Daily Encouragement (08/30/13) "My Mission In Life"

Daily Encouragement Net

A daily, Bible-based message of hope and encouragement.

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A daily, Bible-based message of hope, encouragement and exhortation. The online Bible teaching ministry of Stephen & Brooksyne Weber. Home · About Us · Archives · Podcast · Free email ·   ·     ·    Click here to support our ministry. <Previous Message       ·       Archive edition Friday, August 30, 2013 Amish children sitting on fence rail on a warm, sunny afternoon. Photo by Ester Weber (Click on photo to enlarge) "My Mission In Life" Listen to this message on your audio player. "So we make it our goal to please Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9). Early yesterday morning we visited some Amish friends and then drove their children to school and saw a pleasant sight. As we drove up to the one room schoolhouse a group of children, boys and girls, were playing baseball. That brought back memories for both of us from an increasingly long time ago. I remember playing baseball out behind our elementary school during recess or after school. Brooksyne remembers playing softball (a bigger ball and the pitcher threw underhanded rather than the overhanded baseball.) Generally speaking, my competitive athletic days are over but I can still have the competitive spirit in certain settings. Last weekend I participated in a quoit tournament. I explained earlier this week that quoits are similar to horseshoes but are round hard rubber disks. The goal is to either get the quoit around the peg (three points) or stay on the slate board (closest gets one point). It's harder than it looks since a ringer is very hard to achieve and the rubber quoits easily bounce off the slate boards. We set a lot of goals whether or not we verbalize them. The term "goal" is used a lot in sports but we also speak of financial goals, career goals, and so forth. Today we want to consider the ultimate goal we are to have as Christians. Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias on his broadcast "A Slice of Infinity" has challenged believers to follow the model of many corporations and local churches and develop a personal mission statement. I formulated my own, but the difficulty for me in this matter was staying succinct. There are so many Scripture verses I wanted to incorporate into the statement that I tend to lose the brevity and focus that characterizes a mission statement. Here's the one I have used for many years: "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 prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity." The daily verse is a goal that the Apostle Paul had for both himself and his readers which was initially the Corinthians; notice the first person plural pronoun "we".  I believe as part of the Holy Scriptures this includes us. It is one of the first verses of Scripture I memorized as a young man. "So we make it our goal to please Him."  That's a great single phrase mission statement! Other versions translate the phrase, "Therefore we also have as our ambition to be pleasing to Him" (NASV). "We make it our aim to please Him" (ESV). The word translated "goal" means "to devote one's self zealously to a cause".  It suggests eager, continuing efforts for something that is good.  I believe the Amplified Bible expresses this sense well: "We are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him." A lifelong pursuit in life for the redeemed is finding out what pleases the Lord. By God's grace it remains a simple expression of my outlook on life. The quest to find out what pleases the Lord is ongoing. Although God's written revelation in the Bible regarding what pleases Him is unchangeable, new challenges in different contexts are always set before us. Doing the right thing requires discernment and building a solid foundation so that you know that which He prohibits, and that which He finds pleasing. It is for our own good and for His glory.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:10, "find out what pleases the Lord." Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber Daily prayer: Father,  I make it my goal to please You.  So many goals I make reap rewards that last only a season, but when I set goals for righteous living the rewards last not only for this life, but for all of eternity. In setting my goals help me to be willing to lay aside that which hinders and the sin that so easily entangles so that I will reap a harvest of righteousness and peace. I want my primary goal to be that which pleases You, and the only way I can learn about that is to read and heed the Scriptures. My overall goal is to persevere to the very end of this life so that when I enter the other side I hear these words of commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  Amen. Click here to record a brief message on your computer's audio device which can then be sent to us. Note: We are testing this as a means of providing another way for our readers to share feedback. You must have a computer microphone for this to work (many have computers with the mic built in). Hopefully some of our readers will try it and let us know whether or not it was challenging to use. Photos from an Amish farm Yesterday while we went about our chaplain work Ester stayed with our Amish friends and took some photos including our lead photo of the children sitting on a fence post. I sure hope a strong fence was separating Ester from this Holstein bull when she snapped this photo! She told us she was thinking of Brooksyne's Uncle Carroll Sherrell from Arkansas who was recently attacked by a bull that broke through a fence. It resulted in his having surgery and will undergo a long recovery from the brutal attack. He's farmed over 50 years and this is the first such attack that we're aware of. Storage shed and new trampoline in the background. Yesterday afternoon when we went back to the farm to pick up Ester Jesse was harvesting corn silage. He smiled and gestured for us to look up at the top of the silo. Ah, the joys and potential dangers of growing up on a working farm! Last year we shared a message about "The Cooperative Harvest" along with a series of photos explaining how the Amish harvest corn for silage. See here. Last night we gathered with families in the small group from our church that has met for over seven years. We enjoyed a cookout on the farm and David rang the dinner bell. Some Ma and Pa Kettle fans will remember Ma calling her's and Pa's dozen or so children to dinner everyday by yelling very loudly,"Come and Get It". She tried to be prim and proper a few times using a gentle voice but not one child would show up. Can you remember how you were called to dinner as a child? Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources "This Is My Desire"  Video  "My Passion"  Video  Travis Cottrell "Wonderful, Merciful Savior" Video  Klaus Kuehn and Kari Jobe Click here to record a brief message on your computer's audio device which can then be sent to us. Note: We are testing this as a means of providing another way for our readers to share feedback. You must have a computer microphone for this to work (many have computers with the mic built in). Hopefully some of our readers will try it and let us know whether or not it was challenging to use. Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne.

