Word for Today, Sat, Oct 14. 2006, What is Your Security Blanket
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
I can identify with the following message. From June of 1979, when I
graduated from Michigan Technological University until June of 2001,
when I was terminated from my contract job in Nashua, NH, I had a good
career. I worked for five and a half years at one of the world's largest
employers, General Motors Corporation, and then I worked the next
thirteen and a half years at what may remain my favorite employer of
my career, Digital Equipment Corporation.
After a good career at Digital, I sensed the times shifting again, so
I left a wonderful working environment to go out into contract
consulting. My very first contract put me back at the campus I worked
at from 1985 until 1991 while at Digital. I worked at several more
lucrative contract jobs between 1998 and 2001 until June 2001, when
the bottom fell out of the boom in software development. You have
heard of the dot.com, well 2001 was the dot bomb, and it struck
quickly.
Many well qualified software engineers found themselves for the first
time in their careers looking for a job to call their own. The
fortunate ones tucked in somewhere quickly. Some of the casualties
took anywhere from six months to six years to find something else.
For me, it was nearly five years to land back full time in my
profession. In the meantime, I had bills to pay and a family of five
to house and feed. My wife worked, but I had been the primary wage
earner. Our combined new incomes, by God's grace and much help from
family, friends, church, and community, kept us in our home and well
fed, but there were many moments of uncertainty.
There was one thing that was certain, though, and that was that God
has a plan for our lives, and He had a plan for us as well. He wanted
us to rely on Him, He wanted us to exercise more caution in the manner
in which we used what He had so graciously given to us, and He wanted
us to share our faith with others.
Like the writer of the message below, I can sing with the hymn writer,
"Great is Thy Faithfulness O God my Father". God is my peace, God is
my provider, God is my guide, and God is my hope. Jesus Christ is the
One who has given me a pathway to my God, for He gave His life as a
ransom to pay the full price for our shortcomings, our sin, and He
offers forgiveness of sin and fullness of life to all who believe this
and fully trust, not in this or that, but in Him alone. Are you among
these chosen people?
1 Corinthians 10:12-13 King James Version (KJV)
12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall.
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-25 (King James Version)
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
25 Brethren, pray for us.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
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PCCWeb Daily Devotional for Saturday, October 14, 2006
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SECURITY BLANKET
Philippians 4:19 - And my God will meet all your needs according to his
glorious riches in Jesus Christ. (NIV)
For forty-one years of our married life, my husband had worked for a
company which had provided us with a good income, good insurance, and,
we thought, a good retirement plan. It was a tremendous shock to us the
day the company was sold and the new owners had no place for a man of my
husband's skills. He was too young to retire and too old to be desirable
to another company.
Our security blanket had been snatched from around us. We turned our
problem over to God, trusting in Him to meet our needs. Seven months
later, he found employment with a small company thirty miles from our
home. They had a need for someone of his skills. Five years later, at
age sixty-five, he was able to retire with social security and
Medicare benefits. This company gave a retirement party for him and
gave him a plaque for his contributions to their company, making up
for the pain he had suffered from the lack of appreciation for his
life-long contributions to the other company.
We discovered at this time that employment is not our source of
security -- God is. The security blanket, which we thought the company
was providing, turned out to be the secure arms of Christ our Saviour
Who met all of our needs.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your lasting security. All You ask is that
we lean on Your everlasting arms, and You will shelter us in times of
need. When the world lets us down, You are there, if we will only seek
You, trust You, and listen to Your leading. In the security of Your
arms, You will lead us to new beginnings and new blessings. Amen.
Ivie Bozeman <mailto:ivie@rose.net>
Thomasville, Georgia, USA
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--
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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