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

Friday, July 15, 2011

Amish young couple going to town 7/14/11
This young Amish couple enjoyed the beautiful day we experienced yesterday.

ListenListen to this message on your audio player.

"Be Still And Know"

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress" (Psalm 46:10,11).

We received an interesting call. I picked up the phone and a lady asked if this was a "prayer line".  I said "No, but we are people that pray, may we help you?" She went on and told me how discouraged she was and so I asked Brooksyne to speak to her. I thought she was local but it turned out she lived in Illinois and found our number on a sheet of paper. She did not know about our web ministry so we really have no idea how she ever got the paper with our number. Brooksyne listened to her as she shared about her difficulties, gave some counsel and then prayed with her.  It must have been a "God thing"!

Some 125 years ago a contemporary song was written that has become a classic hymn of the church. (All songs are contemporary when they are first written!) I'm sure many of you have sung it and would quickly recognize it if I were to identify the title or the chorus. But let me pull out two phrases found in the body of the hymn that particularly intrigue me; "not a surge of worry" and "not a blast of hurry".

At times when my focus is displaced my trust plummets and I am beset by worries.  They come on like a surge in spite of all the Scriptural promises I have committed to memory.  I will sometimes lapse and temporarily lose the peace of God. 

At other times I experience the "blast of hurry" and my stress level shoots through the roof.  Several important projects vie for my attention.  I sense my blood pressure rising and a tightening around my chest.  My mind races in undisciplined thinking which cripples me in taking appropriate action and can even bring on a headache. 

The daily verse is such a spiritual gem.  The entire Psalm needs to be read to get the full sense, but verse 10 is in quotes.  The eternal, immutable God is speaking: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."  That statement is not merely a one-time assertion but is absolutely always true.  There are those who feel they are above God's command; their time is too precious, their presence too valuable to take time away from others to be still before the invisible but powerful Almighty God.  As we read this verse today may we hear God's voice speaking directly to us through sacred Scripture.  May it direct us to a quiet place where we are one alone with Him.

The latter part of the selection is the Psalmist's response to this truth followed by his declaration of faith, "The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

The key is being in a state of stillness based upon our knowledge that the One we have submitted to is indeed God and He will be exalted. The hymn portion quoted above is from Frances Havergal's hymn, "Like A River Glorious" and the chorus expresses this glorious truth.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest.
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

It is my prayer that each of us would find God's peace and rest as our hearts and minds are stayed upon Him today!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber


Praying manDaily prayer: Father, we regularly come to You asking for peace regarding situations that we don't understand or have no personal ability to change.  Way too often troubling circumstances capture our emotions and rob us of the peace promised to those who place their trust in You. Help us not to be tossed about by the changing circumstances of our lives, but to be steadfast as we discipline our mind to be fixed upon You.  Only then will we know true life sustaining peace while sojourning here below.  Amen.



Whiteboard witness at JK Mechanical 7/14/11
I am blessed by the "whiteboard witness" at our first company. These messages are regularly changed and provide some food for thought.

Mark Espenshade 7/14/11
Mark is leading 33 people on a mission trip to Laredo Texas along the Mexican border, departing this Saturday. We have agreed to pray for him and his team! Yesterday was his last day at work at JK Mechanical before the trip. He'll return in two weeks and we will get a report of their ministry experience.

Mystery instrument at Macit 7/14/11
One of our companies we have served for many years is the Mac-it Corporation, which has been in business for 100 years! I expect to write a story about this in several weeks. Yesterday Mike showed me some of the old memorabilia including this instrument.

With Mmeli 7/14/11
Yesterday (for the second day in a row) we had an Ice Cream Day at the Val Companies, in this case, at their Bird-In-Hand location. One of the joys of our corporate chaplain work is meeting people from all over the world. In the last several months I've been getting to know Mmeli, who is from the Kingdom of Swaziland in South Africa.  His native tongue includes a distinctive clicking sound that we do not use in the English language. Here's a short video of Mmeli sharing an encouragement in the Zulu language with that interesting click. Do we have any who can report what he is saying?  Contact us here.  (I'll provide the answer next week!)

Mollie with frisbee 7/15/11
Mollie, our six month border collie, is learning to catch a frisbee!  I began by tossing it and having her fetch it. Then she began to anticipate where I was throwing it and the catching in the air soon came! We are limited to our small backyard thus far since she's proven herself untrustworthy in the unfenced front yard. She wants to visit the neighbor's chickens, though she's not yet received a personal invitation!
See our short training video here.



Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Like A River Glorious"  Video  

"Be Still And Know"  Video  

"Be Still My Soul"  Video  

"Still/Be Still My Soul"  Video

"Made Me Glad"  Video

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 2011 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552  USA

Home
www.dailyencouragement.net
Contact us

This device counts unique visitors by nation and state. I installed the international version in mid April 2010 and the state version later. They thus register unique visitors since then.
free counters



Free counters!



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