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Tuesday, September 24, 2013
These horses are enjoying the green pasture on a farm around the corner from our house at the junction of Colebrook and Kraybill Church Road.
Click on photo for a larger view, along with today's Scripture text.
"Enjoying Safe Pasture"
Listen to this message on
your audio player.
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:3,4). "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3). "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).
I took today's photo of the horses about a mile from our house. It's a peaceful pasture with beautiful fencing and lush green grass for the horses to graze. They appear quite content and well cared for.
Pasture is land with vegetation cover used for grazing of livestock as part of a farm or ranch. We don't have as much land used for pasture here in Lancaster County as I was accustomed to in southern Missouri or Brooksyne was while living in Oklahoma, since most of the ground in this area is tilled and planted in crops.
My Uncle Gentry had a farm (photo above) in southern Missouri with lots of pasture
land where we often took tractor rides. He was a colorful man with a folksy sense
of humor who referred to golf as "cow pasture pool". (Fellow Missourian
Mark Twain called golf "a good walk spoiled".)
While driving along we always enjoy the wholesome sight of livestock grazing in pasture land and
today's photo is the quintessential view. In today's verses the
Psalmist David, as in Psalm 23, uses agricultural illustrations to
connect to his readers.
"Trust in the Lord and do good." He begins with this familiar exhortation which is such a common theme through the Scriptures and is reflected in the lyrics of the classic hymn, "Trust and obey". This is at the very heart of what God calls each of us to do in our earthly journey.
"Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." Surely David is foundationally speaking from a spiritual perspective. Safe pasture connotes security, abundance, and faithfulness. A footnote in the NASV indicates that David is giving counsel to his readers to, "feed securely or feed on His faithfulness." The Amplified Bible directs the reader to, "feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed."
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." We can admire a person from a distance for his or her beauty, talent, skills or accomplishments. But to delight in a person holds deeper meaning since it suggests strong emotional involvement, not a distant admiration.
To delight ourselves in the Lord is to desire and enjoy His nearness
and the truth and righteousness of His Word. As we develop and nurture
this kind of relationship with God we surrender our desires to Him so
that they are in accordance to His will. The desires that flow from our
heart will be greatly influenced or originate from His abiding presence
in our hearts.
The same deep satisfaction that David referred to 3,000 years ago may also be ours today as we regularly delight ourselves in the Lord. It is in this place of safe pasture that the desires of our heart will be shaped by our loving Lord as we feed on His abundance and live by His principles.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father, we place our complete trust in You, for You
are a faithful, trustworthy, and loving God. As we feed on Your
faithfulness and live by Your righteousness revealed to us through the
Scriptures we find ourselves delighting in Your presence. We also
delight in You when we sing praises, when we give ourselves in service
to others, and most especially when we commune with You in prayer. May
the desires of our heart bring delight to Yours as we conform ourselves
to Your will and rid ourselves of that which lures us from the safe
pasture You have abundantly supplied for those who believe. Amen.
This morning we heard from a reader in Kenya: "Thank you for remembering my dear country Kenya in prayer following following an attack by terrorists at a shopping mall in our capital city. This caused loss of lives to innocent people. God Almighty is our is our refuge in this trying moment."
Indeed let us remember our brothers and sisters all over the world who face increasing persecution for their faith. (Hebrews 13:3)
Family Note:
Today Ester will have her heart pacemaker replaced at Hershey Medical
Center. The procedure is scheduled to be completed today as outpatient
surgery assuming that the
leads that are attached to her heart are still good which the
monitoring indicates is the case. She will have the same pediatric
cardiologist that she saw as a baby perform the procedure. We would
appreciate your prayers on
this matter and will share an update tomorrow. Her present pacemaker
has lasted just over seven years (since August of 2006) and has given
excellent performance.
The photo shows Ester with one of her favorite characters as a child, the Donut Man whom we saw on Sept. 14th at Crestview Farm! She was thrilled to finally meet him in person.
We passed these baby lambs out in pasture this last Spring on an Amish farm in eastern Lancaster County.
These young lambs are in a pasture on Musser Road, near our home.
This summer we saw these cattle grazing in a Missouri pasture near the farm mentioned above. They were sure enjoying the freshly baled hay.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"Green Pastures" Video Fernando Ortega
"I Will Delight" Video Fernando Ortega
"In Shady Green Pastures" Video Bill Gaither Trio
"God Leads Us Along" Video Mennonite Singers
"Shady Green Pastures" Video Grace Thrillers
"From the East Unto the West" Video Odes Project
The Donut Man
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
<Previous Message Next Message>
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
These horses are enjoying the green pasture on a farm around the corner from our house at the junction of Colebrook and Kraybill Church Road.
