DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17:
WORD OF WISDOM
Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying YES too quickly
and not saying NO soon enough!
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DAILY DEVOTION
Faithful unto Death
"These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They
shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the
Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall
come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not
unto you at the beginning, because I was with you."
John 16:1-4
According to one recent report, more than ten Christians on average are
killed every single day because of their faith. In country after country
around the world, those who express faith in Jesus Christ put a target on
themselves and their families because opposition to Christianity there is
not limited to verbal objections. While we are thankful that in America
we've been able to worship and witness without fear of being killed, that is
rare and not guaranteed to continue in the future.
Throughout the history of the church, men and women have faced a choice
between being true to God and the risk of death. Though some have failed
that challenge and renounced their faith, there is a glorious tradition of
those who were faithful even unto death. While we certainly hope to never be
placed in that position, we are not promised ease and safety as followers of
the Lord who perished on a cross.
The only way that we can pass the most critical tests of faith is for our
faith to be strengthened before those moments come. Daniel did not decide
whether to pray when the law forbidding it was passed. He had already made
his decision and was praying long before. The choices that we make today
determine the choice we would make if we faced a life and death struggle of
faith.
Our faith must be developed in times of calm in order to stand in the times
of storm.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Exodus 1The Message (MSG)
1 1-5 These are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob,
each bringing his family members:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Seventy persons in all generated by Jacob's seed. Joseph was already in
Egypt.
6-7 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers-that whole generation. But the
children of Israel kept on reproducing. They were very prolific-a population
explosion in their own right-and the land was filled with them.
"A New King . . . Who Didn't Know Joseph"
8-10 A new king came to power in Egypt who didn't know Joseph. He spoke to
his people in alarm, "There are way too many of these Israelites for us to
handle. We've got to do something: Let's devise a plan to contain them, lest
if there's a war they should join our enemies, or just walk off and leave
us."
11-14 So they organized them into work-gangs and put them to hard labor
under gang-foremen. They built the storage cities Pithom and Rameses for
Pharaoh. But the harder the Egyptians worked them the more children the
Israelites had-children everywhere! The Egyptians got so they couldn't stand
the Israelites and treated them worse than ever, crushing them with slave
labor. They made them miserable with hard labor-making bricks and mortar and
back-breaking work in the fields. They piled on the work, crushing them
under the cruel workload.
15-16 The king of Egypt had a talk with the two Hebrew midwives; one was
named Shiphrah and the other Puah. He said, "When you deliver the Hebrew
women, look at the sex of the baby. If it's a boy, kill him; if it's a girl,
let her live."
17-18 But the midwives had far too much respect for God and didn't do what
the king of Egypt ordered; they let the boy babies live. The king of Egypt
called in the midwives. "Why didn't you obey my orders? You've let those
babies live!"
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian
women; they're vigorous. Before the midwife can get there, they've already
had the baby."
20-21 God was pleased with the midwives. The people continued to increase in
number-a very strong people. And because the midwives honored God, God gave
them families of their own.
22 So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: "Every boy that is
born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls live."
