Topic > Christian Beliefs > God >
Solving 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.
ReadWhy Doesn’t God Answer Me?
If you are struggling with feelings of doubt and disappointment with God, Psalm 77 reminds you who God is and how you can trust Him.
I 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.
The Unseen World
Did you know that the microbes on just one of your hands outnumber all of the people on the earth? Or that millions of microbes could fit into the eye of a needle? These one-celled, living organisms are too small for us to see without a microscope, yet they live in the air, soil, water, and even in our bodies. We constantly interact with them, even though their world is completely beyond our senses.
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)
Read
Approaching God
It used to bother me that the closer I drew to God in my walk with Him, the more sinful I felt. Then a phenomenon I observed in my room enlightened me. A tiny gap in the curtain covering my window threw a ray of light into the room. As I looked, I saw particles of dirt drifting in the beam. Without the ray of light, the room seemed clean, but the light revealed the dirty particles.
How to leave a legacy that matters
The things we value, the words we say, the way we live — it’s all used to build a legacy for those we’ll one day leave behind. Join us for our last study of Psalm 71.
Who is like the Lord?
You can compare apples to apples. Some people even compare apples to oranges to discover value. But how do you compare something that has no comparison? Today we study the impossible question: “Who is like the Lord?”
Whose Will?
May all things happen according to your will,” is a greeting frequently exchanged during Chinese New Year. As wonderful as that may sound, events turn out best when God’s will plays out and not mine.
Let’s talk about how great God is!
“Great” is a rather worn-out word. We use it to describe everything from the truly awesome to the largely mundane. It is time to redeem the “greatness” of “great,” especially when talking about God’s incredible acts of love!
