NOVEMBER 2006
November 1, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:21-22, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
We will not be alone, for He will be with us. His resources, His wisdom, His courage, His strength and His love will be ours. Whom God calls, He enables; whom God sends, He equips.
George Duncan
A prayer to strengthen your day
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
let us find our rest in thee.
Charles Wesley
November 2, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night.
Psalm 92:1-2, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
There must be no day without that time of prayer which brings eternity near to time, and which brings God into the human situation.
William Barclay
A prayer to strengthen your day
Spirit of God, I thank Thee that Thou art the answer to all my questions and the end of all my quests. And yet Thou art, not the end, but just the beginning. For now having Thee, I am ready for all. Amen.
E. Stanley Jones
November 3, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
I love God because he listened to me,
listened as I begged for mercy.
He listened so intently
as I laid out my case before him.
Death stared me in the face,
hell was hard on my heels.
Up against it, I didn’t know which way to turn;
then I called out to God for help:
“Please, God!” I cried out.
“Save my life!”
Psalm 116:1-4, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
A prayer to strengthen your day
Lord, grant that wherever I may find myself, I make your ministry of liberation, redemption, and justice my priority. Amen.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
November 6, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
He rides pleasantly enough who is carried by the grace of God.
Thomas à Kempis
A prayer to strengthen your day
Dear God, let no resentment against others find root in my life today, no critical spirit put distance between me and those I have been given to love. Amen.
Eugene H. Peterson
November 7, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
I believe that this life is only the beginning of our new life, our babyhood as it were, and that to limit our development to it would be like limiting the child’s development to the nursery.
Hannah Whitall Smith
A prayer to strengthen your day
Heavenly Father, if I should suffer need, and go unclothed, and be in poverty, make my heart prize Thy love, know it, be constrained by it, though I be denied all blessings. It is Thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to Thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of Thy love.
A Puritan Prayer
November 8, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
let the congregation know the whole story.
Psalm 40:9-10, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
A characteristic of the true prophet has always been love.
A. W. Tozer
A prayer to strengthen your day
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire
that others might be loved more than I;
that others might be esteemed more than I;
that in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I decrease.
Anonymous
November 9, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Corinthians 9:25, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
To aim at luxury as a right is to end in disaster as a result.
William Barclay
A prayer to strengthen your day
Give me a task too big
Too hard for human hands.
Then shall I come at length
To lean on Thee;
And leaning find my strength.
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
November 10, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:13, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Be very clear about who Jesus Christ is for you. He is a present Lord who offers us a new dimension of resurrected life for today as well as the hope of eternal life.
Lloyd John Ogilvie
A prayer to strengthen your day
O Lord, we thank you for those who chose the way of Jesus Christ.
In the midst of trial, they held out hope;
in the midst of hatred, they kindled love;
in the midst of persecutions, they witnessed to your power;
in the midst of despair, they clung to your promise.
Unknown
November 13, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
1 Corinthians 1:21, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me. God has only one intended destiny for mankind—holiness. His only goal is to produce saints.
Oswald Chambers
A prayer to strengthen your day
Father,
Help us to ask that we may learn,
not how to get our own way,
but how to take your way;
not how to do what we want,
but how to do what you want.
William Barclay
November 14, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
God—you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you!
I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
traveling across dry and weary deserts.
Psalm 63:1, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
It means . . . that my spiritual life is not something specialized and intense; a fenced-off devotional patch rather difficult to cultivate, and needing to be sheltered from the cold winds of the outer world. Nor is it an alternative to my outward practical life. On the contrary, it is the very source of that quality and purpose which makes practical life worth living.
Evelyn Underhill
A prayer to strengthen your day
Control me, O my God,
so that I neither dally nor disobey,
nor slip aside, nor stand still, nor sink down.
Eric Milner-White
November 15, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people!
His love has taken over our lives;
God’s faithful ways are eternal.
Hallelujah!
Psalm 117:1-2, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
With complete consecration comes perfect peace.
Watchman Nee
A prayer to strengthen your day
Let me not be too concerned with the bothersome thing I call “myself.”
St. Thomas More
November 16, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:16, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
We can no more be conformed to the image of Christ outside of corporate spirituality than a coal can continue to burn bright outside of a fire.
