because he loves us. He promises in his word, if we are his, he will discipline us. See, just as the child that keeps screaming down the isle for the toy, we keep disobeying God. Why do either of these perform this? They aren't thinking about the outcome. How much that spanking is going to hurt themselves, or that parent who just wants them to mind. Do we really care how it hurts God when we keep screaming down that grocery isle? Do we care that the discipline he uses to get our attention may hurt. He will do whatever is necessary to show us, "He loves you!"

We must return to the cross. To calvary, the place Jesus took the discipline for our sin: Death. We must remember what it cost him. The pain he endured for someone who want listen the first time we are corrected. My prayer tonight is that I can remember what took place on Calvary and I can live each day with that warning of the spanking, not receive the punishment. We are all human! We all sin everyday! But, my goal, is to listen this first time.

I am thankful I have a God who loves me, no matter the circumstance. No matter how loud I may get because I wanted something. God help me to remember you are my portion.

Cliff Dweller

“The highest mountains are for the wild goats; The CLIFFS are for the rock badgers.”

-Psalm 104:18



Have you ever walked through a trial in your life? Maybe you’re in one right now? Someone said to me recently when experiencing of time of difficulty, “It’s like I am climbing a great big cliff, it’s so high and so scary.” When I thought about this statement, I was lead to researching what exactly a “cliff “ was on a mountain. Right now, many of you are saying to yourself, duh, it’s the side of the mountain Devin, you know, where you don’t look over the side, or get to close, because of falling rocks, hello…



Ok so friend clear your mind of your definition of a cliff, let’s see what a little research and God says. First, I want to talk about the true defintion of a cliff. A cliff is a significant vertical or rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms. Now, read this next sentence carefully, we are going into depth of our study, starting now. Cliffs are USUALLY formed by rock that is RESISTANT to erosion and weathering. Did you get that? Let me repeat that…USUALLY cliffs are formed by rocks that are resistant to weathering and erosion. Even the process of erosion or weathering is very slow and takes many years to be completely effective in the erosion or weathering process. Let’s continue on…another part of a cliff is called an escarpment (scarp), this is a type of cliff formed by the movement of a fault or a landslide.



Ok let’s apply what we have stated previously to our present spiritual condition, (the cliff dweller, what I’d like to call us) Someone who is on the cliff presently. We feel sometimes God has brought us to an ending point, a cliff, spiritually. There is no where to go, no where to run, because if you do….Your going to take a nose dive off the side of a mountain. So point number one. To get to a cliff, you must be on top of the mountain. When everything seems to be going well in your life for the moment, or maybe God is really using you in a certain ministry and you are dwelling on top of the mountain. Your hiking through life’s greatest moments, suddenly a cliff appears. What do I do, God? Why now? Why would I have traveled this journey to be brought to the side…where I have no option, no choice to keep going? See, when we arrive at those thoughts, we must ask ourselves, Do I fully trust God right now? You begin worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong. What if it rains? I have no shelter. What if someone or something tries to attack me? I have no where to run. These are all lies the enemy wants us to feel spiritually. Take a minute and apply those questions to your spiritual life. Instead of rain, think about hardships that come along. Instead of something attacking you, let’s plug in the enemy attacking you. When we think of know where to run, let’s plug in feeling hopeless or giving into the enemies schemes and thoughts.



Friend, listen to me. God has shown me some things that may help you understand just how wonderful that cliff may actually become. Let’s repeat the verse written at the top again. Its found in Psalm 104;18-‘The high mountains are for the wild goats;the cliffs are for the rock badgers.” One more fact to think on real quick about cliffs before I begin on scripture, most cliffs feature rock shelters and waterfalls. Ok, Devin, why didn’t you just put that sentence with the rest of your paragraph on cliffs earlier. Well, because you friend need to focus on that sentence as we dissect this verse. Ok, now the verse. High mountains= wild goats. Wild goats live in flocks together of about 500. Which to me screams, they travel together all the time. However, they are very destructive in new areas. WOW! Who does this sound like? Well, how about the church? When things are going good after revival or maybe in our personal lives, we share it with others, right? We will proclaim all the good going on in our lives with no hesitation. We flock to groups in spiritual highs. Everything is going great and wonderful. This is a great thing, don’t misinterpret what I type. However, if something bust our spiritual high and everyone else is still going strong, we become sort of quiet. We can even become destructive. We think, this is un fair, I want to be fine again. Why is this happening to me? ( I could stop typing right now, fall on my face before God, as this is speaking to me so heavily) We become destructive to those around us. We do this by not seeking God’s face. Not praying for others around us. Failing in our duties to God. Although, not everyone respond in this manner. Some just remain quiet. They don’t want to hinder the group. So, they keep to themselves for the most part and pray they’re way out of this pain they experience.



