From Sunset To Star Rise

Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not:

I am no summer friend, but wintry cold,

A silly sheep benighted from the fold,

A sluggard with a thorn-choked garden plot.

Summer's End

Jo Wilmot

Take counsel, sever my lot from your lot,

Dwell in your pleasant places, hoard your gold,

Lest you with me should shiver on the wold,

Athirst and hungering on a barren spot.

For I have hedged me with a thorny hedge.

I live alone. I look to die alone.

Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,

Ghosts of my buried years and friends come back

My heart goes sighing after swallows flown

On sometime summer's unreturning track.

"From Sunset To Star Rise"

Christina Georgina Rossetti

(1830-1894)

English romantic poetess

In The Aftermath Of Dorian

In the wake of this week's devastating weather catastrophe in 

The Bahamas, my thoughts and prayers are with the survivors

of this horrible tragedy.  If you can, please make a donation

to the relief or humanitarian aid organization of your choice.

The aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas

"When the storms of life are raging,

Stand by me, stand by me.

When the storms of life are raging,

Stand by me, stand by me;

When the world is tossing me

Like a ship upon the sea

Thou who rulest wind and water

Stand by me, stand by me..."

Stand By Me

Elvis Presley

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)