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 Wednesday, September 17, 2014  Union Mill Acres on Elizabethtown Road here in Lancaster County is a quaint, family run farm selling pumpkins, mums, asters, jams and other autumn items. Each year we visit there's a new baby, the latest is 5 months old. Theirs is a large homeschooling family in which the children are learning responsibility on the farm. Listen to this message on your audio player."An Unspoken Request" "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16).  A caring church will be praying for one another, bearing each other's burdens. Often, especially in smaller churches, people are given the opportunity to express their need in a time during the service known as "sharing prayer requests".Sometimes funny things can happen when taking prayer requests. One of my favorite memories in this regard took place in the little country church in southern Missouri I pastored my senior year of college right after we got married. During prayer request time Fred asked prayer for a friend who had a medical procedure and stated, “Pray for my friend, Jim. He had a hysterectomy and is in a whole lot of pain.” Thinking he'd realize he had the wrong term I paused but he repeated it yet again. His wife, Wanda, went right along with him, nodding in agreement and weeping as she did so. (Of course he meant another kind of ectomy. I will confess that this was a hard request to follow-up with a serious prayer.) It's not uncommon for a congregational member to raise his or her hand and say, "I have an unspoken request." This occurs when someone doesn't care to divulge the nature of their need but still indicates they are in need of prayer. Recently a friend shared an unspoken request in church and days later it was revealed, the serious nature of what was on her heart. Often it seems a pastor or prayer leader will conclude a time of sharing prayer requests by asking, "Are there any unspoken requests?" Most places we have been this always gets quite a few up raised hands. Actually we all probably have unspoken requests truth be fully told! There are numerous reasons for unspoken requests. Sometimes this may be due to an uncertain medical report when we just don't have all the details to share with others. Other times we prefer not to share the details but still want people to pray. And at times the request may be a desire to overcome a sin in our life that we don't care to disclose to the entire congregation. Recently we read the true following account concerning an unspoken prayer request that Robert J. Morgan wrote about: Pastor Dave, who pastors in Vermont, had an awkward experience in church when a woman in prayer meeting raised her hand and said with a characteristically southern drawl, "I have an unspoken request." She was a heavy smoker and Pastor Dave thought she said, "I have a smokin' request." He exclaimed in front of everyone, "You're brave to confess it. We all have vices we struggle with, God can deliver you." All the while Dave's wife was frantically waving trying to get his attention (BTW: That happened numerous times during my years of pastoral service with Brooksyne trying to help me out!) With a stage whisper she informed him, "She didn't say a smokin' request. She said an unspoken request." The Pastor was horrified at his gaffe and began to apologize to the woman. Yet the southerner graciously smoothed things out, "Well, I do have that problem, too, and I guess you can pray for me about that."  While seeking to be virtuous we are always tempted by the devil's vices so we should be open and enlist other believer's prayers in our struggle against sin. Although our main focus on confession of sin should be to God there is also a place for confessing to one another as we candidly acknowledge our struggles and our need for God's help. "Come People Of The Risen King" is a song we often sing at church. The second verse is a composite of fellow believers who are doing battle with the enemy; those celebrating victory and those seeking victory: "Come, those whose joy is morning sun, And those weeping through the night; Come, those who tell of battles won, And those struggling in the fight. Some have won a battle, others are still engaged, and all will do battle with the enemy until we cross over Jordan. When a brother or sister openly confesses a need or weakness in their life it isn't a time for shaking our finger or casting aspersions. Instead it is a time for us to do battle with the enemy by praying for and encouraging the one who's struggling. Sending them an encouraging card, sharing a pertinent Scripture verse, loving them through the struggle and following up (while many others will have forgotten the need expressed). "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" benefits those for whom we are praying and the one who is praying. Adam Clarke's Commentary puts it this way: "When God designs to do some particular work in his Church he pours out on his followers the spirit of grace and supplication; and this He does sometimes when He is about to do some special work for an individual. When such a power of prayer is granted, faith should be immediately called into exercise, that the blessing may be given: the spirit of prayer is the proof that the power of God is present to heal." What do you need prayer for today? Who can you confess that need to who will pray for you that you may be healed (made whole)? Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber  Daily prayer: Father, we take to heart the inspired words of James that direct us to confess our sins to one another and to pray one for another. You bring us together in this journey of faith, those who are weak and those who are strong, that we might encourage our brother or sister and stand with them in prayer. You invite us all to Come, those whose joy is morning sun and those weeping through the night. Come, those who tell of battles won, and those struggling in the fight. For Your perfect love will never change, and Your mercies never cease, but follow us through all our days with Your certain hope of peace. We unite in faith through Christ Jesus our Lord in whose name we pray. Amen.Included in prayer - second stanza of "Come People of the Risen King"   Yesterday I attended a Whole & Healthy Pastors Workshop in Mechanicsburg, PA and met up with John Palmer whom I knew back in Bible College in the seventies. John was several years ahead of me, graduating at the end of my Freshman year. We had a school tennis tournament and we ended up being the finalists and could only get the match in the afternoon before he was the commencement speaker at graduation. To this day I feel I would have had my clock cleaned but due to his busy schedule and understandable lack of focus on a tennis match, I won! John is now the president of Emerge Counseling Services based in Akron Ohio. Brooksyne's Note: I was not with Stephen to visit with John yesterday. My remembrance of John was cutting his hair in the basement of Bowie Hall. When Stephen posted their picture today I immediately noticed, if I was still cutting John's hair, it would take a lot less time since there's a lot less hair. (All my spending money during my years of Bible College was from the haircuts I did for guys and gals. I went to Vo-Tech in high school and earned my Oklahoma operator's license which has been a great blessing over the years and saved lots of money for our family.) Today we would like to share some more photos of the pumpkins and gourds at Union Mill Acres on Elizabethtown Road.  Buy enough pumpkins and you can make a colorful pumpkin tree.  They grow an amazing variety of pumpkins all on the farm.  A nice pasture scene in the background.  A neat use for wooden boxes!  Interesting display Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources "Unspoken Request" Video The McKameys This song may take many of our readers back a few years although our church still has a prayer request time and our pastor may very well ask if there are any unspoken requests. "Come People Of The Risen King" Video Kristyn Getty Union Mill Acres is here (Google map) If you enjoy these messages please forward to a friend and recommend they subscribe, too. If you were forwarded this email and like it, you can subscribe here. 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: $8,952.00 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. Your answers are anonymous and I we are unable to respond. If you want to send a personal message use the 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 | Snooze |