Stephen and Brooksyne Weber (Click on photo to enlarge) "We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!" Personal Ministry Update  (Revised 12/31/12) 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. 2013 YTD financial offerings to Daily Encouragement Net as of 8/29/13: $13,653.00 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION If a friend forwarded this 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 2013 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!

 

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Daily Encouragement (08/29/13) "The Blessing Of Good Soil"

Daily Encouragement Net

A daily, Bible-based message of hope and encouragement.

Having trouble reading this message?  Read mobile edition online

A daily, Bible-based message of hope, encouragement and exhortation. The online Bible teaching ministry of Stephen & Brooksyne Weber. Home · About Us · Archives · Podcast · Free email ·   ·     ·    Click here to support our ministry. <Previous Message       ·       Archive edition Thursday, August 29, 2013 Cramers' Posie Patch Kraybill Church Road, Mount Joy, PA "The Blessing Of Good Soil" Listen to this message on your audio player "And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground 'land,' and the gathered waters He called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:9,10). "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:23). Thank you, God, for water, soil and air, large gifts supporting everything that lives. Yesterday we took a tour of the "Cramer Posie Patch", a 90 acre commercial flower grower right around the bend from our house. This is the same farm where our Amish friends, Jesse and Anna Ruth used to live, before they moved back to their home farm seven years ago. The operation sells fresh cut and dried flowers to wholesalers. Their flowers are sold all along the east coast from Washington to Boston; the kind of flowers you see at florists or sold on the streets of major cities. They grow a wide variety including celosias, dahlias, hydrangeas, tansies, lizianthus, lavendar and much, much more. Lancaster has some of the best soil in the world. An area east of Ephrata is especially famed and has the reputation of being the "Garden Spot". Soil varies in quality but almost any soil will provide a growing medium of some type assuming other conditions such as climate and elevation are suitable for growing. Today let us consider the blessing of soil which is one of those things we give little to no attention to! The first daily text is a record of Creation events on the Third Day. On this day the dry ground (soil) appeared followed by vegetation. Wherever you live, unless we have readers in the polar regions or extremely high elevations, you can see evidence of this divine work, even in concrete covered cities. We both like working with soil. I do the yard work and Brooksyne works with the flowers and vegetables. Our neighbor is enlarging his kitchen and has a large pile of soil from digging out for the foundation. It will be removed at a cost so the contractor is pleased that I take as much as I can use. We have some low spots on our property as well as some damage to the lawn from Mollie so I have been loading our garden cart and transferring the soil for several days now when I have an opportunity. It is such good soil some of it seems like potting soil! I wonder how often we thank God for soil? Much of what we eat is in one way or another related to this gift from God. But on a spiritual note today Jesus contrasted four different types of soil conditions in one of His parables, "The Parable Of The Sower". Jesus taught that we are to be like the good soil that "yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Matthew 13:8). Jesus explained this parable and the seed that fell on the good soil "is the man who hears the Word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Matthew 13:23). Good soil is a blessing in agriculture, home gardening, and in the heart that "hears the Word and understands it". May the Lord help us all to have hearts that are like the good soil! Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber Daily prayer: Father, we thank You for soil, one of Your great creations from the very beginning that we simply take for granted. We want to be like the good soil mentioned in the Parable of the Sower; the one that hears the Word, absorbs its message and understands its meaning and as a result brings forth an abundance of fruit; the kind that has lasting eternal value such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Just like water, soil and air produce good vegetation, so also the Bible, prayer, and worship produce godliness in the believer. May we faithful in doing our part. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. More photos of the Cramers' Posie Patch Several kinds of Celosia flowers (commonly referred to as Cockscomb) Our house is only about 200 yards behind where we were standing when the photos was taken. These fields had been planted in corn for the first several years we lived here. Many hydrangea flowers were massive in size. Many colors of dahlias sitting in the refrigerated room prepared to be shipped. The refrigerated area for fresh flowers is in the former dairy barn along with offices in the front. Refrigerated sunflowers also preparing to be shipped. Cockscomb being hung to dry in the tobacco barn basement. Flowers drying in former tobacco barn. Dried flower arrangements being boxed for shipping. We watched to workers preparing the flowers. Dried Flower Wreath (These were stunning) The owner of the farm has an interesting hobby, restoring old cars. This old Crosley is obviously awaiting transformation. Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources "Break Thou the Bread of Life"  Video  Light and Life Hour Choir "Speak O Lord"  Video  Kristyn Getty "All Creatures Of Our God And King"  Video  Maranatha Hymns Cramers' Posie Patch website is located here (google map) Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne.

Stephen and Brooksyne Weber (Click on photo to enlarge) "We want to encourage you daily in your walk with Christ!" Personal Ministry Update  (Revised 12/31/12) 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. 2013 YTD financial offerings to Daily Encouragement Net as of 8/28/13: $13,418.00 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION If a friend forwarded this 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 2013 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!

 

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