Monday, December 28, 2020

DON’T DELAY!

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 23-24

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).

 

A mill stone found in Capernaum. Today’s reading points out the absolute essential nature of the top and bottom stones in the preparation of food for survival.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

 

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 23:21

When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.

 

Family life, societal life, personal and corporate health practices, financial matters, justice issues, and care for the poor are all covered in our reading. We might do well to follow some of these instructions today. For example, as the photograph illustrates, there are upper and lower millstones needed to grind wheat, corn, etc. The creditor is not to deprive the miller of his means of income (Deuteronomy 24:6). What if we followed the instructions here for a honeymoon lasting a full year (Deuteronomy 24:5)? This practice is recommended to bring happiness to a new wife. Interest-free loans and not entering someone’s home to repossess borrowed items are all good ideas. And our key verse is so important. An unpaid pledge is serious business. It is a betrayal of our word. The old saying is, “Our word is our bond.” Then there is the last verse of our reading and the word “remember.”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, please bring to my remembrance those experiences from the past that I need to think about. May I have grace to learn from my mistakes and from my successes also. May I also learn from the experiences of the Children of Israel. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I well remember the occasion when Norma-Jean and I made a pledge to the building fund of Bethel Church in Hamilton, Ontario. I had been Pastor there several years before, and when I went full time as an itinerant Evangelist, Norma-Jean and the children continued to participate in the life of that congregation. It was time, by vote of the people and the leadership of the Pastor, to build a new church building. Our pledge was a significant amount. Our date for paying up, Dec. 31, 1976, came and went and I had not paid the pledge. At the same time, our house was for sale, as we knew we must move to Toronto in order to facilitate the move from the weekly Crossroads and Circle Square telecasts to daily live television. But it was not selling. Finally, in desperation, my wife and I went to the bank, borrowed the money, and made an appointment to visit the Pastor to present our cheque, almost two months late. As far as we can calculate, unknown to us, at the very time I laid the cheque on the Pastor’s desk, Ray Edwards, our realtor, closed the deal to sell our house. I don’t believe the timing was accidental. I learned that God takes pledges very seriously.

Yours for financial integrity,

David

P.S. A year end is here again, and while Norma-Jean and I don’t have any unpaid pledges, we want to give sacrificially to help Crossroads Christian Communications with a year end gift. Here’s my question to all my blog partners. Will you join Norma-Jean and me in giving a much-needed extra year end gift to Crossroads? Your cheque must be dated and your envelope post marked before midnight December 31st or you can give online by clicking HERE…or call toll free 1-800-265-3100 with credit card in hand. God bless you with His loving care. David and Norma-Jean.

7 thoughts on “Monday, December 28, 2020

  1. Charles Spurgeon’s Morning Devotional, December 28th

    “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 ESV

    “When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all said, “Live;” and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head.

    “Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,

    Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,

    In the economy of gospel types,

    And symbols apposite–the Church’s neck;

    Identifying her in will and work

    With him ascended?”

    “Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.”

    Finding Faith in Christ – The Brown Hymn Book
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XVkLGcNC2o

    • Thank you to the Crossroads and the Mainse family for carrying on David’s ministry. I have sent in a year end donation and call on fellow saints to do the same. We are ever grateful for 100words.ca. May God bless you and make you prosper.

  2. Thank You, Father God, for Your Word, which sustains us and builds our faith. Please help all Your children to look to You, to trust in You, and to follow You all the days of our lives, in Jesus’s great name, amen

  3. Amen Rob. Praying for abducted children who have been forced into the Muslim faith (denying their Christian faith) and being married off to older men. Their families are pleading for their return. Lord have mercy / intervene in this great need in Jesus Name. Amen. Amen

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