Devotional Guide
For the week of November 9, 2003
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Confidence in scripture is a muscle
To Read: Hosea 13-14
To Know:
"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which
have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those
who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it
seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time
past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that
you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been
informed." (Luke 1:1-4)
John Lewis Ewell in his 'Story of Byfield' writes, "Sarah Jane Johnson was
born February 21, 1820, in the house where Mr. Alfred Ambrose recently
lived. In 1858 she is said to have prevailed upon Mr. John A. Washington to
sell Mount Vernon to a national association of women. Mr. Washington was
reluctant to part with his ancestral home, but at last he said with tears,
'Miss Johnson, you have conquered, I yield to you.' Her first husband was J.
H. Stimson; her second, Maj. J. F. Trayhern of the Confederate Army. So,
through Mrs. Trayhern, Byfield has the high honor to have secured the home
of Washington for a national possession."
Recently, a letter we received from the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
asked us to help preserve Washington's home for future generations. The
letter credited the initiative for purchasing and restoring the plantation
to Ann Pamela Cunningham in 1853. Who persuaded Washington's heirs to sell
the estate? Since Ewell wrote only five decades after the acquisition of
Mount Vernon, his version cannot be too quickly disregarded.
To Do:
Luke based his gospel on interviews with the people who knew Jesus Christ in
the flesh. Seventeen centuries later some European scholars introduced doubt
that the Bible was trustworthy. Today, millions who go to church have been
persuaded not to trust the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures. The
strength of the Christian life is rooted in the confidence that the Bible is
the verbally inspired Word of God.
11123$-11123
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