Listen to our message on your audio player. (Abbreviated due to nature of this message.)

“Encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13).

In this special year-end edition permit us to share a lot more background and administrative material than usual. Regular readers know that we generally keep the administration of this ministry behind the scenes but feel this overview may be of some value, especially to newer readers.

We are grateful for the strength and vision God provided for us to continue our ministry during 2024 and for the opportunity to provide a small, daily dose of encouragement and Bible teaching to many readers and podcast listeners around the world.

In 2025 we will celebrate our twenty-ninth year of publishing these daily encouragement messages (most weekdays) and will also celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary! Daily encouragement began in October 1996 with a very short email to two people in the church we served at the time, who are still receiving our messages. It grew into a small hand managed list, then a simple website over the next several years.

Our practice is to write these devotionals early each weekday morning or the night before (often it’s begun at night and finished up the next morning). The goal from the very beginning is based on a verse from Hebrews 3 stating that we are to “encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13). That’s an easy verse to understand but harder to put into practice. For us it includes writing and sharing these messages.

Foundationally one of the main things we want to convey in each devotional is the daily outlook of two ordinary believers seeking to live another day faithfully for Christ. We seek to offer a spiritual perspective which remains our primary objective.

Each devotional is based on a commitment to Christ and His Word. We share glimpses of our own family life or that of others. We often use an illustrative or humorous story but we always want the major focus to be on our Lord Jesus along with a brief exposition of the daily Scripture texts.

For the first several years this was a supplemental aspect of my pastoral ministry in New England and then I continued it in an abbreviated way (a short text email only) when I worked full-time as a divisional manager for Marketplace Chaplains, a national company providing chaplain services from 2001-2004. Brooksyne served as a part-time chaplain at several locations during that time as well.

In late 2004 we resigned from Marketplace Chaplains with a vision of having an independent ministry comprised of half daily encouragement and eventually the other half working directly for companies (not through an agency) in providing chaplain care. Over time this developed quite smoothly for which we give God thanks. During the first several years we also did interim pastoral service as well.

Beginning in 2005 I poured effort into better developing daily encouragement, learning how to build the website on my own, using email lists with html, blogging and podcasting. I learned this on my own mostly using the “Dummies” series of self-help books! Also during this time Brooksyne and I provided care for my mom, whose health needs were extensive before she passed away in November of that year.

Even before our marriage in 1976 Brooksyne has served alongside me since we ministered together during our Bible College years and then in full time pastoral ministry for 25 years. In the early days of Daily Encouragement she would periodically edit a message but that was basically the extent of her involvement. That changed in 2005 when we began to work on each message together. Normally I start the writing and she edits and often adds further insight and notes. We usually read the podcast together. However I do the administrative and technical work, while she is more active in following up on comments and prayer requests we receive from all over the world.

From the beginning this ministry has been updated on a weekday basis. We purposefully do not prepare devotionals for Saturday or Sunday, hoping that each of you are active in a local church where the Bible is faithfully preached. The concept of a “cyber or internet church” when one is physically able to connect with the local body of Christ troubles us. Cyber-church and some televised church broadcasts call for believers to essentially forsake the real life fellowship of a local church and be in “virtual” association with their “church” via internet or television.

We believe God calls us all to be in regular fellowship with fellow believers in a local church congregation, if physically possible, making a positive and spiritual difference in our own community. We affirm the ministry of each local pastor as he fulfills his somber calling to “Watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Hebrews 13:17).

There are several components to our labor in producing each message:

Regarding the delivery schedule, we normally try to get it out around Noon (Eastern Time), but a phone call,schedule conflict, technical problem or other interruptions may hinder our good intentions!

Administratively we want to be accessible if there are comments, prayer requests or problems. If you have feedback you can use the “Contact Us” page.  However please use this and our email address only for personal, specific feedback. We do value brief notes regarding how this ministry or particular message spoke to you, prayer requests or comments prompted by a specific message or even a needed correction. Due to time restraints we are not always able to respond, but do so when possible.

Since most subscriptions are anonymous we have little information regarding the background of the vast majority of our readers. As our ministry has grown we know only a minority of our readers personally and of course this percentage gets smaller as time goes on. We are grateful that our messages go all around the world and we do enjoy hearing from our international readers.

For those who have subscribed to the email list we want the email to be easy to “unsubscribe” if you prefer to be removed from the mailing list. Just use the automatically inserted link below the footers for automated removal.

A weekly version is available with Friday’s message sent out along with the link to previous messages.  This may be a preferable subscription for those who check their email infrequently.  I especially appeal to those who know us personally to consider the weekly list if frequency is a motive for unsubscribing. We are so thankful for the hundreds of people we have maintained contact with through the years who are on this list and would hate to lose contact!

The daily mailing and all the content of our website and other resources are offered as a ministry without any cost whatsoever. We do not have anything behind a "paywall". We do not use any advertising since, in our opinion, this would clutter and possibly confuse our message.

We merely rely on the Lord to provide for our needs and meet our family living expenses as well as the unique expenses of this ministry as He leads people, such as many of our readers, to support us. For any desiring information on support please see here. You can give online using a credit card, through PayPal and of course we receive checks.

We truly hope the daily encouragement devotional has been a blessing through 2024 and continues to be a blessing and source of spiritual strength and hope to each reader and listener in 2025! Our desire is that each of you are committed to Jesus Christ, that you stay faithful, and that you impact many others for Christ.

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we embark upon another year with Your guidance and presence in all that we undertake, all that we will endure, and all that we seek to accomplish. May we be mindful not of ourselves first, but of those who journey with us day after day. Let us be eager to encourage, ready to reach out, and faithful to fervently pray for our brothers and sisters.  Above all, keep us growing in Your grace and knowledge as we desire to glorify You in this new year of 2025.  In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.