MARCH 2005
March 1, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.
Ephesians 6:10-11, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
We must resist the idea that where we are is where we should stay for the rest of our lives. True, it is easier to drift than to travel. It is comforting to camp among familiar scenes, to linger over victories already won. But the call of God’s far horizons is upon us, and we must not stay.
W. T. Purkiser
A prayer to strengthen your day
Grant that there might come a mighty shaking of dry bones among us, and a great ingathering of souls. Quicken thy professing children. Grant that the young may be constrained to believe that there is a reality in religion, and a beauty in the fear of the Lord.”
Maria W. Stewart
March 2, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
Ephesians 1:19, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
I do not understand all about electricity, but I don’t intend to sit in the dark until I do.
Vance Havner
A prayer to strengthen your day
Grant me, even me, my dearest Lord,
to know thee,
and love thee,
and rejoice in thee.
And if I cannot do these perfectly in this life,
let me at least advance to higher degrees every day,
till I can come to do them in perfection.
Let the knowledge of thee increase in me here,
that it may be full hereafter.
Let the love of thee grow every day more and more here,
that it may be perfect hereafter;
that my joy may be great in itself,
and full in thee.
I know, O God, that thou art a God of truth. Oh, make good thy gracious promises to me, that my joy may be full. Amen.
Saint Augustine
March 3, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
Romans 5:11, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Scriptures are far more explicit, even about details, than most people think, and there are not many important affairs in life for which a clear direction may not be found in God’s book.
Hannah Whitall Smith
A prayer to strengthen your day
Jesus, I know you came
to seek and find me:
Yours are the only hands
that can unbind me.
You offer me release
from sin and sin’s increase;
And bid me go in peace,
the past behind me.
F. Pratt Green
March 4, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
I've thrown myself headlong into your arms—
I'm celebrating your rescue.
I'm singing at the top of my lungs,
I'm so full of answered prayers.
Psalm 13:5-6, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
To believe in God is one thing, to know God is another. Both in heaven and on earth the Lord is made known only by the Holy Spirit, and not through ordinary learning.
Staretz Silouan
A prayer to strengthen your day
Reveal in us your glory
Stir in us your power
Renew in us your kingdom
Develop in us your faith
Show in us your way
Open in us your love
Strengthen in us your hope
Work in us your miracles
Revive in us your resurrection
Abide in us yourself.
David Adam
March 7, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
Ephesians 3:20-21, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Christian love is not the world’s last word about itself—it is God’s final word about himself, and so about the world.
Hans Urs von Balthasar
A prayer to strengthen your day
O Lord, give me a backbone as big as a sawlog,
And ribs like the sleepers under the church floor.
Put iron shoes on me and galvanized breeches,
And give me a rhinoceros hide for a skin;
And hang a wagonload of determination up in the gable end of my soul.
And help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as I have got a fist, and bite him as long as I’ve got a tooth, and then gum him till I die.
All this I ask, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Bud Robinson
March 8, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word —
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:8-9, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Cry the gospel with your whole life.
Charles de Foucauld
A prayer to strengthen your day
I’ll go in the strength of the Lord,
to work he appoints me to do;
In joy which his smile doth afford
my soul shall her vigor renew.
His wisdom shall guard me from harm,
his power my sufficiency prove;
I’ll trust his omnipotent arm
and prove his unchangeable love.
Edward Turney
March 9, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
My choice is you, God, first and only.
And now I find I'm your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
Psalm 16:5-6, TM
Wisdom from fellow
The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God—and be content to have it so—that is the danger.
Phillips Brooks
A prayer to strengthen your
Lord, give us now,
Eyes to see the invisible,
Ears to hear your call,
Hands to do your work,
And hearts to respond to your love.
David Adam
March 10, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
Psalm 16:7-8, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
The Holy Spirit will make you think about yourself, because that is His way of educating you so that you may be able to deal with others. He makes you picture what you would like other people to do to you, and then He says, “Now go and do those things to them.”
Oswald Chambers
A prayer to strengthen your day
God—I’m sorry.
Yesterday, I won an argument and wounded a friend.
Though I was right, I was really wrong. I want to do better.
I pray for strength
. . . to speak affirmatively to everyone I meet,
. . . to accept others’ viewpoints as wonderful gifts,
. . . to listen creatively to all who share their ideas,
. . . to break free of the conceit of knowing it all, and
. . . to wipe the crabby “I-told-you-so” look from my face.
Lord, I want to love others with Your kind of love,
and show it.
NBW
March 11, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Is there any god like God?
Are we not at bedrock?
Is not this the God who armed me,
then aimed me in the right direction?
Now I run like a deer;
I'm king of the mountain.
Psalm 18:31-33, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Secularism says there is one commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” trying to fly with one wing, going around in circles. The Christian faith has two wings: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” When these two are equally emphasized, the Christian faith soars.
E. Stanley Jones
A prayer to strengthen your day
Today, O Lord—
let me put right before interest:
let me put others before self:
let me put the things of the spirit before the things of the body:
let me put the attainment of noble ends above the enjoyment of present pleasures:
let me put principle above reputation:
let me put Thee before all else.
John Baillie
March 14, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
give glory, you sons of Jacob;
adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
never looked the other way
when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his own thing;
he has been right there, listening.
Psalm 22:23-24, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
We can easily grow wretched over the failure of men, even the best of them. There is so much fickleness and so many Christians fail us. We had better resolve early to expect little of men, much of God. Major on His faithfulness.
Vance Havner
A prayer to strengthen your day
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer
March 15, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word —
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing!
He forgives your sins—every one.
He heals your diseases—every one.
He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence.
God makes everything come out right;
he puts victims back on their feet.
Psalm 103:2-6, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
No man can at one and the same time prove that he is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.
James Denney
A prayer to strengthen your day
O Lord, help me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to rely on thy holy will.
Bless my dealings with all who surround me. . . .
In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by thee. . .
Direct my will, teach me
to pray, pray thou thyself in me.
Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow
March 16, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
As high as heaven is over the earth,
so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
he has separated us from our sins.
As parents feel for their children,
God feels for those who fear him.
Psalm 103:11-13, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Every time we reject the habits of the crowd and practice the disciplines of faith, we become a little more alive.
Eugene H. Peterson
A prayer to strengthen your day
I stand before you
with a gnawing hunger in my soul—
and I ask you to feed me.
I stand before you
thirsting for forgiveness—
and I ask you to touch but a drop of your tender mercies
to my parched lips.
Ken Gire
March 17, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Blessed be God—
he heard me praying.
He proved he's on my side;
I've thrown my lot in with him.
Now I'm jumping for joy,
and shouting and singing my thanks to him.
Psalm 28:6-7, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Raise your sights higher than men. Then, if even your father and mother forsake you, the Lord will take you up.
Vance Havner
A prayer to strengthen your day
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.
George Matheson
March 18, 2005 Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Above the floodwaters is God's throne
from which his power flows,
from which he rules the world.
God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.
Psalm 29:10-11, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
God called Philip out of a spiritual awakening in Samaria and sent him off on a way “which is desert” (Acts 8:26). One must always be prepared for strange turns in the divine itinerary of our earthly sojourn. God’s timetable does not follow our little patterns. Next day may move us from a Samaria to a Sahara! But He who says “Go” goes along.
Vance Havner
A prayer to strengthen your day
Cast down, O Lord, all the forces of cruelty and wrong. Defeat all selfish and worldly-minded schemes, and prosper all that is conceived among us in the spirit of Christ and carried out to the honour of His blessed name. Amen.
John Baillie
March 21, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole
Through his bruises we get healed.
Isaiah 53:3-5, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
O come and mourn with me awhile! O come ye to the Savior’s side;
O come, together, let us mourn; Jesus our Lord is crucified.
O love of God! O sin of man! In this dread act your strength is tried,
And victory remains with love, For he, our Lord, is crucified.
Frederick Faber
A prayer to strengthen your day
O Intercessor, Who art ever living
To plead for dying souls that they may live,
Teach us to know our sin which needs forgiving,
Teach us to know the love which can forgive.
