Issue 1536 – Personal Reflections – August 28, 2024

I wrote the first daily issue of Gleanings on January 1,  2001. That seems like a long time ago.

In its two runs, I have written about 5,500 Gleanings From The Word issues, which is about 15 years of daily devotionals. There have been some missed days and repeats of previous issues, so to be safe, let’s call it 14 years of daily content over the past 24 years.

That’s not consecutive. I found that trying to write Gleanings, pastor a church plant, go to seminary, and do pulpit supply at the same time was simply too much. I did about 4,000 issues in one stretch, took a long break, and have done just over 1,500 this time. Still, it’s a lot of words.

Some posts have been profound, and God has encouraged people through them, even changing a few lives by drawing people to Him. Some far less so.

I’ve been called too liberal and too legalistic, sometimes over the same blog post. I’ve been called wise and foolish.

I’ve been loved and hated. I’ve never been accused of writing fine literature.

I’ve not always been correct in my understanding of a topic or my writing. Over time, my positions on some things have hardened, and on others, they have softened. 

There are days when writing is easy. I know exactly what I will write because God gave it to me the day before. On other days, it’s a fight against blank screens and false starts.

In the early days of the internet, content was scarce, and we often hit tens of thousands of readers in over 180 countries almost daily. Gleanings was reproduced in church bulletins and elsewhere around the globe. A radio play was done of one of the short stories, and we were read on the radio in the Caribbean.

These days, there is infinitely more content available, and we average a few hundred readers a day, occasionally topping out at around 1500.

So why do I continue to write? I have learned that I don’t write to impress vast numbers of people; if that were the case, I would have quit. If it were to please everyone who read my writing, I would not have survived the first year.

I write because the Lord gave me the gift of seeing Him in everyday life and the ability to share what I see with others.

The Lord has given every believer gifts.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

That’s not an exhaustive list; many other gifts are listed in Scripture. You can research them on your own.

You have a gift to glorify God and build up the body of Christ. If you don’t know what your gift is, talk with the leadership of your local assembly; they can help you discover it.

If you aren’t using it, the body of Christ is poorer for it.

Let’s all use our gifts to glorify God.

Be blessed

Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

Kevin

Gleanings From The Word

Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)

Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)

© K.F. “Kevin” Corbin 2024 – Used by permission – All rights reserved.