Click on photo for a larger view, along with today's Scripture text.
"Enjoying Safe Pasture"
Listen to this message on
your audio player."Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:3,4). "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3). "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).
The Lord my pasture shall prepare
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks He shall attend
And all my midnight hours defend.
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks He shall attend
And all my midnight hours defend.
I took today's photo of the horses about a mile from our house. It's a peaceful pasture with beautiful fencing and lush green grass for the horses to graze. They appear quite content and well cared for.
Pasture is land with vegetation cover used for grazing of livestock as part of a farm or ranch. We don't have as much land used for pasture here in Lancaster County as I was accustomed to in southern Missouri or Brooksyne was while living in Oklahoma, since most of the ground in this area is tilled and planted in crops.
While driving along we always enjoy the wholesome sight of livestock grazing in pasture land and
today's photo is the quintessential view. In today's verses the
Psalmist David, as in Psalm 23, uses agricultural illustrations to
connect to his readers. "Trust in the Lord and do good." He begins with this familiar exhortation which is such a common theme through the Scriptures and is reflected in the lyrics of the classic hymn, "Trust and obey". This is at the very heart of what God calls each of us to do in our earthly journey.
"Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." Surely David is foundationally speaking from a spiritual perspective. Safe pasture connotes security, abundance, and faithfulness. A footnote in the NASV indicates that David is giving counsel to his readers to, "feed securely or feed on His faithfulness." The Amplified Bible directs the reader to, "feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed."
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." We can admire a person from a distance for his or her beauty, talent, skills or accomplishments. But to delight in a person holds deeper meaning since it suggests strong emotional involvement, not a distant admiration.
To delight ourselves in the Lord is to desire and enjoy His nearness
and the truth and righteousness of His Word. As we develop and nurture
this kind of relationship with God we surrender our desires to Him so
that they are in accordance to His will. The desires that flow from our
heart will be greatly influenced or originate from His abiding presence
in our hearts.The same deep satisfaction that David referred to 3,000 years ago may also be ours today as we regularly delight ourselves in the Lord. It is in this place of safe pasture that the desires of our heart will be shaped by our loving Lord as we feed on His abundance and live by His principles.
In God’s green pastures feeding by His cool waters lie;
Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I,
All the sheep of His pasture
Fare so wondrously fine; His sheep am I.
Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I,
All the sheep of His pasture
Fare so wondrously fine; His sheep am I.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father, we place our complete trust in You, for You
are a faithful, trustworthy, and loving God. As we feed on Your
faithfulness and live by Your righteousness revealed to us through the
Scriptures we find ourselves delighting in Your presence. We also
delight in You when we sing praises, when we give ourselves in service
to others, and most especially when we commune with You in prayer. May
the desires of our heart bring delight to Yours as we conform ourselves
to Your will and rid ourselves of that which lures us from the safe
pasture You have abundantly supplied for those who believe. Amen.This morning we heard from a reader in Kenya: "Thank you for remembering my dear country Kenya in prayer following following an attack by terrorists at a shopping mall in our capital city. This caused loss of lives to innocent people. God Almighty is our is our refuge in this trying moment."
Indeed let us remember our brothers and sisters all over the world who face increasing persecution for their faith. (Hebrews 13:3)
Family Note:
Today Ester will have her heart pacemaker replaced at Hershey Medical
Center. The procedure is scheduled to be completed today as outpatient
surgery assuming that the
leads that are attached to her heart are still good which the
monitoring indicates is the case. She will have the same pediatric
cardiologist that she saw as a baby perform the procedure. We would
appreciate your prayers on
this matter and will share an update tomorrow. Her present pacemaker
has lasted just over seven years (since August of 2006) and has given
excellent performance.The photo shows Ester with one of her favorite characters as a child, the Donut Man whom we saw on Sept. 14th at Crestview Farm! She was thrilled to finally meet him in person.
We passed these baby lambs out in pasture this last Spring on an Amish farm in eastern Lancaster County.
These young lambs are in a pasture on Musser Road, near our home.
This summer we saw these cattle grazing in a Missouri pasture near the farm mentioned above. They were sure enjoying the freshly baled hay.
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"Green Pastures" Video Fernando Ortega
"I Will Delight" Video Fernando Ortega
"In Shady Green Pastures" Video Bill Gaither Trio
"God Leads Us Along" Video Mennonite Singers
"Shady Green Pastures" Video Grace Thrillers
"From the East Unto the West" Video Odes Project
The Donut Man
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