Saturday, April 1, 2023
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Monday, February 13, 2023
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Monday, February 6, 2023
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Monday, January 30, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Friday, January 20, 2023
SPIRITUAL RICHES
SCRIPTURE: Proverb 10:4, 5; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9
VERSE FOR TODAY: Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth (Proverb 10:4, New International Version).
We knelt in the school auditorium. The principal's prayer rang out:" and let us not ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy Will."
Forty years ago I didn't appreciate the full meaning of the school prayer, butI have since learned that the rewards of serving God diligently ate as important to my spiritual well-being as my paycheck is to my physical well-being. The rewards certainly start with knowing that we are doing God's will, but the riches that God adds are much more. The wealth mentioned in our verse for today is probably food, clothing, and shelter. The lazy person could expect none of these. If as Christians we are spiritually lazy, don't attend to prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and heeding God's call to setvice, we are the ones who are deprived. In our laziness we forfeit the deep satisfaction and nourishment of God's Word, the heavenly garments of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, a forgiving spirit, love, peace, wisdom, and thankfulness (Colossians 3:13-15). As for the shelter provided by the Mish High, we might even forget that He is there.
PRAYER THOUGHTS: Dear heavenly Father, please grant that we shall not be lazy. Stir us to seek You and Serve You diligently in gratitude for the free gift of eternal life, so that we may receive abundant spiritual riches in Christ Jesus even here on earth. In the if Jesus we pray, Amen.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
KIDNAPPED!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 49:1-15
VERSE FOR TODAY: None. . .can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him (Psalm 49:7).
HYMN FOR TODAY: "Redeemed"
In Paula Fox's classic juvenile tale nineteenth century slave trade, The Slave Dancer, a thirteen-year- old white boy, Jesse, is shanghaied. His ability to play the fife is seen by evil vmerchant sailors as an ideal tool for dancing slaves aboard ship to keep their bodies from atrophying. Jesse considers himself the most aggrieved victim of kidnapping on the earth, until he sees African snatched from homes and homelands and humiliated in naked, cordwood-like stacks below deck. He slowly realizes that though he has a chance if being rescued or escaping, those enchained Africans do not. He is sickened by their cruel plight.
To be kidnapped by unholy driven by greed is s terrible predicament. But to be kidnapped by unholiness itself, taken a slave to sin and death, is worse . . . Except that the ransom price is readily available: "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." Bought back! What a marvelous thought. Right at the moment of sick despair, right when the shackles have worn the skin away, God's ransom announcement rings in the air: "Redeemed! How I love to proclaim it!"
PRAYER THOUGHTS: To our captors, sin and death , we have stood penniless, O Lord. If You had not paid the price in Your precious Son, we would be slaves eternally. We praise Your name, redeeming Savior. Amen.
Monday, January 16, 2023
RIGHT PEOPLE, PLACE & THINGS!
SCRIPTURE: Proverb 24:3-4
VERSE FOR TODAY: By Wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge it rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.
HYMN FOR TODAY: "The Glory of God"
This another place where the three qualities of wisdom, understanding and knowledge are seen together (see also 2:6; 3:19-20; 9:10; 24:3-4). Wisdom is one of the 26 character. We define Wisdom as "seeing life from God's point of view;" understanding as ", realizing how right choices lead to a meaningful life;" knowledge as "recognition of who God and how He working.
The three are discussed here in relation to a house and I s
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