You may be saying to yourself, ok, so whats next. What about the rest of the verse? It says, ‘but the cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers”. Rock badger? I had never heard of such an animal till tonight, however, when I begin researching this precious animal, I think I have known him all to well for at least the past five years. The rock badger is considered “a rare little animal” , “curious”, and he makes his home in the I quote, “crevices” of the cliff. Such a home is ideal for the badger. Automatically I think of a verse along with a sweet friend, named Corrie Clay blog she shared with me not to long ago. It talks about a special crevice you need to be familiar with. The story takes place in Exodus 33, a story about Moses seeing God’s glory. Please read this chapter then, come back to this. I want to focus on verses 19-23. The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, “the Lord”, to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose, and I will show mercy to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live. The Lord continued, “Stand here on this rock beside me. As my glorious presence passes by, I will put you in the CLEFT of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see me from behind, but my face will not be seen.”Did you catch the ALL CAPS word in God’s word, Yes, that would have been cleft. Do you remember where God said in his word that badger finds refuge…YES!! Your getting it now…the crevice. So, wait a minute, your telling me when I feel like I am on a clift, God has a place for me to hide from the rain or the enemy, YES!! Its called a crevice. Now, stay with me, let’s keep diggin. The badger is also slow moving. Much like us in a spiritual sense. Sometimes, we just can’t get going, or maybe we are afraid of what god may do if we really asked him to use us. Well, because of this little badgers speed he becomes a major target for his biggest enemy, the BLACK eagle. Hold up just a second. Think about this. When we become lax in our Christian walk, we slow down learning about God. We may even experience a slower pace because we fear our next step. Well, you can’t, yeah, I said it. You can’t! God has given you something to help defeat this problem. One: SALVATION- The price he paid for all your sins and fears on calvary when he died on the cross for you. Second: He gives us the Armor of God. Look in Ephesians 6, starting at verse 10. He lists a shield for us to cover each part of our bodies.

So when we feel ‘slow” spiritually, God has given us equipment to get through these times. Just like this badger he speaks of in his word. The badger has amazingly key eyesight! He can detect movement miles away. HELLLLLOOO are you getting this. There’s another promise of God. He tells us the enemy roars around like a lion waiting to devour his prey. However, God gives us the gift of conviction and of discernment to know when the enemy is preying on us. We can detect the enemy if we are truly seeking after God. Anyway, the badger has special membrane features that allow him to look directly into the sun, he can still see the movement. This is symbolic to show us, sometimes, when we are staring life in the face, and walking truly with God is when our enemy tries to hide behind something bright, something beautiful, something that indices us to look. But, we can still see him coming because our sun, is our heavenly Father. But friend, what do we do when we are scared? Do we cry out to God? YES! We should! When we do, God comes to our rescue. Just as that little badger does. When he sees or senses the danger he gives off a warning call and then he scatters down to he crevice. Oh how beautiful this picture is for you my friend. God has given us the crevice to run too. Our hiding place. Our shelter, our shield. I don’t think it’s a mistake by God of the comparison he used in these verse. He knew this night, this hour, for Devin Smith, she needed to know: That CLIFF has a crevice for you to hide in, and I will place my hand upon you, my child. I can almost physically hear God saying these words to me as I type..



Ok, promise last point! In this inhospitable environment it ensures the badgers enemies to keep their distance. I had to look up what inhospitable meant (not gonna lie to ya) When I did, I wasn’t surprised. Inhospitable means: unfriendly, no growth, no life. OF COURSE. Satan wants to enter that place on just the mountain top, because its unfriendly, no life. However, the cool part is, that crevice is made just for you friend. Its designed perfectly by God for us to have a resting place, a shelter. Satan can’t enter. He may can stand on the mountain top, but when your in the crevice, God’shand is covering you…and the enemy won’t be able to touch you!



