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Sunday, June 02 2024
Wed 10-12 Bread Ministry
Sun Worship 10 Am live in person and on Zoom. Children's Church summer break begins. There will be activities for kids in the upstairs nursery (unsupervised)
* New member installation during service. (If interested talk to Pastor Don r Sarah)
* Discussion and vote for Fellowship Hall A/C
Sarah update:
Good evening Church family,
Here is some exciting news......
A Yay God moment - today following our worship service, I had the opportunity to speak with many of you that were in attendance. I was speaking with someone, who wishes to remain anonymous. They believe in what is happening within St Matthew's church families' lives and how God is moving and motivating us to reach out to Live and Love like Jesus to those around us, taking time to listen, and share the love of Jesus. As they shared this with me, they told me that they would like to make a $3000.00 donation towards the installation of the AC in Fellowship Hall.....so we, as a church family may continue to reach OUT and draw those in need IN.
So far to date, St Matthew's has been offered a $10,000 donation and now $3000 towards FH air conditioning installation. This means that the balance left for the installation is approximately $3000.
I would ask you to spend time this week, in conversation with our Lord, regarding this matter. Talk with our Lord, but may I also ask you to take time to Listen to His voice. Ask Him what He wants for St Matthew's.....ask Him to change your heart into seeing and understanding His will and Plan.
May you all enjoy the remainder of your Memorial weekend.
Enjoy.....
Blessings,
Sarah
Thank you God, for sending your Son, for giving of His life, for the greatest sacrifice, that we might be free.
((Pastor Don note) I think God is leading us and answering many prayers! What's He saying to you? Ask Him His plans for us and to raise up harvest workers and leaders as He brings in the harvest! Praise Him for the harvest and our servants! And His provision! Pray we follow His provision and His peace as we learn to go make disciples and live and love more like Jesus. God is on the move! )
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Good Morning Bringers of Peace! AMEN! Fill us with Your peace overflowing that we could bring Your peace, Your shalom, into all situations and to all those around us that need Your peace beyond understanding. Bring your promised comfort, peace and strength to those who are mourning. Bless all those fighting for our freedoms here and around the world with Your peace, wisdom and strength. Bless and provide for their families and may they know your peace. Be with our wounded warriors and vets and provide for their needs. May they know you and Your peace and our love and appreciation. May we never forget the sacrifice of Your Son and those like Him who laid down their lives for our freedoms. Thanks Lord! Amen!
I wasn't going to do a blog today as I enjoy the holiday off--BUT God! What great news we received yesterday as God continues to show us His provision and begins to reveal His plans for us and the use of the building! $13,000 in donations toward the $15,500. needed) PTL! for His provision! Ask Him to guide our voting Sun and to bring His plans alive for the summer and beyond. Check out this prayer and praise song, God is up to something! Pronounce it in prayer as you seek Him for guidance to your part in His Good News Delivery Co. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9VCyWKZLoA
TWFYT speak about the essence of leadership. Man I long to have God lead me as I lead us to His plans and will and to disciple making. I really appreciate their 2nd point about a leader takes others along. That is my passion. We are a team and need to move together to God's best plans and help each other through our struggles, discerning and serving. Who are you partnering with? Ask God who He has for you to lead into their promised land and make plans to do something about it.
Harvest prayer's blog is all about peace and following peace. The world needs to know the peace of Jesus! But so do many of us believers. Man Satan loves to twist us up in anxiety, unrest and weariness. And our own minds often keep us anxious and unpeaceful. breathe out that junk! Turn off the noise as you hand your anxious thoughts to God. Ask for His peace and help to dwell in it. Breathe in His promised peace and then ask how you can help others to know this gift of peace. Shalom=perfect peace. We can know that! Amen! If you are struggling what can you do? Who can you turn to? The Prince of Peace, Jesus! Do what 1Peter 5:6-11 reminds us, "humble yourself." Die to self, sacrifice anxiety and worry on the cross daily and follow the Prince of Peace to His promised rest. Reach out to someone for help too. Then stand firm in faith and help others too. Faith! Stand firm in faith! God is for us and with us! Know shalom!
