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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 2013 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
<Previous Message Next Message>
Friday, August 30, 2013
Amish children sitting on fence rail on a warm, sunny afternoon.
Photo by Ester Weber
(Click on photo to enlarge)
"My Mission In Life"
Listen to this message on
your audio player.
"So we make it our goal to please Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9).
Early yesterday morning we visited some
Amish friends and then drove their children to school and saw a
pleasant sight. As we drove up to the one room schoolhouse a group of
children, boys and girls, were playing baseball. That brought back
memories for both of us from an increasingly long time ago. I remember
playing baseball out
behind our elementary school during recess or after school. Brooksyne
remembers playing softball (a bigger ball and the pitcher threw
underhanded rather than the overhanded baseball.)
Generally
speaking, my competitive athletic days are over but I can still have the competitive spirit in certain settings. Last weekend I
participated in a quoit tournament. I explained earlier this week that
quoits are similar to horseshoes but are round hard rubber disks. The
goal is to either get the quoit around the peg (three points) or stay
on the slate board (closest gets one point). It's harder than it looks
since a ringer is very hard to achieve and the rubber quoits easily
bounce off the slate boards.
We set a lot of goals whether or not we verbalize them. The term "goal" is used a lot in sports but we also speak of financial goals, career goals, and so forth. Today we want to consider the ultimate goal we are to have as Christians.
Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias on his broadcast "A Slice of Infinity" has challenged believers to
follow the model of many corporations and local churches and develop a
personal mission statement.
I formulated my own, but the difficulty for me
in this matter was staying succinct. There are so many Scripture verses
I wanted to incorporate into the statement that I tend to lose the
brevity and focus
that characterizes a mission statement.
Here's the one I have used for many years: "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 prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
The daily verse is a goal that the Apostle Paul had for both himself and his readers which was initially the Corinthians; notice the first person plural pronoun "we". I believe as part of the Holy Scriptures this includes us. It is one of the first verses of Scripture I memorized as a young man. "So we make it our goal to please Him." That's a great single phrase mission statement! Other versions translate the phrase, "Therefore we also have as our ambition to be pleasing to Him" (NASV). "We make it our aim to please Him" (ESV).
The word translated "goal" means "to devote one's self zealously to a cause". It suggests eager, continuing efforts for something that is good. I believe the Amplified Bible expresses this sense well: "We are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him."
A lifelong pursuit in life for the redeemed is finding out what pleases the Lord. By God's grace it remains a simple expression of my outlook on life. The quest to find out what pleases the Lord is ongoing. Although God's written revelation in the Bible regarding what pleases Him is unchangeable, new challenges in different contexts are always set before us. Doing the right thing requires discernment and building a solid foundation so that you know that which He prohibits, and that which He finds pleasing. It is for our own good and for His glory. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:10, "find out what pleases the Lord."
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father,
I make it my goal to please You. So many goals
I make reap rewards that last only a season, but when I set goals for
righteous
living the rewards last not only for this life, but for all of
eternity. In setting my goals help me to be willing to lay aside
that
which hinders and the sin that so easily entangles so that I will reap
a harvest of righteousness and peace. I want my primary
goal to
be that which pleases You, and the only way I can learn about that is
to read and heed the Scriptures. My overall goal is to persevere to the
very end of this life so that when I enter the other side I hear these
words of commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Amen.
Photos from an Amish farm
Yesterday while we went about our chaplain work Ester stayed with our Amish friends and took some photos including our lead photo of the children sitting on a fence post.
I sure hope a strong fence was separating Ester from this Holstein bull when she snapped this photo! She told us she was thinking of Brooksyne's Uncle Carroll Sherrell from Arkansas who was recently attacked by a bull that broke through a fence. It resulted in his having surgery and will undergo a long recovery from the brutal attack. He's farmed over 50 years and this is the first such attack that we're aware of.
Storage shed and new trampoline in the background.
Yesterday afternoon when we went back to the farm to pick up Ester Jesse was harvesting corn silage. He smiled and gestured for us to look up at the top of the silo.
Ah, the joys and potential dangers of growing up on a working farm!
Last year we shared a message about "The Cooperative Harvest" along with a series of photos explaining how the Amish harvest corn for silage. See here.
Last night we gathered with families in the small group from our church that has met for over seven years. We enjoyed a cookout on the farm and David rang the dinner bell. Some Ma and Pa Kettle fans will remember Ma calling her's and Pa's dozen or so children to dinner everyday by yelling very loudly,"Come and Get It". She tried to be prim and proper a few times using a gentle voice but not one child would show up. Can you remember how you were called to dinner as a child?