In conclusion I want to tell you this. Personally, I know if a climber is skilled you can tell in a few different ways. The climber always knows the handholds and footholds. They know where they can bear most of their weight. By the way, almost all rocks can, it just knowing the ones to trust. Finally, a cimbers motto is this…Climb high, sleep low. How amazing! We climb high in our day to day battles. When we reach our mountain top…we gaze at the beautiful sight we see, but then our focus becomes hazed by whats around us, The height, the weather, the slippery rocks. But you sleep low. I see that statement as something like this speaking spiritually. God has provided that little spot in the crevice for you…Call out to him for your warning signal, then go, go sleep, go rest in that place he prepared while your shaking and scared of the enemy flying overhead. Let God handle him! God is faithful, but the question I have for you today is…Will you let the fear of the cliff overtake you, or will you call out your warning cry to your Father, then go take your place in the crevice, which will you choose?

The Warrior

Isaiah 42:13 “The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal, with a shout he will rise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.”

What is a warrior? Someone who is participating in battle? Ephesians 6:13 say, “Put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.” Yes, scripture did say, “So you will be able to resist”…See God supplies the equipment the surrounds our body defending our flesh from being pierced. Then, scripture goes on to list each part of the armor we are provided with per the Lord. Friend I am telling you, you are in a battle and yes; you are a warrior for the Lord. The definition of warrior is a man engaged in some conflict or experienced in war, or in military life; a soldier; a champion. We are warriors facing spiritual warfare everyday in our own lives. It may be sickness, financial burdens, persecution, etc. Friend, we can praise Jesus for supplying us with an armor that can’t be pierced by the enemy’s arrows. Armor is a protective outer shell and defense covering the body. However, the dictionary doesn’t stop at “a man in war”…it continues to define warrior as a champion. How amazing? When examining the verse in Isaiah 42:13 we see the beginning as a beautiful picture: The Lord marching out as a mighty man. He is going to battle. Can you picture the King of Kings marching out with his armor strapped down? From head to toe on our Lord, the breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, sword of the spirit, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the helmet of salvation. Then the verse says, “like a warrior he will stir up his zeal and with a shout the battle cry will rise.” I believe what he is stirring up is his strength. He is gearing up for his battle. I can imagine the most muscular of all men, his head looking up, daring the enemy to look at him. Then, suddenly hearing his shout, the battle cry. Just as a lion roars to warn off predators, you can hear his roar for miles. This signifies to the predator this is his territory. The female lion may roar to protect her cubs. This is such a beautiful depiction of what our Heavenly Father has set out to accomplish. He warns the enemy to stay away because we are his children and this is his territory. Friend the enemy can’t have you if you’re focusing on the Lord’s face and he lives inside your heart. Finally, the completion of this verse says, “and he will triumph over his enemies.” Don’t forget the definition of warrior; it also says, “Champion”. The Lord declares himself as the champion. His word shows us over and over his triumph in many ways. However, Jeremiah 20:11 said, “But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior, so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. The will fail and be thoroughly disgraced, their dishonor will never be forgotten.” In conclusion, friend, God is fighting for you. Don’t miss out on inviting the greatest warrior in history into your heart. If you are reading this today, consider something? As we face difficult times daily, who is going to battle for you? Jesus Christ wants to equip you, but more importantly, become your warrior. He battled for you years ago on a cross so you could have forgiveness. Will you allow him to be the champion? Or do you want to fight your own battle, alone?

Jelly Bean Rain

“My child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.” Hebrews 12:5-6

My friend Sammy called me on a Sunday afternoon on his way to the beach with his family and as we were talking, a bad thunderstorm was affecting our conversation. You could hear the rain slamming down on the windshield through the phone. His grandson, Canaan was with him and he could hear us talking about the rain from the backseat. All the sudden you heard his little voice in the background say, “Paw-Paw, it’s raining like little jelly beans on my window.” Sammy and I both chuckled at that precious little statement from a five year old. However, at that moment, something came to me. When it rains we see that as sort of a “set back”, especially when we are traveling. Why? It makes the roads slick, no one wants to walk in the rain, your feet get all soaked and if your need to walk outside or get out of the car…its just majorly inconvenient!

Well, can you think of a time that’ was an “inconvenience” in your spiritual walk, for you personally? I can! When I as a Christ follower, or Christian, has veered from the right path, which is following Christ. You see, the only solution when a child does something wrong, is to discipline them! Why, because you LOVE them. God states in his word in the scripture above, “don’t ignore the Lord, he only disciplines those he loves”. See as Christians, sometimes we see the Lord's discipline as an inconvenience to us. But, some, who are more mature spiritually, may only see his discipline as a simple correction, (just a shower of soft rain), however, others may see it as tough correction that hurts when it hits the skin or heart, like “jelly bean” rain. See Canaan described the rain on his window like jelly beans, which to me seems it was big drops, and loud when it hit the window. Although, Sammy and I just saw a slight shower of rain passing through. So plug yourself in now. If you were sitting in the spiritual seat of life looking out the window in the midst of your storm, what would you say about the rain? Is it a soft rain? The type when you’ll get wet, maybe some slush in your shoe, and a little irritated or do you see it as “jelly bean” rain, a loud, scary, pour down, completely soakin’ wet and a MAJOR disruption of your life.

