It is a common plover (a type of bird ) about the size of a robin. It is easily recognized by its wailing noise and two black breast bands. They are usually found in the United States and Central America. They are called Killdeer because of the wailing noise they make that actually sounds like "kill-deer". The most interesting thing about this bird however is that,it is a master of distraction. When it lays eggs or has chicks and you go near the nest, it jumps away from the nest and pretends to have a broken wing 🪽. When you think it is vulnerable and decide to go after it, it will move a little further on. It will continue to do that until you are far away from the nest. The Killdeer will then suddenly have a healthy wing 🪽 and will fly away. Interestingly, that is how the enemy behaves. Anytime you go close to what God has for you,he finds a way to distract you. Suddenly, everything looks like it is going against you. Friends and family turn against you and finances are not forthcoming. The proverbial "all hell breaking loose". Successful people however know that this is rather an indication of being close to the breakthrough. It shows something good is about to happen for you. So when distraction comes, it is time to dig in your heels,stand firm and push 🫸 on. When Tobiah and Sanballat tried to distract Nehemiah he said "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down "(Nehemiah 6:3). Don't allow anyone or anything to distract you from your purpose. Have a lovely day .

Daily devotion for August 26th
Giving Cheerfully
From the fields around the towns they were to bring into the storerooms the portions required by the Law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests and Levites.

Nehemiah 12:44b
Those offerings and contributions were given with pleasure. The Scriptures carefully inform us that offerings mean nothing if they are not given cheerfully. If you are not giving with pleasure, God does not want your gift. He does not care how big or small it is. If all you are after is to make an impression on others by the size of your gift, God is not interested in that. Jesus told of a widow who put two tiny pieces of money into the treasury, saying that she had given more than all that the rich people had cast in that day. God would pick up that insignificant amount and use it more mightily than He would the larger gifts of the wealthy. What God looks for always is a note of pleasure, of delight, of cheerfully returning funds to him out of a thankful heart.

Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell the story of an old Scotsman who inadvertently dropped a gold sovereign in the collection bag at a church service. In Scotland, when the ushers take up the offering, they use a long pole with a bag on the end of it, which they pass among the pews. This old Scotsman put in a gold sovereign by mistake when he meant to put in only a shilling. As soon as he realized his mistake, he tried to retrieve his sovereign. But the usher pulled the bag back and said, Nah, once in, always in! The old man said, Ah well, I'll get credit for it in glory. The usher replied, Nah, you'll get credit for the shilling! That is all the old man intended to give. So we are to give as God has given, freely and gladly.

The closing sentence of this paragraph says, They also set aside the portion for the other Levites. They were careful to take care of others who were not able to be there or who were busy performing and therefore did not have opportunity to share in the offerings. This is a beautiful picture of the oneness of the nation of Israel. God was constantly seeking to teach these people that they belonged to each other. They were not individualists, doing their own thing, but they were workers together with God. I do not know any truth that is more important in the body of Christ than to recognize that God uses people different from us. We must recognize that our way of serving God is not the only way but that we belong to and need one another.

Father, thank You that out of the abundance of what You have given to me, I can give to others, knowing that You will continue to provide for my needs.

August 26, 2026 (day 238/365)
WEDNESDAY

GOD'S WORD FOR THE DAY

“Celebrate God’s Faithfulness”

Nehemiah 12:43

“Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy.”

This is the Word of God. Nehemiah 12 describes the dedication of Jerusalem’s rebuilt wall. After years of hardship, opposition, and hard work, the people gathered to celebrate what God had accomplished among them. Their joy was not merely because the wall was finished, but because they recognized God’s hand in their restoration.

Sometimes we become so focused on our next challenge that we forget to stop and celebrate what God has already done. Every answered prayer, every difficulty He has carried us through, and every blessing He has provided is a reason to give Him thanks.

True Christian joy comes from recognizing God’s faithfulness. When we remember His goodness, gratitude replaces complaining and praise replaces discouragement.

May we never become too busy to stop and thank God for His faithfulness. May our lives be filled with grateful hearts that rejoice in all that He has done. Amen.

Have a blessed day with the Lord.

-- Pastor Emmanuel Serto

Daily devotion for August 25th
How To Celebrate
At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres.

Nehemiah 12:27
It is proper to dedicate. And it is proper also to celebrate when God has brought us to a place of achievement. The Holy Spirit has been careful to include in this account the three aspects that make up true celebration. One of the primary elements of true celebration is the expression of joy. It is amazing to me how many Christians never appear to be joyful. They are always gloomy and grim. I am reminded of what a little girl said upon seeing a mule for the first time: I don't know what you are, but you must be a Christian because you look just like Grandpa! There are a lot of long-faced Christians around. There are times of sorrow and sadness, of course, but Christians ought frequently to exude a sense of joy because they have something to be joyful about. Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is liking the present moment because it pleases us. But joy is much deeper and more long-range. Joy appreciates the past, the present, and the future, not because the circumstances are pleasing, but because the heart is right with God. These people were happy because the wall was finished. But they were joyful because God had helped them to finish it. Aware of God's love and acceptance, they therefore were joyful.

There is another clue hidden in this paragraph that tells us what celebration should be based on. Verse 30 tells us that purification is necessary to celebrate. You cannot do it with a hypocritical heart. It becomes a festival of empty words. Many people seem to be afraid of this word purity. They think it describes a self-righteous kind of person. But purification in the Christian life stems from the same philosophy that motivates us when we wash dishes. You do not set your table with dirty dishes, do you? God does not do His work with dirty vessels! We need a periodic cleansing of our lives and hearts. In the New Testament, it is a simple process. It is not by ritual but by confessing our faults and believing that God has forgiven them. Confess your sins. Then believe that God cleanses you, that He forgives you, that He has restored you to His favor. This is what fills the heart with joy.

There is still a third element in this that is found in verse 31. Thankfulness is always part of true celebration. These people were thankful. Are we properly thankful? Do we give thanks every day to God for the blessings we are enjoying at the moment? We are so trained by the media to grumble and complain, to insist on something we do not have, to focus on that instead of on all we do have. One of the first signs of a growing, maturing spirit in young Christians is that they begin to give thanks to God for what He has poured into their life; for the opportunities that are before them; and for the present blessings and liberties that they do enjoy. So there are the elements that make up celebration: joyfulness, purity, and thanksgiving.

Lord, forgive me for so often forgetting all that I have to celebrate. Teach me to celebrate all You have done for me with joy, purity, and thanksgiving.

Admit it. You like reading the Psalms, the Gospels, Paul's epistles and maybe Esther and Ruth.
But what about the least read Bible books -- I call them Orphan Books -- because they almost are never read. Here's a list I found.
Hope you take the challenge to read an "orphan" or two this week.
------------------------------------
# Book Why read it? Difficulty
1 Obadiah A miniature study of pride, injustice, and God's judgment Easy
2 Haggai A surprisingly relevant book about misplaced priorities Easy
3 Philemon Paul, slavery, forgiveness, and Christian brotherhood in 25 verses Easy
4 3 John A fascinating glimpse into early church politics and leadership Easy
5 2 John Truth, love, hospitality—and boundaries Easy
6 Nahum The dark counterpart to Jonah: what happens to Nineveh? Medium
7 Zephaniah Judgment followed by one of the OT's beautiful pictures of God's joy Medium
8 Jude Strange, intense, apocalyptic, and packed with unusual references Medium
9 Habakkuk One of the Bible's best books for wrestling honestly with God Easy
10 Lamentations Biblical poetry about grief, catastrophe, and hope Medium
11 Joel Locusts, the Day of the LORD, and the famous promise about God's Spirit Medium
12 Malachi A surprisingly sharp ending to the Old Testament Easy
The ones I'd especially recommend
If you only want to read five, I'd pick:
Habakkuk — perhaps the most rewarding “orphan.” The entire book is essentially a conversation between a confused believer and God. Habakkuk starts by asking, “Why aren't you doing something about this?” and ends somewhere radically different.
Haggai — extremely short but surprisingly practical. Its central question is basically: What happens when God's people become preoccupied with their own houses while neglecting God's house?
Philemon — don't let its size fool you. It's an extraordinarily compressed little letter about power, status, forgiveness, reconciliation, and what the gospel does to human relationships.
Nahum — read it immediately after Jonah if you can. Jonah tells you that Nineveh repented; Nahum, written later, tells you what eventually happened to Nineveh. Reading them together makes both books considerably more interesting.
Lamentations — probably the most emotionally neglected book on the list. It gives you something the Bible is unusually good at: language for grief when everything has gone terribly wrong.
And here's the really fun challenge
Don't read these as if they're merely the Bible's “B-list.”
Try reading one orphan book a week, with no commentary at first. Just read the entire thing in one sitting.
You'll discover something interesting: some of the books that feel least important at first are actually the ones that illuminate the famous books around them.
Jonah → Nahum
Isaiah/Jeremiah → Lamentations
Romans/Galatians → Habakkuk
1 John → 2 John → 3 John
Ezra/Nehemiah → Haggai

