 A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation. <Previous Message · Archives ·  Archive/print editionWednesday, April 29, 2009  Squirrel enjoying lunch (Photo by Doris High)  Listen to us share this message on your audio player."When The Foundations Are Being Destroyed" "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). The summer after I finished high school I worked at a large pre-stressed concrete plant in Kansas. They made huge prefabricated concrete components for bridges and parking lots. For a couple of weeks I had the most brutal physical job of my entire life; working a jackhammer.  Most of you know what a jackhammer is but I wonder how many of you have ever run one as a job? Even a ten minute stint should give you an idea of how hard the work is! I am thankful that after a couple of weeks I was assigned to the quality control team and comparatively speaking I stopped working!  I suppose if many of us were to think of a single notable dam in America it would be the Hoover Dam in Nevada. I enjoyed watching a television program that described how it was built and the various engineering challenges that were overcome in its construction. I am sure if I went to the base of the dam with a jackhammer and began chipping away I would quickly be arrested. Due to the massive size of the dam my individual chipping would have little effect, but persistently chipping away at the foundation of that great dam over time it would eventually have an impact leading to critical stress failure.I look at the state of America (and this message certainly applies to the godly remnant living in other countries as well). The foundations are rapidly being destroyed. Each day it seems that a chunk falls from the base of our early father's foundation. I consider the loud distinct sound of a jackhammer as I observe current events. "The foundations are being destroyed…" The incessant chipping away at the foundation of our Judeo Christian heritage should be obvious to all who have any degree of spiritual and moral discernment. Merely consider the lies, violence, and perversions that abound. Yet it seems that for many people all that matters is the economy and their own personal godless pleasures. The observations of the historian Edward Gibbons comes to mind, whose summary of conditions at the fall of the Roman Empire seem so similar to conditions today. Here in America a vile but growing minority is diligently seeking to abolish any evidence of Christian faith from the public square. A group called "Freedom From Religion Foundation" is seeking to ban chaplains (actually the group would better be named "Freedom from Christianity.") These and many other groups are relentless in their attempts to destroy the foundations. "What can the righteous do?" That is the throbbing question for believers of every generation. Most of you reading this daily message have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and live under His authority. We are part of the righteous remnant that God has sustained through all ages. This remnant can be seen early in Genesis, when shortly after the Fall, "men began to call on the Name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26) and all through the Bible, through church history and right up to the present. What a great joy to be among those standing up for God in our own day! What can we do as we see the foundations being destroyed? If our primary stock and focus are in the foundation of this temporal life we will surely despair. Paul's words come to mind, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" (1 Corinthians 15:19). But, if like Abraham, "we are looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10) we will stand firm as the godly have done through all the ages. Psalm 11 gives at least three contemplative answers to the question, "What can the righteous do?"
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say, than to you He hath said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber Daily prayer: Father, help us to be ever watchful and always prayerful as we see the foundations of our Christian faith attacked. Through the power of Your Spirit we want to take a firm position against the enemy and be strong in our faith. We stand with our Christian brothers and sisters all over the world who are going through the same kind of struggles, or worse, and especially pray for those who are paying a great price for their uncompromising stand. You assure us that after we suffer for a little while, You will restore, support, strengthen and sustain us as we remain firm on Your foundation. Amen. Note: Today's email version is delivered later then usual due to a problem with the listserver. Tomorrow's message will be a follow-up to this one, again using the analogy of the foundation. Many of the great hymns have more verses than we are accustomed to singing in the typical hymnbook where four, or at most, five verses are typically provided. I found a fuller version of "How Firm a Foundation" and listed a few less familiar verses for you to contemplate: 1. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say than to you He hath said Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled? 2. In every condition, -- in sickness, in health, In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth, At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea, -- The Lord, the Almighty, thy strength e'er shall be. 3. "Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed, For I am thy God and will still give thee aid; I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand. 4. "When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. 5. "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. 6. "E'en down to old age all My people shall prove My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love; And when hoary (snowy) hairs shall their temples adorn, Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne. 7. "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not, I will not, desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never, forsake!" Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources |
 "We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!" Personal Ministry Update Revised 01/20/09  Each 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 daily encouragement ministry? Donations are tax deductible and will be receipted directly by my chaplaincy endorsing ministry. Thanks! See here for details. (2009 YTD financial offerings through 4/28/09: $3,305.00)SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION  Were you forwarded this edition of Daily Encouragement Net? If you desire you can receive your own free! To receive these "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It was sent to you because you either signed up to receive it OR a friend forwarded it to you. You can also subscribe to the rss feed.Cancel: We respect and value your time and privacy. If these messages no longer meet your needs (providing encouragement) you can remove your address by merely use the link automatically inserted by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each email message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who may 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 these messages on! "A Daily Prayer" - A blog simply posting the daily prayer. We keep this up each day since it's merely the prayer from the Daily Encouragement Net message! "A Little Foolishness" - Humor/satire blog (a great outlet for non-serious writing but at times with a subtle message!) Last updated with the story of Mildred Swanson, who joyfully discovers her "spiritual gift" is sending forwarded emails! (Note: This material is satire!) "Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the faithful believer and church. (Actually this is my intent but I haven't done much with it!) "Hymns of Hope" - Brooksyne along with two friends made a CD using classic hymns. Brooksyne tells the background story of the 11 hymns. We are distributing this CD without charge in our ministry. All of these songs are also available for download on the site. If any reader in this series would like a CD merely write us and request one.  Daily 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, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the King James Version. © Copyright 2009 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved Daily Encouragement Net Stephen & Brooksyne Weber 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 Contact us |
Daily Encouragement is issued Monday-Friday. To make sure you continue to receive these e-mails in your Inbox (so they're not sent to a junk folder), please add scweber@dailyencouragement.net to your address book or safe sender list. You are receiving these recurring messages as a subscriber to Daily Encouragement Net because you signed up on our website or otherwise requested it unless someone forwarded the message to you. If you desire to unsubscribe use the link below. However, please do not use this link unless your address is the subscribed address below as you will otherwise unsubscribe the person who forwarded it to you!
| You are currently subscribed to dailyencouragement as: stephencweber.dailyencouragement@blogger.com To unsubscribe click here or send a blank email to leave-1411199-29778931.3ca482100b92072753461f79e13fb4f8@pr4.netatlantic.com |  |
