Today's Soul Food — October 28 & 29

 

Golden Words

      


And I will make them and the places about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

Ezekiel 34:26 KJV

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This verse provided the inspiration for the old gospel hymn, Showers of Blessing. The promise applies specifically to Israel. We, as believers, can also rightly appropriate this verse to our lives. One of the greatest spiritual blessing of God in this life is the inspired Word of God.

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For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth bud. ... So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10.11 KJV


Daily Meditations by  Pat Nordman ©

 


October 28

Sometimes we miss those who would help us. Charles Spurgeon told of the minister who collected the rent for a widow. When he took it to her house, there was no answer. Later he met her and told her what happened. She said, "I thought it was the man who came to collect the rent." We, too, sometimes limit what God can do for us by believing the possible is impossible. Our lack of faith is what keeps us from answering His knock, just as the widow misunderstood who was at her door. God asks us, "Was My arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?" (Isaiah 50:2b). "Ah, Sovereign Lord...Nothing is too hard for you" (Jeremiah 32:17).


October 29

Walter Marshall Horton, in Our Christian Faith, tells about the pious deacon who vowed publicly to kill the man who goaded him beyond endurance. His enemy heard about the vow and waited to see what the deacon would do. Actually the deacon sought out every possible opportunity to do the man good. One day the enemy's wife was drowning and the deacon saved the woman's life. The deadlock was broken and a new relation-ship formed when the man said to the deacon, "All right, you've done what you said you'd do, and I admit it. You've killed me--or at least you've killed the man I was. Now, what can I do for you?"

Pat Nordman ©

 

 


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Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions

With links to the entire devotion

Spurgeon's Morning for October 28

Spurgeon's Evening for October 28

"I have chosen you out of the world."

- John 15:19


"His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven."

- Song of Solomon 5:11

Meat from the King’s table will hurt none of his courtiers. Desire to have your mind enlarged, that you may comprehend more and more the eternal, everlasting, discriminating love of God. 

Jesus is not a grain of gold, but a vast globe of it, a priceless mass of treasure such as earth and heaven cannot excel.

 

Spurgeon's Morning for October 29 Spurgeon's Evening for October 29

"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, etc."

- Matthew 6:9

 
"But their eyes were holden that they should not know him."

- Luke 24:16

 

There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, "I will arise, and go unto my Father."

The disciples ought to have known Jesus, they had heard his voice so often, and gazed upon that marred face so frequently, that it is wonderful they did not discover him. Yet is it not so with you also?

 

 

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October 28  Luke 17:1 - 18:43

October 29  Luke 19:1 - 20:47

365 days of Bible Readings Linked to Bible Gaitway TM 

 

Current Bible Question



What king of Moab was so fat that when Ehud stabbed him with a 1 and 1/2 foot sword, 
the handle sank into his belly?        
 

Previous question and Answer:

Who was the woman that hid two Israelite spies on the roof of her house?

Rahab Joshua 2:1-6

 

 

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Today's  Devotion
 

 

...and by his light I walked through darkness!    JOB 29:3 NIV

 

A New Thing

by Pat Nordman 

 

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am making a new thing!"

Isaiah 43:18,19a

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new crea-tion; the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5:17

God tells us, "I will cover your iniquity. . .I will blot out your transgressions. . .Go, and sin no more." He asks us to forget the things–the sins–that we have committed and go on with His love and mercy. We would wonder about the man who drops a glass bottle on the sidewalk, then gets down and so carefully collects all the jagged little pieces and then hugs them to his bosom until he bleeds. This is what we do when we spurn God's forgiveness.


"Forgetting what lies behind" (Philippians 3:13): slanders; temptations; the little and large faults of others; provocations that sear our sensitive nature; quarrels that either we or they have started; and all the disagreeables of life. Let us reach forward, as Paul tells us in the same verse, to what lies ahead and enjoy the agreeables that God has in store for us today and tomorrow. We have such a perverted and sinful tendency to concentrate on the bone and forget the delicious meat of life: family, friends, coworkers with whom we can share a thought and a laugh. Let us blot out others' transgressions and our disagreeables right now.


Every day is another chance and charge to become a new character. We have another opportunity to change from Saul to Paul, from Jacob to Israel. Physically we do not change, of course, but it is our motives, our principles and our habits which change. Jesus gave us the pa-tern for our unique trans-figuration in His Sermon on the Mount and in what He Himself was and is. His Word is His promise, "And this is what he promised us–even eternal life" 1 John 2:25. Eternal life starts today.

© Pat Nordman

Send a note to Pat Nordman , the writer of this devotion.
 

We have such a perverted and sinful tendency to concentrate on the bone and forget the delicious meat of life.

 

More Walking Through the Darkness



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~ Jonathan Brown ~ 

I will tell you the story of Jonathan Brown The wealthiest man in Vanastorbiltown. He had lands, he had houses, and factories and stocks, Good gilt-edged investments, as solid as rocks. "Every thing that I have," he so frequently said, "Shall belong to the Lord just as soon as I'm dead." So he made out his will, with particular care, A few hundred here, a few thousand there. 

For the little home church in the village close by He planned a new building with spire so high, And chimes to be heard from miles upon miles, And deep crimson carpet all down its long aisles. For his pastor, a new home, with rooms large and nice; For the village library, a generous slice. And then he remembered a college, Where young folks were taught the essentials of knowledge. The promising son of his very best friend To prepare for the ministry he planned to send. He'd pay for his board and his room and tuition, Expecting the lad to fulfill a great mission. 

His pastor, in old shoes, and shabbiest raiment, Suggested the Lord might enjoy a down payment. But he said it weren't smart to do business that way. "I'd end up in the poorhouse for certain," he said, "If I give up my money before I am dead." He grumbled because the good preacher'd been rash, And sat down again to figure his cash. 

Now Satan stood by with a devilish grin, Saw all that old Jonathan had to put in; "Ahem," said the devil, concealing a smile, "I'll see that this old fellow will live a long while." So Satan chased off every menacing germ, And sprayed antiseptic on each threatening worm, Until not a disease could get near brother Brown, And his excellent health was the talk of the town. He survived epidemics of flu and of measles, Of typhoid, diphtheria, Bavarian teasles; He escaped the distress of acute 'pendicitis, He couldn't as much as have old tonsillitis. At sixty he still was quite hearty and hale, At seventy he hadn't yet started to fail, At eighty his step was still youthful and spry, At ninety his nieces said, "Why don't he die?" 

But the day after he was a hundred and two, And Satan weren't looking, a germ wriggled through And laid Brother Jonathan low in his grave, And his relatives gathered in solemn conclave. Lawyer Jones read the will in a voice deep and round, But there wasn't a legatee that could be found. The little home church he had loved in his youth Had long closed its doors and ceased spreading the truth. His pastor had died poor a long time before And the village library existed no more, The college, they found when they finally wrote, Was long ago sold on account of a note. And the boy that he planned to send off to school Had grown up in ignorance, almost a fool, And had seven sons, each one worse than the rest, And eleven godchildren, the whole tribe a pest. 

So his ungodly relatives each took a slice, And his lawyers forgot, and paid themselves twice, And there wasn't a friend and there wasn't a mourner, Not even the paper-boy down at the corner. And Satan, still smiling, turned to tasks fresh and new, Muttered, "Brother, let this be a lesson to you," Wagged his fingers and spat as the casket went down. Thus ended the story of Jonathan Brown.  

 

And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.

1 John 4:16 (NCV)

Today's Religion News
From Goshen Web News Service

 

 


All the Rest October 28 & 29


Today in History for October 28
Today in History for October 29

 

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