Spurgeon on “Ancient Treasures & Riches” ~ 2 Minute Devotional

When you have loved somebody for a very long time, it is a special relationship. Perhaps it is a spouse, parent, grandparent, sibling, or  childhood friend that you have known and loved for decades. You share lots of memories and events between you that nobody else can enjoy in the same way. In some cases, that person knew you, before you knew them, as in the case of parents.

In this quote, Spurgeon points out that our relationship with our Savior, Jesus, is special. He knew us, loved us, died for our sins, and chose us, before we knew Him. In Romans 5:8 it says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

As we look back into the ancient past, we see that “broad stream of our gracious Lord” flowing to us. This is love so deep that we should seek to nurture the relationship to our Savior  with great passion and energy.

Dear Lord, As I continue to grow into a greater understanding of what you have done for me down through the ages, and how you have loved me before I even knew you, help me to respond with praise and thanksgiving for such a wonderful gift. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by this quote and the accompanying image taken from the Spurgeon Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Gladness Beyond Your Companions – Psalm 45 ESV 2 Minute Devotional

Don’t you wish you could be as happy and carefree as the sea otter in this picture? God seems to have given these playful creatures an energy and happiness above their fellow creatures. You don’t normally associate happiness with a bear, elk, tiger or walrus, do you?

So it is with us. Some people just seem to be happier. Could it be that people who love righteousness might generally be happier than those who don’t? The Psalmist indicates that the righteous person is favored with gladness from God.

In this fallen world, it is amazing that happiness exists at all. Natural disasters, wars, strife, accidents, and so many other events in our lives seem designed to rob us of any happiness at all. The pursuit of happiness seems a fruitless exercise, sadness a certain curse. Is there any hope?

God has “anointed you with the oil of gladness,” says the Psalmist. Deep happiness, gladness, joy, comes from God. God is the one who can turn back the fallenness and give us hope. This is something that we cannot do on our own.

Consider the life of Jesus. Jesus broke though the fallenness of this world with his healings, teachings and miracles, and most important, his death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit continues the work of redemption today in the lives of believers. Seek the living God today and ask Jesus for the joy and happiness that comes from forgiveness of your sins. With the help of the Holy Spirit you can “love righteousness” too.

Dear Lord, Save me from this fallen world. Help me to find true happiness, no matter what comes my way. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 45 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Wondrous Deeds & Thoughts – Psalm 40 ESV 2 Minute Devotional

Is God a personal God, or is He only concerned with the big picture as an impersonal force? In Psalm 40 we see that God is very personal! His wondrous deeds and thoughts are multiplied toward us.

Simply pondering the physical world around us would lead us toward God. The wondrous complexity and beauty of the flowers in the picture speak of a creator. Scientists study diligently in the field of botany and continue to discover mysteries beyond comprehension. Pick any field of science and we quickly find there are wondrous features so complex that only a creator God can explain such things.

But there is more! God gives us a book, the Bible, that reveals who He is, and what He has done for us. We find out in the Gospels that Jesus became human, so that He understands us in all our physical and spiritual weaknesses. Where we fail and sin, Jesus provided a wondrous deed. He died on the cross and through his resurrection provides salvation for us, personally, and individually. His thoughts are directed toward us in every circumstance. For this I can only return humble praise and proclaim His wondrous deeds toward me.

Dear Lord, The complexities of this world are beyond comprehension, yet you have revealed your salvation to us through your son Jesus. By pondering your wondrous deeds in the physical world and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, grant me faith to receive your salvation. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 40 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Spurgeon on “Is There a Church in This House?” ~ 2 Minute Devotional

Today’s quote from Charles Spurgeon captures the hopes and prayers of christian parents everywhere. “Is there a Church in this house?” If there was one gift to leave with a son or daughter, it would be a strong vibrant faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. Just like the goose in the picture watches over its goslings, so the parents watch over the spiritual welfare of their children.

