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Daily Encouragement Net
"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!
Amish clothesline
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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."

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