A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope,
encouragement and exhortation.
Daily
Encouragement on
Thursday,
February 14, 2019
"Abiding
Love"
A
Valentine's Day Message
Message
summary:
Carrying out our promise
to love our spouse "for
better or for worse, in
sickness and in health,
for richer or for poorer
till death do us part"
is the greatest
demonstration of one
whose love has matured
from that of romantic
love to that of a tested
abiding love. Think
about that this
Valentine's Day!
Listen to our
message on your audio
player.
"So she became his wife, and he loved her" (Genesis 24:67).
Today is Valentine's Day when we celebrate romantic love. There's no shortage of photos and stories of young love, couples in the springtime of their relationship; vibrant, strong, and attractive.
For several weeks we've been inundated with ads for flowers, candy, teddy bears and jewelry; tangible expressions of our love for each other. I remember well the first years of my relationship with Brooksyne and the romance that drew us together and eventually the maturing love that has kept us together resulting in our 42 years of marriage.
Today we want to share a story that goes beyond that of initial romance to one of abiding love expressed in a very tangible way:
Bill Fernan
is one of many treasured
friends we've known
through our journey of
life. He and his wife,
Lenore, lived in the
mountains of northern
Pennsylvania in a
spacious farmhouse with
a large barn behind it.
He was a retired
engineer (at one time
the chief engineer for a
large corporation) and
inventor who was always
designing something new
and original. We were
amazed the day he showed
us his own nautilus type
fitness center he'd
designed and built using
bricks as weights. When
we tried it out we were
impressed by the heavy
amount of weight the
bricks weighed when we
tried to lift them.
Nearly eighty years of
age, he was a thin man
but strong, because he
worked out on a daily
basis. Brooksyne made
frequent visits to see
Bill who made custom
mats and beautiful
wooden frames in a room
off his large
barn. She and Bill
did a little bartering;
he'd make mats and
frames for her cross
stitching projects and
she'd do calligraphy for
select pictures he was
framing.
Later in life Lenore had a debilitating stroke and instead of admitting her to the nursing home Bill chose to lovingly care for her at home as long as he was able. That's why he had built the nautilus so he could gain enough strength to lift her, turn her over, change her (this was before adult diapers), feed her, and every three or four hours day and night, Bill would gently turn her over so she wouldn't get bed sores.
Several years later when he was finally forced to place her in a nursing home Bill told us he would still awaken each night at the hour he was accustomed to turning her. While we were living in Massachusetts we received word that our greatly respected friend, Bill Fernan, had passed away. He was in his mid-eighties at the time of his death. His wife was still living and being cared for in a nursing home until she passed away a year later. What a loving legacy Bill left for his children, in the way we are to lovingly devote ourselves to our spouses not just in their youth but "till death do us part".
Later in life Lenore had a debilitating stroke and instead of admitting her to the nursing home Bill chose to lovingly care for her at home as long as he was able. That's why he had built the nautilus so he could gain enough strength to lift her, turn her over, change her (this was before adult diapers), feed her, and every three or four hours day and night, Bill would gently turn her over so she wouldn't get bed sores.
Several years later when he was finally forced to place her in a nursing home Bill told us he would still awaken each night at the hour he was accustomed to turning her. While we were living in Massachusetts we received word that our greatly respected friend, Bill Fernan, had passed away. He was in his mid-eighties at the time of his death. His wife was still living and being cared for in a nursing home until she passed away a year later. What a loving legacy Bill left for his children, in the way we are to lovingly devote ourselves to our spouses not just in their youth but "till death do us part".
Let's consider another enduring love story over 4,000 years old. According to our western customs Isaac had a most unusual courtship. His was clearly an arranged marriage, dutifully executed by Abraham's faithful servant, and thoroughly recorded in Genesis 24 (which happens to be the longest chapter in Genesis.) Isaac had just met Rebekah on the occasion of our daily verse and I'm intrigued by the phrase "he loved her".
This is the first time this expression is found in Scripture and indeed Isaac and Rebekah began a long and eventful life together marked by lasting marital love. Although we don't know how old Rebekah was when she died, we are told that Isaac married at 40 and lived until he was 180! Scripture records that they were buried together.
Isaac's love for Rebekah is further demonstrated when he prays for her on the occasion of her barrenness (Genesis 25:21).
In a rather interesting and perhaps overlooked detail Scripture records the two expressing their love for one another in a passionate embrace (26:8). (The KJV uses the word "sporting", the NIV "caressing".)
Still later we find the aging couple agonizing over the bad decisions their children had made (26:35, 27:46). That's sure a timeless agony parents of all generations continue to deal with. We often pray with broken-hearted parents concerning poor choices made by their child(ren).
