Thanks Kitty!

Really cold here in WI.

No snow but really cold.

Was sunny though. Not bad for walking the dog today.

Playing in the leaves is important!

It is! :-)

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

Bound to Encourage

November 14, 2018

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:24

The Steven Thompson Memorial Centipede is a cross-country meet unlike any other. Each seven-member team runs as a unit, holding a rope for the first two miles of a three-mile course. At the two-mile mark, the team drops the rope and finishes the race individually. Each person’s time is, therefore, a combination of the pace the team kept and his or her own speed.

This year, my daughter’s team opted for a strategy I had not previously seen: They put the fastest runner at the front and the slowest right behind her. She explained that their goal was for the strongest runner to be near enough to speak words of encouragement to the slowest runner.

Their plans depicted for me a passage from the book of Hebrews. The writer urges us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (Hebrews 10:23) as we “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (v. 24). There are certainly many ways of accomplishing this, but the author highlighted one: “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (v. 25). Gathering together with other believers as we’re able is a vital aspect of the life of faith.

The race of life can feel like more than we can handle at times, and we may be tempted to drop the rope in hopelessness. As we run together, let’s offer one another the encouragement to run strong!

Jesus, thank You for the hope You offer. Thank You for never discouraging us. Help us imitate You by encouraging each other today.

Encouragement is water to the soul.

INSIGHT

By the blood of Jesus our high priest (Hebrews 10:19–22) we can enter the Most Holy Place, that is, we can come directly into God’s presence. However, the author is using these two ideas—Jesus’s sacrifice and our access to God—in tandem. The point in this passage is not because Jesus sacrificed for us we can enter God’s presence, but rather because we have a path to God, we are now to act. We are to draw near to Him (v. 22), hold to our hope (v. 23), encourage each other (v. 24), and meet together (v. 25).

A significant aspect of this passage is the author’s repeated use of the first-person plural. Seven times the author uses this construction and three times it’s in the exhortation “let us” (vv. 22, 23, 24). The implication is that our salvation has a community impact. Together we are part of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12). The Christian life is to be lived in relationship with others, encouraging each other to be more like Christ.

*Welcome To Warm Fuzzy Wednesday*
At Amy's Place

In the twenties at night here! Time for warm sweaters, cozy blankets and a fire
in the fireplace!
Stay Warm And Have A Lovely Day
*HUGS*

Good Morning, Rus

For starting our day off right every day with Our Daily Bread.
I Appreciate You

These cold days
Are just made for cuddlin'!
Happy Warm and Fuzzy
🧡Wednesday!🧡

I Smell Snow.

Snow in November Should be ILLEGAL! Happy Warm and Fuzzy Wednesday.

(((HUGS)))

ML/LTOS

Sweet!
My eldest and youngest kitties were once deadly rivals...Now they cuddle together on the bed with me.

Indeed! We had snow flurries just south of me. We are 20 degrees below normal at night here!

Cute pup!

OH MY!

I was hoping my Impatiens pots would still be blooming at Thanksgiving....They are mostly shriveled...

I have a big hawk looking for water...I have my bird bath saucers turned over..He is sitting in the tree close to my sliding door. It is 42 now...I need to go pour some water in at least one!

Cold here too.
Sunny at least!

Sunny here, too! It’s a beautiful day.

It’s 33 here.

Brrrrrr

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

Dangerous Distractions

November 15, 2018

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:35 nlt

Artist Sigismund Goetze shocked Victorian-era England with a painting entitled “Despised and Rejected of Men.” In it, he portrayed the suffering, condemned Jesus surrounded by people of Goetze’s own generation. They were so consumed by their own interests—business, romance, politics—that they were shockingly oblivious to the Savior’s sacrifice. Indifferent to Christ, the surrounding crowd, like the mob at the foot of Jesus’s cross, had no idea what—or who—they had missed.

In our day as well, believers and unbelievers alike can easily become distracted from the eternal. How can followers of Jesus cut through this fog of distraction with the truth of God’s great love? We can begin by loving one another as fellow children of God. Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35 nlt).

But real love doesn’t stop there. We extend that love by sharing the gospel in hopes of drawing people to the Savior. As Paul wrote, “We are . . . Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

In this way, the body of Christ can both reflect and project God’s love, the love we so desperately need, to both each other and to our world. May both efforts, empowered by His Spirit, be a part of cutting through the distractions that hinder us from seeing the wonder of God’s love in Jesus.

Read the Discovery Series booklet Truth with Love: Sharing the Story of Jesus at discoveryseries.org/hp141.

To a world living in the fog of distraction, we bring the light of the good news of Jesus.

INSIGHT

Consider those Jesus chose as His first disciples (Luke 6:13–16). While they were all men and all Jewish, there was much that could (and sometimes did) divide them. Most were from Galilee in the north, but one (Judas Iscariot) was from Judea in the south. While most were fishermen (Mark 1:16–20), Matthew was a tax collector (Matthew 10:3) who served the Romans—harming his own people. Matthew would have been despised by everyone, especially Simon the Zealot (v. 4), a member of a radical Jewish group determined to drive Rome out of Israel. Add to that the attempts by James and John to seek higher places of honor in the kingdom (Mark 10:35–37), and you have a fertile environment for friction. These factors and more would have intensified the difficulty of loving one another. Yet, just as we love God because He first loved us, we love one another—despite our differences—in the power of the love we have received from God. As we seek to dwell together as followers of Christ, loving one another isn’t easy, but it’s vital.

Do you need God’s help to love a particular person in an intentional way this week?

Thankful for the beauty
of the last rose of the year.
Happy Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursday

Have a Thankful and Beautiful Day!

(((HUGS)))

ML/LTOS

Hope you and Penny get to take a nice walk today! Happy Thursday!

Wow nice rose! Everything is frozen here in WI. My orchid is sending up a flower stalk. Should be blooming for Christmas.