Friend, I’m here to tell you something. When God brings about his discipline to our lives, usually it is because we didn’t take him very seriously to begin with or we seem to think we can handle what the enemy throws at us ourselves. So, because Christ loved us enough to walk up a hill and hang on a cross for us, so our sins can be forgiven, he deserves to orchestrate a little correction I think(John 3:16). If he didn’t care about each of us personally, he wouldn’t waste his time dealing with each of us personally. He would make one major correction to everyone. However, he cares enough to make it personal.

So, whether you think your traveling through soft rain, or the hard, loud rain, remember: If Christ didn’t love us, there would be no need for correction. He would let us go on about our lives. Next time the Lord sees fit to draw your attention or administer discipline, just be thankful you know you are a child of God, and its only because he LOVES you that much to see you stand corrected.

Real Christianity and Fake Christianity

You stand blamelessly in the grocery store asking yourself, “Should I buy ziplock brand or is the off brand just as durable? Ziplock’s commercials always show the bags holding stuff and they even have freezer bags…hummm, which one should I choose?” You decide to buy both bags and see which one does better. You will run testing at home and check the validity of these bags for yourself. You go home load up both bags with soup and toss them into the freezer.

Are we daily battling to choose the real GOD or to choose the cheaper version of Christianity? Do we load God up with wants of our flesh and then check back later to see if he withstood our needs? Do we decide to pick both and orchestrate when to use the REAL Christianity vs. the cheaper version of Christianity? In our walk with God, we believe we have it handled most of the time, but then trials come and we say, “OK God, your turn!” James 1:2-4 says, “Dear borthers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. “

As Christ followers, when things are good, we are standing on the mountaintops. But when the trials/troubles come and break our pattern of peace or puts our faith to the test, we have trouble believing Christ can hold onto us. We act as though we received the off brand of Jesus. We decide to assist the situation for ourselves to find out what we believe in to protect us. We want to check the validity of our Lord. When we start testing the validity of our spiritual lives, we begin to fall into sin or temptation.

I remember being a college student, being invited to a party, knowing alcohol would be present. I would often think to myself, “I can go, I won’t drink!” I was checking the validity of relationship with Christ and eventually I failed the test. I put myself to the test, one too many times.

We have a choice to follow him, to ride the fence or reject him completely. Revelations 3:16 said, “But since you are like lukewarm water, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” God doesn’t want a forth, a half, or two-thirds, he wants all of us.He doesn’t want us to choose him one day and then try another god the next. When we endure whatever it is Christ brings into our lives, we will grow. Then our endurance is fully developed, we will be strong in character and ready for anything.

When ziplock first came out with their product they had no idea they would need specifically, freezer bags in the future to correct a problem. How did they determine this? They listened to buyer’s complaints and suggestions. When you face trials as a Christian, you don’t begin to conduct your own research methods to find a solution. You listen to your Heavenly Father, feel that deeper connection and communication and become dependent on the Lord. You can’t see the future, but God can. He wants to show his strength prevails over human strength.

God choose you friend. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Christ only supplies the best. Will you depend on Christ to hold you during the tough times, or will you decide to conduct your own experiment to see what brand of Christ you will choose.

Snack Machine...

You put the money in the snack machine, feeling good about your desire to destroy a giant size kit kat, which will be happening in the next couple of seconds. So, you press B12, and wait for the little silver turning thingy to shoot down your candy bar and…

You have to be joking. The kit kat becomes lodged in the machine. You begin to shake, hit, kick; whatever is necessary to get it out. Only to find it truly is stuck. You turn to your friend and say; “I’m never putting my money in that silly machine again, for the rest of my life.”

Do you ever fill robbed in your Christian walk? Do you ever feel you’ve given your money, time, and talents, only to find the prize being delayed or seem impossible to drop down into your life?

