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Devotions Archive
Is Your Life Built on the Right Foundation?
salvation, Rise Up and Build Dana Rongione salvation, Rise Up and Build Dana Rongione

Is Your Life Built on the Right Foundation?

To be honest, my brain feels like it's been through a blender. Over the past couple of months, in addition to my regular workload, I've been putting the finishing touches on my Christian historical fiction/fantasy novel, planning for our four-day Holiday Bible Club ministry event, and organizing a new curriculum for our ladies' Bible study group. Plans and ideas have bumped into each other so many times that I'm not sure where one starts and the other stops. So, the thought of coming up with three fresh blog ideas this week nearly sent me into a complete panic. So, if you don't mind, this week I'll be sharing with you the same devotions I'll be sharing with the kids who attend our Holiday Bible Club. (Sorry, though, you don't get the object lessons, crafts, games, snacks, etc.)

When I first decided on the theme "Under Construction" for our Holiday Bible Club, I thought, That's perfect because that's exactly how my life feels most days, perpetually half-finished, a bit messy, and surrounded by rubble.

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Are You Really Trusting Christ?
Salvation, Faith, Christian Faith Dana Rongione Salvation, Faith, Christian Faith Dana Rongione

Are You Really Trusting Christ?

Throughout our years of hiking, Jason and I have encountered some...well, let's just say... Interesting river and ravine crossings. I remember standing at the edge of a narrow rope bridge one day, staring at the yawning drop beneath it and wondering who in their right mind thought that was a good idea. I could see the bridge. I knew it was there. I could even agree that it was technically "a way" across that great divide, but my knuckles were white on the railing, and my feet were not cooperating. I believed in the bridge, but I didn't yet trust it, at least not enough to march my nervous self right out to the middle of it.

The Step That Matters

That's the difference we often gloss over when we tell people, "Just believe in Jesus, and you'll be saved."

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You Survived the Fire! Let God Take the Smell, Too!
Healing, Spiritual Growth, Bitterness, Trials Dana Rongione Healing, Spiritual Growth, Bitterness, Trials Dana Rongione

You Survived the Fire! Let God Take the Smell, Too!

Can I tell you about three men who should have smelled terrible?

Picture it. Babylon, circa 600 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar has erected a golden image ninety feet tall and commanded every living soul at the ceremony to bow down and worship it. The penalty for non-compliance? A furnace. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow.

So, they were hauled before the king and given one last chance to comply. When they politely declined, with what I can only imagine was the most serene look on their faces, they were bound and thrown into that furnace. It was so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were killed just by getting near the opening. The flames swallowed those three faithful men whole.

And then... nothing.

Well, not nothing. Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in a panic. "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" His advisors confirmed it.

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