Ellen G. White
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Romans 14:7. – {UL 243.1}
There is constant temptation for human beings to consider that any influence they have gained is the result of something valuable in themselves. The Lord does not work with these, for He will not give to any human being the glory that belongs to His own name. God would have everyone under His supervision, and recognize that to God belongs all the glory of their success.... – {UL 243.2}
If the human worker will walk in all humility of mind, looking to God, trusting in Him, working out his own salvation with fear and trembling, the Lord will cooperate with him. It is God that works in us to do His will for His own name’s glory. He will give His wisdom, His divine power, to everyone who is doing His service. He makes the humble trustful servant His representative—the one who will not lift himself up, and think of himself more highly than he ought to think. The life of such an one will be dedicated to God as a living sacrifice, and that life He will accept and use and sustain.... – {UL 243.3}
Our life is not our own. It is Christ’s life. All is His, and we are to spend our powers in doing the will of God. Watch and pray; spend and be spent in doing His will from the heart. Carry every entrusted capability as a sacred treasure, to be used in imparting to others the knowledge and grace received.... – {UL 243.4}
Nehemiah, after gaining so great an influence over the [Persian] monarch in whose court he lived, and over his people in Jerusalem, instead of ascribing praise to his own excellent traits of character, his remarkable aptness and energy, stated the manner just as it was. He declared that his success was due to the good hand of God that was upon him. He cherished the truth that God was his safeguard in every position of influence. For every trait of character by which he obtained favor, he praised the working power of God.... And God gave him wisdom, because he did not exalt himself. The Lord taught him how to use the gifts entrusted to him to the very best advantage, and under the supervision of God, these talents gained other talents.... – {UL 243.5}
Every jot of influence is to be appreciated as the gift of God. The eye of the mind is to be single to the glory of God. Then the sense of responsibility will increase. Our talents will be put out to the exchangers to increase and double. There are hundreds of men and women who, if they had a proper appreciation of the heavenly trust, would go diligently and earnestly to work to use what they have.—Letter 83, August 17, 1898, to a leading minister in Australia. – {UL 243.6}

Daily devotion for August 24th
Real Heroes And Real Life
These were the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua

Nehemiah 12:1a
This takes us back to the heroes of the past. Zerubbabel led the first return from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem in 538 BC, almost one hundred years earlier than Nehemiah's day. Nehemiah is looking back at these men who led that procession. Zerubbabel was a priest, and Jeshua was a Levite. They led a company of Israelites back to the city of Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Verse 7 says that they were the leaders of the priests and their associates in the days of Jeshua.

Verses 22-26 give the chronological time when the records that we have just looked at were recorded. The passage does not sound very interesting, but we are told that for the first group, the family heads of the Levites... were recorded in the reign of Darius the Persian. That meant that there was a time when their names were kept as temple records, but they were not actually recorded permanently until the days of Darius the Second. This would put that record somewhere between 423 and 404 BC, somewhat later than Nehemiah. Evidently some later hand added this so that we might know when it was written.

Then there is another mention in verse 23 of the book of the annals, meaning the annals of the kings of Judah. One of them is especially mentioned in the reference to David, the man of God. What a remarkable influence David had! F. B. Meyer says, How long the influence of David has lingered over the world, like the afterglow of a sunset. Yet David had a terrible record of evil in his life. He fell into adultery with Bathsheba and was involved in the murder of her husband. Because his heart was set on God, however, and he took advantage of God's provision for forgiveness, David is known to history as the man after God's own heart.

The passage teaches us that we must not forget past heroes, the men and women of fame and glory whom God has used in former days. I have been reading again the writings of some of my early spiritual heroes. I would urge you, on the basis of a passage like this, to read biography! It will bless you. It will challenge you and strengthen you to see how God has used men and women of the past to stand against the temptations and pressures of the world and accomplish much for His glory.

This passage also teaches us that the deeds of God are part of the record of history. That is one of the great advantages of Christianity over all the other religions of the world. Most of them are religious philosophies or simply the musings of men meditating upon various aspects of life. Many of them are a record of visions and dreams of dubious origin. But when you come to the record of the Bible, it is based upon facts. It is not legend, myth, or fiction. It is not a record of philosophies or the inventions of humans. It is made up of historic facts. God grounds these great events in the history of the world itself.