Have you strayed from the faith? You’ve probably seen the heartbreak in your parents eyes. Perhaps they’ve pleaded with you to return. Is it pride that keeps you away? Are your sins unforgivable? Is the pain too deep? Did the church’s practices turn you away?

There are so many stories in the Bible of redemption and returning to God. The Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11 is one that most of us are familiar with. In verse 17 it says that the son “came to himself,” and made a decision to return back to his father and confess his sin. All the time that the son was away, the father was watching for his return.

Is there a Church in this house? This special covenant family is not without aid from God. Prayers are not in vain! The Holy Spirit works in hearts with powerful effect, building, restoring and redeeming.

Dear Lord, Let there be a Church in my house. I need Your help to be a godly parent, son or daughter. Let Jesus be in my heart and let the Holy Spirit work in my life and in my family. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by this quote and the accompanying image taken from the Spurgeon Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Spurgeon on “Would your Zeal Grow Chill?” ~ 2 Minute Devotional

Have you ever been excited about something? I just received my new iPhone 4 in the mail the other day, and the anticipation of opening the package and using my new phone got my heart racing. Only a geek would understand!

All of us have our passions – things that set our hearts to racing in anticipation. Spurgeon reminds us in this quote that our love for God should excite us as well, and it should impact everything we do.

The beautiful image of frost on the trees in winter fits well with Spurgeon’s final thought. We should make God our only object – we need to focus on Him so that our zeal would not grow cold. I’ve got a long way to go, but I thank God for the help of His Spirit.

I hope you have been blessed by this quote from Charles Spurgeon and the accompanying image taken from the Spurgeon Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Will Rogers on “Democratic Campaign Contributions & Religious Benefits”

Will RogersIt’s very important for a charity, such as a church, that receives gifts to make sure the donor understands the tax requirements. With the donation receipt a statement must be included such as “With this gift, you did not receive any goods or services in exchange for your donation other than religious benefits.”

With Democrat pastoral leadership, from various high profile Reverends, rallies and meetings take on the air of revival, complete with fainting, screaming and chanting. So, why not toss a few dollars in the collection plate for all the religious benefits? Of course, it’s clear that no goods or services were exchanged for the donation, unless you happened to be the Governor of Illinois.

Now, things got a little confusing and disorganized over time, because people were expecting more than just religious benefits. They were expecting new kitchens, more unemployment benefits, cheaper health care, lower taxes, transparent government, and so on. People that took Will Rogers’ advice and “charged off” Democrat charitable campaign contributions got into trouble with the IRS.

The Democrat campaign is in trouble now. Charitable contributions are down. It’s a classic case of “over promise, and under deliver.” It looks like the only religious benefit left, is unemployed Democrat politicians praying for a job.

Image Information: This pictures shows the Rogers family in a Model A Ford.  Pictured are Will Rogers, Jim, Mary, Will Jr., and Betty.

The image was taken directly from photographs at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.

Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.

I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.

Will Rogers

Will Rogers on “How to Play the Stock Market”

Will RogersThe stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, and as you can see, Will Rogers wrote this quote 2 days later. This bit of Will Rogers’ common sense would have been a solution to the wild speculation prior to the crash.

Will Rogers seemed to find humor, in just about anything. It was his ability to help people laugh, even in desperate times that endeared him to hearts of millions. The timeless quality of his wit brings a smile to our face even today!

Image Information: In the image Will Rogers gives his wife Betty a goodbye kiss. Will is outfitted for a flight in an open cockpit airplane. Once he found that he could get places faster by flying, he was constantly in the air.

The image was taken directly from pictures at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.

Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.

I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.

Will Rogers

Will Rogers on “Unpredictable Voters”

Will RogersPolitical consultants get paid big bucks to discern the “mind of the voter.” Sometimes it seems that there isn’t much to be found in the “mind of the voter” so the consultants drop back to trying to determine the “feelings” of the voter.

