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Friday,
November 20,
2020
We passed these outhouses for sale near New
Holland, PA
"Everything
We Need"
Message summary: Let us live with the assurance today that God provides for us everything we have need of and may that also help us to be content.
Listen
to this message on your audio player."I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (Philippians 4:11,12). "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). "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).
Yesterday was "World Toilet
Day", a United Nations Observance that celebrates
toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion
people living without access to safely managed
sanitation. I (Stephen) have never lived in a home
without inside plumbing. However, when Brooksyne's
family moved to a newly developed country setting
near Tulsa, their septic was not properly installed
on their 5 acre plot of land and they used an
outdoor toilet for several years.During our lifetime toilets really haven't changed that much. They use less water now, may have the elongated seat style, and may even have a taller bowl that's easier on the knee bending as one gets older. The soft close (non-slamming) feature was sure an improvement, especially if you live in a mixed gender household!
My grandparents used an outhouse until they were in their sixties when my dad, who was a plumber, installed inside plumbing in their home resulting in a small single bath. When I consider the scores of family members who gathered in that little white frame house on holidays it was almost always occupied. It's a good thing the outhouse was still available for those big gatherings!
We, like most of you living here in America always get sales fliers in the mail but it is increasing as it always does as we approach "Black Friday" and the holiday shopping season.
Several days ago I was perusing a Costco sales booklet and saw an item I never heard of, a "smart toilet". Ever since the iPhone we've seen an abundance of the term "smart" before a product. We have smart watches, smart lights and on and on. Before that it seems "smart" was applied to people or a canine like the border collie. It was also used to describe an aleck which most of us have encountered a few times in life.
Smart toilets are expensive and
have various features that can drive the price up to
over $10,000 such as the model shown to the right.
(Kohler uses the term "intelligent toilet". After
all "intelligent" sounds much more sophisticated
than "smart"). The site
asks, "When was the last time your toilet made you
feel like royalty?" and informs, "Once you
experience an intelligent toilet, you’ll wonder how
you ever lived without one." I'm not ever going to
have to wonder about that since I'm not buying one.
The smart features really don't interest me, such as
a remote control and bluetooth. Really, I just can't
see the value in a remote control to flush the
toilet and bluetooth? Who wants their bathroom
practices connected to the cloud and just consider
what hackers could do!
Joe Guglielmo observed, "Some one hundred years ago
it was determined that the average American had
about 70 wants, things he desired to have. A similar
survey was taken of his grandson who had nearly 500
wants on his list and today, I’m sure that number is
even higher. Why? Because people are not content in
what they have!"
Contentment is never the result of greater riches, more things, increasing pleasures, or gaining fame. All these only incite discontent, for when one obtains them, he finds he still is not satisfied. Contentment does not depend upon things on the outside, but results from attitudes within one's heart and mind!
The late Bible teacher Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) comments,
Contentment is never the result of greater riches, more things, increasing pleasures, or gaining fame. All these only incite discontent, for when one obtains them, he finds he still is not satisfied. Contentment does not depend upon things on the outside, but results from attitudes within one's heart and mind!
The late Bible teacher Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) comments,
"CHRIST is enough to satisfy the hearts
of all who confide in Him and who leave everything
in His hands. Such need never be cast down by
seeming misfortunes. A Christian asked another how
he was getting along. Dolefully his friend
replied, "Oh, fairly well, under the
circumstances." "I am sorry," exclaimed the other,
"that you are under the circumstances. The LORD
would have us living above all circumstances,
where He Himself can satisfy our hearts and meet
our every need for time and eternity."
Let
us consider a great verse from Romans. "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?" God "did
not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all".
This alone should prompt our deepest eternal
gratitude. If this was all God did for us it would
be far more than enough and infinitely more than we
deserve.But the apostle Paul goes on to declare, "How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" The clearly expected answer to this rhetorical question is, He will! He will fulfill His eternal purpose for our lives and that which brings Him glory. Peter puts it this way, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).
Let us live with the assurance today that God provides for us everything we have need of and may that also help us to be content.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Father, we are
deeply grateful that You did not spare Your own Son,
but surrendered Him so that we might have salvation.
Not only is our salvation provided but You provide
graciously for everything we need. Help us to learn
the difference between wants and needs. In the
process may we learn to be content and thankful in
times of plenty and in times of want, trusting You
to provide for our needs, often for our comforts,
and most of all for that which matures us in the
faith. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen."All
That I Need" Video Sovereign
Grace Music
"All
I Have Is Christ" Video Sovereign
Grace Music
The
Kohler lineup of
"intelligent toilets".
Beverlee, a friend of my Mom's and reader from Missouri responded regarding yesterday's message and how mushrooms are grown: Did you ever consider how apple cider is made? My gramma wouldn't drink cider because her father had a cider mill and she saw people bring in soft, rotten, wormy apples to be processed behind his grocery store. I refused mushrooms until adulthood after seeing my tonsils preserved in a specimen bottle after my 1956 tonsillectomy. Why? They looked like mushrooms floating in formaldehyde. I threw them away in 2013 when my parents died.
Stephen's note: This spurred a memory of my very colorful PaPa keeping a huge intestinal tapeworm my Mom passed as a child in a jar of formaldehyde on a shelf in the back room of the small town country bank that he was the president of. All through my childhood everyone got to look at the jar surely much to my Mom's embarrassment!
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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."
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."
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Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA