Friday, November 30, 2007

"For This Very Reason"

A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.

<Previous Message · Easy read/print edition

Friday,
November 30, 2007

Sunset 11/29/07
In yesterday's message I shared a photo of the sunrise behind our house.
(see here)
I stepped outside yesterday just as the sun was setting and took the above photo.
(Click here for a larger desktop-sized photo)


ListenClick here to listen to this message on your audio player.

"For This Very Reason"

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour" (John 12:27).

Last night I attended a men's meeting where we were again challenged to share our faith. The speaker was Patrick O'Neal the Executive Director of CBMC, an international organization of Christian men. He is from North Carolina and at one point he paraphrased God's call for each of us to spread His message of love and salvation by stating, "I'm counting on ya'll to do it" quipping that God is a southerner!

We will be worshipping God throughout eternity, we'll be in fellowship with one another throughout eternity. But we have this brief lifetime window for the impact of evangelism.

We are now in the season of advent when we especially focus on the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. A special focus on my heart is that Jesus knew His extremely difficult mission when He left heaven. A song Dottie Rambo penned in the seventies describes it this way, "He left the splendor of heaven, knowing His destiny, 'twas the lowly hill of Golgotha, there to lay down His life for me." Throughout His ministry He regularly reinforced and reminded His disciples of this mission, although it seems they didn't really grasp it until after He was resurrected.

In the daily text He is teaching at the time of the Triumphal Entry and forthrightly states, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12:23). His heart is troubled and He asks aloud whether he should appeal to His Father to save Him from the darkest hour of His human experience. "No", He emphatically states, and with resolute resolve He declares, "It was for this very reason I came to this hour."

For some time I have taught that it is important to have a very succinct life mission statement. My statement describes the very mission that I believe God has for me for the remainder of my life on this earth. I purposefully include it in the footers of each daily encouragement posting. "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."

Amen, may it be so Lord Jesus!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we are grateful to be among the redeemed who triumph in victory over sin and seek to please You in all things. You have called us out from the influences of the world and yet You have also strategically placed us among those in the world who have yet to bow their knee in surrender to Your lordship. So many are searching but have not yet found the answer their heart is longing for; a deep, abiding peace. This can only come from a relationship with You, Father. You heal the broken-hearted, You forgive and restore the fallen one. Help us to freely share that life-changing message with one who so desperately needs to hear it. Amen.



I had a pleasant interruption this morning in the final moments of message preparation. I got a call from a lady who was trying to get me to renew a subscription to a national secular news magazine. In verifying my address I told her my town was Mount Joy. Then I commented, "Isn't Mount Joy a great name for a town!" Although we'd never talked before, and she had no idea I was a Christian believer, she said that it reminded her of the joy of the Lord and then she went on to declare her faith. I told her she was surely unaware that she was speaking to a Christian minister and, although I didn't renew my subscription, I sought to encourage her. She asked me for prayer as she will soon be leaving a work release program and returning home. I prayed with her over the phone and gave her a brief exhortation. It sure wasn't the normal telemarketing call and reminds me, and hopefully all of you reading this, that the Lord can use us in unusual ways and even those occasional unwelcome interruptions!



"Rescue the Perishing” – Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby tells others of how she came to write this wonderful missionary song: "I remember writing that hymn in the year 1869. Like many of my hymns, it was written following a personal experience at the New York City Bowery Mission [a homeless shelter with many derelicts at the time]….I was addressing a large company of working men one hot summer evening, when the thought kept forcing itself on my mind that some mother’s boy must be rescued that night or he might be eternally lost. So I made a pressing plea that if there was a boy present who had wandered from his mother’s home and teaching, he should come to me at the end of the service. A young man of 18 came forward – 'Did you mean me, Miss Crosby? I promised my mother to meet her in heaven, but as I am now living, that will be impossible.' We prayed for him and suddenly he arose with a new light in his eyes and spoke these words, 'Now I am ready to meet my mother in heaven, for I have found God.'”

V. 1 - Rescue the perishing; care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o'er the erring one; lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

V. 3 - "Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Cords that are broken will vibrate once more.

Refrain: Rescue the perishing; care for the daying. Jesus is merciful; Jesus will save.




Here is the website for CBMC



Suggested Music

"Rescue The Perishing" (Audio) Great song with Fanny Crosby lyrics but different tune than we sang growing up. Brooksyne really likes it and enjoyed listening when I found this version!

"People Need The Lord" (Audio)
An all-time favorite!

