Ed M. wrote as a part of today’s devotional:

People should bring to Him their daunting perplexities, vexing questions, and impossible situations. He will give them strength to overcome their weakness, II Corinthians 12:9,10. If we would fully trust Him, we could do great things. We could defy all the odds along the way. We could swim the deepest ocean, climb the highest hill, and move the biggest mountain, Matthew 17:20b.

What should you bring to the Lord in faith, for him to solve, accomplish, or multiply? What great thing awaits us to do when we show full trust in him?

The writer has it right:

A church relying on human wisdom, wealth or resources ceases to be the body of Christ and becomes an earthly society.

Ironically the writer belonged to a denomination that had no existence in the New Testament and no basis for its doctrine in Scripture. Let us not be self-deceived. Among us are churches relying on their own resources, working only as far as their eye can see.

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  1. Helped DD assemble a smallish dining room table and chairs. Now I remember why I never bought toys with the label, “Some assembly required.”

  2. Out of my house for a week and a half. Ready to be home in a few days, but glad to have been with family.

  3. Will probably not finish reading 12 Week Year before time to fly home. Should I buy my own copy?

  4. Have contributed to other ministries with time and energies to the sacrifice, at times, of my own. God sees.

  5. A day behind on the Romans readings and posts, in Portuguese. Can I catch up, and get ahead, tomorrow?

  6. An original verse of mine: Basic nuts and bolts can be complex, / When either comes with manmade plans or defects.

  7. A Bible verse, from 1 Corinthians 4.16: “I encourage you, then, be imitators of me.”

Great point by Ron T. in the last line:

Elisabeth, an older woman who looked on her life as one not blessed by God because she had no child (or no children) to raise and nurture. She may not have considered her and her husband (Zacharias) as cursed, but it is more than likely she saw herself and them as not blessed (cf. Deut. 7:14: You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ESV). She was very much on the Lord’s mind (as was her husband) and she was very much in the Lord’s good graces. It goes to show (teach) that reality as one thinks of it in her life may not be reality at all.

God may change our status, situation, condition, circumstance in a moment, in the blinking of an eye.

Oh, Lord, I believe!

Ecclesiastes, from this source:

Title: author mentioned in third person 1:1

A. the brevity and insignificance of life 1:2-2:26

B. wisdom’s failure to discover life’s meaning 1:12-2:26

C. regarding time 3:1-15

D. fear God 3:16-6:12

C’. time revisited 7:1-14

B’. wisdom’s failure revisited 7:15-10:19

A’. life’s brevity revisited 10:20-12:8

Conclusion: author mentioned in third person 12:9-14

“Latin America’s religiously unaffiliated population is projected to grow both in absolute number and percentage terms, rising from about 45 million people (8%) in 2010 to 65 million (9%) in 2050.”

Let us see this projection as opportunity to preach the gospel to a growing number of people without any religious affiliation.

“Enthusiasm is contagious, and the person who has it, under control, is generally welcome in any group of people.” —Napoleon Hill

The most interesting phrase in this sentence is “under control.” We’ve all seen examples of enthusiasm out of control. Not a pretty sight. Under control, a powerful influence.

Last Christmas I received a new NVI Bible (by request), since my old one was falling apart. It has lines in the margins for notes. My first notes, for a sermon, covered Rom 8.28-39. Quite a good place to start, don’t you think?

This is a parenthetical statement of P. Pett in comments on Rom 7.4:

We must not let the work of the Holy Spirit blind us to the fact that Jesus Christ Himself and the Father also live within us. We can become too fond of splitting up the Triune God.

Most appropriate.

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  1. Wrote a letter in my own hand today for the first time in years. It hurt my fingers, this lefty with his digits wrapped around the slender fountain pen.

  2. Seek the face of the Lord. There is little else worth doing.

  3. A kind word takes little time, but can last for years.

  4. BBC says mindfulness may be overhyped. Y.T. says thoughtfulness has been underreported.

  5. In regions of yesteryear, where cemeteries are full of relatives and friends.

  6. A verse of mine: To each his own, to another is kindly gift / That both the giver and blessed receiver can lift.

  7. A Bible verse: “I praise you constantly and speak of your splendor all day long” Psalm 71.8 NET.