WITHOUT ME YE CAN DO NOTHING

Today’s Text: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
(John 15:5)

Today’s Thoughts: We cannot do anything without the Lord. We cannot bring forth good fruit and live our lives for the Lord without His help. We cannot live full-stop without the Lord sustaining our lives. Every movement we make can only be done because the Lord gives us strength. All our achievements are purely because the Lord gave us the wisdom to succeed. We truly owe all to Him. Without Him we can do absolutely nothing.

Today’s Testimony: I was once given the task of making vegetarian meat-balls for a youth social evening. I was told that I could just make vegetarian mince if I wanted to, but I thought I’d first try to make meat-balls. I had never made any type of meat-balls before in my life, so I definitely needed the Lord’s help.
I prayed and asked Him to help me. The Lord and I went into the kitchen; He led me with what to put in; and we made vegetarian meat-balls. They held together and tasted very nice.
In youth class the following week while sharing how our weeks had been I said, “The Lord and I made vegetarian meat-balls”. One girl in the class said, “Did you just say, ‘The Lord and I’?” I was a bit confused and replied, “Yes.” She then burst out laughing. Then she stopped; said, “I’m sorry, I don’t think it’s funny it’s just that…” and then burst out laughing again.
Isn’t it so true? It’s terribly strange to hear people talk like that. Hardly anyone these days will say, “The Lord and I did it” – especially when it’s something as insignificant as making meat-balls. But for me to say anything less would have been a total understatement, and a complete lie. I couldn’t have made those meat-balls all by myself. I definitely couldn’t take all the credit.
The Lord helps me with so many things. I ask Him to help me with some of the most tiny and insignificant things, but He always does. God cares about His children!

Today’s Task: Ask the Lord to help you with everything you do. Know that you can do nothing without Him. I encourage you to give Him credit publicly for all your achievements. Never be ashamed of your God – He’s not ashamed of you. He’s there to help you – accept His help. Ask Him to help you to live totally for Him and bear good fruit. Without Him we can do nothing; and with Him all things are possible.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You are with us in all that we do. I thank You for life, strength and all that You bless us with. Help us to remember that we can truly do nothing without You. Please keep us relying totally on You. Lord help us to bear good fruit so we can be powerful witnesses of Your ability to change lives. I thank You for Your love and Your care for us. Amen.

FOR EVER

Today’s Text: In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2, 3)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re looking at the last part of Psalm 23:6 and the last part of Psalm 23. I hope you’ve had a blessing filled journey through Psalm 23. Yesterday we discussed how we can dwell in God’s house right now; today we’re going to talk about dwelling with Him for all eternity. Christ is coming back to fetch His sheep. He wants us to live with Him forever. He will weep if you are not there. I want to be there and am willing to surrender all He asks me to in order to secure my heavenly home – I hope you are too.

Today’s Testimony: I once heard a gentleman say, “If I go to hell – I go to hell. If I go to purgatory – I go to purgatory. If I go to Heaven – I go to Heaven.” He didn’t really seem to care what his destiny was; he was only focusing on the here and now. Which option appeals to you? I pick the last one. It is not left up to fate, we need to make a conscious decision. This gentleman did not know what really happens when we die, and he couldn’t care. He didn’t realize that God’s Word tells us that we only have two options – eternal life or eternal death. We will either live for ever, or we will be destroyed and be dead for ever. God doesn’t want to destroy sinners – He loves them; but He is going to destroy sin, and if we are clinging to it, we’ll have to be destroyed with it. This gentleman also didn’t realize that he can choose his own option, he does not have to rely on fate. I choose eternity with my Saviour.
Now I’d like to talk about Heaven. You definitely want to be there. There will be so much to do; I’m so glad we’ll have all eternity to do it. Just think, so many people to meet, so many things to taste, so many things to see. And all will be peace and happiness. No tears, no pain, no sickness. And greatest of all – we’re going to meet our best Friend and Saviour face to face. I can’t wait!!!
I look forward to playing with the lions. I’m going to go right up to one and give him a big hug, and stroke his mane. I’m going to go and speak to people I’ve read about in the Bible. I’m going to speak to Daniel and Esther and John and Ruth and so many more. I’m going to run across the lush, green grass. I’m going to taste all the fruit that will be so much tastier than the fruit on this earth. But you know what else I really look forward to? I really look forward to seeing you there. I hope that everyone I know is there. And those of you that I have never met – I really look forward to finally meeting you. Please be sure to be there. I want you to be there. I’m sure you want to be there too. But most importantly, your Saviour wants you to be there. Please don’t disappoint Him.

