Little Bits of Encouragement

There's a church in my town that has a sign offering a short, encouraging word each time I drive by... 

There's an egg company that prints the gospel on all of its egg cartons...

Today I opened up a math lesson CD, and a Bible verse was the first window that popped up.  It encouraged me and is the verse for today.

TV~ (Today's Verse)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. [Isaiah 41:10]

A Daily Purpose

Those of us, who've reached middle age and beyond, would agree that life is full of hardship. In fact, some days are so hard that the goal becomes merely getting through to the end of the day.  Day in day out, week in week out, year in year out.  The shallow goals that may satisfy us when we are young grow dim with the years.  We realize that it is living for God and creating loving relationships which matter most.

Ask God each day to show you how to bless another person who also is part of  the daily struggle that is part of the  human condition.

TV~ (Today's Verse)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.  [Mark 12:30,31]

Saints Ignored

Someone recently gave me a book entitled, "50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith," by Baptist theologian Warren W. Wiersbe.   Many of those 50 names are people I recognize and know to be worthy of respect.  Yet nobody mentioned in the book lived prior to the 19th century.  What about all those spiritual giants who lived before 1800? 

I wonder if the earlier spiritual giants are ignored because they were Catholic. (All Christians were Catholic prior to 1517.)   Protestant authors focus only on the Protestants, thus missing out on much of the rich heritage of faith that brought us from the time of Christ into the present.

TV~ (Today's Verse)
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.… [Hebrews 11:37]

God's Response to Consulting a Medium

October 31, 2013

So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it and did not inquire of the LORD.

Fighting for our Children

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. (Exodus 17:11)

The years of young adulthood can be scary for parents as they watch their beloved children make relationship and career decisions that have huge implications for their futures.  Keeping communication open with our children is critical during this time.  So is prayer.  As Moses held up his hands to keep winning the war, so must we continously pray to win the battle that is raging against our children.  

TV~
That our sons may grow up as the young plants, and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple.  [Psalm 144:12]

150 Beads

In the twelfth century, religious orders recited together the 150 Psalms as a way to mark the hours of the day and the days of the week. Most of the laity were illiterate and wanted to share in this practice, so praying on a string of 150 beads or knots began as a parallel to praying the Psalms substituting instead 150 repititions of the Lord's prayer.  Eventually the Hail Mary was added to the recitations. 

Rosary use continues today as that once designed for the illiterate. Since the fifteenth century, the beads have been divided into 15 "decades, " with a mystery of an event in the life of Jesus assigned to each decade. This, too,  was to help the illiterate meditate on stories in the Bible.

Today, however, few people are illiterate.  We can read the Bible and we can read the Psalms.  I would love to see rosary praying be restored to the original format of the monks, as that of reciting the Psalms regularly.

TV~
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.  [James 5:13]

How to Become a Diamond

On the shores of the Delaware Bay in southern New Jersey, one can find small stones known as "Cape May Diamonds."  These "diamonds" are different from the expensive, sparkling, precious stones found in engagement rings. 

They are small pieces of quartz crystal that begin their lives truly “in-the-rough” in the upper reaches of the Delaware River.  They journey more than 200 miles over thousands of years and their sharp edges are smoothed as they are propelled along the river bottom. Eventually the stones come to rest on the shores of the Delaware Bay.1

Our journey is 80+ years, if we are strong.  As we are propelled along in this life, let us allow our sharp edges to be smoothed, thus turning us into "diamonds."

The grandest character is grown in hardship. ~ Streams in the Desert

TV~
Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.  [Psalm 90:10]



1. New Jersey Monthly, May 5, 2009