Blog Archives
This Day’s Thought from Wednesday
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When you lay aside your personal goals, desires, and ambitions, that is when God will reveal the goals, desires, and ambitions that He has for you.
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 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
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A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse…and dreams of home.
Carl Burns
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This Day’s Thought for Monday (With a Note About Eric Elder From The Ranch Ministries)
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Some twelve years ago, Eric and Lana Elder, of The Ranch Ministry, began their spiritual mentoring with me and partnering, that led This Day’s Thought to grow into the ministry it is today, reaching all of you throughout the world. They have invited me into their home and family, have nurtured and prayed over this ministry and have so often shared their Christian faith and strength with so many of us. If it were not for the Elders, This Day’s Thought would simply not exist as we know it today. Yesterday, Eric and Lana shared in the Sunday sermon that Lana has cancer. You may read the sermon at this link:www.theranch.org
Please keep Lana, along with Eric and their children, in your prayers.
And Lana has this blog that she is using to share and communicate with others: www.lanaelder.wordpress.com
Most Sincerely, Greg for This Day’s Thought
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No storm is so great, no wave is so high, no sea is so deep, no wind is so strong, that Jesus cannot either calm it or carry us through it.
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And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
The New King James Version |
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The first of all beautiful things is the continual possession of God.
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This Day’s Thought From Tues, Wed, and Thurs.
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A man who loves the Word of God, a man who dwells upon what it says, a man who keeps a little text in his mind to think about as he is walking on his way, and that meditates upon it day and night, “Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” If you can find a man who carries out this direction and doesn’t prosper, you can doubt the inspiration of the first Psalm; but find the man first.
He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
Proverbs 28:25-26
The New King James Version
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I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.
He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.
Proverbs 12:11
The New International Version
Always remember that, every time you step out of your comfort zone, you step into God’s comfort zone.
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Faith has been reduced to a comfortable system of beliefs about God instead of an uncomfortable encounter with God.
Michael Yaconelli
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 42:11
The New International Version
This Day’s Thought From Mon. Tues. and Wed.
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Christmas is the harvest time of love. Souls are drawn to other souls. All that we have read and thought and hoped comes to fruition at this happy time. Our spirits are astir. We feel within us a strong desire to serve. A strange, subtle force, a new kindness, animates man and child. A new spirit is growing in us. No longer are we content to relieve pain, to sweeten sorrow, to give the crust of charity. We dare to give friendship, service, the equal loaf of bread and love.
“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3
The New King James Version
Christmas is when God came down the stairs of heaven with a baby in His arms.
R. Eugene Sterner
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There was a gift for each of us left under the tree of life 2000 years ago by Him whose birthday we celebrate today. The gift was withheld from no man. Some have left the packages unclaimed. Some have accepted the gift and carried it around, but have failed to remove the wrappings and look inside to discover the hidden splendor. The packages are all alike: In each is a scroll on which is written, “All that the Father hath is thine.” Take and live!
Unknown
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
Genesis 49:10
The New International Version
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Then let every heart keep Christmas within:
Christ’s pity for sorrow,
Christ’s hatred for sin,
Christ’s care for the weakest,
Christ’s courage for right.
Everywhere, everywhere,
Christmas tonight!
Phillips Brooks
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
The New International Version
An attorney I very much admired once said that the greatest gift he ever received in his life was a note his dad gave him on Christmas. It read, “Son, this year I will give you 365 hours. An hour every day after dinner. We’ll talk about whatever you want to talk about. We’ll go wherever you want to go, play whatever you want to play. It will be your hour.” That dad kept his promise and renewed it every year.
Ann Landers
This Day’s Thought From Monday & Tuesday
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Prayer Requests |
Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
Proverbs 1:5
The English Standard Version
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Prayer Requests |
The study of God‘s Word for the purpose of discovering God’s will is the secret discipline which has formed the greatest characters.
James W. Alexander
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
Mark 10:21
The New King James Version
Beethoven once said of Rossini that he had in him the making of a great musician if only he had some difficulties to struggle with and some failures. Beethoven understood from his own experience that struggle produces greatness.
This Day’s Thought From Monday – Thursday
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If any one would tell you the surest, shortest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself, to thank God for every thing that happens to you.
O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 107:1
The King James Version
Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t give you only that which you remember to thank him for?
Max Lacado
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If I were to wake up one morning and find I was an atheist with my faith in God completely gone, I think I would miss almost more than anything else having someone to thank…I can hardly conceive what it would be like never, never being able to say in a moment of exhilaration or of unexpected happiness or of rescue from deep distress, “O God, you’re good to me!”
David Read
I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30
The New International Version
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We can thank God for everything good, and all the rest we don’t comprehend yet.
Kristin Armstrong
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Psalm 100:4
The King James Version
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
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O, heavenly Father: we thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
That thy gifts to us may be used for others.
Amen.
Pauline Phillips
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD. “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
Ezra 3:11
The New King James Version
This Day’s Thought For Thursday
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Prayer Requests |
There is a loyalty which turns into idolatry. The very thing which once freed us can turn into the very thing that enslaves us: a method of prayer, a technique of mediation, a way of expressing ourselves through art, music, writing or speaking, which was once the channel through which God reaches us, may have become the very thing which prevents our continued growth. We may confuse the channels of God with God himself!! This turns us into idolators of a certain system. We become fixed and petrified. It’s natural to thrill at each new level of growth and feel that we’ve arrived. But God, the living God, keeps breaking our old molds; He constantly enlarges us, presenting new challenges and new sacraments.
Paul Tournier
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
Jeremiah 29:13-14
The New King James Version
This Day’s Thought For Tuesday
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Prayer Requests |
True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us mindful of the nobility God meant us to have. Yet it makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, eplieptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
Matthew 4:23-24
The New King James Version
This Day’s Thought From Monday
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Prayer Requests |
The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies on your chest belongs to the naked; and the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Exodus 33:19
The King James Version
There is a story about trust in God‘s promises that comes from F. W. Boreham. Boreham tells about an episode during the early days of his ministry in Australia. He went to call on one of his elderly parishioners. Entering the room where the old man lay, he noticed a chair pulled up beside the man’s bed. “I see that I am not your first visitor today,” said Boreham. The old man then began to explain the presence of the empty chair. He said that when he was a small boy, he had difficulty praying. His pastor suggested that he overcome this difficulty by placing an empty chair in front of himself when he prayed, and by simply pretending that Jesus was sitting in that chair like an attentive friend. He said he had maintained that habit ever since. Boreham left the house a short while later. A few days later, however, then man’s daughter came to tell him that he was dead. “I was out of the room only for a short time,” said the daughter. “When I returned, he was gone. There was no change in him except I noticed that his hand was on the chair.”
Unknown
This Day’s Thought For Tuesday
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Prayer Requests |
We Christians feel that we have had the same essential experiences…we not only say similar things, but we feel the same way about them, and we value them the same way. It is spirit bearing witness to spirit. The underlying reason is that we have been saved by the same God, through the same Saviour, and by the same Gospel.
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
James 4:6
The King James Version
