We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the
people he called, because that was his plan.
Romans 8:28 (NCV)
Tears and sorrow come, but each time God will be there to remind you that He cares.... God
causes all things in our lives to work together for good. Flowers can grow on dung hills,
and compost makes great gardens. God is offering Himself to you daily, and the exchange is
fixed. It is your sins for His forgiveness, your tragedy and hurt for His balm of healing,
and your sorrow for His joy.
— Barbara Johnson
Daily Meditations by Pat Nordman ©
July 19
"If I had to live through a major illness again there is one part of the last...years
that I would change. I chose to make my experience with cancer very private. I was afraid,
and afraid to express that I was afraid. Also, I did not want to burden anyone else with
my problem. I now consider my previous orientation to have been selfish and stupid. I
would now want to be encompassed by a caring community of friends with whom I could share
the inner mental and emotional trauma of illness. And I would hope to be in the care of
health professionals for whom I was not a diagnosis but a person." Dr. Donald Musser,
Stetson University, DeLand, Florida.
Pat Nordman ©
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Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions |
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Spurgeon's Morning for July 19 |
Spurgeon's Evening for July 19 |
| "The Lord our God hath shewed us his glory." – Deuteronomy 5:24 |
"A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." - Matthew 12:20 |
He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who "do business in great waters," these see his "wonders in the deep." |
Herein is grace and graciousness! Herein is love and lovingkindness! How it opens to us the compassion of Jesus--so gentle, tender, considerate! We need never shrink back from his touch. |
July 19 Job 41:1 -
42:17 |
Current Bible Question |
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Previous question and Answer:
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But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
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Meaningful Encounter by Cathy Vinson
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How profoundly does God want
to touch us? How great is His desire to be made real in our midst? Just how relational
does He want to be? "Someone there. It was this that filled with abiding wonder the first members of the Church of Christ. The solemn delight those early disciples knew sprang straight from the conviction that there was One in the midst of them. They knew that the Majesty in the heavens was confronting them on earth: They were in the very presence of God." (A W Tozer from THE DIVINE CONQUEST) How are we treating this God in our midst? He is. He waits for ministry into the now, ministry that moves into an encounter. For example, He wants to meaningfully touch the freshly divorced. "Deep calls unto deep." Wherever that point of entry for Jesus can be, there will be healing. He is all relevance. Let us not count Him less. I Thess 1:5: "Our Gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction." God does not merely desire an exchange of words. He wants a demonstration that "deeply convicts" or "fully assures." (Plerophoria=pleros-full + phero-to carry, full-carrying, entire confidence, full assurance.) Like an evergreen branch drooping with snow, every word can desirably be laden with conviction and relevance. What occurs when this happens? We are meaningfully encountered: transformation. "Water may change from liquid to vapor, from vapor to snow, and back to liquid again, and still be fundamentally the same...surface changes leave him exactly what he was before...The changes are in form only; they are not in kind" (AWT). What we are after is new creation (2 Cor 5:17). (Kainos=new, unaccustomed, unused, "not new in time or recent, BUT new as to form or quality, of different nature...") To know possible transformation has always been there can be painful, because we have waged efforts and are still getting away only with words and surface changes. Let us not deny our longing for MORE, our yearning to touch and be touched meaningfully. Let us uncover the hunger. "Before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, the desire to be filled must be all-consuming." Let such longing become our compass point, directing us.
Send a note to Cathy Vinson , the writer of this devotion. |
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