Friends Again
A mother and her young daughter are sitting in church one day. During the service, opportunity is given for people to publicly receive God’s forgiveness. Every time someone walks forward to do so, the little girl begins to clap. “I’m so sorry,” the mother later tells the church leader. “I explained to my daughter that repentance makes us friends with God again, and she just wanted to cheer for everyone.”
Simplified for a child’s mind, the mother’s words were a good explanation of the gospel. Once God’s enemies, we have been reconciled to God through Jesus’s death and resurrection (Romans 5:9–10).…
Finding God’s Appointments In Our Disappointments
The Singing Revolution
What does it take to ignite a revolution? Guns? Bombs? Guerilla warfare? In late-1980s Estonia, it took songs. After the people had lived under the burden of Soviet occupation for decades, a movement began with the singing of a series of patriotic songs. These songs birthed the “Singing Revolution,” which played a key role in restoring Estonian independence in 1991.
As one writer put it, “This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation,” says a website describing the movement. “But singing had always been a major unifying force for Estonians while they endured fifty years of Soviet rule.”
Music…
The Forecaster’s Mistake
At noon on September 21, 1938, a young meteorologist warned the U.S. Weather Bureau of two fronts forcing a hurricane northward toward New England. But the chief of forecasting scoffed at Charles Pierce’s prediction. Surely a tropical storm wouldn’t strike so far north.
Two hours later, the 1938 New England Hurricane made landfall on Long Island. By 4:00 p.m. it had reached New England, tossing ships onto land as homes crumbled into the sea. More than 600 people died. Had the victims received Pierce’s warning—based on solid data and his detailed maps—they likely would have survived.
The concept of knowing whose…
Being Cared For
Debbie, the owner of a housecleaning service, was always searching for more clients to build up her business. On one call she talked with a woman whose response was, “I won’t be able to afford that now; I’m undergoing cancer treatment.” Right then Debbie decided that “no woman undergoing cancer treatment would ever be turned away. They would even be offered a free housecleaning service.” So in 2005 she started a nonprofit organization where companies donated their cleaning services to women battling cancer. One such woman felt a rush of confidence when she came home to a clean house. She…
IN-DS resources
As we journey through this part of our lives and wait it out during the lockdown, most of us experience anxiety and worry. It's a time like never before and it's not something that we could have prepared for or even imagined. However, fortunately for us, we are the children on an unchanging God and as long as we stay…
Con Campbell: Uncovering 1 John
Starting on April 15, join us on the Our Daily Bread Australia Facebook page, as Con Campbell takes us through the book of 1 John.
Each Wednesday evening at 8pm AEST, Con will share and teach his way through John's first letter over the coming weeks. Be sure to like our Facebook page to be notified when he goes live!…
Able to Help
Joe’s eight-week “break” from his job as a crisis care worker at a New York City church was not a vacation. In his words, it was “to live again among the homeless, to become one of them, to remember what hungry, tired, and forgotten feel like.” Joe’s first stint on the streets had come nine years earlier when he arrived from Pittsburg without a job or a place to stay. For thirteen days he lived on the streets with very little food or sleep. That’s how the Lord had prepared him for decades of ministry to needy people.
When Jesus came…
Hungry for God
A new believer in Jesus was desperate to read the Bible. However, he’d lost his eyesight and both hands in an explosion. When he heard about a woman who read Braille with her lips, he tried to do the same—only to discover that the nerve endings of his lips had also been destroyed. Later, he was filled with joy when he discovered that he could feel the Braille characters with his tongue! He had found a way to read and enjoy Scripture.
Joy and delight were the emotions the prophet Jeremiah experienced when he read the God’s Word. “When your words…
Read : 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
“It has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has…
Read Psalm 147:1-11
“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. —Psalm 147:11
My…
Read 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; 13:4–7
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified…
Read Deuteronomy 31:1–8
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” —1 Corinthians 15:57
While…
Read Psalm 51:7-17
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. —Psalm…
