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Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Raystown Lake in central PA
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>
Raystown Lake in central PA
"The Blessing Of A Cooperative Ministry Outlook"
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player.
"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in Your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in My name can in the next moment say anything bad about Me, for whoever is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:38-40).
I heard an interesting illustration at the chaplain training conference I attended last week. The speaker was sharing how ranchers use several methods to keep steers together out west. Some ranchers build fences to keep the livestock in. This is quite expensive and requires a lot of maintenance. Others dig a deep watering hole with sufficient water. They've learned that the livestock will stay near the source of water.
This analogy is helpful concerning our outlook toward ministry. As we view our service for Christ and our spiritual impact on others we can either focus on building fences or digging wells.
Some churches and Christian organizations use their resources building fences. In this outlook other churches and similar ministries are seen as competition and a threat to their existing work. Sadly, a great percentage of time, energy, and expense is expended in merely building and maintaining the fences.
Other churches and Christian organizations use their resources digging wells to provide spiritual living water. This is surely a much more Christ-honoring strategy as we dig wells and encourage the partaking of life-giving water that people desperately need in the spiritually "sun-scorched land" in which we live.
I like that attitude in life, particularly in regard to ministry. I don't always see it though. Some churches, denominations and ministries are petty and exclusive. I once worked for a company that saw their "ministry" model as proprietary and any other similar expression posed a threat. But great churches and ministries whose major interest is the kingdom of God want to see the kingdom expanded, not restricted, or reflective only of their influence.
Today's verse has long intrigued me. The disciples had seen a man driving out demons in Christ's Name and told him to stop, apparently thinking they, alone, were doing the Lord's work. The problem, they expressed, was that "he was not one of us." That is; he was not one of the Twelve. They must have had a sense of having a proprietary use of His Name!
We wonder where this man driving out demons was from? We do know from other Scriptures that Christ had sent out the seventy and there were 120 that came together in the Upper Room. So there were others who spread the Gospel and performed miracles when Christ dwelt on this earth and ministered primarily with the twelve disciples. Where this man fit in is not specified, but apparently John and the other disciples saw his ministry as a threat. They reported this to the Lord and I think they had expected the Lord to pat them on the back and say with a smile and a nod, "Good job, boys."
But instead Christ essentially rebuked the disciples, "Do not stop him," and sets forth a great spiritual principle, "Whoever is not against us is for us." Now, in all honesty, I do not fully understand all of what Christ is saying here but I do know that it is a strong rebuke against any proprietary or exclusive sense of ministry.
I want to bless the many others who are serving Christ today. There are many ways we serve and some have ministries similar to ours. May the Lord bless them! We want to bless and assist them if possible. We want them to reach many for Christ that we will never reach. That's how Brooksyne and I want our life and ministry to be regarded and we encourage you to have the same attitude, whatever type of ministry you have. If we are a "well-watered garden" we will draw others in and make the spiritual impact upon them that God has called us to do. Let us experience the blessing of a cooperative ministry outlook.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Heavenly
Father, in this age of competition and egocentricity help us to resist
the mindset of the world. We're tempted to focus on big numbers,
large budgets, expensive buildings, newest resources, impressive staff
and other worldly comparisons of those who share in this calling to
minister to our lost and dying world. When our focus is narrowed to
imitating or competing with other ministry groups we lose sight of the
One to whom we are honoring and our priorities become misaligned. We
want to thank You for the scores of people and ministries that are
making a tremendous spiritual impact for Your Kingdom, the vast
majority of whom are unheralded and unseen. As Your followers, move us
beyond pettiness, jealousy, and possessiveness to appreciate and affirm
those who might have a different way of presenting the Gospel as long
as it is in accordance with the Scripture. Help us to support and pray
for one another as we carry forth the light of God's Word. You
have called each one of us to lift up Your name and You will draw
people to Yourself. As we seek You above all else You will be our
daily guide and out of our hearts will flow abundant springs of living
water that will not run dry even in a drought stricken land. Amen.
The Lower Trail
Yesterday we joined some friends for a long bike ride on the Lower Trail in Central PA. We hope you enjoy some of the photos we took!
We joined Jay & Lu Kopp, Kay & Mike Book for a 12 mile ride. Brooksyne and I went beyond the initial ride and enjoyed a total of over 20 miles, the last mile included a rather wet shower which cooled us down right away.
A wood turtle (right)
Mike found a rat snake along the trail.
A suspension bridge in the mountains of central PA!
