THE MANY AND THE FEW

Today’s Reading: 1 Samuel 14

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

This is an Akkadian cuneiform writing clay tablet piece and is the oldest document to mention Jerusalem. It was discovered in the south wall area of the Old City of Jerusalem and is dated at 14th century BC.

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

Key Verse: 1 Samuel 14:6b

For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord Jesus, as I read these words and pause often to worship You, I’m conscious that I’m partaking of the sweetness of Your provision for me. Like Jonathan, my countenance has brightened. I pray that this energy level will continue in order that I may “fight the good fight of faith,” as I read in 1 Timothy 6:11-16. In Jesus’ conquering Name I pray, Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

In selecting the key verse for today, I thought of God’s provision over the years for the financial well-being of the Crossroads ministry. Sometimes God has used the many and sometimes the few. Without the participation of thousands of precious partners, this ministry, that has brought many to a saving knowledge of Jesus, would have shut down years ago. But the Lord has also used the few. Our former bank manager at the TD bank in downtown Toronto (gone to be with the Lord in Heaven now) knew our need the day that our lighting package for the new TV production studios arrived. I needed cash in order to have the shipment released. A line of credit had not been authorized. One of the “few,” whose name I do not know, sent through $50,000 directly to the bank, telling the manager that he could arrange a charitable giving receipt, but that I was not to know who it was that gave this money. The only information I was given was that it was someone from Ottawa who did not know of the need to pay for the shipment that very day but felt led of God to transfer the money. There are few who could give such a gift. Perhaps you are one of the few. We should perhaps read on in 1Timothy 6:17-19. One thing I’ve learned is that God uses BOTH the MANY and the FEW to support His work. When we sold the farm in which Norma-Jean, my wife, was born, we got to be one of “the few” one time, but every month we are one of “the many” that keep the ministry winning spiritual battles every day. That monthly offering, and the offerings of many more, are absolutely essential to the great cause to which God has called Crossroads. More of “the few” and more of “the many” would also be a big help right now. God is leading the Ministry in new initiatives for the Gospel that need us all to take up the challenge of giving sacrificially. The funds are not just sitting there in the bank doing nothing for Jesus! Crossroads continues to be a faith ministry. Please pray asking God for His instructions (click here for giving instructions).

Yours to encourage us all to be “the many” and some of us to be “the few,”

David

P.S. My granddaughter Elena has a beautiful baby girl named Chelsea (below is a photo of her at two years old). A few years back, 100 Huntley Street did a feature on the amazing story of how Bruce & Elaine Stacey adopted Elena and her brother Alex from a Russian orphanage in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Click here for the video.

Our great-granddaughter, Chelsea Gilmour, and her birthday buddy!