"Encourage
one another
daily"
(Hebrews 3:13).
A
daily, Bible-based
perspective of
hope, encouragement and exhortation. Thursday,
April 7, 2005
"Time After Time" "In your compassion you delivered them time after time" (Nehemiah 9:28). Today I want you to consider the many times God has delivered you out of a hard spot in life. At times these are situations outside of our control. At other times we get there due to our own foolishness or disobedience. Following this encouragement I will list several times when I have been "delivered" that periodically come to mind. But in this message I just want to elaborate on one that happened about eight years ago. My family went to a hotel in Newport, RI for a little getaway. It was at the Hotel Viking, an historic hotel that at one time had been the main guest lodging in the city. We enjoyed a nice meal and evening together. The next morning we spent some time by the pool. Ester, who couldn't swim, was circling her way around the large swimming pool by holding her right hand onto the edging around the pool as she also carried an inflatable toy. She'd done this many times. I was sitting beside the pool reading the paper as Brooksyne watched Ester. Suddenly Brooksyne started screaming "STEPHEN, STEPHEN". I looked up and Ester was not visible but I only saw the inflatable toy. She'd lost grip of the side of the pool and was struggling under the toy in the deep water. Her screams were unheard because the toy completely covered her body. It's amazing how quickly the body can react (adrenaline), as my Red Cross lifesaving course of 25 years earlier suddenly came to me. I dove into the pool (fully clothed with my hiking boots on!) and swam underwater to her. Thankfully another man was also reaching into the pool from the other side as I lifted her up. Ester was extremely frightened and dealt with serious stomach cramps. Over the period of several hours she threw up the ingested water and recovered from this potentially tragic incident. My wallet was soaked and ruined. I also had to dry out the only pair of pants, shirt and shoes I had brought on the trip. But so what! Just consider the countless times we've been delivered from situations that could have been devastating in our lives. Truly, as the daily text states, God in His compassion has delivered us time after time. I'm convinced that very often we are spared devastation and we are not even aware of it. However as I type this I also consider those who didn't experience the deliverance as we would have been desired. God's grace is at work whether in sparing us from the devastation or in bringing comfort and helping us through it. Brothers and sisters, today let us rejoice in the many mercies of the Lord as indeed we can testify of God's compassion in delivering us time after time! Be encouraged today, Stephen C. Weber Note from Brooksyne: Ester still has the ruined wallet that Stephen had in his pocket when he pulled her from the deep water. It continues to serve as a reminder of God's protection and His deliverance. Perhaps the wallet serves as an "altar." It makes me think of the early church patriarchs who would build an altar following a great provision or miraculous deliverance from Almighty God. The wallet will serve Ester as a memorial over the years of God's mighty hand of protection. I mentioned that I wanted to consider times in my life when I have been delivered. I encourage you all to do so. Here are four occasions I recall, all involving vehicles. I am sure there are many more, some I am not even aware of. * As a newly licensed driver in high school taking my dad's big Chrysler Newport out on a narrow country road in rural Missouri and topping off at 120 mph. I still can't believe I did that! * Returning to college late one night from a ministry trip over the weekend in western Oklahoma with three other students I fell asleep at the wheel and awakened in the grassy area between the divided highway, headed to the opposite lane. * Moving to Pennsylvania with my Brooksyne shortly after we got married I misjudged the speed of a train at a crossing while driving the U-Haul and was way too close to colliding with it. * Returning from a Youth Convention Brooksyne and I hit ice on a mountain bridge during a winter storm and totally lost control. It seemed like slow motion as I can still see terrified looks on the faces of people standing beside a car pulled off on the other side. The church van was following us with a load of young people and saw our predicament and called out to God and unexplainably the car regained control while still on the ice. Let me conclude with a memory of one of my most foolish acts. My sister in law had a Pontiac GTO (a sixties "muscle" car) that I was driving along with a friend. It was a powerful car with huge engine and "four on the floor" manual transmission. I was excited to show my friend what the car could do so I drove out to the edge of town and pulled up to a four way stop. I looked ahead and to both sides. Then I took off, laying down rubber in each gear. We laughed as we zoomed along in fourth gear, but I heard a siren and looked behind to see a police car. In my enthusiasm I had forgotten to look behind when I took off! Amazingly I got a very stern warning but no ticket. I am sure he had a good chuckle at such a foolish teenager and can only imagine the story he had to tell to the other officers! In our area many of the farmers, particularly the Amish, have an interesting way of drying clothes. They place a very long line and attach it by pulley to a high area of a barn. Well I have a small barn and figured I could save some electricity so I made one! |
ADMINISTRATIVE
INFORMATION
Support
- Is
this ministry a blessing to you? Your support is needed and
appreciated.
Ministry update - An update of my ministry situation for my family, friends and any who choose to read it! Home
About
Us Archives
Listen
(stream) MP3
(download) Print
Join:
To receive
the
"Daily
Encouragement" e-mail devotional merely send a blank e-mail to this address.
Or if you prefer use our online
web form.
(Some ISPs now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. To insure delivery please add our address to this list.) Welcome letter (comes with new subscriptions.) Privacy Statement: Your e-mail address is held in strict confidence in a password-protected mail list and is not used for any other purpose but this daily encouragement. You may easily unsubscribe at any time. RSS: To subscribe to RSS feed enter this url into your feed reader: http://mail.byrss.com/pages/35149.xml Leave: To cancel your address from this mailing list merely send a blank email to the failsafe "leave" address below. (To change addresses cancel old address and then join again using your new address.) Weekly Version: The weekly version is comprised of the devotionals from the week and mailed out in a single email on Friday. To receive the weekly version, send a blank email to this address. Pass
it on! - If you find
this email
devotional perspective to be a blessing please pass it on! I do request
that you keep the copyright and subscription information intact and
place a personal note above it. Please do not send it regularly to the
same address unless you are sure they want to receive it. After all
anyone can join if they desire! I specifically request that this
material not be forwarded to a group list, since many times these types
of unsolicited group forwards are unwanted and an annoyance. If you
received this but don't know how, it has probably been passed on to you
by a friend. You are not subscribed to this list unless your specific
email address is at the very bottom footer. Also note the print
link
for a print ready page. Here are some other ideas
to use this
ministry
in conjunction with your ministry.
How to become a child of God Your
comments are welcome!
If you
are the original recipient (a member of the mailing list) merely reply
to this email. If not please visit this webpage.
I
sure appreciate the
input and read each comment and am so often encouraged.
However
due to the volume of email I receive I am not necessarily able to reply
personally to each one. I regret this since often readers will share a
particular need or have a specific question. I certainly do pray when I
receive a prayer request and often my wife Brooksyne joins me.
Scripture
references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version.
©
1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®,
Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by
permission;
and the King James Version.
Personal Mission
Statement: "I am
created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I
have been redeemed and I make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My
mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and to
prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
© Copyright 2005 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved Daily
Encouragement
Net - PO
Box 714 - Mount Joy, PA 17552
"Living today anchored in God's solid foundation" |