Our Daily Bread

We’re all confronted with deadlines! Bills must be paid, licenses renewed, tax returns filed—the list goes on and on.

I’m always amused when I watch the loons lift into flight off Piatt Lake in Michigan’s upper peninsula. They half-run, half-flap across the water for hundreds of feet before getting enough speed to lift into the air. I wondered why until I learned that unlike most birds, loons have solid bones. Their added weight makes it difficult for them to get airborne.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to missions—those who need to share Christ and those who need to hear about Him.

As he aged, Dabney began to worry about his impending death, and he expressed his fears in a letter to a former student and theologian, C. R. Vaughan. Dabney wondered about his ability to die honorably and to hold on to his Christian faith.

In today’s Bible reading, we see Jesus weary, hungry, and thirsty. He was just as human as we are. He was also God and could have met all His own needs. But Jesus didn’t insist on doing everything without the help of others. On this occasion He graciously (and no doubt gratefully) allowed His disciples to go and buy food while He sat by the well to rest and wait. And when a Samaritan woman of questionable character came to draw water, He did what many of us might hesitate to do—He asked her for a drink.

Hubert H. Humphrey, former senator, vice-president, college professor, and family man, spoke proudly and lovingly of his family in a television interview. Then his eyes moistened as he recalled the birth of a very special granddaughter with Down’s syndrome. “It happened several years ago,” he said, “and do you know, that little girl has brought more love into our family circle than had existed before.”

Lisa and Sheryl have been friends since grade school. Although their paths have taken them in different directions since those schoolgirl days in New Jersey, they have maintained their close friendship.

It may take only a year for a construction crew to put up a tall building, but God takes a century to grow a sturdy oak. So too, the Lord may seem to be working slowly to accomplish His purposes in our lives, but His grand designs take time.

There has always been an element of mystery and intrigue surrounding the ark of the covenant. This carefully crafted box was built by the Israelites to be placed in the tabernacle during their wandering years in the wilderness. Inside it were the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and a golden jar of manna (Heb. 9:4). Atop the ark, on what was called the mercy seat, were two golden cherubim. The ark was situated inside the Most Holy Place, where once a year the high priest would stand in the very presence of God.

The principle of sowing and reaping is often used to warn about the inevitable consequences of evil deeds. But it can also be used as an encouragement to believers in their service for Christ.