Tomorrow Is My 69th Birthday

July 17, 2020: Each year on my birthday, 🎂 I allow myself 3-5 minutes instead of 1 minute to share my thoughts. 😊


I started writing Bible Love Notes in July 2011 following a time of great sorrow in my life, as I watched a loved one reject some important biblical principles while maintaining an outward form of Christianity. It broke my heart and I spiraled down into depression. The only way I climbed out of that pit was spending serious time in God's Word as I wrote Bible Love Notes.

Since 2011, I've seen several other family members follow the sad path of this first loved one, taking on a form of godliness, but denying the power and purpose of God's biblical principles.

Sadly, my personal experiences closely reflect what is happening in the Christian world at large.


In the last 9 years, opposition to Christian values has increased: 

1. Certain facets of our society are enacting rules that could eventually silence Christians who write about biblical principles that conflict with culture, especially those principles which teach God's heart regarding abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism.

2. Hostility toward Christians is growing, fueled by the issues mentioned above.

3. Many individuals and churches are redefining biblical principles, adapting Christianity to better fit cultural values—having a form of godliness, but denying its power.

2020 has been a startling year: a worldwide pandemic, racial unrest, and drastically declining moral values. 

We must know God's Word or we will be deceived by Gay Revisionist Theology and other Ex-vangelical Teachings.

Every year of my life I more fully understand that this world is not my home…I’m just passing through. (See Aliens and Strangers.)

As I turn 69, I'm looking back 45 years to the year I became a born-again Christian. At age 24, I never would have imagined where that decision would take me.  

I fell in love with Jesus, and I've never looked back. And I'm not looking back now.

Every New Testament principle is designed to bring us good, not harm. When God's principles and purposes conflict with the culture's principles and purposes, the culture is wrong, not God. When people misuse and abuse God's principles, the people are wrong, not the principles. We cannot call ourselves Christians but deny the power of God's commands because every command is designed for mankind's good.

Dear Christians, Following Christ will Never Make us Popular. But following Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I'm committed to sharing the whole gospel message on Bible Love Notes, not simply the easy parts. And that means I am facing greater challenges because social media is enacting rules to silence certain biblical content no matter how lovingly it is presented. I need your help.

If you enjoy Bible Love Notes, would you tell your friends, family, Bible study, and small group? You can email this link to them: Stay Connected. It's a short devotion followed by instructions for signing up for a free subscription to Bible Love Notes. 

You also have my permission to run off up to 25 copies of one of your favorite devotions to share in your small group. All you need to do is include "used with permission of BibleLoveNotes.com, copyright Gail Burton Purath" on the handouts and share information on how to subscribe. 

Or simply hit "forward" when you receive your next devotion in your email and forward it to friends with a note at the top telling them how to subscribe.

You can assure your friends that we don't ask for or accept donations. We don't use addresses for any commercial purposes. You'll never have pop-up ads in any of our content. Bible Love Notes is definitely a spam-free site, and our single purpose is to share God's biblical truth, fully and freely.

There may come a time when Christians are no longer allowed to share God's truth on social media, and that makes the Bible Love Notes subscriber base extremely important in sharing God's Word.

So let me end by saying this. As I enter a new year of my life, I want this to be my prayer:

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus….I have renounced secret and shameful ways; I do not use deception, nor do I distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly I commend myself to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. (Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Corinthians 4:2)

Maybe you'd like to read my other birthday thoughts. Some are 1-minute reads and others are longer:
2011: Ponder This
2012: Today's my Birthday
2013: Today's my Birthday
2017: God Placed You in My Life
2018: 7 Characteristics of Modern Christians
2019: Eight Years of Good from Bad

Bible Love Notes