Skip to main content

Our Daily Bread: The Swagger

By


Our Daily Bread Devotional Wednesday 17th August 2016

Encourage one another and build each other up. 
- 1 Thessalonians 5:11

In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical discomfort, what helped him most were the people along the way. “If it weren’t for everyone cheering and walking with us, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . . My legs were sore, but my friends picked me up and I made it through . . . .” His mom named the arduous trek “The Cerebral Palsy Swagger.”

The apostle Paul, who we think of as strong and courageous, also needed to be “picked up.” In Romans 16 he lists a number of people who did just that for him. They served alongside him, encouraged him, met his needs, and prayed for him. He mentions Phoebe; Priscilla and Aquila, who were co-workers; Rufus’s mother, who had been like a mother to him as well; Gaius, who showed him hospitality; and many more.

We all need friends who pick us up, and we all know of others who need our encouragement. As Jesus helps and carries us, let us help one another. —Anne Cetas

Lord, in Your wisdom You established Your church as a place for us to love and care for each other. Help me to extend the grace I’ve received to others.

Read: Romans 16:1-4,13,21-23
Bible in a Year: Psalms 97-99; Romans 16

Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.

INSIGHT: The letter to the Romans is arguably Paul’s most intensely theological letter. Yet in Romans 16, he issues more personal greetings than in any other letter—twenty-seven! These personal greetings, included at the close of a theological letter about the nature of the gospel, serve as a significant reminder. The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely a piece of intellectual information. The doctrines that form the foundation for our rescue in Christ are not an academic exercise. These truths describe the love of God for human beings who have names and faces and struggles and victories. The gospel is the story of God’s unfailing love for people—people like those listed here. People like you and me. Bill Crowder
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

You've been blessed through this reading share with Others. Share the DO's and the DON'T.

Popular posts from this blog

His Channels

By
Rom.1:20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God [with emphasis]. So far we have examined three channels God uses to speak to us. If you are not reading your Bible consistently, if you are not listening to messages over and over again, and if you are not accountable to other believers, you do not have believers that are speaking into your life, you have already missed three main channels God speaks through. Channel #4: God speaks to us through His Creation. Ps.19:1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world [with emphasis]. God’s cre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Setting Prisoners Free

By
Our Daily Bread Devotional 4th October, 2016 Read: Psalm 146 Bible in a Year: Isaiah 20-22; Ephesians 6 The Lord sets prisoners free. (Psalm 146:7) When my wife and I visited the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force near Savannah, Georgia, we were especially moved by the prisoner-of-war exhibit, with its re-creation of a German prisoner-of-war camp’s barracks. Marlene’s dad, Jim, served in the Eighth Air Force, the “Mighty Eighth,” as they flew missions over Europe during World War II. During the war, the Eighth Air Force suffered over 47,000 injuries and more than 26,000 deaths. Jim was one of those shot down and held as a prisoner of war. As we walked through the exhibit, we recalled Jim telling about the absolute joy he and his fellow prisoners felt the day they were set free. God’s care for the oppressed and liberation of the imprisoned are declared in Psalm 146. The psalmist describes the one who “upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dominion Mandate Daily Devotional February 26, 2016

By
THEME: RETREAT TO REFRESH READ: Matt. 11:25-30 When some musicians want to release great songs, they retreat to secluded places where they can reflect, meditate and create. Some choose places overlooking the vast oceans, some choose where there are waterfalls, and some choose places with thick forestations.  As they observe the beauty of nature, the swift moves and songs of the soaring birds, the colourful flowering vegetations, the serene beaches and the unending waves of the nearby waters, they capture inspiration that helps them develop the hit songs they have been longing for. I met one of the world’s renowned musicians in Atlanta, USA a few years ago where journalist surrounded him and were asking what he had come to do and why his beards had grown so much. He said that his last album did not perform well enough and he was incubating another one he wanted to release that would perform better. He said that he needed to pull away from the Noise of New York and California ...
Post a Comment
Read more