"Come Home Running" (Audio)

"Redeemer, Savior, Friend" (Audio)


Info about multi-media files used on daily encouragement.




Sunrise 11/29/07
Here's the photo of yesterday's sunrise.

Administration Information
Weber family 11/23/07
Stephen, Brooksyne and Ester Weber
"We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!"
(Click on photo to enlarge)

Personal Ministry Update
Revised 11/28/07

DonateEach weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. Would you please consider a financial offering to support us in this encouragement ministry? Thanks! See here for details.

Join:
To receive these free "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. You can also subscribe to the rss feed.


Cancel: To remove your address from this mailing list merely use the link automatically placed by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who do not check their email regularly. It is merely the Friday message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.)

Please feel free to pass this message on! *


Our other blogs:
"A Daily Prayer" - The daily prayer from each daily encouragement message.
"A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination.
"Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the church.


Christianbook.comDaily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com (Any orders placed to Christian Book Distributers using this link or any specific product link to a recommended resource in a daily encouragement message will help our Daily Encouragement ministry through a small commission on the sale. Thank you for using these links when purchasing online through CBD!)

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."

How to become a child of God

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. Used by permission; and the King James Version.


© Copyright 2007 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved

Daily Encouragement Net
495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552
Contact us
Chaplaincy logo

"Living securely today anchored
in God's solid foundation"


http://www.dailyencouragement.net/

Thursday, November 29, 2007

"Bearing Burdens"

A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.

<Previous Message · Easy read/print edition

Thursday,
November 29, 2007

Sunrise 11/29/07
I was out for a walk early this morning and witnessed the pre-sunrise red sky just beyond our back yard.
(Click here for a larger desktop sized photo)


ListenClick here to listen to this message on your audio player.

"Bearing Burdens"

"Bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). "Pray for one another" (James 5:16).

Hope WinchobaLast night I called a friend from our church in New England who is in the hospital. A mutual friend who now lives in Florida emailed us and reported that Hope had been admitted to the hospital. Hope and her late husband, John, were a dear older couple in the church we served in New England. John passed away in 1999 and we stay in contact with Hope making an effort to visit her whenever we are in that area.


Brooksyne and I joined together and prayed with Hope over the phone and then shared a few words of encouragement. We sought to fulfill the two Scripture portions at the top of today's message, a mandate I believe intended for all believers; bearing one another's burdens and praying for one another. Actually we had several occasions to do so yesterday with people we know who would be unknown to most of you (some also unknown to us personally, but somewhat familiar through the daily encouragement.)

I want to share something that could be misunderstood, but please hear my heart. Consider those mass forward emails that request prayer for someone unknown to us. I am sure the initial sender was earnest (sadly though this is not always the case since hoaxes exist in many forms including email prayer requests.) Perhaps the initial recipients were a part of that circle and knew of the individual involved. The email might have a touching request often accompanied by a photo.

But somebody then dresses it up a bit and creates a chain email. It often goes on to declare the more prayers the better with instructions to pass it on to everyone in your contact list, usually with a subtle hint that in not doing so you must not care or, worse yet, promising an esoteric blessing if you do. The internet is a great tool to help us get out important messages quickly and to many individuals all at once with the press of the "Send" button. But let us also use this tool responsibly and prayerfully.

Generally bearing one another's burdens and praying for one another is relational. This is not to say that we can't pray or enlist other prayer warriors concerning a distant disaster affecting many who are personally unknown to us such as the recent flooding in Bangladesh or fires in California. We do this regularly as a family. Tragedies such as the Amish shootings last year certainly captured our hearts and prayers were spoken all around the world. But generally speaking a personal bearing of burdens is based on factual knowledge and is relationship-oriented.

I recall standing before brothers and sisters who regularly associated with one another and asked, "How can we, in praying for one another, fulfill a call to glorify God as a church body?" Several thoughtfully responded:

1) We express our dependency on God, which is a fundamental aspect of faith.
2) We obey God's call as expressed in the daily Scripture portions I have used this morning.
3) We show our genuine love and care for others.

Whose burden can you bear today? Who can you pray for? It won't take long to identify real people in our lives who need our prayers. Let's do it and follow up the prayer with personal contact that brings encouragement. "I prayed for you this morning…." "The Lord laid this Scripture verse on my heart that I would like to share with you…."

Two friends bearing burdensI have often had the weight of my heavy burdens lifted in this manner and I do well to help lift others' burdens in that same spirit. I want to be motivated by God's love and be a representation of Him in human form to one who needs to hear from God.