Today’s Task: Choose the Lord. Choose eternal life. You will never regret it. If you do not choose Christ as your master, you will regret it. Please be sure to be in Heaven. Ask the Lord for His gift of salvation right now. Accept Him into your heart. God loves you so much – love Him back. Choose to dwell with Him forever – it’s worth it.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that you are willing to spend all eternity with us. Please help us to be there. I thank You that You have offered us eternal life when all we deserve is eternal death. Please help us to make the decision to follow You fully. I thank You that You love us and care about us so much. I praise You and thank You in Christ’s name, Amen.

AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Today’s Text: For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re looking at the third part of Psalm 23:6. Dwelling in the house of the Lord for ever starts right now, but only if we allow it to. We could either choose to dwell in the tents of wickedness or to dwell in the house of the Lord – the choice is ours. If we had to live in a king’s palace, I’m sure we’d act differently to how we normally do. We’d act like royalty. We’d want to please the king. It is the same with dwelling in the Lord’s house. He is the King of kings. In order to live in His house we need to allow Him to change our un-Christlike habits. Sin cannot dwell in the presence of a holy God. God takes the sinner and cleanses him of his sin. We just need to surrender and allow Him to do so. I want to stand unashamed before my holy God. I want to stand pure before Him because He has cleansed me. Don’t you?

Today’s Testimony: Today I’d like to share another one of my songs. The song is entitled: Follow His steps. God can cleanse us and will, but once He has, He calls us to follow His steps. He wants us to live a life renewed in Him. He wants us to dwell joyfully in His presence; living our lives totally for Him.

Follow His Steps

Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
Let Him live His life out in you
Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
May His will be done in all you do

He who has the Son has life
And if the Son abides in you
You will walk even as He did
So follow; follow His steps

Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
Let Him live His life out in you
Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
May His will be done in all you do

If we want to live in Christ, self must die
For we cannot serve two masters
We must serve Christ and Christ alone
We must follow; follow His steps

Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
Let Him live His life out in you
Follow His steps
Walk in the footprints of the Master
May His will be done in all you do

O follow, follow His steps

Today’s Task: Follow Christ’s steps. Let Him live out His life in you. That’s the only way we can dwell in the presence of a holy God. He takes us just as we are, sin and all, but He must cleanse us. He wants us to live a life free of sin – He knows it will be a far happier life. Please allow Him to cleanse you. Please surrender your life totally to Him. You will not regret it.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You can cleanse us from our lives of sin. I thank You that You will help us to follow Your steps. Please help us to live our lives for You and start dwelling in Your presence right now. I thank You that we can dwell in Your house even though we live in a world full of wickedness – we need that peace and safety. I thank You for Your love. Amen.

ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE

Today’s Text: There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. (Joshua 1:5)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re taking a look at the second part of Psalm 23:6. God is good and God is merciful. He cannot be anything less than that. If God is with us we know that we have goodness and mercy following us. God promised Joshua that He would be with Him as the new leader of Israel, just as He had been with Moses. No army would be able to stand up and be successful against him. God would not fail him. God would not forsake him. That promise is available to each and every one of us today. If we stay in Christ – He will stay with us. God will be with us all the days of our lives. He loves us.

Today’s Testimony: One morning while I was having my personal devotions I felt extremely exhausted. The Lord has sometimes spoken to me when I’m semi-conscious and dozing, but our most powerful conversations have been when I’m awake and fully conscious. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and drifted into a light sleep.
The Lord then took me through a time-line of Moses’ life. It was a flash summary that only lasted a few seconds; I can’t really describe it. I saw how the Lord was with him and protected him from so much. The Lord then said to me, “I was with him till death.”
The Lord then took me to the scene in Joseph’s life when he said to his brothers, “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”
I was going through a really rough time at that stage, and the Lord was saying to me, “I will be with you till death. Others will seek to do you harm, but I will use it for good.”
We serve an amazing God! He will be with us till death. He will protect us from all our enemies. He will never fail us nor forsake us – He loves us too much.

Today’s Task: Remember that no matter what you are going through God is with you. His goodness and mercy are always available. He will be with you now, and for the rest of your days. Simply accept Him as Lord of your life. Take your troubles to the Lord – He will intervene in His time, according to His perfect will. He loves you so much. Promise to be His child for ever.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You are always there for us. I thank You that you will be with us for ever. I thank You that You will protect us from our enemies and use their attacks for good. Lord please help us to accept You as our Shepherd and to promise to be Your sheep for ever. We need You. Please draw us to Your side. I thank You for Your care and Your love. Amen.

SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW ME

Today’s Text: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. (Psalm 23:6)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re focusing on just the first part of this text. Goodness and mercy are following us. Do you know what that means?! That means that we’d have a hard time trying to get away from them. That means that all we have to do is turn around and they’re ours. God wants us to return to Him, He wants us to turn around and accept His goodness and mercy. He hasn’t sent them to follow us for nothing. He loves us. He cares about us. He is offering His goodness and mercy to each one of us right now. Please turn around and accept them – they won’t stop following you. God’s goodness and mercy is always available, it will always be within reach.

Today’s Testimony: I’ve mentioned before that the Lord is my Tutor for my studies. He is so patient with me. I am a “professional” procrastinator but He always intervenes with my assignments and exams. He has been, and is working on me and my bad habits, but He has always been so merciful to me. He truly is so good, when I really don’t deserve it. He has never said, “I’m sorry child, but this time you’ll have to bear the consequences.” But I know that I do need to stop procrastinating so much, and so, as I said, the Lord and I are working on the problem.
Do you remember the two year modules that I mentioned before, and their rather complicated second assignments (Day 49)? I said that I’d share about the complications and God’s intervention with the other one at a later stage, and I’m going to share that now.
The other assignment had five tasks of which I had to do three. The first task was compulsory, and then I had to choose the other two. That was the first complication. One of the tasks required me to design a poster. I usually submit my assignments online, but if I chose the poster I had to either send my assignment via post or take it directly to UNISA. At first I thought that I wouldn’t do that task, but then the Lord and I started designing one in my mind for fun. I really liked our design, so I decided that I would choose that as one of my tasks after all.
My step-dad was going to take my assignment in to UNISA, and the night before, I sat filling out the assignment cover that had to go with my assignment. I wasn’t used to filling one in because it isn’t necessary when submitting online. Once I’d filled in all my details, I saw a spot that said, “Affix your student number barcode here”. I couldn’t think what they were talking about, and decided to go to bed and ask my sister in the morning.
When I asked her she said, “O, that’s those barcode stickers that UNISA gave you.” I had never used them, and had no idea where I’d put them. I had completely forgotten all about the sheet of stickers. My step-dad was going to have to leave for work soon, so I had a problem. I prayed!!!
I started looking, and then the Lord said to me, “Lindy, it’s in that box.” I looked a bit in that box, but thought, “This isn’t a box of papers, it won’t be in here.” I kept looking everywhere else, and the Lord kept saying, “Lindy, it’s in that box.” Finally, when I’d searched thoroughly everywhere else that I could think of, I decided to take a good look in that box. …I didn’t need to look very far at all, it was right near the top.
God is so good and so merciful!!! He always intervenes for me, even though I do have a terrible procrastination problem. But like I said, “He’s working on me.” But in the meantime – He is so patient! And then on top of that, He didn’t give up on me when I wasn’t listening to His voice telling me where those stickers were. My God is so merciful and so good! Is He your God too?

Today’s Task: Turn around and accept God’s goodness and mercy. He is truly so good and so merciful. No matter what you’ve done, if you return to Him, His arms are open; He is more than willing to forgive you. Please don’t disappoint Him, He wants to spend eternity with you. He loves you so much. Please turn to Him today.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You never give up on us. I thank You that Your goodness and mercy follow us. Please help us to fully surrender to You. We need You. I thank You for Your patience with us. I thank You that You love us so much. I praise You and thank You in Christ’s name, Amen.

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

Today’s Text: A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. (Proverbs 28:20)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re going to take a look at the last part of Psalm 23:5. When our cups run over, it means that God has poured far more than we need, and that He still has excess. God owns everything. He can bless us with what we need, and with far more than we need. He wants to bless us. He wants us to realize just how much He loves us. If we are faithful to God He will faithfully take care of us and even bless us more abundantly than we could ever imagine. We just need to place our trust in Him. Nothing that we could ever gain ourselves can compare to what God can give us.