The machine doesn’t have anything against you; it’s a problem between the machine and its technical functions. This parallels perfectly with the battle not being between Christ and you, it’s a battle between God and the enemy. In the book of Job, we see a tremendous battle in his walk with Christ taking place. Satan tells God in the beginning, they only want from you God because of what they can receive from you. How it saddens my heart that the enemy points out such a real truth in our lives today. Do you tithe because you trust God with your finances, or do you expect God to pay you back 10 times what you gave? Satan tempted Job with what was important to him in the world. Temptation came to him through his children, properties, family, and health. Job may have waivered for a certain time frame, but ultimately he came back to Jesus. Job’s wife even instructed him to curse God and die. However, Job says, “You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

We expect God to deliver in our timing and with our solution we believe is best. Although, 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you; behold now is the acceptable time, behold, now is “The day of salvation” God opens the door for us to share Christ. We put our effort to spread his name, just like putting money inside that machine expecting a candy bar to drop out. But as Christians do we share our Faith with confidence waiting for Christ to BIG in us? Do we share with the confidence that the Holy Spirit is there to clean up any fumble in our words? A final thought: Our candy may become jammed in a machine, but we will seek all effort to get it out, or sometimes, we may even put more money in and give it another shot. What an example of how our lives she become with Christ. Just because we set our focus on something, put the COST into it, doesn’t always mean it will fall immediately. We may have to put some more effort in…We may have to wait…We may need others to join in with us…With a little more effort we may see one of many prizes/blessings fall. Once they do, all we do is reach in and enjoy.

Interesting Facts:

In Hebrew the definition of job means, “persecuted”

Riding down the road...

Riding down road, my favorite CD blasting, windows rolled down and singing as loud as possible. Sound familiar? If you say no, I’ll be praying for you cause your lying. Everyone does it! Now, all of you may not receive the weird stares I do from surrounding vehicles, cause you can probably actually sing…me on the other hand, not so much! But sometimes when you’re just about to hit the soprano part, the CD starts skipping, repeating the same words over and over and over. How frustrating…right? Every person usually does one of two things. They throw away the CD at that moment thinking it ruined or they try to clean it off with something and try it again. But why was it skipping? Did you place it somewhere to scratch the surface? Is something wrong with the CD player? Did you spell something on the surface and it’s affecting it?

Psalm 147:3-5 say, “He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. He counts the stars and calls them by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!”

Does it seem as though your relationship with Christ has turned into the skipping CD? Is it because such deep pain has scratched your heart permanently inside? Did something in your life spill out onto the surface? Or is something wrong inside spiritually and you can’t find the wire that disconnected?

God wants to offer you his healing power. He wants to take your past and toss your sins as far as the east is from the west. He binds up your wounds. When you define the word “bind”, a definition states “a position or situation when one is hampered form moving about freely.” When someone is hurt by a past experience, death, etc, they become immobile sometimes. They stay what I like to call “in a pit”. But Christ tells us in his word, he binds up our wounds. When he heals your heart, you can become free to move about freely again. Ultimately, I think of salvation. When you experience accepting Christ, you feel free. Nothing is binding to you, no more chains. Jesus delivered us by paying the penalty on the cross for us, personally. When we accept him into our life, we still sin, but we don’t have the sins attached to us as we did. We don’t continue to repeat the same sins that bound us…because those chains fell off at the cross when we gave our lives to him. Think back to the CD that skipped, you took it out, realized you had spilt sticky liquid all over the backside. You think to yourself, Ill just clean that right off. You may can get it whipped off and you may not. Depends on how long the nasty liquid has been on there. See we come to God with a lot of sticky stuff. When we present ourselves before him, we are so unclean and we can try to clean ourselves up all day. We can feel it with stuff of the world, relationships, and even church stuff. But if you never receive him, you’ll never become clean. When you accept Christ he makes us white as snow. I didn’t say perfect, I said he cleans us up. We will still sin, but Christ is our clean up man!

You say, well I have accepted Christ, but I still feel like spiritually I keep going through the same thing. Well, are you spending time with God? Are your priorities in line spiritually? You may be placing the CD in a spot that can scratch the surface. Even as Christians, we can fall down in our spiritual walks. Yes, I just called us all sinners! If you put yourself in enough situations that you can be pulled down instead of up...Probably going to fall down more than stand up. We have to be more careful as Christians because Satan wants us to fail. We must stay on guard and follow the way God has directed us to go in. If you store something in the wrong container, more than likely it won’t stay fresh.

We should examine our loves daily, to prevent scratches from happening. God’s purpose for us is to tell others about him and learn his word, just as the CD’s purpose is to play music for people to hear. If CD’s didn’t have a purpose why would we need them? If people don’t have a purpose, why would God keep making them? Go and share today!