Tag: daily bread

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Day 11 The Goodness

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I am the bread of life.  John 6:48
Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.  Proverbs 14:26-27

I was talking with a young woman recently who was raised in the Christian faith and at 18 went off to Bible college for a few semesters.  At 19, she dropped out, got married, and was soon pregnant.  At 21, her husband abandoned their family.  Soon after, she abandoned Jesus.

You see when calamity hit, her faith was revealed to be built on the sand Jesus warns us about in Matthew 7:24-27.  Her house fell after the windy, stormy beating.  How could that be?  She was surrounded by the faithful for all her life up until then.  Isn’t that enough?

Let’s look at our faith this way.  If I hung around a bunch of people who loved baking and I enjoyed eating what they made, it wouldn’t make me a baker.  It’d make me fat, however!  I would have knowledge of baking, the process, the ingredients, the do’s and don’ts.  Without the love of baking and actually getting my hands covered in flour I’d just be an observer.  

It’s not the doing that makes us Christians it’s the surrendered belief that Jesus loves us so much He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again in the witnessed resurrection.  He becomes our secure fortress, our daily provision, and fountain of life.  He holds us tight through every tragedy and every windfall in our life.  We soon find Him at work everywhere. He keeps showing up.

When Toby Mac wrote this song it was after the death of his adult son from an overdose.  Of course, it was tragic.  Of course, he was full of tears and heartache.  But he had built his house on solid ground.  He sought refuge in the Lord.  The wind blew and the storm enveloped him.  Eventually, the sun came out and he was able to walk out his door into the warm sunlight of God’s love.

As for that young woman?  She is now happily married and I’m so glad to say she wants to know about Jesus and this Bread of Life.  She wants to learn how to build her life so she too can withstand what this world throws at us.  My prayer is that she will begin to see Jesus at work everywhere.

Click here to listen: The Goodness

30daysofpraise, Bible, bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, christian parenting, Christian women, Faith, god, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, religion, Uncategorized

Day 7 Thank God I Do

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But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Philippians 3:20-21
Those the Lord has rescued will return.
    They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 51:11

The last five years or so have been a hard road for many of us.  We have the ever-looming backdrop of the COVID years which still seems to find its way into many of our conversations.  Businesses ruined, relationships lost, precious time with loved ones taken away, social and educational interruptions — the effects will be us for some time.  But that was just a moment in time, really.  

Sickness, depression, death, loneliness, financial struggles, relationship pains have been with us since the beginning of our time outside Eden.  We so easily can live afraid.  Some do.  They don’t leave their homes or they pull back from others afraid of being hurt or damaged even more.

As a Christian we are not immune to these trials.  According to Jesus we should expect more problems when we put our trust and faith in the Lord.  We end up bucking the systems, cause rifts in our families and friends when we don’t just “go along.”  

But as this song reminds us, thank God we have Him.  Thank God He gave us the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to guide us, and to counsel us.  He creates a “new self,” sloughing off our old self – transforming us one day completely into crown wearers.  Giving us the hope that so many don’t have that on that day we will walk into heaven singing in gladness and joy because all our pain is gone, forever.

In the meantime, we can rest in God’s daily provisions for our life, our daily bread.  He holds us close in His hands.  He is our safe place, our hideaway, our anchor, our saving grace, our constant.