Morningside Devotionals

View on Vocaroo >>   Memory is a strange thing. It’s attached to emotions, and as you age and experience life again and again, memory begins to change. It tends to drift toward certain objective events that, in the past, felt significant, and it tends to float toward the ones you want to remember. Memory is odd.   In people, memory becomes even stranger as aging and experience pile up across a lifetime. A thirty-year-old may have a sharp recollection of things from their teenage years. By forty, the mind starts to blur the edges, remembering more of the positive outcomes than the negative. At fifty, memory becomes more selective, pushing away things that weren’t pleasant, though some of them still remain and cannot be erased. By sixty, memory has become almost entirely selective.  A person remembers what they choose to remember, and the rest is pushed back into the recesses of the mind, where it no longer functions in daily thought. Remembering is vitally i...

View on Vocaroo >>   Purpose. Remember. With purpose — remember purpose. Remember that not only does your life, your witness, and your helping people become better learners, being taken back to Jesus has a purpose. But there is a purpose behind that purpose. Which is that there is an overall, overarching purpose that is taking place.  We’ve all heard the mysterious tales — or shall we say truths, as the best description — from Isaiah of the war in heaven. Michael and the angels, and in the Revelation of Christ, this is going on. We see these massive displays of power. And we know that at one time, Lucifer and a third of his angelic host turned against God and were thrown down to earth. We know they are eternal beings. We know they don’t just go away. Where are they?  Well, there are lots of mysteries in the Bible. There are lots of mysteries in worshipping God. There are lots of mysteries in loving, in worshipping, in asking forgiveness. Human beings confessin...

View on Vocaroo >>   A popular phrase in our culture, 2025 is feedback, which is, I guess responding to inquiries or answering questions or stating an opinion about a situation, I bet you're in. So when we're talking about disciples and we're talking about, remember; remember? The Times When feedback was positive for you? Remember the times when feedback was negative for you and remember the times when someone gave you feedback that was just extremely useful and remember the times when people gave you feedback, but it was useless.   What feedback really worked for you, what feedback did something for you that was beneficial? And what feedback did something for you that wasn't worth 2 cents in a spit storm? Feedback in a sense is essential in communication if instruction is all one way, but then it really isn't working? Remember that they were out in the desert and Jesus was talking with the disciples and he had just told Peter, how good they had done and h...

View on Vocaroo >>   So now we come to the matter of remember when it comes to paradigms. Paradigms are a very interesting set of presumptions. They are what we believe to be true, even though we have no cognizance of why we believe it, to be true. We just accept it, to be true, like fiat currency, a dollar bill, we believe that a dollar bill has a dollars value when we buy, for example, half a piece of bubblegum, today in 2025. For a 1$, because a dollar used to buy us about 10 pieces of bubble gum, they were a dime a piece, today; it will buy about half a piece of bubble gum. And inflation is out of control. Meanwhile, what do we have going on in terms of paradigms, we have beliefs, we have beliefs, for example. That certain things are the way that they are, and that's the way they're always going to be. None of that, according to the Bible is real because, according to the Bible, God is in charge. And God is not going to be mocked, and God will have the final say, ...

View on Vocaroo >>   One of the hardest things to keep in mind when you're talking about a process of remembering, especially when it comes to discipling, bringing people to Jesus, bringing them back to Jesus; disciples learners, they may apply to you, they may attach to you because you; and they; get along they're your friends. They're your loved ones, they're your family, they're the people close to you. They're the people that know that you sin. They're the people that have seen your sin, they know your secrets that you don't want other people to know.  But guess what, Jesus said ultimately, they're going to be shouted from the rooftops, so the idea that you need to think that you can keep anything secret from God is a joke but that you would keep anything secret from Jesus, is a worst kind of cynical reprise by the accuser! The devil who would love for you not to confess your sin to Christ. If he can convince you the confessing your s...