Feelings can be a tricky thing to predict. One single gaffe, or a wrong gesture, or a funny grimace can change the outcome of an election. The main stream media has manipulation of feelings down to a science. If they don’t like a candidate (read conservative), there is a flood of awkward pictures and quotes. In recent years we have found they are not beneath making up stories to make a politician look bad.

In this quote, Will Rogers indicates that voters are unpredictable, and furthermore, a voter would rather vote against a politician rather than for one. Fortunately, since voters can’t vote against “all of ’em” as Will Rogers says, somebody has to win.

The last election was filled with entertainment value. The main stream media was so obviously biased that it was actually humorous. Liberal politicians had no idea what the voters were going to do, and in the end the only post-election party was the tea party.

Image Info: Wiley Post walks along the pontoon of his aircraft during the fateful Alaska trip in August of 1935. Within a few days, Wiley Post and his passenger Will Rogers would die when the plane crashed on take-off near Point Barrow, Alaska.

The image was taken directly from pictures at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.

Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.

I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.

Will Rogers

God is Good – Psalm 145 NIV 2 Minute Devotional

What a glorious Psalm about God’s goodness. To ponder such great goodness, brings about praise as the Psalmist says: “Your saints will extol you.” Not only is God good now, but His goodness extends through all generations and beyond.

Sometimes I struggle with why so many bad things happen to me. Bad things are all around me, death of loved ones, job loss, family strife, natural disasters and so much more. How can God be good if that is the case?

In this fallen world, the real miracle is that anything good can happen at all! The good we see in this life is a glimpse of God’s goodness and love toward us. It is the undoing of the curse of sin. Many times we find that something good comes out of a seemingly bad situation. Even for this we can praise God.

If you look at the life of Jesus, you see the undoing of the effects of sin through healings, mastery over wind and waves, changed hearts and lives, and many other miracles. For the good things Jesus did, what was his reward? He was crucified by evil men.

All the evil in this world could not overcome the goodness of God however. After the crucifixion came the resurrection.

Dear Lord, Show me your goodness, that I might praise you. Save me from this sinful world through the work of Jesus on the cross. Raise me from the dead and give me new life. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 145 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes NIV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or  Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

iPhone App! Timeless Wisdom & Daily Inspiration from the Bible by Charles H. Spurgeon

A River of Blessing – Psalm 46 ESV 2 Minute Devotional

We don’t think much about the importance of rivers today, as we drive comfortably across bridges in air conditioned cars sipping from a bottle of clean water. To folks in the 19th century and earlier, rivers were their source of life-giving water.

To have convenient access to a clean, clear, abundant supply of river water was a great blessing to ancient people. The psalmist tells us that in heaven there will be a “river whose streams will make glad the city of God.”

As a fallen person in a fallen world, I don’t deserve such a blessing as a place beside life-giving waters. I will never find such a place under my own strength or efforts. What can I do?

It is God’s undeserved saving grace through the work and sacrifice of his son Jesus that makes such blessings possible. Come to the river and enjoy the blessings of the water.

Dear Lord, I am thirsty for your water. I need your grace. Lead me, Jesus, to the river that gives life, both in this world and in heaven. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 46 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

President Reagan, Will Rogers Shared Common Gifts, Careers

President Reagan, Will Rogers Shared Common Gifts, Careers
By Joe Carter

Ronald Reagan was a 24-year-old aspiring actor when Will Rogers was Hollywood’s towering star. While the two icons were never personally acquainted, their lives spiraled similarly.

In 1941, six years following Rogers’ death, an unsigned memorandum at Warner Brother Pictures in California read: “Why not try to test Ronald Reagan for the part of Will Rogers? He is droll homely humorous and an all around good actor.” That memo prefaces the definitive 1993 Ben Yagoda book now sold by the University of Oklahoma Press entitled: “Will Rogers: A Biography.” Yagoda opined: “Ronald Reagan didn’t get to play Will Rogers in the movie biography (Will Rogers Jr., got the part) but who with his “well” ’s and shrugs, his just-folks bonhomie, managed a pretty impressive Rogers impersonation in the White House.”

