Morning Manna by Rufus Parker: Morning Manna by Rufus Parker

Monday, January 1, 2024

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2024 January 1

You Have Not Passed This Way Before

“And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” (Joshua 3:1-4)

Today’s Morsel: Well, we have crossed over into another year. It seems like only yesterday that folks were calling us in Japan to see if we were still alive because of Y2K. And I thought to myself, why are they calling us? If the world has ended, it’s ended for everyone. After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the children of Israel, now a new generation, were preparing to cross into the Land of Promise. Now God was now ready to perform His promise which He had made to their forefathers. The command given by Joshua to his leaders was that they were to tell the people which were under their control to keep their eyes on the Ark of the Covenant, because they had not been that way before. Think about that for a moment. Even in all their murmuring and rebellion, God was still willing to go before them and fulfill His promise. Talk about a loving and caring God. And here you and I are today. We have crossed over into another year. At this moment we do not know what life ahead holds for us. But we do have God’s promise that He will not leave us nor forsake us. He has promised to be with us every step of the way if we hold to His word and commandments. Therefore, we must keep our eyes on Jesus because we have not been this way before, and then He will lead us to the Land which He has also promised us.

Sing: Where He leads me, I will follow; Where He leads me, I will follow; Where He leads me, I will follow. I’ll go with Him, with him, all the way.

Thought For Today: “Keep your eyes on the prize”

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Morning Manna

And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat (Exodus 16:10-15).

“Morning Manna” is a short daily devotion which began in 2002, with just a short note of encouragement to a friend who was facing difficulties at the time. Through their response, I was encouraged to begin a daily devotion via email and send it to people who asked to be put on the distribution list. It is now reaching around the globe. Its birth came about during Morning Prayer. The Lord revealed to me that I should forward my friend a word of encouragement, since it is through patience and comfort of the scripture that we find hope. Thus, I forwarded him the words the Lord had given to me for him, and he forwarded it on to someone else who was having difficulties in their life as well, and thus the original list began.

The goal of “Morning Manna” is to provide people with a quick, thought provoking Word from the Lord, as well as provide encouragement from His Word that can help them through the day and during unexpected trails and circumstances in their daily lives.

Several years ago, Jesus moved on my heart to start writing daily devotions; thus began “Morning Manna”. Today, many people are receiving these daily devotions and many of these people are forwarding it on to their family and friends. It is my hope to encourage even more through posting the devotions to this blog-page.

I pray that you, too, will enjoy reading the manna from this site.