A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.
Home About Us Archives Free email subscription
Listen to these messages
Text only for printing
See here
for more info.
<Previous Message Next Message>
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Dusk along Donegal Creek
"God's Great Love"
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player.
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:11,12).
We are sure ready for some beautiful spring days and are especially looking forward to our long daily walks along the country lanes. We usually walk the dogs as well and they sure enjoy getting out. Both have experienced a shock when they brushed up against an electric fence without having the slightest idea what happened. This is an electric fence for livestock so they get quite a jolt. They shriek and quickly skirt back from the wire fence with their tails between their legs wearing an expression that seems to say, "WHAT WAS THAT!"
We understood what happened but of course they didn't. How do you explain an electric shock to a dog! It's that way with us many times isn't it? We get shocked by a situation in life and we have no idea what hit nor did we understand why.
We've all probably heard or used the following expressions, "I don't know what hit me" or "Where did that come from?" I can recall experiences like this in my own life and I've observed them in many others as well. I have a friend who's going through one of these shocking experiences right now. We can't predict or avoid these jolting experiences so that's why we need to have a deep abiding assurance of God's great love, care and provision for that which have need of.
The daily verse is one of the greatest expressions in Scripture extolling God's love "for those who fear Him". Consider the two figures of speech the Psalmist uses in the text.
First he speaks of the extent of God's love as being "as high as the heavens are above the earth." How high is that? In the Scriptures the expression "heavens" normally describes the universe as distinct from the earth. But how big is the universe? It seems this distance just keeps increasing with better telescopes and more research!
The study of astronomy interests me, although most astronomers ignore God's revelation in the Scriptures. The Psalmist, in describing the infinite nature of God's love and mercy, expresses the greatest truth. And sadly astronomers, looking in the wrong places, will never find this Truth!
Secondly, he speaks of the extent of God's forgiveness: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." How far is that? If he were to have written "north from the south" we could have measured the distance between the poles. But how far is east from west? It is not something we can measure! In His great love and mercy that's how far He has removed our transgressions from us.
The Psalmist provided God's greatest solution to life's greatest problem in this Psalm. He covers both the vertical and horizontal reaching of God's goodness to humankind. The boundless capacity of God's love fills the vertical space from the heavens to earth. His unceasing capacity for forgiveness stretches horizontally beyond the measurable scope of humankind. Do we not serve a great God who is moved to action by our innermost needs! May you be filled with the fullness of God as He reveals Himself to You through His unlimited love and ongoing forgiveness.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Omnipotent
Father, Your immeasurable love and unending forgiveness are
characteristics that only a God like You can dispense, so much so, that
even the vilest offender who truly believes will be pardoned by You.
Because of Your tremendous example of love and forgiveness toward us,
we can also extend our love and forgiveness toward others. As
recipients of
Your goodness may we be dispensers of Your blessings to those You bring
into our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Wrong Car: Yesterday Brooksyne shared about getting in the wrong van and we had a number of responses. One example is the following story: "I remember when I walked out into our old dental office parking lot and I got into what I thought was our car (same color and size). I sat there trying to figure out whose sunglasses were in the console and then picked up the vitamins and wondered when my husband Doug had started taking those vitamins.... Good thing I came to my senses and realized I was in the wrong car....and jumped out quickly, hoping the accountant who owned the car and had the office across the hall from our dental office wasn't looking out the window, wondering why I was sitting in his car and looking at his vitamin pills!! All along Doug was sitting in the driver's seat of our car, looking at me like I'd completely lost my mind!"
"The Love Of God" Video Gaither Homecoming singers
"As Far As The East (Psalm 103:11-12)" Video Scripture Memory songs
"East To West" Video Casting Crowns
"As High As The Heavens" Video Hosanna! Music
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 make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
© Copyright 2015 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
<Previous Message Next Message>
Thursday, March 26, 2015
"God's Great Love"
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player."For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:11,12).
We are sure ready for some beautiful spring days and are especially looking forward to our long daily walks along the country lanes. We usually walk the dogs as well and they sure enjoy getting out. Both have experienced a shock when they brushed up against an electric fence without having the slightest idea what happened. This is an electric fence for livestock so they get quite a jolt. They shriek and quickly skirt back from the wire fence with their tails between their legs wearing an expression that seems to say, "WHAT WAS THAT!"
We understood what happened but of course they didn't. How do you explain an electric shock to a dog! It's that way with us many times isn't it? We get shocked by a situation in life and we have no idea what hit nor did we understand why.
We've all probably heard or used the following expressions, "I don't know what hit me" or "Where did that come from?" I can recall experiences like this in my own life and I've observed them in many others as well. I have a friend who's going through one of these shocking experiences right now. We can't predict or avoid these jolting experiences so that's why we need to have a deep abiding assurance of God's great love, care and provision for that which have need of.
The daily verse is one of the greatest expressions in Scripture extolling God's love "for those who fear Him". Consider the two figures of speech the Psalmist uses in the text.
First he speaks of the extent of God's love as being "as high as the heavens are above the earth." How high is that? In the Scriptures the expression "heavens" normally describes the universe as distinct from the earth. But how big is the universe? It seems this distance just keeps increasing with better telescopes and more research!
The study of astronomy interests me, although most astronomers ignore God's revelation in the Scriptures. The Psalmist, in describing the infinite nature of God's love and mercy, expresses the greatest truth. And sadly astronomers, looking in the wrong places, will never find this Truth!
Secondly, he speaks of the extent of God's forgiveness: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." How far is that? If he were to have written "north from the south" we could have measured the distance between the poles. But how far is east from west? It is not something we can measure! In His great love and mercy that's how far He has removed our transgressions from us.
The Psalmist provided God's greatest solution to life's greatest problem in this Psalm. He covers both the vertical and horizontal reaching of God's goodness to humankind. The boundless capacity of God's love fills the vertical space from the heavens to earth. His unceasing capacity for forgiveness stretches horizontally beyond the measurable scope of humankind. Do we not serve a great God who is moved to action by our innermost needs! May you be filled with the fullness of God as He reveals Himself to You through His unlimited love and ongoing forgiveness.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Omnipotent
Father, Your immeasurable love and unending forgiveness are
characteristics that only a God like You can dispense, so much so, that
even the vilest offender who truly believes will be pardoned by You.
Because of Your tremendous example of love and forgiveness toward us,
we can also extend our love and forgiveness toward others. As
recipients of
Your goodness may we be dispensers of Your blessings to those You bring
into our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.Wrong Car: Yesterday Brooksyne shared about getting in the wrong van and we had a number of responses. One example is the following story: "I remember when I walked out into our old dental office parking lot and I got into what I thought was our car (same color and size). I sat there trying to figure out whose sunglasses were in the console and then picked up the vitamins and wondered when my husband Doug had started taking those vitamins.... Good thing I came to my senses and realized I was in the wrong car....and jumped out quickly, hoping the accountant who owned the car and had the office across the hall from our dental office wasn't looking out the window, wondering why I was sitting in his car and looking at his vitamin pills!! All along Doug was sitting in the driver's seat of our car, looking at me like I'd completely lost my mind!"
Today's
Suggested
Music and Supplemental Resources
"The Love Of God" Video Gaither Homecoming singers
"As Far As The East (Psalm 103:11-12)" Video Scripture Memory songs
"East To West" Video Casting Crowns
"As High As The Heavens" Video Hosanna! Music
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 make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
© Copyright 2015 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA