Topic > Christian Beliefs > God > Love of God >
Our Daily Bread has been an inspiration in my life as well as the inmates I supervised in the state prison for almost 20yrs. I am a Shift Supervisor for Securitas USA, at Mclaren Hospital in Pontiac. I was put on suspension last week Thursday for no reason given. I prayed, fasted, cried out to Jesus,"What have I done, I cant think of anything to warrant this". For days I went through this, then I received a call to meet with the head of Securitas, Mohammad Rashid, in Dearborn Mi. today at 10:00am. I was told that there were many complaints against me, all of which were proven to be lies on me except one. I was suspended for 5 days pending this meeting, for the one that was true and admitted to. I put several Our Daily Breads in our employee break room, as well as, copies I asked for of, "The Promise of Easter". I walked into this meeting not knowing if I had a job, and walked out with a promotion to Site Supervisor at a different location, a $1/hr raise, and no more 12hr. weekends, but Sat/Sun. off!!! Only our Lord Jesus Christ can do this! The only thing in my file now is, a counseling memo for distributing religious materials. I told Mohammad I would gladly take that memo to my grave. He said, "someone gave me a chance, now I want to give you one". Praise Jesus!! He is worthy of all praise. Stew
William Stewart
ReadI was 17, an athlete, a part of the "in crowd", a girl with dreams, and very very lost! The irony though is that I loved to go to bed at night and in the stillness of the dark I would pray to a God that I feared but didn't think I could love. I would pray the same exact prayer every single night, "God, please forgive me for the sins I did today and for the sins I've done ever since I've been born..." looking back I remember trembling with those words because I knew God wouldn't save a wretch like me. My life as I knew it, at 17, came to a screeching halt when I took an EPT test and it showed up positive. I was on a fun vacation with my best friend, visiting my sister in Florida. I remember thinking this can't be happening to me, I'm in my Senior year, softball season is about to start, college next fall, so much to think about, but not this. This was NOT part of MY plan. I was ignorant about pregnancy, this wouldn't happen to a "good" girl like me. How can I make this disappear without anyone knowing? When I returned home from my vacation I told my boyfriend that I was pregnant and that we needed to decide what to do. I knew in my heart what I should NOT do but my head told me it would be better this way and it would be all over soon and life would go on as if nothing happened, a case of just bad luck! From that point, at 17, until I came to know The Lord as my Savior, at 33, is pretty much a blur. I got married to my high school sweetheart and our first five years were pretty reckless. I had two boys in the next years that followed and they were my joy and life. I felt my purpose but little waves of guilt would creep in from time to time about the abortion. Finally, in May of '96, after attending a local Bible believing church for several weeks my husband and I opened our hearts to The Lord. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, however I was still carrying a pretty heavy burden. The day after I asked God into my heart I broke. I didn't understand it, "why God?", "why now?"....I buried that awful memory and I didn't want it to surface. But God gently told me, "confess it to me so you can forgive yourself because I've already forgiven you." That was so difficult because I finally realized what I had given up at 17. God had allowed a life to begin in me and I made a decision to end it not even realizing at the time of the shattering consequences that would haunt me later. God did set me free by putting a wonderful friend in my path that had the same sad experience. She guided me through a post abortion Bible study and God revealed Himself to me during that time and I realized that even though I didn't have Him in my heart at 17, He was beside me on that fateful day, the day my unborn child's life ended but came to life in Jesus' arms as He carried it to Heaven. It took me a long time to really believe I could forgive myself because I know that there are always consequences to sin and sometimes memories are the consequences. But now I focus on the memory that God set me free during that Bible study and that one day I will be reunited with this very loved child.
ReadSolving The Mystery
One of the most popular tourist attractions in England is the giant stone pillars of Stonehenge. These massive pieces of granite are also a great source of mystery. Every year, people travel to Stonehenge with questions such as: Why were they erected? Who accomplished this extraordinary engineering marvel? And perhaps we wonder most of all how they did it. But visitors leave having received no answers from the silent stones. The mystery remains.
Start With Me
Icall them Mell Notes—little comments my daughter Melissa made in her Bible to help her apply a passage to her life.
