Daily Encouragement Net Header
The online Bible teaching ministry of Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.
Home   About Us  Archives   Free email subscription   ListenListen to these messages
 
Print Text only for printing
  Bookmark and Share 

Donate
 See here for more info.
<Previous Message                                                    Next Message

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Nursery cat
I've noticed that many cats seem to enjoy trying out different sleeping places. Our cat Dottie will always check out any new place we have. We saw this cat peacefully resting in a berry box at a checkout line at a local nursery as a worker potted plants beside her!

ListenListen to this message on your audio player.

"Divine Omniscience"

"He knows everything" (1 John 3:20b).

Math symbolWhen you see the graphic to the left what do you think it is? A pair of glasses? Actually it's something else.

I heard a speaker share his testimony at a Christian Businessman's luncheon. He had a doctorate in engineering and of course he was quite proficient in math.  

He shared how that many years earlier he had a wooden plaque carving with the above symbol which he kept on his desk. His little daughter came up to him, picked it up, and said, "I know what this is Daddy."   She then turned it on its side and showed him that it was an eight! (Brooksyne's note: My observation would lead to the same conclusion, by the way.)


Now some of you know that the plaque carving is actually the symbol for infinity, a concept that was far beyond his little daughter's understanding.  Infinity is a concept in mathematics  and philosophy that refers to a quantity without bound or end.


Googol Google is a popular search engine that most of us are familiar with and have probably used many times.  It's named after a rather obscure number called a googol.  Now it's been a few years since I studied math which was never one of my stronger subjects, so I have a hard time even expressing this figure, which is 10 to the power of one hundred or 1 with a hundred 0's after it. I read that this is more than all the hydrogen atoms in the universe, but the article didn't specify who counted them. I suppose that's about as close to infinity as you can get on this side!  However, actually of course infinity is beyond this by it's very definition.

The daily Scripture portion succinctly describes the attribute of God known as omniscience. "He knows everything." Omniscience is the capacity to know everything infinitely.

Elsewhere the Scriptures teach this using illustrations such as the number of hairs on our heads being numbered (every hair on every head, present tense).  In Scripture the purpose of expressing this knowledge is to give the believer an assurance of God's care.  In the case of our hairs being counted it's in the context of "Why do you worry?"  In the case of the daily text it's in regard to the assurance of our hearts understanding  God's forgiveness.

Today we can receive tremendous encouragement from the truth that God knows everything.  He is active both macroscopically and microscopically.  He is involved not only in the big picture, but He is also actively involved in the minute details of our lives (keeping track of the hairs on your head for example, even though you may have observed you left some on the comb). 

So, as His children redeemed by faith in Christ, let us find great assurance and deep-settled peace in knowing that God is all-knowing. Since we know only in part and see only through a glass darkly let us make sure that we don't attempt to do the leading, but follow the leading of our omniscient God!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path giving direction when I would otherwise be led astray. Help me to daily remember that You do the leading and I do the following, since You know all things including the past, present and future.  In Your infinite knowledge and wisdom You watch over me, care for my needs and lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your Name's sake and I'm grateful for it.  Amen.



Matt's garden sprinkler system
We visited a friend in Lancaster who is an industrial designer. If you've been in a Home Depot or Lowes store you've probably seen a display that Matt had a hand in designing. The wrought iron fence (pictured above) borders the colorful flower garden Matt planted next to his house. He also built and designed birdhouses that he attached to the fence and then installed sprinkler heads that comes up through the roof of the bird houses and waters his gardens!  (It's a design that Brooksyne would sure enjoy when it comes to watering the many flowers she plants, but I'm sure not that clever.)

Matt's garden sprinkler system
Here is a photo of the sprinkler at work, along with a beautiful rose plant!

Matt's garden water feature
Matt designed this interesting water feature with bamboo shoots filling pots which had a pleasant running water sound. However he explained it was not really bamboo shoots, but white pvc pipe which he had carefully painted in a detail that sure had Brooksyne and me fooled!

Desk & rocking chair at George's Woodcrafts
We went to an open house at George's Woodcrafts, a local business celebrating 40 years.  They make heirloom quality furniture and are best known for making tables that have as many as sixteen leafs. These are, of course, made for very large gatherings such as the time we joined an old order Mennonite family for a meal following a church service and some 25 sat of us around a single table! I am sitting at an adjustable desk that George invented for a nursing home patient.

Cattle trough planter
I thought this long planter was interesting at George's Woodcraft.
It used to be a cattle trough!



Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

Click on the link to open and play.
(In some cases you may also need to click again to start the song.)

"He Knows My Name"  Video  Maranatha Singers

"Above All"  Video  Michael W. Smith

"Thou, O Lord"  Video  Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

An article by theologian A.W. Pink on the omniscience of God.


Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne.


Sign up here for the free daily email encouragement.

Permissions: Please feel free to pass on, reproduce and distribute any material on Daily Encouragement Net, in part or in whole, in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way or charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. It is our desire to spread this material, not protect or restrict it. I do request that you keep the contact, copyright and subscription information intact.

Text only version for printing: To make a text only version for printing (without photos or any of the supplemental materials)
1) Open the basic text editor that comes with all computers (known as wordpad, textpad, etc.)  You can also use a program like Word and select paste text only.
2) Select and copy the text from the portion of the message you want to print.
3) Paste into the text pad. (The photos won't show up but you will have a brief text description of the photo which you can delete or just ignore.)
4) Format if you desire (change font, increase or decrease size, etc.)
5) Print!

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, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. 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."

Daily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com 
© Copyright 2010 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552  USA

Home
www.dailyencouragement.net
Contact us


Chaplaincy MinistriesNew feature: I am not much for publishing website statistics but sure enjoy geography. When I saw this widget that counts visitors by nation and state I thought it would be interesting to some of our readers. I installed the international widget 4/16/10 and the state widget 4/19/10 (thus the disparity in US state totals).  This widget only counts visits to the main page and daily archive.
free counters



Free counters!


"Living securely today anchored in God's solid foundation"