TWFYT:
Harvest Blogs:
May 27 - Peace at All Times
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Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with all of you. (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
I love the various names given to Jesus in Scripture. The Lord of Peace is one of my favorite names. It speaks to his character as well as his mission. Jesus demonstrated peace consistently in his life. Then on the cross, he accomplished the greatest peace-giving mission on the planet by tearing down the dividing wall both between God and men and that which divides men from each other. His name, Lord of Peace, fits perfectly.
Paul takes this powerful name and makes it into a blessing for us to use, not only by accepting it into our own lives, but by sharing it with others. Before you begin to bless others, the first thing that must happen is accepting the Lord’s peace in a personal and practical way into your own life. What Jesus wants to give us is pervasive peace. Listen to how Paul says it: “give you peace at all times and in every way.” No exceptions to this gift. It’s not a matter of peace when we feel like it or when everything is going fine. It is peace at all times and in every way. That is what each of us may have if we accept the gift of peace from Christ.
Then we notice that the word “may” at the beginning makes this a blessing which we can then pray over others. Whom do you know who needs peace at all times in every way? Just about everyone you know?
We need to have the courage to speak this blessing over others. It is a gift of peace that should not be kept to ourselves. Giving this blessing doesn’t require you bow your head or close your eyes. Memorize it and speak it over those who need it. Perhaps you could simply write out a blessing of peace and send it to them by mail or email.
The key to this peace is found in the last sentence of this verse, “The Lord be with all of you.” It is the Lord’s presence that brings and assures peace. Perhaps one of the most powerful ways you can experience peace is simply to picture the Lord sitting with you. Allow the sense of his presence to change your emotions and feelings. This experience is not strange; you are simply acting on the truth of Scripture. Colossians 1:27 reminds us that Christ in us is the hope of glory. Spend time aware of his presence and watch his peace flow into you.
There are several biblical blessings of peace that my wife and I like to pray, but our favorite is what is often called the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
Each day, select someone who you might bless with peace. Whether you see him or her in person and can physically bless him/her, or you have to send the person a text or email, make sure you pass along the peace the Lord has given to you.
Lord Jesus, I thank you that your presence brings peace. You are my Lord of Peace and I gratefully receive your gift of peace at all times and in every way. Show me how to bless others with your peace.
--Adapted from Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God (A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus) by David Butts. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Glorify the Son of God as one who is worthy to receive all power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise (Rev. 5:12).
- Thank him for having given up all this to die on a cross in your place.
- Confess any times when you have put your own interests above those of God and others.
- Commit yourself to being a faithful disciple of Jesus, finding your life by losing it for him and the gospel (Mk. 8:35).
- Ask Jesus to help you understand what it means to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him.
- Pray that family and friends will be kept from a materialistic lifestyle that serves money rather than God (Luke 16:13).
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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ODB:
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When my friends Al and Kathy Schiffer flew their iconic, World War II–era airplane to airshows, it was the reactions of the elderly war veterans that meant the most to them. They would come by so they could talk about the wars they served in and the airplanes they flew. Most of their battle stories were told with tears in their eyes. Many have said that the best news they received while serving their country were the words, “The war is over, boys. It’s time to go home.”
These words from an earlier generation relate to the war believers in Jesus are engaged in—our good fight of faith against the devil, the enemy of our souls. The apostle Peter warned us: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” He tempts us in various ways and uses discouragement in suffering and persecution to try to draw us away from our faith in Jesus. Peter challenged his first readers and us today to “be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). We depend on the Holy Spirit so we won’t let the enemy cause us to surrender the fight and bring us down.
We know that one day Jesus will return. When He comes, His words will have an effect similar to that felt by wartime soldiers, bringing tears to our eyes and joy to our hearts: “The war is over, children. It’s time to go Home.”
By Anne Cetas
REFLECT & PRAY
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What help do you need from God to resist the devil’s schemes? How could your fellow believers help you?
Almighty God, You’re far greater than anyone or anything that stands against me. Please help me to rely on Your strength and power.
For further study, read Know the Enemy: Revealing Truths about Satan.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
What does the New Testament tell us about our “enemy the devil” (1 Peter 5:8)? First, it gives him a variety of names: “Satan,” which means “accuser” or “adversary” (Revelation 12:9-10); “Beelzebul, the prince of demons” (Matthew 12:24); “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4); “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2); “the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3); “the great dragon” (Revelation 12:9); and the “ancient serpent” (Revelation 20:2; see 2 Corinthians 11:3).