M. Robert Mulholland
A prayer to strengthen your day
Breathe in me, Holy Spirit, that all my thoughts may be holy.
Act in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy.
Augustine
November 17, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:17-21, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
The cross is a confrontation with the overwhelming goodness of God revealed in the broken body of his only begotten son. Our personal encounter, not simply the intellectual cognition, but the experiential awareness of the love of Jesus Christ, propels us to trust.
Brennan Manning
A prayer to strengthen your day
Lord, let me hear Thee speaking in my heart. Let me get used to the sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of the earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking voice. Amen.
A. W. Tozer
November 20, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.
Isaiah 40:8, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Our world is fast becoming a madhouse, and the inmates are trying to run the asylum. It is a strange time when the patients are writing the prescriptions, the students are threatening to run the schools, the children to manage the homes, and church members—not the Holy Spirit—to direct the churches.
Vance Havner
A prayer to strengthen your day
O God, . . . I offer my little all, and I take Thy great All. Here I exchange—exchange my poverty for Thy Riches, my emptiness for Thy fullness. How rich and full I am in Thee. Amen.
E. Stanley Jones
November 21, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
Teach me how to live to please you,
because you’re my God.
Lead me by your blessed Spirit
into cleared and level pastureland.
Psalm 143:10, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life.
A. W. Tozer
A prayer to strengthen your day
Give us good and virtuous friends.
In the name of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Warren Hastings
November 22, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
When I walk into the thick of trouble,
keep me alive in the angry turmoil.
With one hand
strike my foes,
With your other hand
save me.
Finish what you started in me, God.
Your love is eternal—don’t quit on me now.
Psalm 138:7-8, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
It would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
Helen Adams Keller
A prayer to strengthen your day
My Father, keep me in the spirit of thanksgiving. May the sense of my desert never overtake the awareness of your grace. May there be a new song in my mouth every morning.
J. H. Jowett
November 23, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:4-5, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
All that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe to God for any blessing is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.
Richard Whatley
A prayer to strengthen your day
O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency,
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help,
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.
Samuel F. Pugh
November 24, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
Sing to God a brand-new song. He’s made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.
God made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.
He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.
Psalm 98:1-3, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A prayer to strengthen your day
Father—give me grace and power this day
so my motives are pure,
so my spirit is gentle, and
so my words are worthy
of your approval. Amen.
Neil B. Wiseman
November 27, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4-5, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
The fruit of the Spirit is not push, drive, climb, grasp, and trample. Don’t let the rat-racing world keep you on its treadmill. There is a legitimate place for blood, sweat, and tears; but it should have its roots in the call of God, not in the desire to get ahead. Life is more than a climb to the top of the heap.
Richard J. Foster
A prayer to strengthen your day
The house of my soul is too small for you to come to it. May it be enlarged by you. It is in ruins; restore it.
St. Augustine
November 28, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6: 11b, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Beware of Christian activities instead of Christian being. The reason workers come to stupendous collapses is that their work is the evidence of a heart that evades facing the truth of God for itself—“I have no time for prayer, for Bible study, I must be always at it.”
Oswald Chambers
A prayer to strengthen your day
Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman,
that my being may be a tilled field,
the roots of grace spreading far and wide,
Until Thou alone art seen in me,
Thy beauty golden like summer harvest,
Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.
A Puritan Prayer
November 29, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:6, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Satan’s most successful maneuver in churches and Christian organizations is to get people angry at one another; to attack and insult our brothers and sisters, thus splitting the body of Christ.
James C. Dobson
A prayer to strengthen your day
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire
that others may be chosen and I set aside;
that others may be praised and I unnoticed;
that others may be preferred to me in everything;
that others may become holier than I, provided that I become as holy as I should.
Anonymous
November 30, 2006
Good morning, ministry partner . . .
Be encouraged from the Word
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:19-20, NIV
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
God . . . gives me the freedom to acknowledge my negative attitudes before him but not the freedom to act them out because they are as destructive for me as they are for the other person.
Rebecca Manley-Pippert
A prayer to strengthen your day
Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint—some of them are so hard to live with—but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil.
17th Century Nun
Back to Soul Care archives