Daily Encouragement Net Header
The on line 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
Contact Us
  Print Text only for printing
  Bookmark and Share  

Make A Donation
 See here for more info.

<Previous Message                           Next Message>

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Bee (photo by Mike Book)
This outstanding close-up photo of a bee collecting nectar was taken by our friend Mike Book. Notice the translucent wings!
Click here for a larger sized photo.

"Sweeter Than Honey!"

ListenListen to us read this message on your audio player.

"I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way." (Psalm 119:102-104). "He said to me, 'Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.' Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth" (
Ezekiel 3:3).

Honey on toasted breadAn apiary is the formal name for a bee farm. Several years ago we took a tour of an apiary and the process of bees making honey was explained to us. Especially interesting was the protective gear the beekeeper wore to tend to the hives. Bees are very busy at this season with Entomophily, which is the scientific word for pollination by insects.

But if you are like me when you consider bees you might first consider their God-given defense mechanism. I have been on the skin side of their sting several times and it sure isn't pleasant! However for me it's merely a pain followed by deep itching and a bit of swelling. For others the sting may trigger a dangerous anaphylactic reaction that is potentially deadly. But for the stinging honey bee the prognosis is death after it stings you, because its sting apparatus is pulled out, rupturing its abdomen.

When we think of bees we probably all think of honey. We recall a song sung years ago by Music Machine, "Bees make honey and it sure tastes good…" based on the sixth fruit of the spirit, "Goodness". We both enjoy eating honey especially on piece of fresh toasted bread as seen to the left.

Well, bees do make honey (although I would rather not dwell on the process) and honey sure tastes good. In Biblical times with no availability of processed sugar honey was the standard for sweetness. The famous description of the Promised Land was, "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Leviticus 20:24).

Honey jarThe great thing about the Bible is the universality of the illustrations. I don't know this for sure but I suppose that regardless of where you live you have bees and honey. David wrote today's Scripture some 3,000 years ago and he was from a part of the world far away from where most of us live. Yet we can experience what David experienced. In fact we enjoyed some sweet honey on warmly toasted bread as we prepared this message!

Psalm 119 is a wonderful extolling of the blessedness of the Word of God. David would have had far less of the written Word than we have today, since much of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament were not yet written. Yet he declared, "How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"  May we all have this same attitude concerning His Words as they apply to our lives. Consider this the next time you enjoy some honey!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Praying manDaily prayer:
Father, You bless those those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The sweetness of Your Word is like sweet honey in our mouth that reminds us of Your faithfulness, Your goodness and Your mercy that overflows into our lives as You forgive us of our sins and provide us with an abundant life. Your Words are a sweet savor to our soul as we walk obediently according to Your Word. Amen.




Bee on day lily (photo by Doris High)
I can always count on our friend Doris High to have a recent photo related to our topic such as this bee on a day lily!

Amish cart on Carmany Road 7/21/14
Brooksyne took this photo on her neighborhood walk Monday night. (Click on photo for a larger view). We have heard the phrase "corn canyon" to describe the visual impact of a road with corn fields on each side. In late August when the corn is tallest and on some roads where the corn is planted right up next to the road it is indeed like a canyon!

Jerry Hess with corn 7/22/14
One of the blessings of country living is the good neighbors that surround us. Last night Jerry came over with some freshly picked corn to share. We visited for a few minutes and he shared a song he really enjoyed that I had never heard of simply called "Good" by Dave Barnes  Video  He drives a big rig delivering eggs all over the northeast and likes to listen to this as he travels!

Kreider truck
Jerry drives a truck for Kreider Farms, one of our large Lancaster County agriculture operations, and told me a full truck has 26,000 dozen eggs (that's 312,000 eggs!)



A couple responses to our story yesterday about the blueberries:


From Sue:
Hi!! Your story made me laugh. That type of thing happens on Long Island daily. It happens so often that store managers would know better than to change a sign. People would demand the case of blueberries, even if they have no idea what to do with them. I also shop at Aldi's at times, and since I am headed in that direction later, I may stop there and see if they have the same special!!!

From Tina:  Very funny blueberry story!!!!!!!!! That was a case of stubborn wills!!




Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Sweeter Than Honey (Psalms 19:8-10)"  Video  
Bob Fitts from the Scripture memory series which we both enjoyed about 20 years ago. This was a series produced by Integrity Music which placed Scripture verses to music.

"The Law Of The Lord"  Video  Songs Of Worship  We have an even older memory of singing this!

"Honey In The Rock"  Video  Ralph Stanley And The Clinch Mountain Boys

"Bees Make Honey"  Video  Music Machine

"7 AMAZING BEE FACTS"  Video  I came across this as I searched for music.

Doris High is a local friend with a very active photo collection. Here's another day lily photo.


Contact Us
Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne

To receive the "Daily Encouragement" each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe to our email list. You can also subscribe to the Wordpress rss feed or through a Wordpress email subscription. (See the email subscription on the right side after opening this page.)


Make A DonationAre our daily encouragement messages a blessing to you? We ask you to consider making a donation to Daily Encouragement Net so that we can continue to prepare and provide this daily resource which is accessed by believers and seekers all over the world. Daily Encouragement Net relies solely on the generosity and financial support of its readers and podcast listeners. See here for more information on supporting this ministry. Gifts are tax deductible.

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."

© Copyright 2014 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved

Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552  USA



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 to since then.
free counters



Free counters!


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