A daily, Bible-based message of hope and encouragement. Having trouble reading this message?
Read mobile edition online
 A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation. Home About Us Archives Free email subscription  Listen to these messages  Text only for printing  See here for more info. <Previous Message · Archive edition Thursday, March 20, 2014  "Faithful God, Ever True" Listen to this message on your audio player."Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years'" (Genesis 1:14). "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Genesis 8:22).  Today is the first day of Spring. We are certainly ready for the seasonal change after a long, cold winter. In a few weeks Brooksyne will be out planting her flowers and garden. Yesterday we picked up the sign at Tractor Supply. It might just bring a few chuckles. As the days warm up I have been doing some lawn cleanup as well. Our oaks tend to drop their leaves in the spring rather than autumn so I've been raking up a lot of leaves! We enjoy the seasonal changes as contributing to the variety of life.The four days of each calendar year representing the change of seasons are regular reminders of the cosmic order established at Creation in our first daily text and of God's faithfulness in His keeping of the longstanding promise in our second daily text. This promise will be kept "as long as the earth endures."  The Equinoxes are the two days out of the whole year when the northern and southern hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight, and the days and nights are the same length. (Equinox means "equal night.") At the equator, the sun is directly overhead. It's another remarkably predictable evidence of God's faithfulness and the precise order in His providential design.Due to the Creator's remarkable order astronomers* can determine centuries ahead when this day will occur. For instance the Spring (Vernal) equinox will be at 4:18 PM EST on March 20, 2547 just in case you want to plan ahead and get that marked on your calendar. It's astounding that many of these same scientists are blinded to the Creator behind the precise design! Which takes greater faith, that this is a result of random chance or a purposeful, intelligent design by our Creator God? Many years ago I read an article by an astronomer named Robert Jastrow, who made this statement. “At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” Hallelujah, I am sitting on that final rock!  More recently I read on Gary Bauer's post, "So much of academia and the media relish every opportunity to pit science against faith. For example, there is a story on the front page of today's Washington Post (Tuesday, March 18) purporting to support the Big Bang theory. Here's an excerpt: "In the beginning, the universe got very big very fast, transforming itself in a fraction of an instant from something almost infinitesimally small to something imponderably vast… This is the premise of an idea called cosmic inflation -- a powerful twist on the big-bang theory -- and Monday it received a major boost from an experiment at the South Pole… A team of astronomers … announced that it had detected ripples from gravitational waves created in a violent inflationary event at the dawn of time."Genesis makes it clear that the universe was indeed created in an instant: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Scientists who may have never opened the Bible are pleased to announce that they believe they have evidence that creation happened in an instant!  God gave Noah the wonderful promise expressed in the second daily verse immediately after the flood. It's a promise that we see fulfilled every day, but should particularly note at the seasonal changes. Consider the steady, yet often ignored, testimony of God's great faithfulness seen in the changing of the seasons expressed in this promise. It can give us a rich assurance today of God's faithfulness in all things and certainly that which concerns us. In fact it was the inspiration behind one of the verses to a classic hymn most of you will recognize. With joy and assurance receive it!"Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold witness, To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love." Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber  Daily prayer: Father, Your watchful eye brings great assurance to my heart as You, Almighty Father, are a God of perfect order, and Your immutable character does not change. Your perfect design of the universe and all of created life that sustains it is also testimony to Your unchanging faithfulness. We marvel in the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night, hill and meadow, tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light. The redeemed join with all of nature in declaring Your wondrous beauty in all creation as we bring praise, honor and glory to You, our Faithful God. Amen.* Many confuse astronomy with astrology. Astronomy is the science that deals with the material universe beyond the earth's atmosphere. Astrology is an occultic pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moon. Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources "Great Is Thy Faithfulness " Video Maranatha Singers "Faithful God" Video Shannon Wexelberg "Faithful God" Video Laura Story Here's the spring equinox schedule looking both back in history to 1452 and forward to 2547. Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne  Stephen and Brooksyne Weber(Click on photo to enlarge) About Us "We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!" Personal Ministry Update (Revised 10/21/13) Are our daily encouragement messages a blessing to you? Each weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. We ask you to consider an offering to Daily Encouragement Net so that we can continue to prepare and provide this daily resource which is accessed by believers and seekers all over the world. Daily Encouragement Net relies solely on the generosity and financial support of its readers and podcast listeners. See here for more information on supporting this ministry. Gifts are tax deductible. Click here to donate online.2014 YTD offerings to Daily Encouragement Net: $3,063.00 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION  If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here.These messages are never sent by us unsolicited. It was sent to you because you either signed up to receive it OR it was forwarded to you. You can also subscribe to the Wordpress rss feed or as an email subscription through Wordpress email subscription. (See the email subscription on the right side after opening this page.) Cancel: These messages are only sent from us to people who request it; please accept our apologies if it reached you in error. You can unsubscribe from this list at any time. If you no longer desire to receive these messages you can remove your address from the list by merely using the link automatically inserted by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each email message. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.) Weekly Version: The weekly version is intended for those who may not check their email regularly or who may desire less frequent mailings. It is Friday's message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. Daily Encouragement on Facebook and Twitter:  The daily message and prayer on Facebook. The daily message and prayer on Twitter.Reader Survey: Please take a few minutes to assist us in improving our ministry effectiveness by filling out this online reader survey. To take the survey click here. Please feel free to pass these messages on! Our other blogs: "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!) (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. All of these songs are also available for download on the site. 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. Other versions are also occasionally used. © Copyright 2014 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved Daily Encouragement Net Stephen & Brooksyne Weber 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552  Endorsed chaplain "Living securely today anchored in God's solid foundation" www.dailyencouragement.net |
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 Add scweber@dailyencouragement.net to your email address book to ensure delivery. Forward to a Friend | Manage Subscription | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |  |