View on Vocaroo >>   Remember, not just that God blesses us, but remember the various ways that God blesses us and then remember that with the idea of passing that on.  One of my all time favourite companions was a fabulous poodle by the name of Sophie, she was absolutely amazing, she seemed to always be smiling and tolerating our human ways and she was beautiful, because she would be clear across the field of tall green grass and she would see me come out on the; Tarmac, and she would just come running, bounding across that field. And you remember that this beautiful coal, black, beautiful poodle, and she would just come bowling in the sun with the Christ joy, that's a visual that you remember with the sunlight, the just; the gaity of her presence.  Remember, not just that God blesses us, but remember the flavourings of the blessings. Remember the power of the blessings. Remember the moments of the blessings? Remember the people. God blesses us with people God b...

View on Vocaroo >>   I promise you, in the future, we're going to go to video, but I'm honestly trying to spare you having to see this face. It's bad enough to get old. It's way worse to have all of these wrinkles implemented by God to humble you; anyway, Hey; that and the fact that it used to have hair, and now it just has air. So Making disciples using a process of remembering recounting and recertifying, you could almost substitute the term retelling for recertifying? But certify is used in the New Testament, and I thought Paul using it was just a real kind of a shocker, but a real testimonial to how thoughtful Paul had become? How about the depth of what it means to work with people in bringing them back to Jesus continually? (Galatians 1:11) And we are really focusing in this first chapter on remembering and the fact that remembrances have an odd characteristic to them, and that characteristic is this, if you remember something in a good frame of referen...

View on Vocaroo >> There is something going on today in our culture that is so destructive. And so contemptible and so dangerous, and yet so hidden that the maliciousness of it is subtle, so subtle?  Matthew wrote in his gospel that Jesus said don't fear them which killed the body. But rather fear the one who who can destroy both. You know, don't fear those which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now That's Matthew 10: 28.  That's not our normal perspective. Oh, thanks to our culture today, you have a very pervasive, let's say preaching of the God of love, which is true, that's how God defines Himself, but YehWeh, JosHua, Elohim; that God; said in the Old Testament to the Prophets, that his ways aren't our ways. His thoughts aren't our thoughts. He's as far distant, from the way that we humans are as is an unimaginably distant way; unavailable thought we ...

View on Vocaroo >> Following Jesus means that you give up pride and also along with giving up pride, you accept the fact that your strength Is weakness and that in your weakness? Christ is made strong at your strongest point. You do not have the ability to forgive your sin, you just don't.  In fact, we're sinners. Every person within the sound of my voice is a sinner. There is no such thing as a human being who is not a sinner.  There are people who claim that they do not sin, and it might be true, they could get away with a day, maybe possibly even 2 or 3 without committing a heinous sin, but they're sinners, because every person that is born of women as Paul says, is the sinner. Now, what that means is we do not have any sort of luxury to lay back in judgement, say, "Well, you know what, I haven't done that." And so, "look at me, how good I am", that's pridefulness, and when we go to God in prayer, if we've got pridefulness in our hea...

View on Vocaroo >> Not a project! Remember recount, recertify it's not a project. You can't do it as a project when you remember that's not a project. Those are memories, those are things that took place in your past; now; the accuser, will want you to remember sins of your past, and that's how, you know, that it's the accuser, they get reinforced. Because that cannot be the voice of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because your sins, if you ask Jesus to forgive you of them are gone, they're gone. Now, you say, well, Dana, that's not even real, because they still exist, I still remember them. True, and we are talking about remembering, but the accuser will bring them up, to point them out to you as things that you did, that were wrong.  The Holy Spirit will show you that those are things, that Christ has forgiven you of. So then we talk about recounting; well, how about recounting the level of forgiveness that was involved in that?  And this is what you see t...

View on Vocaroo >> It is interesting how powerful God is. He is all-powerful. He is EloHim, almighty God, he's singular. There is only one God. We can't in our Most vivid attempts at being limitless, even begin to imagine The beginning of a limitless, all-knowing power that is God and the interesting thing is, he defines himself through Jesus as truth and light and love.  Parts of our existence that we can come into contact with and know, maybe that was a very large part of messiah coming when he did? Luke, says in the fullness of time, maybe a very large part of that was to give us some human connection. The Holy Spirit is in you when you're born again, he is showing you and talking with you and living within you about the things that you know that you shouldn't do as Paul says, but the things that you should do, you don't do; so you're constantly moving in a direction.  Forward Paul says this one thing I know for getting the past. I move forward to the h...