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
Amish children sitting on fence rail on a warm, sunny afternoon.
Photo by Ester Weber
(Click on photo to enlarge)
"My Mission In Life"
Listen to this message on
your audio player."So we make it our goal to please Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9).
Early yesterday morning we visited some
Amish friends and then drove their children to school and saw a
pleasant sight. As we drove up to the one room schoolhouse a group of
children, boys and girls, were playing baseball. That brought back
memories for both of us from an increasingly long time ago. I remember
playing baseball out
behind our elementary school during recess or after school. Brooksyne
remembers playing softball (a bigger ball and the pitcher threw
underhanded rather than the overhanded baseball.)Generally
speaking, my competitive athletic days are over but I can still have the competitive spirit in certain settings. Last weekend I
participated in a quoit tournament. I explained earlier this week that
quoits are similar to horseshoes but are round hard rubber disks. The
goal is to either get the quoit around the peg (three points) or stay
on the slate board (closest gets one point). It's harder than it looks
since a ringer is very hard to achieve and the rubber quoits easily
bounce off the slate boards.We set a lot of goals whether or not we verbalize them. The term "goal" is used a lot in sports but we also speak of financial goals, career goals, and so forth. Today we want to consider the ultimate goal we are to have as Christians.
Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias on his broadcast "A Slice of Infinity" has challenged believers to
follow the model of many corporations and local churches and develop a
personal mission statement.
I formulated my own, but the difficulty for me
in this matter was staying succinct. There are so many Scripture verses
I wanted to incorporate into the statement that I tend to lose the
brevity and focus
that characterizes a mission statement. Here's the one I have used for many years: "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 prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
The daily verse is a goal that the Apostle Paul had for both himself and his readers which was initially the Corinthians; notice the first person plural pronoun "we". I believe as part of the Holy Scriptures this includes us. It is one of the first verses of Scripture I memorized as a young man. "So we make it our goal to please Him." That's a great single phrase mission statement! Other versions translate the phrase, "Therefore we also have as our ambition to be pleasing to Him" (NASV). "We make it our aim to please Him" (ESV).
The word translated "goal" means "to devote one's self zealously to a cause". It suggests eager, continuing efforts for something that is good. I believe the Amplified Bible expresses this sense well: "We are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him."
A lifelong pursuit in life for the redeemed is finding out what pleases the Lord. By God's grace it remains a simple expression of my outlook on life. The quest to find out what pleases the Lord is ongoing. Although God's written revelation in the Bible regarding what pleases Him is unchangeable, new challenges in different contexts are always set before us. Doing the right thing requires discernment and building a solid foundation so that you know that which He prohibits, and that which He finds pleasing. It is for our own good and for His glory. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:10, "find out what pleases the Lord."
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father,
I make it my goal to please You. So many goals
I make reap rewards that last only a season, but when I set goals for
righteous
living the rewards last not only for this life, but for all of
eternity. In setting my goals help me to be willing to lay aside
that
which hinders and the sin that so easily entangles so that I will reap
a harvest of righteousness and peace. I want my primary
goal to
be that which pleases You, and the only way I can learn about that is
to read and heed the Scriptures. My overall goal is to persevere to the
very end of this life so that when I enter the other side I hear these
words of commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Amen.Photos from an Amish farm
Yesterday while we went about our chaplain work Ester stayed with our Amish friends and took some photos including our lead photo of the children sitting on a fence post.
I sure hope a strong fence was separating Ester from this Holstein bull when she snapped this photo! She told us she was thinking of Brooksyne's Uncle Carroll Sherrell from Arkansas who was recently attacked by a bull that broke through a fence. It resulted in his having surgery and will undergo a long recovery from the brutal attack. He's farmed over 50 years and this is the first such attack that we're aware of.
Storage shed and new trampoline in the background.
Yesterday afternoon when we went back to the farm to pick up Ester Jesse was harvesting corn silage. He smiled and gestured for us to look up at the top of the silo.
Ah, the joys and potential dangers of growing up on a working farm!
Last year we shared a message about "The Cooperative Harvest" along with a series of photos explaining how the Amish harvest corn for silage. See here.
Last night we gathered with families in the small group from our church that has met for over seven years. We enjoyed a cookout on the farm and David rang the dinner bell. Some Ma and Pa Kettle fans will remember Ma calling her's and Pa's dozen or so children to dinner everyday by yelling very loudly,"Come and Get It". She tried to be prim and proper a few times using a gentle voice but not one child would show up. Can you remember how you were called to dinner as a child?
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 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 2013 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA