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    Your Average Joe Unplugged: A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional
    Your Average Joe Unplugged: A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional
    Your Average Joe Unplugged: A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional
    Ebook180 pages1 hour

    Your Average Joe Unplugged: A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional

    By Joseph D. Schneller

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    About this ebook

    Joseph Schneller voices inner struggles of faith that resonate broadly among Christians. He writes for those tired of the canned answers, for everyday believers desiring to live in faith amidst the joys and pains, the responsibilities and tragedies of life. Through 30 daily devotionals and a half-dozen humor articles, he presents honest, often humorous encouragement for your Christian pilgrimage through this fallen world. And all throughout he shows how, by Christ’s grace, our everyday lives can have eternal impact.

    "Joe Schneller sees the profound in the simple, the eternal in the ordinary, and thus catches glimpses of God’s grace at work in everyday life where we spend most of our time. Behind the humor is keen insight into trusting, loving, and obeying God."
    — Gerald L. Sittser, Theologian, Author

    "Anything but average! Exceptionally warm and witty devotionals interspersed with excellent humor columns."
    — James N. Watkins, Columnist, Author

    "There is no substitute for real world life experience when addressing the doubt and struggles we all face. Average Joe is brave enough to step into the limelight and expose doubt and fears. After drawing the reader in with honest vulnerability, Your Average Joe then has the wisdom to offer refreshment and hope from God’s Word.

    "Your Average Joe has a finger on the pulse of the American public and that is revealed in his careful writing of 'Today’s Prayer.' Many Americans struggle with prayer. Your Average Joe offers prayers that effectively voice being tired, worn out, beaten up, and discouraged. Then the prayer gently shifts to recognition of God’s grace and mercy. There are layers of truth and encouragement written into each prayer. By the time you finish this 30 day devotional, you will know God better and have a more clear understanding of how much He loves you."
    — Shane Moffitt

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNordskog Publishing Inc.
    Release dateNov 21, 2016
    ISBN9780990377436
    Your Average Joe Unplugged: A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional
    Author

    Joseph D. Schneller

    Joseph D. Schneller served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and holds a degree in Psychology from Whitworth University. His publishing credits include Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family, Clubhouse, and Focus on the Family; Walk Thru the Bible's Indeed; and other Christian periodicals. He is the author of two other ebooks: Carter in the Crosshairs (a young adult novel) and The Lowering Sky (a book of short stories and devotionals for adults). He and his wife, Kippi, live in the American South with their five children.

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      Book preview

      Your Average Joe Unplugged - Joseph D. Schneller

      Anything but average! Exceptionally warm and witty devotionals interspersed with excellent humor columns.

      — James N. Watkins, humor columnist; author of the humor textbook Writing with Banana Peels

      ***

      Your Average Joe Unplugged

      A Humorous and Insightful Christian Devotional

      by Joseph D. Schneller

      ***

      Copyright 2011 by Joseph D. Schneller

      Published 2018 by Nordskog Publishing Inc. at Smashwords

      ePub ISBN: 978-0-9903774-3-6 Kindle ISBN: 978-0-9903774-8-1

      Ronald W. Kirk, Theology Editor

      Kimberley Winters Woods, Proofreader

      Desta Garrett, Design and Production, Managing Editor

      Michelle Shelfer, E-book Production

      Cover Illustration by Tyson Stecklein

      Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version except where otherwise indicated. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Biblica.

      Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission from the publisher.

      ***

      Dedicated to

      The Lord Jesus Christ

      ***

      Table of Contents

      Praise

      Dedication

      Introduction - Eat at Your Average Joe’s

      Day 1 - Dilemma of Faith

      Day 2 - Job Dissatisfaction

      Day 3 - A Fallen Workplace

      Day 4 - A Dream Ignored

      But Seriously... Trash Talk (Women Are Not Allowed To Read This)

