Tomorrow Is My 69th Birthday

As I turn 69, I'd like to share some insights on the challenges and blessings of Christian faith in the year 2020 and beyond.

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.

As I turn 69, I'd like to share some insights on the challenges and blessings of Christian faith in the year 2020 and beyond.
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

22 comments:

  1. Hope you had a wonderful birthday! Thank you for all that you do, you are an uncompromised beacon of light in a dark world. May God continue to grant you wisdom, strength and courage to continue your much appreciated ministry!

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    1. Thanks so much, Heidi. And thank you so much for that prayer!!

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    2. Happy Birthday Gail! You are a blessing to us! Enjoy your day. 😊

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    3. Happy Birthday Gail! You are a blessing to us! Enjoy your day. 😊

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  2. Happy birthday Gail.Wish you all the best. Stay healthy. Be blessed. JBU

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  3. Happy birthday and thank you for what you do! I read your posts first thing every single work day as soon as I fire up my laptop and they've been an incredible blessing to me. May God continue to bless you and your faithful work.

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  4. Happy Birthday Gail! I hope you enjoy a wonderful day. I appreciate all you do for the Lord and us his followers. I am praying for you and your family, as well as believers everywhere as we stand up for our Lord Jesus in a world turning its back on him.💛 Sarah

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  5. Happy birthday! Have a blessed day and year! I look forward to your Notes each day. Many times it is something that I need for that day or know someone who it might speak to. Either way your Notes are a blessing to many. I am turning 68 this year and never thought I would be alive to see the things that are happening now. I am aware that things can get much worse. I will continue to read and share your Notes with others. Continued prayer for you also. We need more prayer warriors.

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  6. Happy Birthday!!!!I will share and keep sharing. God is in control

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  7. Gail, thank you for your commitment to give us a Word each day. Your little power packed bites have often inspired me to continue with more Bible study on the daily subject! I'm learning so much! Thank you! I'm praying God bless you mightily on your birthday, and encourages you to keep pressing on. I will be praying for your family! Love and hugs from Arizona.

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  8. Birthday Blessings, Gail! I shared about you on Facebook, and I truly hope many sign on, because, as I said, you are the "real deal," and they will find solid wisdom and insight from you. I know it must get hard some times when people attack what you right, but I'm praying right now for you to stay strong in the battle for biblical truth. God bless you, sister-friend.

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  10. Happy Birthday Gail! May the Lord bless you in your new year!:D
    Thank you for sharing your devotional writing - I readily pass along Bible Love Notes to others, as it is such a blessing to me! I appreciate you sharing that in your deep sadness and disappointment you turned to God, as so many people use their difficult times as reasons to turn away from Him. May we remain faithful to Him!

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  11. Gail, This message has layers of meaning to me. Let me start with the number 69. 1969 was a turning point in my life. The summer of 69 was a turning point not only for me but also for our nation. That summer I started walking to church, which led me to become a Christian on the first Sunday of 1970. 50 years latter, I am now living in Kannapolis, NC. I’m a member of Connect Christian Church. I got re baptized in 2020. It’s a long story, too much to share right now. Thanks, Billy Frank

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    1. Hi Billy,
      Thanks so much for sharing this part of your story. I have long appreciated your artwork! God bless you.

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  12. I pray you had a most wonderfully blessed birthday. Thank you for sharing your heart for God.

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  13. I'm a bit behind, but oh how refreshing your birthday thoughts post is to me. I've lost friends going down those paths of apostate teachings that tickle the ears, and I've often felt like "the cheese stands alone" from the old kid's rhyming game. I am 56, and thankful for the wisdom of age, yet also pained to see the ignorance of the current generations--inside and outside "the church."

    I will keep you and your tender heart in my prayers. I hope your birthday was especially blessed, and may the coming year bring you the abundant gifts God Himself will offer you from His throne of grace. May His Holy Presence accompany you on every path and in every moment of your days ahead. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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    1. Yes, the cheese stands alone :)
      Thanks so much for your prayers!

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  14. Awesomely fantastic, woman of God. Stepping in your 70, may you enter in YHWH's restful era, with perfection beimg the seal of it in every domain of your precious life. And to all your wonderful prayer may be added Ephisians 3:20-21. I thank God for your life in Jesus' marvelous name. Dwell in Psalms 118:17.
    Amen. Shalom.

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