Hi, Pat,
This was full of extra stuff, so I cleaned it up, and reposted it. Hope
you don't mind.
Love,
Helen
*************************
April 1, 4
Dear Daily Devotional Subscriber:
We appreciate your patience and prayers as we have been retooling the
Purpose-Driven Life Daily Devotional. The Daily Devotional team has been
working on an improved delivery engine and content to meet your requests.
It is our hope that these devotionals will help you in living out a
Purpose-Drive Life
God Cares for the Unemployed
Malachi 3:5
The Old Testament prophets denounced employers who sinned against their
employees by unjustly firing them and cheating them out of their proper
wages. For example, in Malachi 3:5, God declared that He would judge and
"testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers" and "those who
defraud laborers of their wages."
At this moment, the United States is seemingly prosperous. The stock
market has reached record levels. One political slogan of the recent
past was "It's the economy, stupid." But there is a danger of being
lulled into false economic security. In spite of recent "prosperity,"
multiplied thousands of workers are still being laid off, sometimes under
the guise of corporate "downsizing." Perhaps you have suffered because
of this trend.
Once a man could settle down into a position for the length of his
career. If he worked hard and honestly, he could expect to remain with
that firm until retirement at age 65, and then depend on a pension and
Social Security to live comfortably. That scenario is rapidly
changing. People are making dire predictions about the depletion of
Social Security Trust Fund within the first two decades of the next
century.
What in the world was he saying? Simply that those arguments about who
is
right won't help settle doctrinal disputes! The claim of superior
knowledge just leads to pride. And that pride was ill-founded. Whatever
we know, we know it imperfectly. So those fights about who is right about
doctrine can only isolate us from one another. In view of our human
limitations, we can't even be sure the winner of the argument is more
than
half right!
You man not know it, but God is sensitive to your plight. Amid all of
the economic confusion - including corporate downsizing, bank closings,
and jobs being exported to other countries - God still cares for
you. Continue to give your best, plan, and even dream, but, most of all,
prayerfully depend on God through Christ. And don't forget Philippians
4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious
riches in Christ Jesus."
What about while we're waiting to learn? Why then, each group needs to
be
sensitive to the other's convictions and conscience. We can exercise our
freedom and live by our personal beliefs. But we also need to be
careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a
stumbling block to the weak (v. 9).
"Taken from God's Man by Don M. Aycock. Published by Kregel
Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All
rights reserved."
April 1, 4
Dear Daily Devotional Subscriber:
We appreciate your patience and prayers as we have been retooling the
Purpose-Driven Life Daily Devotional. The Daily Devotional team has been
working on an improved delivery engine and content to meet your requests.
It is our hope that these devotionals will help you in living out a
Purpose-DriveAE Life
God Cares for the Unemployed
Malachi 3:5
The Old Testament prophets denounced employers who sinned against their
employees by unjustly firing them and cheating them out of their proper
wages. For example, in Malachi 3:5, God declared that He would judge and
"testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers" and "those who
defraud laborers of their wages."
At this moment, the United States is seemingly prosperous. The stock
market has reached record levels. One political slogan of the recent past
was "It's the economy, stupid." But there is a danger of being lulled into
false economic security. In spite of recent "prosperity," multiplied
thousands of workers are still being laid off, sometimes under the guise of
corporate "downsizing." Perhaps you have suffered because of this trend.
Once a man could settle down into a position for the length of his
career. If he worked hard and honestly, he could expect to remain with
that firm until retirement at age 65, and then depend on a pension and
Social Security to live comfortably. That scenario is rapidly
changing. People are making dire predictions about the depletion of Social
Security Trust Fund within the first two decades of the next century.
What in the world was he saying? Simply that those arguments about who's
right won't help settle doctrinal disputes!
The claim of superior knowledge just leads to pride. And that pride was
ill-founded. Whatever we know, we know it imperfectly. So those fights
about who is right about doctrine can only isolate us from one another. In
view of our human limitations, we can't even be sure the winner of the
argument is more than half right!
You man not know it, but God is sensitive to your plight. Amid all of
the economic confusion - including corporate downsizing, bank closings, and
jobs being exported to other countries - God still cares for you. Continue
to give your best, plan, and even dream, but, most of all, prayerfully
depend on God through Christ. And don't forget Philippians 4:19: "And my
God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
What about while we're waiting to learn? Why then, each group needs to be
sensitive to the other's convictions and conscience. We can exercise our
freedom and live by our personal beliefs. But we also need to becareful,
however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling
block to the weak (v. 9).
"Taken from God's Man by Don M. Aycock. Published by Kregel
Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All
rights reserved."
|