Like any marriage there was some conflict in Isaac and Rebekah's home and much overcoming, yet their marriage endured the storms of life. They surely had many of the same challenges married couples face today. They likely differed in their interests, personalities and temperament. They dealt with infertility, sibling rivalry, favoritism and grief over their son Esau's marriages. Our last glimpse into Rebekah's life shows her and Isaac heartbroken as they send their son Jacob off to get a wife from her relative's clan hoping for the best.
What do you mentally picture when it comes to marital love? The passion of newlyweds, a young couple as they push their newborn baby in a stroller, a middle-aged couple like us still holding hands in public or an 80-year-old as he regularly turns his invalid wife to prevent bedsores?
Look at the daily verse. Do you remember the words to a song, "Put a little love in your heart and the world will be a better place!" What would our present world look like if husbands and wives everywhere genuinely loved their spouses with an enduring and sacrificial love like Bill Fernan demonstrated to his wife, Lenore? Flowers, jewelry, and candies are nice gifts that warmly say "I'm thinking of you this Valentine's Day."
But carrying out our promise to love our spouse "for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer till death do us part" is the greatest demonstration of one whose love has matured from that of romantic love to that of a tested, abiding love. Think about that this Valentine's Day!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer:
Father, Your
love for us is
most visible in
the great
sacrifice You
made in giving
us Your only Son
to die for our
sins. John
writes, "God is
love" and it is
Your love for us
that shows us
how to love one
another. The
love we have for
our spouse
doesn't always
bring about a
warm, fuzzy
feeling but at
times is costly
requiring great
sacrifice. Help
us to take our
vows seriously
and carry out
that which we
promise so that
our tested love
becomes an
enduring love.
As we do so, we
honor the
sacrament of
marriage that
You ordained, we
honor our
spouse, we are
an example to
others
especially our
children, and we
fulfill the
Scriptural
command to be
faithful to our
mate. Amen.More
photos from our
drive through
Lancaster and
Lebanon counties
yesterday
morning.
Today's
Suggested
Music and Supplemental Resources
"Put
A Little Love In Your Heart"
Video
Classroom Classics version
Yesterday
we shared a story about
sharing a tract with a
homeless man. This prompted a
memory from a reader named
Duke:
I
had exited the car having just
pulled into my driveway during a
late night blustery snow storm.
A known drug dealer down the
street from our prior residence
came running up to me out of
nowhere at this point. I had
personally never met him, but
the police were regular visitors
of his. As he ran up, I simply
pulled out a Christian tract
from my pocket and handed it to
him while stating "God's going
to speak to you from this!" He
said "I know He will!" He then
turned and ran back off into the
blizzard with nothing more being
said. We can hope he repented
and believed on Jesus Christ!
Finally today:
I
bought this mug last fall when
we visited the Intel
headquarters visitor's center in
Santa Clara, California. Today I
will give it to a programmer who
works with code all day long.
This is an example of the
digital code that runs on our
computers.
Can
anyone tell me what this says?
01100110011011110111001000100000010010010010000001101011011011100110111101110111
00100000011101110110100001101111011011010010000001001001001000000110100001100001
01110110011001010010000001100010011001010110110001101001011001010111011001100101
01100100001011000010000001100001011011100110010000100000011000010110110100100000
01110000011001010111001001110011011101010110000101100100011001010110010000100000
01110100011010000110000101110100001000000110100001100101001000000110100101110011
00100000011000010110001001101100011001010010000001110100011011110010000001101011
01100101011001010111000000100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001110111
01101000011010010110001101101000001000000100100100100000011010000110000101110110
01100101001000000110001101101111011011010110110101101001011101000111010001100101
01100100001000000111010101101110011101000110111100100000011010000110100101101101
00100000011000010110011101100001011010010110111001110011011101000010000001110100
0110100001100001011101000010000001100100011000010111100100101110
00100000011101110110100001101111011011010010000001001001001000000110100001100001
01110110011001010010000001100010011001010110110001101001011001010111011001100101
01100100001011000010000001100001011011100110010000100000011000010110110100100000
01110000011001010111001001110011011101010110000101100100011001010110010000100000
01110100011010000110000101110100001000000110100001100101001000000110100101110011
00100000011000010110001001101100011001010010000001110100011011110010000001101011
01100101011001010111000000100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001110111
01101000011010010110001101101000001000000100100100100000011010000110000101110110
01100101001000000110001101101111011011010110110101101001011101000111010001100101
01100100001000000111010101101110011101000110111100100000011010000110100101101101
00100000011000010110011101100001011010010110111001110011011101000010000001110100
0110100001100001011101000010000001100100011000010111100100101110
Hint:
It's one of my favorite
Scripture verses. I am glad I
didn't have to memorize it this
way!
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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."
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