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<Previous Message Next Message> Friday, August 21, 2015 A waterfall at the Pine Creek Rail Trail "Spiritual Vitamins"
"You can't break God's promises by leaning on them!"
Listen to this message on your audio player. "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made" (Psalm 145:13). "See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (Hebrews 12:25-28). Yesterday I received a prayer request from Jim, a friend whose world is suddenly shaking. His daughter had a fall and injured her head. While in the hospital her liver shut-down and is not functioning. He and his wife were headed to a distant city to be with her, uncertain of all that is taking place right now. How quickly life can move from routine to crisis! I have another friend who has an interesting perspective in describing encouragement. After a brief visit he stated that our conversation had been like a daily vitamin! Vitamins are often considered supplements. That is, they supplement our main diet. However, regardless of the quality of our supplements they do not replace a good overall diet. We would be foolish expecting a daily vitamin to sustain all our dietary needs. We would also be very hungry! It's that way for our spiritual being as well. We are blessed with many spiritual supplements such as devotionals, music, quality radio programs and material on the internet. We hope our daily encouragement messages are like vitamin supplements to encourage and instruct you each weekday, by providing some vitamins and supplements for your soul. Vitamins, although in some cases therapeutic in nature, are generally intended to be more preventive and have the effect of strengthening us even when we are in good health and doing well. One of the greatest perspectives we can have is a daily recognition of God's faithful and abundant blessings and the absolute veracity of God's promises. In the physical realm these blessings vary greatly among us. Some have better health than others, others more of this world's goods, and there are those who have greater or more frequent heartaches. We especially consider those who deal with chronic matters such as a reader we periodically hear from who has two special needs adult children she cares for and others who have chronic and critical illnesses. We also consider this in regard to our religious freedoms. Some may practice their faith with almost complete freedom, unhindered by any government restrictions. But others pay a great cost in practicing their faith with persecution their lot in life. Because we live in the physical realm we inevitably tend to place our focus on the physical. Nevertheless, how quickly these things can change! Any security we have in the physical world is very tenuous. We all know that the "steady" job can quickly vanish. An unfaithful spouse, a tragic accident or medical diagnosis can alter our present and future plans instantly. Then we consider world conditions! This much is sure, we really have no guarantees of security in regard to the physical realm. But in the spiritual realm our security is absolute with no deficiency whatsoever. These blessings are safe and abundantly adequate regardless of where we live or how "blessed" we happen to be in the physical realm. My Christian brother or sister reading this in Africa, India or anywhere else on this planet is equally blessed with me in the spiritual realm. Just consider the horrific physical conditions of Christians in Syria and Iraq. What a tremendously assuring truth is expressed in our daily verse. These are 3,000 year old words written by King David: "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made" (Psalm 145:13). The first part of the verse is classic Hebrew parallelism, a great reinforcement of the reality of God's eternal Kingdom.
For those like our friend Jim who are presently encountering a shaking that reveals the insecurity of this present world, we pray that today's daily encouragement vitamin has a therapeutic impact. For those living in relative peace and security may it have a preventive impact, for a drastic shaking may come at any time. Let us consider the altogether abundant blessings and promises of God: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). Declare with us today, "We will stand on every promise of God's Word!"
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber Daily prayer: Father, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations right down to our own. You are faithful to all Your promises and loving toward all that You have made so we rely on Your faithfulness and love to guide us and hold us firm when the world around us is shaking. When fear and doubt preoccupy our thoughts turn our minds instead to Scripture that speaks of Your many promises reminding us that You will never fail us and You will never forsake us but You will graciously give us all things to build us up and grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For spiritual nurturing we feed daily on Your Word. And for vitamins we enjoy many other godly sources that strengthen our Christian sojourn here below. In the name of Jesus we thank You for all that You provide. Amen. Today we share our final set of photos from our trip last weekend to Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon. These steps went up from the Pine Creek trail to the rim on a path called the Turkey Path. Turkey Path - At the top of these stairs heading up to Turkey Path was this gentle and approachable three-level waterfall. If you were hot and sweaty, as long as you exercised great caution walking on the wet rocks, you could actually shower under the falls. Do you enjoy the sound of moving water in a waterfall? We sure do! Brooksyne took this short video of a small waterfall along the Pine Creek trail. I need to learn how to place this on a continual loop to sleep by! Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" Video Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound "Standing On The Promises" Video Chuck Wagon Gang (dedicated to my pastor since this is his favorite group) "Promise Of The Ages" Video Stuart Townend "Every Promise of Your Word" Video Keith and Kristyn Getty 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 |