Ada Greenaway
March 22, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves . . . They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me . . . She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.
Mark 14:3-4,6,9, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.
Oswald Chambers
A prayer to strengthen your day
Let my hands perform His bidding, Let my feet run in His ways;
Let my eyes see Jesus only, Let my lips speak forth His praise.
All for Jesus, all for Jesus! All my being's ransomed pow'rs:
All my thoughts and words and doings, All my days and all my hours.
Mary James
March 23, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
Isaiah 53:11-12, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love for thee.
Bernard of Clairvaux
A prayer to strengthen your day
My Savior, how shall I proclaim, How pay the mighty debt I owe?
Let all I have and all I am ceaseless to all thy glory show.
Too much to Thee I cannot give; Too much I cannot do for Thee;
Let all Thy love and all Thy grief graven on my heart forever be.
Paul Gerhadt, tr. John Wesley
March 24, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Taking the cup, he blessed it, then said, “Take this and pass it among you. As for me, I’ll not drink wine again until the kingdom of God arrives.” Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory”.
Luke 22:17-19, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
The creative spirit of God is a redemptive and cherishing love; and it is as friends and fellow workers with the Spirit, tools of the Divine redemptive action that Christians are required to live . . . . in you and through you the method and work of the incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken, consecrated, broken and made people of grace; vehicles of the Eternal Charity.
Evelyn Underhill
A prayer to strengthen your day
Jesus, keep me near the cross, There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream flows from Calvary’s mountain.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God, Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day, With its shadows o’er me.
Fanny Crosby
March 25, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”
But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”
He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
O love divine, what hast Thou done?
Th’ immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree;
Th’ immortal God for me hath died!
My Lord, my Love is crucified.
Then let us sit beneath His cross
And gladly catch the healing stream.
All things for Him account but loss
And give up all our hearts to Him.
Of nothing think or speak beside:
My Lord, my Love is crucified.
Charles Wesley
A prayer to strengthen your day
I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
Content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss,
My sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.
Elizabeth C. Clephane
March 28, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
“There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.
“Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’”
Matthew 28:5-7, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Once there was fire and light in Judas. But he wandered, in his early years, into the past tense.
Halford Luccock
A prayer to strengthen your day
O that I might love thee as well as every creature loved thee!
Let me think of nothing so much as thee,
desire nothing so much as thee,
delight in nothing so much as thee.
John Wesley
March 29, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
He (Jesus) said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses.
Luke 24:46-48, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
A biblical leader has a God-given vision that engages our commitment, a Christlike character that earns our trust, and a Spirit-guided agenda that mobilizes our energies.
David McKenna
A prayer to strengthen your day
Please, God, make my influence useful, dependable, and beautiful.
May my voice encourage acceptance,
. . . my glance validate strength,
. . . my nearness cultivate confidence,
. . . my friendship inspire trust,
. . . my actions teach courage,
. . . and my faith remind others of You.
NBW
March 30, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
When I was desperate, I called out,
and God got me out of a tight spot.
God's angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.
Psalm 34:6-7, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
An idler has no right in the pulpit. He is an instrument of Satan in damning the souls of men. The ministry demands brain labor. The preacher must read and study to keep his mind in good trim. Above all, he must put heart work into his preaching. He must feel what he preaches. It must never be with him an easy thing to deliver a sermon. He must feel as if he could preach his very life away before the sermon is done.
C. H. Spurgeon
A prayer to strengthen your day
Forgive me, Lord, for having spoken so badly.
Forgive me for having spoken often to no purpose;
Forgive me for the days when I tarnished my lips with hollow words,
false words,
cowardly words,
words through which you could not pass.
Uphold me when I must speak in a meeting, intervene in a discussion, talk with a brother,
Grant above all, Lord, that my words may be like the sowing of seeds,
And that those who hear them make look to a fine harvest.
Michel Quoist
March 31, 2005
Good morning, ministry partner...
Be encouraged from the Word
Don't bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
Psalm 37:1-2, TM
Wisdom from fellow pilgrims
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A prayer to strengthen your day
Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest: to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do thy will, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Saint Ignatius
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