See here for more photos
Here's a photo of Brooksyne, Ester and me at Raystown Lake about ten years ago at the same overlook where our lead photo today was taken.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
Listen to this
message on
your
audio player."Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in Your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in My name can in the next moment say anything bad about Me, for whoever is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:38-40).
I heard an interesting illustration at the chaplain training conference I attended last week. The speaker was sharing how ranchers use several methods to keep steers together out west. Some ranchers build fences to keep the livestock in. This is quite expensive and requires a lot of maintenance. Others dig a deep watering hole with sufficient water. They've learned that the livestock will stay near the source of water.
This analogy is helpful concerning our outlook toward ministry. As we view our service for Christ and our spiritual impact on others we can either focus on building fences or digging wells.
Some churches and Christian organizations use their resources building fences. In this outlook other churches and similar ministries are seen as competition and a threat to their existing work. Sadly, a great percentage of time, energy, and expense is expended in merely building and maintaining the fences.
Other churches and Christian organizations use their resources digging wells to provide spiritual living water. This is surely a much more Christ-honoring strategy as we dig wells and encourage the partaking of life-giving water that people desperately need in the spiritually "sun-scorched land" in which we live.
I like that attitude in life, particularly in regard to ministry. I don't always see it though. Some churches, denominations and ministries are petty and exclusive. I once worked for a company that saw their "ministry" model as proprietary and any other similar expression posed a threat. But great churches and ministries whose major interest is the kingdom of God want to see the kingdom expanded, not restricted, or reflective only of their influence.
Today's verse has long intrigued me. The disciples had seen a man driving out demons in Christ's Name and told him to stop, apparently thinking they, alone, were doing the Lord's work. The problem, they expressed, was that "he was not one of us." That is; he was not one of the Twelve. They must have had a sense of having a proprietary use of His Name!
We wonder where this man driving out demons was from? We do know from other Scriptures that Christ had sent out the seventy and there were 120 that came together in the Upper Room. So there were others who spread the Gospel and performed miracles when Christ dwelt on this earth and ministered primarily with the twelve disciples. Where this man fit in is not specified, but apparently John and the other disciples saw his ministry as a threat. They reported this to the Lord and I think they had expected the Lord to pat them on the back and say with a smile and a nod, "Good job, boys."
But instead Christ essentially rebuked the disciples, "Do not stop him," and sets forth a great spiritual principle, "Whoever is not against us is for us." Now, in all honesty, I do not fully understand all of what Christ is saying here but I do know that it is a strong rebuke against any proprietary or exclusive sense of ministry.
I want to bless the many others who are serving Christ today. There are many ways we serve and some have ministries similar to ours. May the Lord bless them! We want to bless and assist them if possible. We want them to reach many for Christ that we will never reach. That's how Brooksyne and I want our life and ministry to be regarded and we encourage you to have the same attitude, whatever type of ministry you have. If we are a "well-watered garden" we will draw others in and make the spiritual impact upon them that God has called us to do. Let us experience the blessing of a cooperative ministry outlook.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Heavenly
Father, in this age of competition and egocentricity help us to resist
the mindset of the world. We're tempted to focus on big numbers,
large budgets, expensive buildings, newest resources, impressive staff
and other worldly comparisons of those who share in this calling to
minister to our lost and dying world. When our focus is narrowed to
imitating or competing with other ministry groups we lose sight of the
One to whom we are honoring and our priorities become misaligned. We
want to thank You for the scores of people and ministries that are
making a tremendous spiritual impact for Your Kingdom, the vast
majority of whom are unheralded and unseen. As Your followers, move us
beyond pettiness, jealousy, and possessiveness to appreciate and affirm
those who might have a different way of presenting the Gospel as long
as it is in accordance with the Scripture. Help us to support and pray
for one another as we carry forth the light of God's Word. You
have called each one of us to lift up Your name and You will draw
people to Yourself. As we seek You above all else You will be our
daily guide and out of our hearts will flow abundant springs of living
water that will not run dry even in a drought stricken land. Amen. The Lower Trail
Yesterday we joined some friends for a long bike ride on the Lower Trail in Central PA. We hope you enjoy some of the photos we took!
We joined Jay & Lu Kopp, Kay & Mike Book for a 12 mile ride. Brooksyne and I went beyond the initial ride and enjoyed a total of over 20 miles, the last mile included a rather wet shower which cooled us down right away.
A wood turtle (right)
Mike found a rat snake along the trail.
A suspension bridge in the mountains of central PA!
See here for more photos
Here's a photo of Brooksyne, Ester and me at Raystown Lake about ten years ago at the same overlook where our lead photo today was taken.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
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