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Friday, September 5, 2014
Tuesday evening we had a full rainbow over Lancaster County including a double rainbow for some viewers. This photo is from Doris High's site. Here's a larger version from her site.
Listen to this
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“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Yesterday I visited for a few minutes with Phil, who leads a local company that designs and manufactures agricultural equipment such as watering and feeding systems. Modern agriculture has become very hi-tech and this is seen in many areas.
Phil has an engineering background as well as being raised on a farm so he has a very good handle on the products his company makes. Through the years I have had many engineering friends who use physical laws to apply their work. These physical laws govern the physical universe and can be applied reliably and consistently to any product line.
My conversation with Phil prompted a memory from a teaching I learned many years ago: "Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God."
The physical laws that govern the physical universe are studied by scientists, applied by engineers and observed by all of us. Life as we know it works because these physical laws created by God are so reliable. Consider all that is dependent on this single Creation act, "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night" (Genesis 1:16).
We live in a universe that functions by laws; predictable, repeatable, understandable laws. Dr. Warner Von Braun, the father of the space program, said: "The natural laws of the universe are so precise that we do not have any difficulty building a space ship, sending a person to the moon and we can time the landing with the precision of a fraction of a second."
When I became a Christian and serious follower of Christ in the early seventies my early discipleship (training) was through a ministry called "Campus Crusade For Christ". Many of our readers have heard of this ministry which has a worldwide impact. A foundational aspect of my training was learning to share my faith with others. Campus Crusade used a small booklet titled, "The Four Spiritual Laws" as an aid. We were expected to memorize this booklet and now nearly 45 years later I can still recite each of the laws.
The approach begins with a powerful statement quoted above. "Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God."
Spiritual laws are determined by God's Holy Word, the Bible. They govern our relationship with God. Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade For Christ, summarizes these spiritual laws into four essential points concerning salvation:
Of vital importance is knowing and understanding the spiritual laws that govern our relationship with God. We urge all reading our message to examine your heart today. Today's prayer is a type of prayer often used to help people with the words in accepting Christ. Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, we invite you to pray this prayer, either as a first-time expression of faith or as a means of rededication and affirmation.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Lord
Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open
the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. I ask You to
forgive me of my sins so that I might have peace with God and
experience eternal life in heaven. Take control of the
throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be in
accordance with Scripture and in imitation of Christ in whose name we
pray. Amen.
I had considered going in a different direction with today's message, the tampering of God's physical laws which are especially evident in the social order of our day. As this tampering continues I predict it will get very ugly. (See Galatians 6:7-9)
Update on Ester:
Ester Update: Several
have asked for an update concerning our daughter Ester. She is volunteering at
Free Geek Penn on Thursdays. She spends about five hours each week
taking apart computers, radios, mouses, keyboards and many
other things for recycling. She just took the front off this dual cassette player and is preparing to take it apart. Other
volunteers (or perhaps they are paid) do the opposite and refurbish the
products. After 75 volunteer hours Ester can earn a refurbished desk top
computer. She really enjoys the work! Regarding her health: she
is much, much better than three weeks ago when she landed in the
hospital for several days. The digoxin toxicity was the culprit and she
no longer takes
digoxin which resulted in her coming home from the hospital with
arrhythmia problems. A visit with her new cardiologist several days
later resulted in her being put on a different beta blocker,
metoprolol, which seems to be working for her. Thank you
for your continued interest and prayers on her behalf, for you are very
caring, compassionate readers and we are appreciative of that!
Here are several photos from our moseying through Lancaster County yesterday in the course of our chaplain visitation.
We stopped by the Bird In Hand General Store just up the street from a company we visit. I like these old weathered boards on the porch floor.
A sure sign of fall's pending arrival is Mums for Sale!
On Monday we shared a photo of red Cannas with bronze leaves. Brooksyne has been admiring several rows of them on an Amish farm we pass every week. Yesterday we drove back into the farm and inquired as to whether they might sell the canna bulbs after they're dug up in the fall. Turns out they sell them at auction but Mary, the farmer's wife, kindly arranged for Brooksyne to get them there at the farm.
Note the innovative way this large Purple Martin birdhouse is constructed on an Amish farm north of Intercourse PA. You can raise and lower it like a flag to service it!
This Amish dad was out running errands with his children near New Holland PA.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"The Four Spiritual Laws" Video A neat video of the Four Spiritual Laws with a song sung by Don Moen in the background.
"The Four Spiritual Laws" online in many languages English version
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.)
Are
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
<Previous Message Next Message>
Friday, September 5, 2014
Tuesday evening we had a full rainbow over Lancaster County including a double rainbow for some viewers. This photo is from Doris High's site. Here's a larger version from her site.
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player."Spiritual Laws"
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Yesterday I visited for a few minutes with Phil, who leads a local company that designs and manufactures agricultural equipment such as watering and feeding systems. Modern agriculture has become very hi-tech and this is seen in many areas.
Phil has an engineering background as well as being raised on a farm so he has a very good handle on the products his company makes. Through the years I have had many engineering friends who use physical laws to apply their work. These physical laws govern the physical universe and can be applied reliably and consistently to any product line.
My conversation with Phil prompted a memory from a teaching I learned many years ago: "Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God."
The physical laws that govern the physical universe are studied by scientists, applied by engineers and observed by all of us. Life as we know it works because these physical laws created by God are so reliable. Consider all that is dependent on this single Creation act, "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night" (Genesis 1:16).
We live in a universe that functions by laws; predictable, repeatable, understandable laws. Dr. Warner Von Braun, the father of the space program, said: "The natural laws of the universe are so precise that we do not have any difficulty building a space ship, sending a person to the moon and we can time the landing with the precision of a fraction of a second."
When I became a Christian and serious follower of Christ in the early seventies my early discipleship (training) was through a ministry called "Campus Crusade For Christ". Many of our readers have heard of this ministry which has a worldwide impact. A foundational aspect of my training was learning to share my faith with others. Campus Crusade used a small booklet titled, "The Four Spiritual Laws" as an aid. We were expected to memorize this booklet and now nearly 45 years later I can still recite each of the laws.
The approach begins with a powerful statement quoted above. "Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God."
Spiritual laws are determined by God's Holy Word, the Bible. They govern our relationship with God. Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade For Christ, summarizes these spiritual laws into four essential points concerning salvation:
Law 1: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
Law 2: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
Law 3: Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
Law 4: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
Law 2: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
Law 3: Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
Law 4: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
Of vital importance is knowing and understanding the spiritual laws that govern our relationship with God. We urge all reading our message to examine your heart today. Today's prayer is a type of prayer often used to help people with the words in accepting Christ. Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, we invite you to pray this prayer, either as a first-time expression of faith or as a means of rededication and affirmation.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Lord
Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open
the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. I ask You to
forgive me of my sins so that I might have peace with God and
experience eternal life in heaven. Take control of the
throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be in
accordance with Scripture and in imitation of Christ in whose name we
pray. Amen.I had considered going in a different direction with today's message, the tampering of God's physical laws which are especially evident in the social order of our day. As this tampering continues I predict it will get very ugly. (See Galatians 6:7-9)
Update on Ester:
Here are several photos from our moseying through Lancaster County yesterday in the course of our chaplain visitation.
We stopped by the Bird In Hand General Store just up the street from a company we visit. I like these old weathered boards on the porch floor.
A sure sign of fall's pending arrival is Mums for Sale!
On Monday we shared a photo of red Cannas with bronze leaves. Brooksyne has been admiring several rows of them on an Amish farm we pass every week. Yesterday we drove back into the farm and inquired as to whether they might sell the canna bulbs after they're dug up in the fall. Turns out they sell them at auction but Mary, the farmer's wife, kindly arranged for Brooksyne to get them there at the farm.
Note the innovative way this large Purple Martin birdhouse is constructed on an Amish farm north of Intercourse PA. You can raise and lower it like a flag to service it!
This Amish dad was out running errands with his children near New Holland PA.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"The Four Spiritual Laws" Video A neat video of the Four Spiritual Laws with a song sung by Don Moen in the background.
"The Four Spiritual Laws" online in many languages English version
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.)
Are
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