View on Vocaroo >> Recertify is an idea that is inclusive in life. So you may hear some background noises in this recording, and we're leaving those in there on purpose. This is being recorded at my house out in my backyard. There's lots of noise going on, and that's life; there is lots of noise in life. There's lots of noises right now. The realm of Christianity. In the realm of religion in the realm of worship. By noise, I mean, whenever you have 2 or 3 or 4 or more people, saying something about their particular point or agenda regarding what it is that they believe is the right thing to do. If they each understand letting the other one, speak and when to stop speaking then you can make sense out of what they're saying, but if all 4 speak at one time, obviously, it's gonna just sound like noise. That's what I mean by noise, there's a lot of noise and what is that? The internet. Has brought with it a creative tool for transmitting ideas that...

View on Vocaroo >> My first exposure to the term certify came when I was preparing to teach the book of Romans, and I began to look at this term that crops up in Romans 9:22 Romans, 9:23, it shows up in Romans 16:26, now it's actually translated as certify in Galatians 1:11.  Says this, but I certify you brethren, that the gospel, which was preached of me, is not after man, that's Galatians 1:11. I ran into it in Romans, 9:22.  " What  if God, willing to shew  his  wrath, and to make G1107 ➔ his power known, G1107   (gnorizo, pronounced nor-ee-zo) endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." H e's talking about those who were outside the Kingdom of God, who are fitted to wrath, for example, the Egyptians who had; they had a choice continually. Now, you say, well, how did the Egyptians have a choice? It was Pharoah, making the...

View on Vocaroo >> > There is a church called 2819. The pastors a fellow named, I think Philip Anthony Mitchell, I think Mitchell's on his last name there. He preaches as close to the bone about the reality of the power of God and our saviour, Jesus Christ, to forgive us, of all sins, to forgive me, of all my sins, and you, of all your sins, that we don't need to be fake with him. We don't need to be plastic with him we don't need to be hidden with him. He came and he suffered, and he died on the cross so that you and I could have freedom to go into a prayer closet, and to talk to him about things that are real to us and things that're real to others. The day is going to come when everything that we've done will be shouted from the rooftops when I read that in the New Testament.  (Luke 12:3) It freaked me out, man, cause personally, I thought my past was hidden my past sins were hidden all the wrongs that I had done I thought they were all hidden, nob...

View on Vocaroo >> View on Vocaroo >> Recounting a miracle, it isn't as difficult as it sounds as long as you're willing to own up to the fact that sometimes things happen, that you really cannot logically explain. The week that doctor Utter said that he wanted to operate on me was on a Monday afternoon. He said he wanted to operate on me on a Friday.  I think that Tuesday, I was beginning to think about this neck surgery thing, and I was beginning to wonder if it really had to happen and I was beginning to get scared, and I had these thoughts come into my mind. What if he has a bad day? What if he sneezes?  What if his wife argued with him? What if he's upset? What if he drops this, what if he does that what if it goes wrong?  And I got I got to the point where I called him. And I said, doctor Utter, I don't want to do this. I don't want to go through with this.  It's scaring me and he said, Dana, you do not have to have this surgery, but if you don...

View on Vocaroo >> So when we go through the process of recounting, it's bringing back to the forefront of your active mind from wherever you've had the information kept. Actual miracles that took place.   An example.  I had spinal stenosis so bad that my hands were all crinkling up. I almost couldn't move, had difficulty walking. It was getting to the point where I nearly couldn't feed myself. I went to my local doctor and she said, "Dana, you need to see an expert on the spine because there's something going on, and I'm not, I'm not that trained, they need to look at you. And so I'm going to recommend you to the spine institute, but I'm also gonna tell you that they've got about a 3 month or 6 months waiting list, it's hard to get in there, but we're gonna call them and see what we can do." I said "Fine. You know, it's happening.  I'm in a great deal of pain." I was in so much pain it was unreal, I wa...