Today’s Testimony: Today is day 61. That means that I’ve shared 60 testimonies so far – my cup runneth over. God has blessed me so much. I asked the Lord what He wanted me to share with today’s text, and He told me to share how He has blessed me so abundantly with Bibles – I’m crazy about Bibles. Don’t ask me why, but for some or other reason I just like them.
I have so many different Bibles. I had a few of my own, and then my gran gave me many different translations that had belonged to my grandpa. He had worked at a publishing house and also loved Bibles and books. Another thing that I love is language, and Afrikaans is the only other language that I can kind of understand, so I have two Afrikaans Bibles. But I probably wouldn’t mind having Bibles in any other languages either.
At one stage I was looking for a small KJV Bible that could fit in my handbag. I went into the Bible shop and found two piles of two different small Bibles. I can’t remember if they weren’t the translation that I was looking for, if they were not within my price range, or just not exactly what I was looking for, but I didn’t want to buy one of those. But the Lord impressed me to look through both piles of Bibles. Buried in the second pile of Bibles was exactly what I was looking for. It was a small, soft-cover KJV Bible for only R30. God is so good! He knew what I was looking for, and He knew just where I could find it.
On another occasion we went to a second-hand book shop. We were there for quite a while, but I got no further than the Bible section. Just think – all sorts of different Bibles to look at! (I told you I’m crazy about Bibles). I scanned the shelves, looked at a few, and then sat on the floor to look through the piles of smaller Bibles and related books that were on the floor. So many of them were the same, but I looked through each pile. In amongst all those Christian books was a small English dictionary. It looked like one of the Bibles that there were a lot of, and had obviously been mistaken for one. I was so excited! I bought that and a small Afrikaans Bible for only R5. I got my second Afrikaans Bible for free from the same place on another occasion, that one is the normal size. God is so good!!!
I also bought a Bible key-ring a while ago for about R6. I’ve wanted one for years, and I was finally able to buy one at a reasonable price. God is so good! He has blessed me so abundantly with so many blessings. He truly does love His sheep!
God blesses us with what we need, but also sometimes blesses us with special little things simply to say, “I love you child!” I love Him too!

Today’s Task: Count your blessings. Your cup is running over – you just may not have noticed yet. If you are going through a rough time ask the Lord to show you your overflowing cup. He cares about His children. Praise Him for all His blessings – big and small. He deserves our praise!

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You for all Your many blessings! I praise You that you overflow our cups every single day. Please help us to notice. Lord, please remind us to always praise You for every blessing. I thank You that You love and care about each and every one of us. We love You too! Amen.

THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL

Today’s Text: Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. (Isaiah 41:9)

Today’s Thoughts: Today we’re looking at the third part of Psalm 23:5. When God chose David as King of Israel He had the prophet Samuel anoint him with oil. This anointing was a symbol that God had chosen him, and called him to do a great work for him. God can, and has, called each one of us to do a great work for Him. He has asked us to be witnesses for Him. He has asked us to work for Him. He may call us out of a life of pride and ease to be His servants – we need to obey. The life that God can give us is far more worthwhile than any life that this world can offer. God has chosen us to be His sheep, He will not cast us away – He loves us far too much.

Today’s Testimony: Today I’d like to share another one of my songs. This one speaks about the Lord hand-picking us. He loves each and every one of us, and He’ll find us no matter where we are. We just need to allow Him to be our Shepherd.

More Than The Extra Mile

You came and found me when I sought You not
You came and bought me when death was my lot
You picked me up as broken as I was
And now I praise You simply because…

You went more than the extra mile for me
You went beyond the call of duty
You did not owe anything to anyone
Lord I stand in awe when I think of all that You have done
For me
And then I praise Thee

You were my Saviour before I was born
You were my Healer before I was torn
You paid my price when I deserved to die
And now I praise You and this is why…

You went more than the extra mile for me
You went beyond the call of duty
You did not owe anything to anyone
Lord I stand in awe when I think of all that You have done
For me
And then I praise Thee

You went more than the extra mile for me

Today’s Task: Allow the Lord to pick you up as His own. And when He has anointed you, go and work for Him. Be a powerful witness for your Shepherd. Tell the world what He has done for you. Show the world what Christ is really like. Make your Master proud. Go the extra mile for Him – He went more than the extra mile for you.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You so much that You were prepared to go more than the extra mile for us. We do not deserve to be saved, but You could not bear to see us lost. Please help us to accept Your gift of Salvation. Lord, we don’t want to disappoint You by choosing our own paths and not making it to spend eternity with You. Help us to work for You so that all that would accept You will have that opportunity. Lord I thank You that You have chosen and called us. Help us to make You smile. Amen.