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber


Daily prayer:
Father, as ambassadors of Your heavenly Kingdom, we want to be keenly sensitive to those whose difficulties seem overwhelming. Some of our brothers and sisters are weighed down with troubling circumstances that might overtake them if not for those of us who take them by the arm and pull them up out of the quicksand of discouragement that ultimately sinks them further to depression or despair. As we walk heart to heart and hand in hand with our family of believers we also weep with them in their sorrows and rejoice with them in their victories. Would You lay upon my heart today two individuals, a believer and an unbeliever, and love their souls through me. Help me to do my part to strengthen my brother or sister in their faith journey. Reveal to me a way that I can show genuine concern for the unbeliever, through my caring words or in a loving deed, who needs to see the love of Christ represented in human form. In the blessed name of Jesus, I pray. Amen




Note regarding anonymous prayer request forwards. Some of you may have received these and taken a prayerful interest in them and that's fine. But several issues concern me and, yes, they can even annoy me:
1) The assumption that the more people praying is necessarily better, as if God is moved mostly by the number of people praying. Pity the poor soul who has no connection to the internet!
2) The often implied guilt if you delete the message without forwarding it on. I see this on a lot of group forwards, not only prayer requests. This is a clue for me to delete immediately and a sign of fraud. Years ago chain letters did this. Some even have a spooky warning that something bad will happen to you if you don't pass it on or if you "break the chain."
3) The promised blessing you will receive if you pass these and other types of group forwards on. As John Stossel says, "Give me a break!"




Here is a revised update concerning our Daily Encouragement Net ministry.



Suggested Music

"Somebody's Praying For Me" (Video)

"Somebody's Praying"
(Video)

A Beautiful Scripture reading from Ecclesiastes (Video)

Info about multi-media files used on daily encouragement.


Administration Information
Weber family 11/23/07
Stephen, Brooksyne and Ester Weber
"We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!"
(Click on photo to enlarge)

Personal Ministry Update
Revised 11/28/07

DonateEach weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. Would you please consider a financial offering to support us in this encouragement ministry? Thanks! See here for details.

Join:
To receive these free "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. You can also subscribe to the rss feed.


Cancel: To remove your address from this mailing list merely use the link automatically placed by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who do not check their email regularly. It is merely the Friday message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.)

Please feel free to pass this message on! *


Our other blogs:
"A Daily Prayer" - The daily prayer from each daily encouragement message.
"A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination.
"Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the church.


Christianbook.comDaily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com (Any orders placed to Christian Book Distributers using this link or any specific product link to a recommended resource in a daily encouragement message will help our Daily Encouragement ministry through a small commission on the sale. Thank you for using these links when purchasing online through CBD!)

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."

How to become a child of God

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. Used by permission; and the King James Version.


© Copyright 2007 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved

Daily Encouragement Net
495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552
Contact us
Chaplaincy logo

"Living securely today anchored
in God's solid foundation"


http://www.dailyencouragement.net/

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

"Transitions"

A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.

<Previous Message · Easy read/print edition

Wednesday,
November 28, 2007

Lancaster County Sunset
A horse and buggy passing in front of our house.
The distinct sound of clomping horse hoofs and rolling buggy wheels!
(This photo was taken last fall when our daughter Ester went out to eat with our friends Jesse and Anna Ruth.)

ListenClick here to listen to this message on your audio player.

"Transitions"

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8).

I recently received a note from a friend who shared concerning the lengthy transition he is going through. Several years ago he left a long-standing position and his family business has been going through hard times. In addition to this he and his family have had several major health challenges. I sent him a brief note of encouragement and reminded him that in a sense we are all in a lengthy transition but then we always will be on this side of eternity!

Seven years ago Brooksyne and I served as chaplains in a large printing plant in New England. We were there for 2½ years before the corporate office chose to close its doors, but many of these people had worked together for 20 years or more. I still recall the deep felt emotions that Bruce, a machine operator, expressed as he left work for the final time. He walked through slowly and said a tender farewell to his fellow employees. Some wept as they acknowledged the end of a long term work relationship which lent itself to a long enduring friendship. I walked to the door with him and saw him off as he left a company he had poured his life into throughout most of his adult years. I found this to be a valuable ministry time in reminding these employees of the things that matter most in life. (Though we've moved 400 miles away from New England we're still in contact with several of these employees who are now our long standing distant friends.)