Lord thank You for the lessons I can learn from those who have served You in the past and for the very real facts of history, which teach me so much about You.

Thank You, Lord, for Your Strength

Scripture: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” — Nehemiah 8:10

Reflection: God’s strength begins where yours ends. It fills the gaps you can’t fill, carries the burdens you can’t lift, and sustains you when you feel worn thin. His strength isn’t loud or forceful — often it’s the quiet courage to take one more step, the calm resolve to keep going, or the unexpected peace that settles your heart. You don’t have to be strong all the time; you just have to lean on the One who is.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for strength that rises in me even when I feel weak. Help me rely on Your power and not my own. Amen.

Daily devotion for August 23rd
Any Volunteers?
Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. The people commended all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 11:1-2
The great principle to remember in reading the Old Testament is that what happens to Israel on a physical level pictures what is happening to us on the spiritual level. God too is a builder. The New Testament tells us that He is building a city with inhabitants called the New Jerusalem. It is not like the old one, made of bricks and mortar, but a new city built of spiritual stones--living stones, according to the New Testament (1 Peter 2:5). It is intended to be inhabited by redeemed people. If you draw that parallel, you will begin to see some of the teaching of this passage in Nehemiah.

Chapter 11 is the account of Nehemiah's efforts to repopulate Jerusalem. Although the city wall had been rebuilt at this point, Nehemiah discovered that he had a problem. He had a fine, well-defended city--but without people! His solution was to draft families to move there, for a capital must be inhabited since it is the heart of the nation. As the governor, he simply issued an edict: One out of every ten people living in the suburbs must move to Jerusalem. He went through the towns and numbered the people, counting them off by tens, and then they threw a die with ten numbers on it. The man who had the same number that came up on the die was expected to move his family into Jerusalem.

If you read this carefully, it is apparent that when a man was chosen to move into Jerusalem, he was permitted to decline if he wanted to. That is because God wanted volunteers for this. So a man could be chosen but could decide against moving. Then the lot would be cast again and another name chosen. Sooner or later someone would be found who consented freely to go. According to the account, those who chose to go were commended by the people. They honored them because they volunteered to do what God called them to do.

The same principle applies in the church today. According to the New Testament, we are all called into the ministry--all of us! The ministry belongs to the saints! The minute you become a Christian, you are moved into God's new Jerusalem. You are asked to take up labor there, to do work according to the spiritual gift God has given you. But you must also volunteer to do it. God does not force His people to do what they are asked to do. He gave us all spiritual gifts, but He does not force us to use them. Yet if you want to be respected or honored and commended at last by the Lord Himself and by all His people, then the wise thing is to volunteer to perform the realm of ministry He has opened up for you.

Lord I want to be a part of what You are building. Thank You for the gifts and talents You have given me. Show me how best to put them to use.

Daily devotion for August 22nd
The House Of God
We will not neglect the house of our God.

Nehemiah 10:39b
Throughout the history of Israel, the temple, or the tabernacle before that, was called the house of God. God signified His presence there by the shekinah glory that was located in the Holy of Holies. Today, under the New Testament, no building is ever to be called the house of God. This has been ignored by churches throughout the centuries, and temples, cathedrals, tabernacles, and church buildings have all been called the house of God. If you look at the teaching of the New Testament, however, you will find that it is not a building but the people who are the house of God. At one point, we even changed the sign in front of our building to reflect this truth. Where it says Peninsula Bible Church, we added the words Meets Here. Thus, it is not the building that is the church--it is the people who gather here. They are the house of God.

Notice the commitment of these people to attend faithfully the worship services of the temple. We all need the ministry of the saints. Paul prayed that the Ephesians may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19). You cannot do that without the ministry of other people. Hebrews has a specific admonition to that end: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). The writer is referring to the return of Jesus. As we see it nearing, we need all the more to gather together because we need each other's support.

Two men of widely different temperaments work together. Normally they would not get along very well, and they might not even like each other. But they work together, and both agree that having to work with someone with whom they do not particularly have an affinity has been a blessing to them. They have learned how to appreciate someone different from themselves. They have learned how to be tolerant and patient with one another. Though it has been a struggle and they have had their moments, they both agree that God has used this to teach them how to grow. So even those in the house of God who irritate us can be of benefit to us.

Father, thank You for the house of God--for those men and women You have placed around me, who in one way or another I desperately need. May I learn to appreciate and love them.