Just For Today

"...and as your day, so shall your strength,
your rest, and security be."
Deuteronomy 33:25

Monarch Butterfly 

My Father, this I ask of Thee;

Knowing that Thou wilt grant the plea-

For this, and only this, I pray

Strength for today-just for today.

Strength for each trial and each task,

What more, my Father, should I ask?

Just as I need it, day by day,

Strength for my weakness-this I pray. 

I do not ask a lifted load,

Nor for a smooth and thornless road;

Simply the strength enough to bear

Life's daily burdens anywhere.

Strength for the present hour and need-

This given, then I'm blest indeed;

For each day, as it comes, will bring

Sufficient strength for anything.

Strength for today, that I may make

Some sad souls glad, for Jesus' sake;

Then they, with me, at eve shall say,

"Thank God for strength He gave today."




"Just For Today"
(1900)

Eben Eugene Rexford

(1848-1916)
American writer and poet
During the first administration of
President Grover Cleveland, Mr. Wexford
served as the postmaster of Shiocton, Wisconsin

Snake Busters!

"Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty

than any living creature of the field the Lord God had made."

Genesis 3:1

Adam and Eve In The Garden Of Eden

(1531)

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Always guard your hedges.  From the snakes.

And from the enemy of your soul.

Overcome The Strategy Of Satan

Jonathan Cahn

The Jim Baker Show

(March 31, 2015)

Apple Harvest

O down in the orchard

'Tis harvesting time.

And up the tall ladders

The fruit pickers climb.

Illustration by Tasha Tudor

Among the green branches

That sway overhead

The apples are hanging

All rosy and red.

Just ripe for the picking,

All juicy and sweet!

So pretty to look at

And lovely to eat!

"Apple Harvest"

A poem by

Helen Leuty

September Salutations

The golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods of milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning

the grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty

Which floods the earth and air

Is unto me the secret

Which makes September fair.

'Tis a thing which I remember,

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget.

"September"

Helen Hunt Jackson

1830-1885

American poetess and writer

First Sunday Meditation: Walking By Faith

"For we walk by faith, we regulate our lives and

conduct ourselves by our convictions or belief respecting

man's relationship to God and divine things, with

trust and holy fervor; thus we walk

not by sight or appearance."

11 Corinthians 5:7

Save Me Lord
(2003)

Simon Dewey
(1962-
English-Canadian artist

A CRUTCH?

Have you ever heard skeptics say that the Christian faith

is nothing more than a crutch-that the only reason people claim

to trust Jesus is that they are weaklings who have to 

 make up a religion to get by?

Apparently those skeptics haven't heard about a doctor in 

one Far Eastern country who spent 2 1/2 years in jail being "reeducated"

because he professed faith in Christ. Then, after his release, he

was arrested again-this time for his efforts at his church.

And perhaps those skeptics haven't heard about Paul.

After trusting Christ, he was arrested, flogged, mocked, and shipwrecked.

These believers were not looking for a crutch. No, they had something

deep and essential in their hearts.

They had a personal relationship with God-a relationship born of faith

in the work of Jesus on the cross.  As a result, they became children of

the King-eager to sacrifice everything for the privilege of proclaiming Him.

They were not limping along looking for something to hold them up.

A crutch? Hardly. Faith in Christ is not about safety and caution.

It's about believing Jesus and trusting Him no matter what.

It's about taking up a daily cross and living for the Savior.

"And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me,

let him deny himself and his own interests and take up his

cross daily and follow Me, conform wholly to My example

in living and, if need be, in dying also."

Luke 9:23

"A Crutch?" 

 By Dave Branon
(1951-

 American Christian writer/editor

Our Daily Bread For Personal and Family Devotions

(December 2010)

The Time To Decide

..."As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua 24:15 

"Anything which we keep in our hearts in the place which

God ought to have is an idol, whether it be an image of wood

or stone or gold, or whether it be money, or desire for fame,

or love of pleasure, or some secret sin which we will not give up.

If God does not really occupy the highest place in our hearts,

controlling all, something else does, and that something else is an idol."

James Russell Miller
(1840-1912)
American Christian pastor and author

The Cowboy

Gerard Curtis Delano

1890-1972

Painter and Illustrator of the American West

Did you ever stand on the ledges,

On the brink of the great plateau

And look from their jagged edges

On the country that lay below?

When your vision met no resistance

And nothing to stop your gaze,

Till the mountain peaks in the distance

Stood wrapped in a purple haze.

On the winding water courses

And the trails on the mountain sides,

Where you guided your patient horses

On your long and lonesome rides.

When you saw Earth's open pages

And you seemed to understand

As you gazed on the work of ages,

Rugged and rough, but grand.

There, the things that you thought were strongest

And the things that you thought were great,

And for which you have striven longest

Seemed to carry but little weight.

While the things that were always nearer,

The things that you thought were small;

Seemed to stand out grander and clearer.

As you looked from the mountain wall.

While you're gazing on such a vision

And your outlook is clear and wide,

If you have to make a decision,

That's the time and place to decide.

Although you return to the city

And mingle again with the throng;

Though your heart may be softened with pity

Or bitter from strife and wrong.

Though others should laugh in derision,

And the voice of the past grow dim;

Yet stick to the cool decision

That you made on the mountain's rim.

"The Time To Decide"
(1924)

Bruce Kiskaddon

(1878-1950)

Cowboy poet laureate of America

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Illustration by Eloise Burns

A Child's Garden of Verses

(1930)

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside-

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown-

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

"The Swing"

Robert Louis Stevenson

(1850-1894)

Scottish poet and writer