Encouraging Words Devotional

W. Tozer was a Bible teacher of the last century. Always a deep thinker whose books still challenge the most experienced Bible expositors, Tozer expressed his deep thoughts in practical ways.

Luisa, who for a number of years served as my husband's administrative assistant and currently is Guidelines' Director of Media, has twin girls, who are now young adults. For most of the years her children were at home, she was a single mom, bearing the dual responsibilities of being both caretaker and breadwinner. And she did the job exceptionally well. That's why I asked her what resources she found helpful and what recommendations she would give to other single moms.

They say that the most magnificent saris ever made are hand-woven in the city of Varanasi, the cultural capital of India. These beautiful dresses--with their gold and silver, the reds and the blues—are often chosen to bedeck brides all over the nation. 

When the Romans banished the apostle John to the island of Patmos, they must have assumed he would soon be forgotten and his influence wiped out forever. Pastor Jack Hayford pointed out, "A small mountainous island with rocky soil in the Aegean Sea, Patmos should have remained an anonymous piece of land that people were sent to and never heard from again….  But God had other ideas."[1]

 

[1] Dr. Jack Hayford, from an address at the 20th Anniversary Commencement of Angelus Bible Institute, Los Angeles, CA.

The bush was on fire but it wasn't being burned up. Moses' curiosity was aroused, and so he stopped to investigate. Never in a thousand years did he expect to hear what he heard—God's voice speaking aloud to him, telling him that he had been commissioned to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery to the place God had promised would be their homeland.

Are you going through a time in life when you find yourself below sea level, struggling just to keep your head above water and stay alive in the middle of your circumstances? I wish I could change your circumstances, but I can’t. But I do have some words from the Bible to encourage you.

When you lose a loved one—someone very close and dear to you, you naturally grieve.  Something would be wrong if you didn't, for that person's input in your life has, in a practical sense, come to an end. 

It happened in southern India in the 1940s. A young village boy about twelve years old was helping Dr. Margaret Brand, the missionary eye doctor, as she did cataract surgery. 

Probably everybody wants to go to heaven when they die.  At least, they certainly don't want to go to hell! But have you thought about what it would be like to wake up and find yourself in heaven—not knowing your way around?  Common belief is that Peter will be there to welcome you, but actually we don't find that in the Bible. 

On Christmas day 1863, the poet Longfellow wrote,

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.