Second, Satan’s mission is “to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He’s opposed to God and seeks to drive a wedge between humans and God. Thus, he’s an especially dangerous foe to believers in Jesus. He hopes to tear down our confidence and trust in God and deter us from our mission of spreading the gospel. He also controls those opposed to God who resist the gospel.
Alyson Kieda |
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UR: Stand Firm
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you. - Luke 17:6 (NIV)
One day our pastor visited our home to read the Bible, share encouraging words, and pray. When he was about to leave, Lakshmi, our domestic helper who is of a different faith background, ran up to him and asked him to pray for her son who was suffering from shoulder pain. Her love for her son and her desire for his healing prompted her to approach boldly this man whom she perceived as a man of God. Our pastor consoled Lakshmi and prayed in her native language, and she was comforted and encouraged.
This reminded me of the story of the Canaanite woman who approached Jesus, pleading for her daughter who was possessed by a demon. Even though she did not know Jesus personally, her love for her child overcame any hesitation. Jesus applauded the Canaanite woman’s faith and taught us an important lesson: God’s grace and love are immeasurable and unconditional for all.
We can learn much about faith from the resilience of these women. We need not give up in times of suffering and pain. We can trust that God’s salvation is available to us all. And we can put our hope in God, who cares and loves beyond our comprehension.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Merciful God, thank you for protecting and sustaining us. Strengthen our faith so that we may walk obediently with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Sunday, June 02 2024
Good Morning Gifted, Pruned, Cloaked in the Armor, Bold, Witnesses! AMEN! We all have the God given potential to be all of these and more as we earnestly pursue Christ and His best! Yes and Amen! Please Lord! Which of these may you need to work on? Could that be a word you choose as part of the Become More in '24 Challenge? Are you casting all your anxiety on the Lord, putting on His armor and working on reaching your created potential? Are you a fruit producer? What kind of fruit are you producing? Is there someone or a group of close friends that you have given permission to speak truth into your life and work with to move towards, not only your potential, but the greater things God has for your group? These and many more questions are things I discuss with God about me and our Body. Am I helping everyone to discover and fulfill their created purposes? Am I shedding the ugly, the good and better for God's best and following Him as I lead us to His plans for us? How can I help everyone see the need and want to do the same? This thinking is constantly with me and part of everyday. There is no vacation from it. God is always speaking to my heart and leading me to His plans, even in dreams. Am I doing all God created me to do and doing it earnestly? Am I really living, loving, teaching, leading and making disciples like Jesus? It's a fine line to balance rest and work, vacation, reloading and staying connected, listening and following each day. It's really hard when I can almost taste all the good things God has for us and see our future potential beginning to bud. Waiting on the Lord can be very hard for us pioneers and apostles! But I recharge by being about God's business, God's way and sharing what he is revealing. Even during vacation, he speaks and leads me to write these when I am at home. He's also refreshing me as I clear my Donald's do list and not have to do my church jobs. He wanted to talk to all of us today about His future plans for us and each of you. So, here we go! What's He saying to you?
Part of all of this is realizing how God has been leading us each step of the way and drawing you along to His best plans. Think about the past few years as we followed God into all becoming part of His Good News Delivery Co and stepping into our custom made parts. Then we worked on Become Me in '23 with words we focused on to work on our potential. And He has begun to add to our fellowship as we step into our potential and connect to neighbors. PTL! We are currently in the Become More in '24 Challenge that God has led us to work on being about the more of Him and less of me approach to earnestly growing into the greater things He has for us. He has called us to live and love like Jesus and connect to neighbors and make disciples. That is enacting the Great Commandments and Great Commission as we work at doing it His way and becoming more like Jesus. How can we help each other with these? God has some amazing things for us to discover and work on as He answers our prayers to grow into a dynamic movement and disciple making hub. Are you getting any clues what He has planned or some things for you to work on and plan to help realize all of this? Please share them with us and let us commit to try some new things. If you haven't read the Bishop's address yet, please do (it was in yesterday's blog) and see how God is leading our denomination and how that is beginning to be contextualized through our Body. Maybe even hear from God some ideas He has for you and us to begin working on. More of Him and less of me! In this life, Christ is all that matters! Turn off the noise in and around you and recharge in Christ as you move towards your potential and help us to reach ours. God is always up to something new to connect to the current generations and He wants to use us as His vessels. Keep focused on Him and determined to follow well. I'm earnestly praying into that, for you and for His Kingdom to come, will be done and our fullest potential to be realized. Pray and plan and plan to go live and love like Jesus with me as we change the world with God's help.
