Deep2Deep includes lessons from cultures around the world, as well as from nature and humble children.
Deep2Deep is a collection of devotional readings that challenges readers to walk closer to God. Like a box of rich chocolates, the topics are not for binge reading, but for savoring one at a time.
Readers will enjoy traveling vicariously with author-missionary, brother Don, and gaining insights from Christians around the globe. Mission themes flavor many of the entries, as do children, humility, and radical faith.
Words matter. As regenerated humans, we are the only species gifted with the ability to honor God by what we say. Life is too short to waste words.
19 Because of this, the Lord said,
“You must repent of such words and thoughts!
If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me.
If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless,
I will again allow you to be my spokesman.
(Jeremiah 15:19 NET_FL)
Deep2Deep is brother Don’s expression of worthy words. It is a life work—new entries are continually added as the Holy Spirit grants inspiration. Each volume has 122 entries.
May God bless you as you bite into each confection in Deep2Deep and allow them to melt into your soul.
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Samples from Deep2Deep
Liquid
My strength drains away like water;
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart is like wax;
it melts away inside me. (Psalms 22:14 NET_FL)
Runny, dripping, impossible to grasp liquid—that is what I need to be so Satan can’t handle me. In a melted state, there’s no solid pride for my enemy to grasp. I run through his fingers. The real me is still there with all the essential properties, but as a liquid, I’m unusable for evil purposes.
My old nature wants to harden into a tangible mass, with size and substance that others will acknowledge. But a chunk of self-proclaiming matter is not what my Creator intended. I’m to flow into the events of his choosing and only a liquid can fill those molds.
When Satan brought his worst against Jesus, the Messiah simply let go of his rights and went liquid. The father of lies clutched, but there was nothing he could hold. The devil hadn’t planned on a melting victim.
Now it’s my turn to go liquid—to release my claims on dignity, health, and earthly needs. When I hold my being in the presence of the unending God, I quiver a moment, then melt to quicksilver. I may stand among my peers but to experience God is to know the reason for my humility. He is too overwhelming for a solid to continue the work of bonding molecules. They fall into a puddle on the palm of God, the place of unmolested peace.
A humble liquid is of no use to the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, and yet, liquid is the very substance God uses to pour life into the land of death.
Prayer: Mighty endless God, keep my heart melted before you.
Child of God
See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called Godʼs children- and indeed we are. (1 John 3:1 NET_FL)
I loved her. She was the apple of my eye. However, she ran, skipped, and sang in her own bubble of contentment. I didn’t exist in her world. Then, right before I awoke, the girl flashed a dimpled smile and ran into my arms. That hug clung to me after I rose and went to my prayer room.
“You are that child,” said the Holy Spirit to my heart.
The dream allowed me to taste God’s heartache. He dotes on me and I barely acknowledge him. All he wants is a return of a few drops of the love that throbs all through his heart. Dour service offered out of guilt is not what he’s after. There’s no need for another stone-faced sap earning his way toward heaven. However, when I come as a joy-filled, vulnerable dependent, God flings his arms wide.
No father, especially the heavenly one, can resist a child spinning wildly, squealing in delight, and locking their eyes on him at every turn as if to say, “Hi, I still love you.” God never rebuffs unfettered enthusiasm and adoration, as he does pride and self-sufficiency.
My heavenly Father has an unjustified predisposition to choose me. With reckless love I am in his heart and on his mind. He watches me, protects me, and laughs with me. He’s infatuated with my joy. He only wants a wink, a giggle, or a blown kiss as his child turns. How can I help but take time to make his heart happy? I want to love him back, dance to him, trust him, and relax with him. Most of all, I want to quit pretending I’m all grown up and in charge and just be his child.
Prayer: Abba (Daddy) Father, I love you.
Precious Blood
For he will rescue the needy when they cry out for help,
and the oppressed who have no defender.
13 He will take pity on the poor and needy;
the lives of the needy he will save.
14 From harm and violence he will defend them;
he will value their lives. (Psalms 72:12-14 NET_FL)
A rickety bus dropped our team where pavement gave way to ruts. This was a Muslim slum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Africa. The schoolroom filled with those wanting to learn English in hopes it would edge them out of poverty. There were demure women, glassy eyed men, and eager children whose disillusionment would only come later.
Outside the classroom my heart grieved at the sight below, a sea of corrugated steel huts and plastic tarps over mud walls. There might have been one hundred thousand souls stuffed into that valley. Sewage waited in gutters for the next storm.
“Not long ago,” a resident pointed to the hovels, “soldiers stood here and shot at the refugees. Used them for target practice.”
I gasped.
When I look behind the tourist photos in developing nations and realize how the masses live, it’s difficult to continue.
What keeps me going is the knowledge that the horror covering the majority of our earth does not go unnoticed by the Great Rewarder. In that valley in Abidjan were drops of unjustly spilled blood that was precious to God. The great Jehovah is not one to sit by without action. Soon, at the end of our time, the Lord God will rescue the downtrodden who cry out to him, and anoint them with eternal blessings through Christ.
It is this coming reality that inspires me to help the needy now, to treat them with the dignity demanded for sons and daughters of the Most High King. There will be a final reckoning and I’m accountable for my contributions to their misery by my action, or inaction. Licking my wounds is not an option, not while they’re out there in pain today.
Prayer: Father of Justice, use me to love the poor, hungry, and mistreated child of yours.