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"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service" (1 Timothy 1:12). "I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
My
memory takes me back today to a man named Wilfred, who for many years,
served as our greeter in the church we pastored in northern
Pennsylvania.
He was very dependable and earnest in his ministry of greeting the
folks as they entered the church building. In fact we have a number of
readers from that church and I'm sure that just seeing Wilfred's photos
will stir up some warm memories of our faithful friend.
Wilfred was a simple man and was somewhat limited in the areas in which he could comfortably serve in the church. His role would not be reckoned by many as a position of esteem, but he faithfully served in the best way he knew how, and he was greatly respected for it.
For those who knew Wilfred I'm sure you'll recall his friendly greeting and warm smile. Others of you will consider another person like Wilfred who has impacted your life in a similar way.
For the last several years of his life he was confined to a nursing home in an increasingly diminished mental state before going home to be with the Lord several years ago. Wilfred exhibited the fruit of faithfulness while on this earth. Faithfulness is one of the most under-rated yet vital qualities in the Christian life.
The apostle Paul's life was characterized by faithfulness. When he experienced salvation on the Damascus highway he began a long record of faithful service for God. At the very end of his life he could declare "I have kept the faith." And that is God's call for each one of us.
An interesting perspective concerning faithfulness is recorded in 1 Samuel 30. King David and his men were away at battle and while they were away enemies came in and laid the city of Ziklag in ashes, carrying away their wives and children.
When the men returned they were overwhelmed with grief. The Scripture says they "wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep." They also blamed David and were ready to stone him. "But David found strength in the LORD his God" (v. 6) and sought direction from the Lord. That's a whole other lesson.
David selected 600 men and set out to rescue the women and children. When they came to the Brook Besor, 200 of the men were so exhausted they could not cross over the brook and stayed back with the supplies. The other 400 went on, made a great recovery, and returned with the spoil.
When they returned to the brook a protest arose on the part of some who went to battle. They didn't want to share the spoil. Then David made a great statement about faithfulness: "The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike." In fact David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day onward.
What David essentially said was, "Not all are equally strong or have the same abilities, but all can be equally faithful to that which is entrusted to them." The 200 who put forth their best were just as worthy of the reward as those who were superior in strength.
Remember this truth today in your service for God. He's looking for faithfulness so let us be found faithful in all we do!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer:
Father, we want to be faithful in our service to You and to those whom
You entrust to our care. It's often a challenge and there are
many excuses we can give for wanting to quit before Your appointed
time. It would have been so understandable for Jesus to give up His
plan to redeem the lost when He was beaten, rejected, mocked, and
abandoned by those closest to Him. But He was faithful to the mission
which is our only hope for salvation. Help us to remember that our
labor in the Lord is not in
vain; that our faithfulness is critical to the mission You have called
us to complete. As we remain faithful we further develop the fruit of
patience and endurance and inspire others as we model the fruit of
faithfulness. We can do this only through the strength given to us
through Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.
Here's
another photo of Wilfred. As I recall we were doing a study and had
each of the participants take a photo with the study booklet.
"Where's The Line?" Video A very thoughtful song I had not heard before last night. Well worth the listen!
"He Leadeth Me" Video "His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me!"
1 Samuel 30
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The John Deere Christmas Tree
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player.
The John Deere Christmas Tree
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player."Faithful Service"
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service" (1 Timothy 1:12). "I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
My
memory takes me back today to a man named Wilfred, who for many years,
served as our greeter in the church we pastored in northern
Pennsylvania.
He was very dependable and earnest in his ministry of greeting the
folks as they entered the church building. In fact we have a number of
readers from that church and I'm sure that just seeing Wilfred's photos
will stir up some warm memories of our faithful friend.Wilfred was a simple man and was somewhat limited in the areas in which he could comfortably serve in the church. His role would not be reckoned by many as a position of esteem, but he faithfully served in the best way he knew how, and he was greatly respected for it.
For those who knew Wilfred I'm sure you'll recall his friendly greeting and warm smile. Others of you will consider another person like Wilfred who has impacted your life in a similar way.
For the last several years of his life he was confined to a nursing home in an increasingly diminished mental state before going home to be with the Lord several years ago. Wilfred exhibited the fruit of faithfulness while on this earth. Faithfulness is one of the most under-rated yet vital qualities in the Christian life.
The apostle Paul's life was characterized by faithfulness. When he experienced salvation on the Damascus highway he began a long record of faithful service for God. At the very end of his life he could declare "I have kept the faith." And that is God's call for each one of us.
An interesting perspective concerning faithfulness is recorded in 1 Samuel 30. King David and his men were away at battle and while they were away enemies came in and laid the city of Ziklag in ashes, carrying away their wives and children.
When the men returned they were overwhelmed with grief. The Scripture says they "wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep." They also blamed David and were ready to stone him. "But David found strength in the LORD his God" (v. 6) and sought direction from the Lord. That's a whole other lesson.
David selected 600 men and set out to rescue the women and children. When they came to the Brook Besor, 200 of the men were so exhausted they could not cross over the brook and stayed back with the supplies. The other 400 went on, made a great recovery, and returned with the spoil.
When they returned to the brook a protest arose on the part of some who went to battle. They didn't want to share the spoil. Then David made a great statement about faithfulness: "The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike." In fact David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day onward.
What David essentially said was, "Not all are equally strong or have the same abilities, but all can be equally faithful to that which is entrusted to them." The 200 who put forth their best were just as worthy of the reward as those who were superior in strength.
Remember this truth today in your service for God. He's looking for faithfulness so let us be found faithful in all we do!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer:
Father, we want to be faithful in our service to You and to those whom
You entrust to our care. It's often a challenge and there are
many excuses we can give for wanting to quit before Your appointed
time. It would have been so understandable for Jesus to give up His
plan to redeem the lost when He was beaten, rejected, mocked, and
abandoned by those closest to Him. But He was faithful to the mission
which is our only hope for salvation. Help us to remember that our
labor in the Lord is not in
vain; that our faithfulness is critical to the mission You have called
us to complete. As we remain faithful we further develop the fruit of
patience and endurance and inspire others as we model the fruit of
faithfulness. We can do this only through the strength given to us
through Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.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.)
Click on the link to open and play.
(In some cases you may also need to click again to start the song.)
"Where's The Line?" Video A very thoughtful song I had not heard before last night. Well worth the listen!
"He Leadeth Me" Video "His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me!"
1 Samuel 30
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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."
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Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
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