DAILY BREAD

DAILY BREAD
 
O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97
 
We're all familiar with the nutritional listings on food and beverage packages. Most of us are interested in total calories per serving, especially calories coming from good or bad fat, as well as readings on carbohydrates, sugar and sodium. But while these government-regulated fact lists work well for food required by our physical body, what if a similar kind of list were available to help us evaluate the spiritual content of the products we consume?
 
What if every TV program, magazine, book, DVD or CD revealed the "recommended daily allowance" of the spiritual necessities it provided—things like holiness, truth, forgiveness, perseverance, grace, justice and repentance? How many of them, rather than supplying anything we need, would be shown to actually deplete us, stripping away whatever spiritual health we already have?
 
But there is one product—the Bible—that is guaranteed to provide everyone in your family with the perfect blend of spiritual nourishment. Whether packaged in cheap paper or top-grain leather, the Bible comes complete with "everything required for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3, HCSB).
 
Although most Christians today express a deep fondness for the Scriptures, they are apparently failing to feast on it. Noted researcher George Barna has reported that fewer than 4 in 10 born-again Christians read the Bible on their own even once in a typical week. A similar FamilyLife survey conducted in churches throughout the United States found that two-thirds of couples read or discussed the Bible together but only occasionally. If you want a spiritually healthy family, you must make sure that each member consumes a healthy diet of the everlasting Word of God. It's the difference between a healthy spiritual life and lifelessness.
 
DISCUSS
What are the chief threats to keeping the Bible central in your family's life?
 
What are we saying when we let those things take prominence over the Scriptures?
 
PRAY
Pray for daily consumption of the Word, both in priority and in practice.
 
…..as seen in Moments Together for Couples by way of Cup O’Cheer cheer316kim@sc.rr.com) and “Christian Voices” (christianvoices@att.net)

 
ALONE?
 
I wasn't alone because they left me, they were always by my side...I was alone on the inside because that is what my mind led me to believe.
 
No matter how much I cut myself off and no matter how lonely I felt, I was NOT alone, God with sitting with me the entire time. When I got up He went with me! God saved me from so many things during that time. He did not forsake me. He did not leave me. He didn't shun me or judge me. When I wept He wept. We have to have the kind of relationship with God so we know so intimately His love for us. Otherwise loneliness creeps in...how can we ever say we feel lonely when we have such an amazing Father? 
 
I am not saying we don't miss people no longer in our lives or have days of feeling isolated. I am not talking about emotions that we go through daily....I am talking about the loneliness that can make us sick or sin.
 
Since I began my walk with the Lord I praise Him for taking away that part in my heart that only He can fill. I honestly never feel alone. I am not saying I don't pray for God to send someone in my life to share Him with and this life with, but I can say that is no longer a need. A need that no longer controls some decisions I've made in my life in the past.
 
     The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.  Deuteronomy 31:8
 
     No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5
 
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
 
I meet a lot of "lonely" people who give up waiting for what God has for them because they are trying to fill that place only God can fill...I am not giving up...I'm still waiting and I'm not lonely!
 
With love to all those who know what I'm talking about!
 
…..by Tammy Schneider as seen in The Bread by way of Cup O’Cheer cheer316kim@sc.rr.com) and “Christian Voices” (christianvoices@att.net)