God woke me early Saturday morning. A little past 2 a.m. as a matter of fact. SUPER early. My alarm wasn’t set to go off for another couple of hours. But, I knew tossing and turning in bed wasn’t going to avail much. I might as well get up and listen to what the Lord had to say. In the darkness of night, my soul wakes. Ever have one of those moments? Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. Lamentations 3:32-33 (NLT) A recent Facebook post Know you are loved. Thanks for taking ..read more

The other morning, as I found myself in the middle of unhurried process of deep listening and complete presence, Jesus, the Bread of Life, came to mind. 35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this ..read more

It’s been a challenging week for the Bantau clan. Mostly, it’s work related stress and difficult situations. I’m juggling two major projects and trying to solve one major problem while getting ready for my solo art show in August. Terri has been über stressed at work as well. And, like many of you, we’ve been caught up with the attempted assassination of former President Trump last Sunday and the political and spiritual drama unfolding as a result of that event. But, it’s in these moments God often gives us a wink to let us know He sees us. Over the course of my walk with Jesus, I’ve learned G ..read more

During a recent conversation, one of my co-laborers in Christ pointed out she’d been listening to an old hymn covered by the late Rich Mullins. Encouraged to give it a listen, I did. You can hear it on my Spotify playlist. If you’re unfamiliar with Rich Mullins, he is a forerunner —a pioneer—of contemporary worship music. Christian singer, Amy Grant described him as “the uneasy conscience of Christian music.” Musicians Andrew Peterson, Matt Maher, and activist Shane Claiborne cite Mullins as a highly influential person impacting their faith. Claiborne placed Mullins on his list ..read more

I know, I know. Four posts in 24 hours. C-R-A-Z-Y. Blame it on the heat. In the midst of this brutally hot summer, I invited several of my fellow bloggers to write a guest post. We kicked things off last Monday by sharing David Duncan’s post Divine Motivation. A Set Up Have you ever felt like God set you up? I don’t mean this in a good way. I mean a set up for failure. That’s how I felt recently. During the springtime I was dealing with anxiety. I was worried and fearful about the future. I didn’t like this feeling and I wanted it to go away. I prayed about it and sought help from the Lord. O ..read more

Friend-My prayer for you this week, amid the chaos of this world, is that you make the intentional choice to turn away from the transient and often unsatisfying solutions of the world and embrace the profound, life-giving relationship Jesus offers. #Jesus #Godis4you Know you are loved. Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy #bgbg2#BibleGateway ..read more

Here we are at the next stop of our journey exploring the Fruit of the Spirit. We’ve arrived at the big F-word. Faithfulness. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 NLT In a world that values convenience over commitment, displaying faithfulness is uber countercultural. Faithfulness is a declaration that our confidence is not swayed by trends or trials but anchored in the eternal love and truth of God. T ..read more

I put this post together yesterday and debated publishing it because I don’t want to seem tone deaf to what’s happening in our country at the moment. Yesterday, an assassin attempted to take out presidential candidate, Donald Trump. This is simultaneously sad, despicable, and infuriating. What is happening to our country? This is what the continuous spewing of vitriolic hate and demonization of another human leads to in our contemporary society. We can disagree without killing each other. We should stand up for what we believe in. We can do that without violence. Words matter. We must do bette ..read more

Roughly six weeks ago, I started a deeper dive into the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In that post, we examined verses 1-10 of chapter one of his letter to the churches of South Galatia. In Paul’s day, Galatia was a region in north-central Anatolia settled by the Celtic Gauls. We know that area as the country of Turkey today. First described by the Romans, Gaul was a territory in Western Europe that covered the modern countries of France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Northern Italy. The Apostle Paul was battling false t ..read more

The powers that be at One WordPress Avenue* offer up a daily prompt through the curators of Day One. I like responding to them more frequently than trying my luck at the Texas lottery. What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony? I found this prompt inviting me to reflect on aspects of my life that may be causing tension. Perhaps, there are some habits, beliefs, grievances, possessions, or relationships that are creating an imbalance in my daily life. If I muster the courage to release them—or find the hutzpah to at least modify some of the things increasing stress and disharmony in m ..read more