In 1990, Oklahoma’s Will Rogers Memorial Commission awarded its first “Will Rogers Communicator Award” to the former President. The late Jim Rogers, Will Rogers’ son, presented the plaque designed by Paul Lefebvre of Oklahoma City. During the private exchange in Beverly Hills, Reagan told Jim Rogers: “Will Rogers always was my hero.” I was present and heard the warm exchange. Ronald Reagan’s retirement home was near the sprawling Will Rogers Historical Park with its glamorous polo field at Pacific Palisades, California. Before he was stricken ten years ago by Alzheimer ’s disease, the former President often would casually attend polo matches at the park cheering the horsemen.

Like Will Rogers, Ronald Reagan rode. Both were proud to be called a “cowboy.” There was a quarter century difference in their ages. Will Rogers was born on an Oklahoma ranch in 1879 and Reagan was born in Illinois in 1911. At age 55, Will Rogers was killed in a 1935 air crash in Alaska. Ronald Reagan died at 93.

Intensely interested in politics, both boasted careers in radio, movies and public speaking. Will Rogers became a major newspaper columnist, author and stage actor.
Both men scored in cinema. Reagan debuted in “Love in on the Air” in 1937. Will Rogers, beginning in 1918, starred in 71 features. Neither actor won an Oscar.
Both were actively outspoken in collective bargaining for actors’ wages and working conditions. Rogers was more behind the scenes. Reagan in 1947 was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Reagan was a Democrat who switched parties in 1962. Will Rogers said: “I’m not a member of any organized party, I’m a Democrat.” Will Rogers was playfully nominated by Life Magazine in 1928 as a prank candidate for President of the United States and declared “if elected I’ll resign.” “Another big reason I should be nominated is I am not a Democrat,” Will Rogers wrote. “Another bigger reason why I should be nominated is I am not a Republican. I am just progressive enough to suit the dissatisfied. And lazy enough to be a Stand Patter.”

Ronald Reagan was more earnest in politics. After supporting Eisenhower and Nixon for president as a Democrat, he became a Republican who twice won the governorship of California and the American presidency.

(Note: Joe Carter is a Will Rogers biographer and former director of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission of Claremore, Oklahoma.)

Click for original post: President Reagan, Will Rogers Shared Common Gifts, Careers

Will Rogers

Give the Gift of Will Rogers

Click on Image to Buy from Amazon

This is a great biography by Ben Yagoda. Follow Will Rogers from obscurity, growing up in Oklahoma, to become one of the most loved and admired men in America.

How could one man be gifted with so much talent and energy? Follow Will as he travels across America and the world. He worked and starred with all the performing legends of his day. He was friends with famous aviators, influential politicians, and the most wealthy people in the world. He met with Presidents. Yet through it all, he never forgot his humble Oklahoma roots and people loved him for it.

Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. The story of his life will inspire you and you’ll weep as you read of his untimely death in 1935.

There will never be another Will Rogers, but his legacy lives on through his quotes and the work of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, OK. How many of us would like to say with Will Rogers: “I never met a man I didn’t like?”

Give the gift of Will Rogers and watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.

Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.

Spurgeon on “Cast Your Burden on the Lord” ~ 2 Minute Devotional

This quote is from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotional. The code M12-19 means that it is from the Morning reading on December 19.

The sparrow image was chosen to match the quote and really helps to emphasize God’s care for the least of His created creatures and how he truly cares for each of us.

The Spurgeon Quotes iPhone app has quotes for each day of the year with a matching image. The day’s quote is presented when the app is launched, plus you can browse through the other quotes if desired.

I hope you have been blessed by this quote and the accompanying image taken from the Spurgeon Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.