      Day 5 - Earthly Assignment

      Day 6 - Investment Rewarded

      Day 7 - Prep Time

      Day 8 - Awaiting Deliverance

      Day 9 - The Having It All Together Lie

      But Seriously... So You’re Gonna Be A Daddy

      Day 10 - Truth and the Spiritual Starbucks

      Day 11 - Truth and Tolerance

      Day 12 - To Know Him

      Day 13 - Tooth-Floss and Freedom

      Day 14 - To Read or Not to Read

      But Seriously... Moron’s Guide To Painting Like An Idiot

      Day 15 - No Additives or Preservatives

      Day 16 - Our Common Nobility

      Day 17 - Obsessed by Fear

      Day 18 - Enslaved by Fear

      But Seriously . . . An Epidural for Two

      Day 19 - The Dangers of Fear, Part I

      Day 20 - The Dangers of Fear, Part II

      Day 21 - Unholy Fear

      Day 22 - Holy Fear

      Day 23 - The Christian Life of Trial and Danger

      But Seriously... Don’t Couch It This Way

      Day 24 - Defying Danger, Part I

      Day 25 - Defying Danger, Part II

      Day 26 - Defying Danger, Part III

      Day 27 - The Warning Label for Christianity

      But Seriously... It’s All About Perception

      Day 28 - Elusive Contentment

      Day 29 - Hear Him Roar

      Day 30 - The Christian Game Plan

      About the Author

      Acknowledgments

      A Word from the Publisher

      Invitation from The Publisher

      Other Quality Books by Nordskog Publishing

      ***

      Introduction - Eat at Your Average Joe's

      In the summer of 2008, I clung to the last knot at the end of my rope—a place I’d known well for the preceding 3½ years. I was the franchisee and operator of a low-investment restaurant, and, in the eyes of the parent corporation, I was floundering.

      My customer-satisfaction ratings were low, corporate visits to my restaurant went poorly, and even the grass outside looked bad. Despite a high college GPA, an accolade-rich tour in the Marines, and 2½ years of productive business-management experience, I could not make my restaurant succeed in corporate’s eyes.

      For the first time in my adult life, I was failing.

      Even from grand opening, personnel had been my biggest challenge. No-call/no-shows occurred regularly. Employees stole money. The labor market was thin, so proper staffing was a constant struggle. Sales were low, so I had to watch labor expenses carefully in order to maintain financial margins. I carried a staff of about forty-two, but, due to incessant employee turnover, mailed 112 W-2s one year. I had difficulties with managers. After a few years, I finally developed two excellent daytime managers, and decided to reduce my income for the sake of stability. A few months later, though, they gave notice to quit within one week of each other, each determined to move back to his home state.

      What was happening? I’d sensed God’s direction to this work. My wife and I had written Bible verses on the lumber used to construct the building. I’d dedicated my work to the Lord.

      The two-at-once manager resignation was my backbreaking straw. Six months later, following great inner turmoil, I gave the keys back to corporate. With no more than a sense of God’s leading and the hope of professional writing, I stepped into the void. This was the end of August 2008.

      Six weeks later, Lehman Brothers filed the largest bankruptcy (based on assets) in the history of the United States, and the global economic crisis began. The job market shriveled.

      With my wife and son at home and another child on the way, I remained unemployed through mid-March 2009. My writing produced but a few hundred dollars. After a vast job search, I finally found hire as an entry-level employee at a retail store directly overlooking my former restaurant. I made $8.50 per hour plus a $1.50 per hour shift differential for starting at 4 a.m. One of my peers was my former cook.

      In June 2009, 9½ months after quitting the franchise, I gratefully began an ends-meeting job as an analyst with a large corporation.

      That period of unemployment and underemployment represents the greatest struggle of my marriage and one of the greatest struggles of my life. It was a time of fire and flood. Regardless of my Christian walk of faith, the trial and turmoil brought me egotistically barren before my belief in an invisible God. Without financial stability, without personal success, in painful knowledge of my family’s need and in full awareness of my inability to provide, I had to decide if I still believed in the God of the Bible.

      I, like Jacob, wrestled greatly with the great I AM. Who is He? What is Truth? What is His Word? What’s the deal with trials in general, with unemployment and work? And what about fear?

      Thus I wrote. I launched a website—only operated through half of ’09—and posted my pilgrimage. The first person in need of those words was me. The following year, those articles became a manuscript. The year following that, the manuscript became this book.

      Let me be perfectly clear. I am not an ordained minister. I have never attended seminary. I haven’t started a church. I am not a theologian and am no religious expert. I’m just Your Average Joe Christian, struggling along the narrow path.

      Day 1 - Dilemma of Faith

      I’m not thrilled with God right now.

      A couple of weeks ago, I would have told you that I was angry with Him. Furious was more like it. How could He treat me like that? Now, though, I feel humbled. But whether ticked off or chastened, I don’t like this path I tread—the lonely wastelands of unemployment. And who’s to blame? The Sovereign One, that’s Who. Which puts me in a dilemma of faith.

      I know that He has never been wrong, never sinned, and never botched a judgment call. He has no smudge or smear on His character. Because of His character, He cannot sin. Not only can He not tolerate sin, but He doesn’t even have that piece of Him that does it anyway. Like me—I’m like that. I’ll do it anyway, the wrong thing, the selfish thing: I’ll click on the picture, I’ll get mad and cuss, I’ll fantasize about swinging a Hyundai at a business associate’s head.

      But God doesn’t ever blow it.

      He’s perfect. And if I stop for a minute, I realize that His perfection is like

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