Transitions are a part of life. Some people have little stability and in a sense they're accustomed to transition. Many have gone from marriage to marriage, job to job and place to place. It's become a way of life to them. I have ministered to people who have had more jobs by their early twenties than I've had in my entire life. As former foster parents we had children who by the age of six had lived in more places than we have in fifty-three! Many years ago I had a request to perform a marriage. In ascertaining the request they told me they wouldn't need pastoral counseling inasmuch as they knew all there was to know about marrige since they had both been married several times before! (I chose not to officiate since this marriage was very likely doomed to fail even before the vows were spoken.)

Menno Brubaker at 100
Menno Brubaker at 100 years

But others know the blessings of long term stability. We have many friends who raised their own families in the same house where they were born or in the neighborhood where they grew up. The most remarkable example is Menno Brubaker, who turned 100 shortly after we moved here to Lancaster County. What a blessing to sit right in the pew in front of him Sunday after Sunday for several years. After hitting the century mark he lived to be 102 years old. We visited with him and his daughter and shared a meal in the very farmhouse where he was born, where he lived his entire life, and where he received his promotion to glory. He was a life-long member of the same church. He was carried to this church as a baby and we attended his funeral in the very same church! Menno wholeheartedly lived for Christ and scores of people recall, in one way or another, his lasting impact upon their lives.

Transitions can be an especially difficult faith challenge. Later in life Abraham, quite settled in Haran, was called into a transition. "He obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Consider he had no maps, gps and only the most primitive means of transportation and he didn't even know where he was going!

Not knowing where we're going is the hard part of transition isn't it? And some of you are there right now. On the short term you simply don't know where you are going. You don't know what tomorrow holds. (I sure hope you do in the long term!)

Your transition, like Abraham's, may be prompted by a direct call or leading of the Lord. Or more likely it may be due to circumstances beyond your control, such as a plant closing, a lengthy illness, or the death of a loved one. For some it may involve a transition with the church you're attending where you have given so much of your heart, your time, your finances, and your spiritual gifts.

But the powerful assurance believers have is that these circumstances are ultimately ordained by God. He is reigning. He is in control. He will be with you. Stay faithful and experience the wonderful assurance of His love and care through this God-ordained transition!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, year after year our lives are marked by change which brings growing transformation in our lives just as You rotate the seasons of the calendar bringing about distinct change in the weather pattern transforming all of nature. As Solomon writes, there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Our pilgrimage includes a time for gain and a time for loss, a time for plenty and a time for want, a time of understanding and a time of perplexity, a time for listening and a time for speaking, a time for searching and a time for finding. In the midst of all these changes we are assured that You do not change, for You are the same yesterday, today and forever. And in all these changes we are assured that You are working for our good, for we know that in all things You work for the good of those who love You, who have been called according to Your purpose. We thank You for Your immutable nature that remains when all else changes. Amen.




Today let us share with our readers a revised ministry update.



Suggested Music

"God Is In Control" (Audio)

"Worth It All" (Video) is a powerful song by Rita Springer.

"All My Days" (Video) another
song by Rita Springer.

"Yesterday, Today, Forever" (Audio) from here.

"Yesterday, Today, Forever" (Audio)

I was actually looking for an audio of this old hymn I recall singing as a young Christian that has a great message! I am sure a few of you have sung it but it's rarely heard these days.
Info about multi-media files used on daily encouragement.

Administration Information
Weber family 11/23/07
Stephen, Brooksyne and Ester Weber
"We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!"
(Click on photo to enlarge)

Personal Ministry Update
Revised 11/28/07

DonateEach weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. Would you please consider a financial offering to support us in this encouragement ministry? Thanks! See here for details.

Join:
To receive these free "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. You can also subscribe to the rss feed.


Cancel: To remove your address from this mailing list merely use the link automatically placed by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who do not check their email regularly. It is merely the Friday message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.)

Please feel free to pass this message on! *


Our other blogs:
"A Daily Prayer" - The daily prayer from each daily encouragement message.
"A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination.
"Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the church.


Christianbook.comDaily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com (Any orders placed to Christian Book Distributers using this link or any specific product link to a recommended resource in a daily encouragement message will help our Daily Encouragement ministry through a small commission on the sale. Thank you for using these links when purchasing online through CBD!)

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."

How to become a child of God

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. Used by permission; and the King James Version.


© Copyright 2007 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved

Daily Encouragement Net
495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552
Contact us
Chaplaincy logo

"Living securely today anchored
in God's solid foundation"


http://www.dailyencouragement.net/

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

"Formed At God's Command"

A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.

