The confession of the thief on the cross was both a first and final one. But . . . Christ received it. Maybe you never heard your loved one confess Christ, but who’s to say Christ didn’t?
From 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
God knows, right down to the final nub, exactly where you are in life. He sees. He cares. He is aware. And best of all, He is touched by it.
From Exodus 3:7: “Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings.'”
At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God’s hand until we learn to hear Him.
From Matthew 10:27: “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.“
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was a Scottish evangelist and Christian teacher. Following his death from an illness while in Egypt during World War I, his wife took on the task of transcribing the detailed notes she had written from his lectures and sermons. Gertrude Hobbs Chambers’ efforts resulted in the publication in 1924 of MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. I frequently read from this devotional, and it has greatly deepened my faith and understanding of God’s Word.
Although every verse in the Bible is inspired by God and given to us for our benefit, we won’t hear His voice unless we make His Word a priority.
From Deuteronomy 8:2-3: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.