Weariness - Blackaby Devotional
Filed under: Bible Study, Blackaby Devotionals, Devotionals, Inspirational
In light of the opening comments from today’s earlier post, I give you a devotional received today….
30 November - Weariness
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,and you will find rest for your souls.”
Matthew 11:28-29
If you find that Christianity exhausts you, draining you of your energy, then you are practicing religion rather than enjoying a relationship. Jesus said that a relationship with him would bring rest to your soul. Your walk with the Lord will not make you weary; it will invigorate you, restore your strength, and energize your life.
Hard work or lack of sleep can make you tired. This fatigue can usually be remedied by a good rest. But there is a deeper fatigue that goes beyond physical tiredness. There is an emotional exhaustion that comes from experiencing heavy burdens and draining crises. There is a tiredness deep within our soul that comes from carrying the weight of the needs of others. You can go on a vacation, but your soul will not be restored. This condition can only be rectified by finding rest in Christ.
Some zealous Christians want to do all they can to serve Christ, and they exhaust themselves in the process. It was to these that Jesus extended His invitation to go to Him and learn from Him. Jesus spent most of His earthly ministry surrounded by needy multitudes. He faced relentless opposition, He often prayed throughout the night, and He rarely had any privacy, yet He always received the rest and strength that came from His Father. It was not that Jesus did not work hard but that He knew the path to spiritual rest. Are you weary? Go to Jesus and let Him give you His rest. His rest will restore your soul as nothing else can.
Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day
Scientifically Speaking
Filed under: Bible Study, Commentary, Scripture, Something to think about
Last week has really caught up with me. I’d been staying up until O-dark thirty most nights studying or on occasion reading blogs and visiting Christian sites. So many questions, so little time.
I’ve been trying to catchup on my devotionals, and the past two evenings worth have been from the 1st Book of Timothy. The short and quick of it is that the “lesson” is on the “why” and the “how” that the rich (financially) should not only give, but embrace joyously the opportunity to give. Perhaps at a later time this is something to post on but for now I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. Insert segue now…
Enough rambling though. You may (or may not, if this is your first visit) recall a recent post on the subject of science & technology that came about after having read Pistol Pete’s take on the subject; thanks to him for his recent plug of “Got-Fruit?” by the way. So I’m sitting at my desk writing out the verse that the author of the devotional is touching on for the day. The author writes his devotionals based off of the King James Version of scripture, so I reach for my KJV to make sure that what he’s written is actually in the Bible. Everything checks out. So I go into my routine:
- read a few verses before the verse in discussion
- read the verse in discussion
- read a few verses following the
- repeat in my NIV study Bible
Now, on occasion, especially if I’m reading from the KJV, I’ll read the entire chapter that the study verse is located in, such was the case last night. The study verse in this instance was 1st Timothy 6:17-18.
1st Timothy 6:17-18 (KJV)
17Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
So, I read the study verse, but continued on, there are only 21 verses in the 6th chapter with chapter 19 being Paul’s summation of why it is beneficial for the rich to give. Then however it’s almost as if Paul switches his train of thought, and closes with the following:
1st Timothy 6:20-21 (KJV)
20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: 21Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
Keep in mind; the church of Ephesus had a major problem with Gnosticism (Greek for “knowledge”), which basically taught that one could be saved by “knowledge”. Now maybe it was just a final and dramatic exhortation on Paul’s part, maybe an after thought.
Considering the past few days on the subject, it was rather timely that I ran across this verse, and seeing as the ‘ole memory hadn’t been purged yet, I thought I’d add an extra 2 Cents worth to the previous post.
Hope you all have enjoyed.
1 Corinthians 1:25
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Follow up to “Renewed & Undistracted”
Pistolpete posted a nice article today that is a follow up to my post on having A Renewed & Undistracted Mind. The post is a good read, check ‘em out.
Maintenance for 20071128
Posted at 2202 CST on 20071128
Good evening and apologies to any visitors that stopped by today or for anyone that’s experienced issues with registration and posting comments.
The site went down today due to a configuration boo boo. Basically, WordPress was reinstalled.
What started out as an attempt to resolve registration & comment submit issues turned into one big ‘ole MESS! There was an initial reinstall that appeared to get the site up and running but it was soon discovered that the Permalinks were broke, couldn’t implement the Postname+year+month+day format correctly until, “we” opted to do a basic install versus a custom install into the previous sub domain.
In a nut-shell it seems that my custom install to a sub-domain was the culprit, so for the record; the blog URI is now http://got-fruit.net/blog NOT http://blog.got-fruit.net. Please update your bookmarks.
Once again my apologies for any inconvenience or frustration, now I’m off to dig the rest of this hair from under my fingernails.
Losing the Boot
I had another follow-up appointment today with the Orthopedic Surgeon, and all is progressing well with the injury I sustained back in October.
I was able to take a few tentative steps while at the doc’s office today and I was very pleased and thankful for the following:
Thank you Lord!!
I’m scheduleled for physical therapy (3 times a week for at least a month); which should begin later this week or early next week. This week should be the last that I have to wear my Vader Boot as well.
Now the kicker. I was supposed to be going to Pittsburgh this week to see the Steelers play the Bungles err, Bengals on the 2nd of December (a birthday gift). Once the injury took place however, I canceled my plans; there seemed to be too many things that could wrong if I pushed trying to make the game so soon.
I didn’t anticipate being this far along in the recovery process anyways, so… had I kept the plans,reservations and tickets, I’m fairly certain that (as experience has proved over the years) that I wouldn’t have been in any shape to travel nor endure standing in the cold at the stadium anyways.
I’m not upset though. In the end, I figure that the prompting to cancel the trip was the Holy Spirit urging me to be still, maybe it has something to do with December being a busy enough month for me already.
Time will tell.
“Giddy up!”
~Kramer