<Previous Message · Easy read/print edition

Tuesday,
November 27, 2007

Lancaster County Sunset
Lancaster County Sunset
(Photo by Doris High)

ListenClick here to listen to this message on your audio player.

"Formed At God's Command"

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible" (Hebrews 11:3).

Peanut
What do you think of when you see or eat a peanut? I often think of George Washington Carver!


One of my most memorable childhood trips was going to the National Monument where George Washington Carver is honored in Southwest Missouri. But I suppose I also like George Washington Carver because he has the same name as my Grandpa, George Washington Steincross!

George Washington Carver was born into slavery, orphaned as an infant, and traded for a broken-down racehorse. He had all kinds of excuses to fail and be bitter.

George Washington CarverYet he grew up with a faith and love for God and an appreciation of nature that would sustain him throughout his entire life. His forte was the peanut and he was a pioneer in the field of chemurgy, a branch of applied chemistry that is concerned with preparing industrial products from agricultural raw materials. Testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee, he said that he got his knowledge of peanuts from the Bible. Asked what the Bible said about peanuts he replied, "The Bible does not teach anything regarding the peanut. But it told me about God, and God told me about the peanut."

I especially appreciate Carver's outlook in life. He was able to see the hand of God in nature. He certainly believed in intelligent design and an intelligent Designer. Carver said, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in." As a devout Christian, Carver considered his laboratory, "God's Little Workshop."

I read this in an encyclopedia concerning Carver's faith: "God and science were both areas of intrigue, not warring ideas in the mind of George Washington Carver. While contemporary scientific endeavors may practice methodological naturalism, an approach which believes the universe to be unguided or chaotic, Carver reasoned that the God who created the universe also created the rules by which it was governed. He was opposed to the scientific theory of evolution and believed the creation of the world to be the Biblical creation account from the book of Genesis verbatim. He would testify on many occasions that his faith in Jesus was the only mechanism by which he could effectively pursue and perform the art of science."

I believe God is still speaking today through His creation and one of the keys to a positive, faith-filled outlook in life is to tune into His voice. In the daily verse the word "understand" translates a word that means "to exercise the mind, observe." I once again affirm, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we long to hear Your voice which gives us direction, affirmation, conviction, reproof, and comfort. Help us with the spiritual exercise of observing how You are working in our own heart and in the lives of those around us. And we especially need to observe the ways You are present in the daily grind of life. The daily routine can easily squeeze out those special sightings of Your glorious presence and supernatural workings where You make visible that which is not seen with human eyes, but only through the eyes of faith. Faithful and True God, just as You formed the universe with Your own hands, You also shape the human heart with Your own Spirit, bringing it into conformity to Your will for our lives. Help us to surrender ourselves fully to You so that we are among those who have supernatural faith which makes us confident of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see with human eyes.




Today's lead photo is by Doris High and is found in this context on her photo blog. She has a creative way of sharing her photos with a quote from George Washington Carver that I also used in today's message. Here's an online article about him (scroll down for a description of his Christian commitment). Here's info about the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond Missouri which I visited as a child.

Here's another example of Doris High's photo work that really blessed me!




Suggested Music

"How Great Thou Art" (Video) George Beverly Shea at 98 years old!

"How Great Thou Art"
(Video)


"How Great Thou Art" (Audio)

"
How Great Thou Art" (Audio)

"How Great Thou Art" (Video)

"How Great Is Our God" (Video)

"God Of Wonders" (Audio)

Info about multi-media files used on daily encouragement.

Administration Information
Weber family 11/23/07
Stephen and Brooksyne
"We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!"
(Click on photo to enlarge)

Personal Ministry Update
We share our hearts with you as we continue in this online ministry.

DonateEach weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. Would you please consider a financial offering to support us in this encouragement ministry? Thanks! See here for details.

Join:
To receive these free "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. You can also subscribe to the rss feed.


Cancel: To remove your address from this mailing list merely use the link placed by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who do not check their email regularly. It is merely the Friday message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.)

Please feel free to pass this message on!


Our other blogs:
"Daily Prayer" - Simply the daily prayer from each daily encouragement message.
"A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination.
"Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the church.


Christianbook.comDaily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com (Any orders placed to Christian Book Distributers using this link or any specific product link to a recommended resource in a daily encouragement message will help our Daily Encouragement ministry through a small commission on the sale. Thank you for using these links when purchasing online through CBD!)

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."

How to become a child of God

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. Used by permission; and the King James Version.


