Daily Encouragement

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Potato harvest is a labor intensive family affair on the old-order farms. We passed these hard workers on our bike ride Monday along Middle Creek Road. We counted at least ten working the field, including children. It reminded Brooksyne of her summers in Arkansas when she and her cousins would help their grandpa harvest the potatoes in the field. Sometimes it turned into a "playfest" when they'd find a rotten potato, toss it at their cousins, and then get into "tater fights". The boys always won!

Click on photo to enlarge

"Mansion Builder"

Message summary: Fellow believer, wherever you live, whatever you’re going through; stay faithful to the Mansion Builder, for the Mansion Builder is ever faithful to us. “Do not throw away your confidence, for it will be richly rewarded” (Hebrews 10:35).

Listen to this message on your audio player.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

The other day Brooksyne spoke to a friend who was excited about a forthcoming vacation at Pigeon Forge where she would have what we consider a rather unusual lodging experience known as glamping. Glamping is a portmanteau combining the words glamorous and camping. It is a form of camping involving accommodation and facilities way more luxurious than those associated with traditional camping, especially our experiences of pup tent camping in our younger years! It's also way more expensive as well!

Glamping accommodations can include anything from beautiful canvas tents to giant treehouses and more, and there are glamping destinations all over the world. The website uniquesleeps.com explains, "Unlike traditional camping, which usually involves little more than sleeping outdoors in a tent and cooking on an open fire, glamping allows you to enjoy all the great outdoors has to offer in style and comfort." Not exactly a mansion, but you might call it a glampsion!

When we go on our eternal vacation Scripture gives us some idea of our future accommodations. It will surely be far better than glamping! The KJV describes our abode as a mansion in John 14:2 but some versions scale it down to a mere dwelling place. Either way we can be assured it will be a good place. Any place where sin cannot enter is a great place to dwell!

“A Child Of The King”, an old hymn of the church states, “A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there.”

God is the Master Builder. Scripture testifies to His creation build, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed (or built) at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

He’s also at work preparing a place that people of faith through the generations have been anticipating. In the first daily text I rejoice in the line that states, "if it were not so, I would have told you". Jesus always tells us the truth and just what we need to know.

Like Abraham, the great man of faith, we also "look forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God". We only have glimpses of what this "city" will be like, but we are assured that it will be indescribably wonderful. “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

He’s also at work building His church and transforming the individual lives of all who turn to Him in faith and obedience.

Today on the personal level some of you are dealing with what appears to be a lapse in the building program. Today we have on our hearts friends from our Sunday School class whose son continues to deal with an extremely painful, debilitating disease with no resolution in sight.

At times it may even seem that God has abandoned His building project in your life. Your prayers seem to be unanswered. Issues in your life aren’t getting resolved as you would like. There may be strife in your marriage and home. Some are dealing with a long-standing stronghold of pornography or other destructive vices they’re seeking to eradicate from their lives. Others are dealing with lengthy career transitions that have thus far not worked out as they had anticipated.

Whatever challenge you are dealing with, don’t give up. Hold to your faith in God! Here’s a promise that we can all count on; “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion!” Fellow believer, wherever you live, whatever you’re going through; stay faithful to the Mansion Builder, for the Mansion Builder is ever faithful to us. “Do not throw away your confidence, for it will be richly rewarded” (Hebrews 10:35).

“Why should I worry, why should I fret,
Cause I’ve got a Mansion Builder
who ain’t through with me yet.”

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we thank you for the absolute truthfulness of your Word. We rely on Your promises in Scripture concerning our future eternal home. Help us as we deal with what Your Word says are “our light and momentary troubles” though it seems they are all consuming and ongoing. Help us to consider those troubles in light of eternity and to recognize that they are “achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all". Today “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal". Amen.

(See 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 for further inspiration)

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Mansion Builder" Video 2nd Chapter of Acts

"Eternal Vacation" Video Dailey and Vincent

"Child Of The King" Video Gene McDonald, Mike Allen

Some humor:

1) Yesterday Bob, a longtime reader from Kansas, responded to a story we shared in yesterday's message about Brooksyne's mom discovering roaches in a hotel room where they stayed when she was a child:

I'm trying to quit coffee because I found out they're using caffeine as an insecticide now. They're spraying it over the crops in Texas to kill the bugs.

I said, 'I'm putting that in my body every day?' Just to prove I'm wrong, the other night in my apartment, I took a cup of coffee, poured it all along the floorboards of my kitchen.

Not only did it leave the roaches alive, they kept me up all night talking.

2) Yesterday we went to a prayer luncheon in a local church. We sat at a table with several older ladies we had never met before, including one named Bertha. I had to refrain from telling her about a mission story concerning a missionary to Africa named Bertha Belch. She was visiting a church and they placed an article about her in the newspaper with this headline, "Come Hear Bertha Belch All The Way From Africa".

Today we will share our final set of photos from our bike ride on Labor Day between Lititz and Ephrata on the rail trail with country excursions.

Reiff's Farm Market on Rothsville Road. We enjoy these country markets with so much grown right on the farm.
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Potatoes being delivered to Reiff's Farm Market. These are the same potatoes that we saw being dug up from the ground in our lead photo today. This branch of Mennonite uses a steel-wheeled tractor.

These decorations at the Reiff's Farm Market signal the start of the fall season!
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Flowers make this chicken "pen" a bit more colorful across from Hoover's Farm Market on Erb's Bridge Road.
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Keller's Mill covered bridge over Cocalico Creek on Middle Creek Road has windows.
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Cocalico Creek from a window in Keller's Mill covered bridge on Middle Creek Road. Back in the day horses and carriages (and even today horses & buggies) can stay dry in the covered bridge during a downpour, look out the window and watch the rain drop splish-splash on the creek surface and surrounding foliage. What a beautiful sight this will be in the fall! The real purpose of the covering of the bridge is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather.
Click on photo to enlarge

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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.

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