I just received and read your newly formatted "Our Daily Bread". I love it!
I have been reading and studying your daily devotions for over 40 years. Sometimes I will add other devotional material and they come and go but I always read first your devotion and continue to do that to this very day.
Not long ago I was given the incredible opportunity of being a part of a team to train Muslim men and women who had believed and trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord in Tunisia. We use the Bible Training Center for Pastor's teachings to provide the basic knowledge and skills for these Christians to effectively and rightly divide the Word of Truth as they lead and pastor others. In my part of the teachings my pastor said to me that my presentation seemed like a series of devotionals linked together. It was then that I realized that after so many years of reading your devotions I have been trained to rightly divide the Word through you under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. My pastor has a seminary degree. I have the practical everyday Biblical foundation that you have given me that has made a huge difference in my life as I share the love of Christ to others.
I thank God for you and the influence your ministry has provided me.
In Christ,
John Herzer.
ReadI work at a chain of local pharmacies that plays Christian music and at times provides tracks, ministry announcements, small Gideon bibles & the Our Daily Bread (ODB) booklet. The Lord has given me a lot of open doors of opportunity to minister, share the Gospel, and pray for people at work, when they respond to the music and these materials.
Often times, people come in asking for the ODB and are excited to have one, and are disappointed when there are none available. Many of them use the ODB as their only source of hope, comfort, and encouragement.
I am asking the Lord on how I can use these opportunities to fulfill The Great Commission, to make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all things that He has commanded us. If you have any recommendations, please let me know how I can take these opportunities to the next level of discipleship. I received a request yesterday from someone asking me to teach them how to study the bible, and it has given me an idea to offer, with the ODB booklet, an invitation to pray for them and to learn how to study the bible. I'll also create an invitation to seek further resources by going to your website and to receive your devotions electronically.
The Lord is definitely using ODB where I work, to reach hundreds, if not thousands of souls in my community!!! Thank you Lord, and thank you Our Daily Bread Ministries for your faithfulness in providing this resource.
ReadA little over a year ago my Mom Margaret McFarland, who had been a faithful reader of Our Daily Bread for years, lost her vision to the point that she could no longer read. One day in our daily phone conversation she said that she missed reading she especially missed reading her daily devotions from ODB and the Daily Guideposts. I realized that I could make that wish come true by reading them to her during my morning calls. So for this past year or so we have shared our devotions together. Our daily devotion together has opened the door to many discussions about our faith and our love of Jesus. My Mom just moved on to Heaven two weeks ago at the age of 93, and while I miss her so very much I have many wonderful memories of our love for each other and among the tops are our daily devotion times. I have just made a contribution to the ministry of ODB and I want you to know it is because of Mom and her love for you folks that I make that gift to continue your ministry.
Thank you you and may God continue to show favor to you as you minister to so many.
Luella Krieger
ReadHis Choice
When our children were small, I often prayed with them after we tucked them into bed. But before I prayed, I sometimes would sit on the edge of the bed and talk with them. I remember telling our daughter Libby, “If I could line up all the 4-year-old girls in the world, I would walk down the line looking for you. After going through the entire line, I would choose you to be my daughter.” That always put a big smile on Libby’s face because she knew she was special.
Each morning, as I do my morning devotions, I recall the fall of 2011 as my wife Margie lay wasting away at the Springhill Village nursing home.
We were both saved in 1967 but while she stayed close to the Lord, I fell away and drifted, on and off, for many years. But, when Margie became too ill to do her daily devotions, I would help, and eventually do them for her using Our Daily Bread. Then I would try to find Bible passages for her that related to her life.
She was such a great witness, even as she lay suffering and dying she would still praise the Lord every day.
When she would fall asleep during or after devotions, I found I was still reading our Bible. It was as though I could not get enough. God used that experience and Our Daily Bread to draw me back to Him! I cannot even write this without having to choke back tears.
I still use ODB in my morning devotions, and always will. Thank you so much for all you do to bring God’s word with understanding to people everywhere.
David Larimer
12075 S. Carlisle St.
Terre Haute, IN 47802
P.S. You have my permission to edit this and use it (or toss it) any way you wish.