© Copyright 2007 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved

Daily Encouragement Net
495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552
Contact us
Chaplaincy logo

"Living securely today anchored
in God's solid foundation"


http://www.dailyencouragement.net/

Monday, November 26, 2007

"Contending For Sound Doctrine"


A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation.


<Previous Message · Easy read/print edition


Monday, November 26, 2007

Central Market in downtown Lancaster Pennsylvania
Central Market in downtown Lancaster

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"Contending For Sound Doctrine"


"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine" (Acts 2:42). "Watch your life and doctrine closely" (1 Timothy 4:16).

I have a friend who is a science teacher in a Christian school. He shared of an encounter he had with a student in his class who expressed that the Biblical accounts describing Adam and Eve and the flood were not really true, but merely myths.

My friend expressed his belief that the Biblical record was indeed a reliable account and later received a call from the student's father. He identified himself as a PhD who taught Theology in a culturally Christian college. He stated that his child was merely reflecting his beliefs and was seeking to defend them. Thankfully my teacher friend was not swayed by his apostasy!

A major emphasis in 1 Timothy is the importance of maintaining sound doctrine. I have a tremendous burden when I see the slipping of sound doctrine, yet this has been a battle the true church has faced from its earliest years.

Too often, in the history of the church, apostasy begins in the church's educational system. Schools pride themselves in educational excellence and academic respectability. Professors are often hired based primarily upon their educational attainment, not their adherence to sound doctrine, particularly if their degrees are from "prestigious" colleges. After all, it looks good to have PhD's from Harvard, Yale or other elite schools on the faculty.

The daily text gives us a glimpse of life in the early church: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine." I believe as we dedicate our lives to Jesus we will also continue to devote ourselves steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. I believe the Bible from cover to cover. I believe it is the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, wholly inspired Word of God. I sure don't understand all of it and some of the accounts are difficult to comprehend, but I attribute much of this difficulty to my own limited comprehension! Much understanding will take place at a later date, perhaps on the other side.

Today, wherever you are, whatever you do, keep contending for the apostolic doctrine. Hold fast to that which the Scripture teaches. Discern and resist the evil influences that would seek to discredit the teaching of God's Holy Word.


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Your Word is eternal and it stands firm in the heavens. You give me understanding to learn your commands and the fortitude to apply these principles which is a life-changing process over my lifetime. You established Your Law to last forever though it is often mocked by modern philosophers and those who want to sway the truth to their own liking. Help us not to be intimidated by those who claim "more education" has made them wiser than the miraculous black and white truths delivered to us by the Holy Scriptures. Help us to carefully exegete the Word of God as we earnestly contend for the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints. Amen.




PS: I had a similar experience as my science teacher friend several years ago when I was at a training conference in Springfield, Missouri. I attended a special meeting where one of the speakers also had an interest in astronomy. In the course of his lecture he scornfully mocked the Biblical teaching concerning creation and bragged that he was able to persuade the entire class he taught at Evangel College as an adjunct professor in the reasonableness of "theistic" evolution. (In essence it means that the current teaching of evolution is correct, but God is somehow at work behind the scenes. In this view the teaching of the Bible concerning creation is essentially a myth.)

This is a critical issue facing the Church. So many worship at the shrine of academia. In fact my teacher friend conveyed that the professor seemed to assert that his having a PhD would settle the issue and place his beliefs in an authoritative position above any criticism from my teacher friend (who ironically had a degree from the same college the professor taught.)

I have a new blog that will have periodic postings but with longer articles. I named it "Clear Minded" based upon this Scripture text from 1 Peter 4:7, "The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." I have posted my first article on the site, a message I wrote about ten years ago when I had an overseer role in Southeast Massachusetts. Read it here.




Weber family Thankgiving 2007
Saturday we gathered with two of Stephen's three siblings for a meal at our place. His sister Genelle and her husband Cesar were up from North Carolina and his brother Pat and his wife Laverne along with their daughters. Mike, his oldest brother, who lives in California, was unable to join us.




Today's photo is taken at Central Market in Lancaster, Pennsylvania which is the oldest publicly-owned, continuously-operating farmer's market in the country.



Suggested Music

"I Believe" (Audio) Not necessarily my taste in music but an emphatic statement of faith that is surely related to today's message!

"I Believe" (Audio) Different song but same observation as above!


Info about multi-media files used on daily encouragement.


Administration Information
Weber family on hayride 9/22/07
Stephen and Brooksyne
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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 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."

How to become a child of God

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. Used by permission; and the King James Version.

Other blogs:
"Daily Prayer" - Simply the daily prayer from each daily encouragement message.
"A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination.


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