View on Vocaroo >> I want to take a moment of your time to get into the idea that remembering is just sharing with friends, your experiences with Jesus.  Recounting is actually a little bit different matter, because now you're getting into, not that Jesus has done miracles in your life, but how many and and when.  And you know what all was involved in them? The difference between remembering and recounting is that in remembering you're bringing it to recollection, you're trying to remember what was going on. In recounting, you're trying to number if you will t he kinds and items that took place. In other words, how many times have I been healed by Jesus?  Well, I've had a hip surgery. I've had a neck surgery, I've had, you know; what I'm saying I've been to the doctor numerous times. We tend to discount those miracles, we shouldn't they're for real? How would I even have that doctor if it weren't Christ? How would I even have the ...

View on Vocaroo >> There are so many memories to your Christ experience. Remembering is in a very unsalted way, forming your story of what Christ has done. Get who, what, when, where and possibly why or how, together so it makes sense. Now we season... Dana you mix metaphors a bunch, we're writing, your using a cooking analogy? Ah you caught me...throwin Jalapenoes instead of pepper...and I'm in great company, the gospel is loaded with things that are like other things, the Bible has tons of metaphor...oops, that's a pun, huh? A coin, in a fishes mouth? To pay taxes? For both of them? See any metaphor there? Miracle aside, Peter a now fisher of men? Jesus now proving his earthly existence- ooh, here's one for history buffs, did the takers of taxes keep records? (Matt 17:27) What miracle, other than new birth, eating food that turns into energy, bones? Water rather than air? Both have Oxygen one way it's wet, the other we breathe, now can you begin to glimps...

View on Vocaroo >> Caves spook some folks, they feel a sense of being surrounded and locked in, to many people that is very discomforting, but it's a tour "So what are we gonna do?" They stay with the group, getting more and more uncomfortable, until the moment at the lowest point in the cave and the guide says... If you have asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins; He has. There are zero qualifiers on that, it ain't no test, it is what it is, His grace toward His creation that is being lied to by His enemy. So forgiving your sins- note that, plural- sins- all; is what Jesus does! 1Jo 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Oh my goodness the remembering of that fresh unburdened feeling! No weight on my shoulders of being a jerk, I'm not certain being a jerk is a sin, but I'm pretty sure folks who've observed me being a jerk, which seriously, it's so rare, but...

View on Vocaroo >> Tasty, is a lovely word, sounds near sweet? Tenderloin is one of our favorite meats, as a meal we eat it with Rice-a-Roni or just rice; usually I try to make some gravy to go with the rice, and we have a vegetable. There is almost always some left over meat that I refrigerate in it's juice. A day or two later put that into a pan, as the frozen meat and juice heats up it fills the pan- then I'll add barbeque sauce to that and it boils down to the point the tenderloin falls apart and it's now pulled pork bbq for a marvelous sandwich. Tasty, it really, is. When Holy Spirit drew you from hell, usually by bringing you to your senses, of how messed up you were? When Holy Spirit does that, you are like a cooked meal that's been set aside in the refrigerator- you are preserved, but your function is stopped. Before, you were a meal, now, your just preserved. Holy Spirit gets hold of you, now you may feel some heat, you will be changing- becoming what ...

View on Vocaroo >> Why laugh? 🤣 Heard a short on the joy of the Lord is our strength? Made me remember, that is recount, which in working with learners (disciples), is the time to recertify, which is an old but very true Newspaper writer saying: "Tell them, then tell them what you told them, then tell them once more memorably." Huh? How do you make a three time repeat interesting? Remember your first...? 🤣 In my pretty boring, unexciting, calm life; I've been fired lots of times. Sometimes it was on me, sometimes, it was on them- now, watch this one- it's gonna getcha, sometimes it was on God. Ooh that'll make some folk getonup😆But watch this:  Jhn 9:1  -  And   as   Jesus   passed by,   he saw   a man   which was blind   from   his   birth. Tools Jhn 9:2  -  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, th...