ReadBible Reading: Proverbs 3:1-8
I worry a lot about everything. I am afraid that things won't work the way I want. From the book of Our Daily Bread, 2008 edition, I read the devotion entitled "Surprise me!". As I went on to read, it really surprised me that, God spoke to me through that book. He said, 'Do you like surprises?', "Yes I do", I answered immediately. Then I felt suddenly worried when I read the next line, 'Would you ever dare say, "SURPRISE ME! to God?'. It's true that many of us are somehow scared to do that. And before I read that book, I was one of those who were scared to say that. Yes, I have faith that God is good and that He loves us. Yet I am afraid I won't like what He chooses for me. Remember what God did to Job? God had allowed
Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him. What was Job's reaction? "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him" (Job 13:15). His love and reverence for God took precedence in his life.
In the end, God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before. God allows things to happen for His reasons, whether or not we understand them. Above all, however, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful. Often things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. However, instead of doubting God's goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your way acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight". (Proverbs 3:5-6)
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I came in contact with ODB when I was 12. An older neighbour who had relocated to the US had some of his old books cleaned out by the family and among the trash were copies of ODB from the 70s and very early 80s. This was in 1986. My brother and I picked those and began reading. I cannot tell you how much using the ODB helped my new-found faith and also in forming a habit of daily devotion. Part of the beauty is that one year with ODB would have taken you to almost every book in the bible and touched on many topics that affect the believer. I still use ODB 29 years on (now the 1-year editions) and am still being blessed by the Bread.
God bless the memory of Dr. De Haan and all those who make this devotional possible.
Osaeloka Daniels
Lagos, Nigeria
ReadA Matter Of Love
Where intellect and emotion clash, the heart often has the greater wisdom” wrote the authors of A General Theory of Love. In the past, they say, people believed that the mind should rule the heart, but science has now discovered the opposite to be true. “Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom we love.”
My husband and I were having a very difficult time in our marriage, My husband is a drug addict and I was trying every thing I could to get him some help. I have driven all over the state of Illnois to various detox programs and hospitals that had detox programs to get my husband the help that he needed, some of the programs were for 30 days. My husband decided to leave every one of them on his own free will( he didn't complete any of the programs). Then he went to jail for selling drugs, I bonded him out. He came out doing the same thing and he was picked up for another case and he is currently back in jail. I have prayed and ask God to deliver my husband and to restore our marriage he has answered my prayers. My faith has increased and I am a stronger woman, even tho my husband and I are seperated physically we are connected spiritually, we read our daily bread everyday and have prayer time each night, we also study through letters and send each other scriptures and we discuss them when I go visit him. Thank You for sending me our daily bread booklets and other books and resources. You all have been such a blessing to us and we truly thank God for your ministry of reaching people all over the world.
ReadThe Well-Watered Life
I have a friend who lives on a ranch in the wide-open spaces of Montana. The road to his home is a long trail that winds through the parched and barren landscape of the wilderness. As you drive toward his home, you can’t help but notice the contrasting strip of green trees and vibrant vegetation meandering through the ranch. One of the finest trout rivers in North America cuts through the property, and anything that grows near its banks gets the benefit of an unending source of vital water.
It was my lifelong mentor who introduced your great website to me. As a new, self-made and "unofficial" Christian in mainland China, I had felt rather "helpless" to explore and expand the horizon of Christian world. Once taking a glimpse of your vast contents, I knew that I found my family! "Our Daily Bread" is most close to my heart, and I have been too hungry to wait for the update of your daily piece! It turns into a kind of addition. The most amazing thing is that I have even noticed my changes each day, though it might be small and insignificance. Now I come to write the self journal titled "My Daily Recipe", the "brainchild" of your "Bread", where I drop down any good deed I make or any bad habit/deed I eliminate/suppress every day, no matter how tiny it could be. I become happier day by day, because I feel our Holy father is watching me and listening to me, most lovingly every moment. I will never be lonely in our Christian family. I believe I could cook most delicious feast under my recipes inspired by your rich bread!
Our Chinese Spring Festival is fast approaching. Although it is not a Christian holiday, I would like to wish our Father and all our family members happy and peace every day in the Year of Sheep!
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