Below are our devotionals for today. Can you see how they thread through all of this? I keep asking God to come speak, lead and write these blogs as He wants to prepare us to follow to His best. I often feel like I keep repeating the same things. BUT GOD! It's He that keeps revealing and leading us to work on these before He leads us to the next things. How are you doing with seeking and following? How can we help each other? Keep praying into that, donning His armor and surrendering to His will! He must have some great things for you and us to still work on with these things or He would have led us to something else. We are His masterpieces, gifted and empowered to go do the things He planned for us from long ago (Eph. 2:10). PTL! We are filled with His Light to go light up the darkness! Pursue Him, follow His peace and come change the world with me! Amen!
Let us not forget those who gave their all for our freedoms! Let us honor their memories by using our freedoms, while we still have them, to lead the world to Christ starting with our neighbors. Everything changed when Jesus showed up. Is He changing things as He shows up in you, through you? It can! Let us choose to live for Christ today! Amen!
UR: Full Potential
The God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you. - 1 Peter 5:10 (CEB)
Five years ago, I started a business buying run-down houses, repairing them, and reselling or “flipping” them. Many of these homes are in terrible shape — deteriorating and falling apart. Most of them have severe water damage, resulting in harmful black mold growing inside them. The water damage is most often caused by holes in the roof or cracks in the foundation. When choosing a property to flip, however, my business partner and I look past the damage to see the home’s potential.
Similarly, God sees the potential in us. When we are broken down, God builds us back up so we can shine. Just as a strong roof protects a home, God guides and protects us in all the stormy times we may face. Reading and learning from the Bible helps to strengthen our foundation as Christians. As our faith and knowledge grow, we are transformed, allowing us to live up to the full potential God sees in us.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Loving Father, help us remember that no matter how damaged we are, you can restore us. Thank you for guiding and helping us to achieve the full potential you see in us. Amen.
CS:
TWFYT:
ODB:
My college friend Bill Tobias has served as a missionary on a Pacific island for many years. He tells the story about a young man who left his hometown to seek his fortune. But a friend took him to church where he heard the good news Jesus offers, and he trusted Christ as his Savior.
The young man wanted to take the gospel to his people who were “steeped in sorcery,” so he looked for a missionary to reach them. But the missionary told him to simply “go tell them what God did for you” (see Mark 5:19). And that’s what he did. Several people in his hometown received Jesus, but the biggest breakthrough came when the town’s witch doctor realized that Christ was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). After he put his faith in Jesus, he told the whole town about Him. Within four years, the witness of one young man had led to the establishment of seven churches in the region.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul sets forth a clear plan for introducing the gospel to those who don’t yet know Christ—and it aligns with what that missionary told the young believer in Jesus. We are to be “Christ’s ambassadors”—His representatives “as though God were making his appeal through us” (5:20). Every believer has a unique story to tell of how Jesus made them “a new creation . . . who reconciled” them to God (vv. 17-18 nasb). Let’s tell others what He’s done for us.
By Dave Branon
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What does salvation in Jesus mean to you? How can you be better prepared to share your story with others?
Dear God, please help me share my faith story with others.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is described in Acts 9. One of the ways the apostle talks about his conversion is that he once regarded Christ “from a worldly point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16). This would include the Messiah offering salvation to the gentiles; coming as a servant, not a king; and dying a criminal’s death at the hand of religious leaders. Viewing Christ from a worldly perspective still happens today when He’s viewed as merely a good man or moral teacher but not as Savior and God Himself.
J.R. Hudberg |
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Harvest Blogs:
May 25 - The Flag of Christ
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When we are confronted by temptations, we have the ability to pray directly against the Enemy’s onslaught. We often call these “Spiritual Warfare” prayers.
Imagine a high cliff. On the top of the cliff is a plateau that represents the ground of our lives. It is subdivided into sections. One plot is our mental life, another our emotional life. One section of that land represents our financial life; another our relationships and on and on. Every area of our life is represented.
Before we came to faith in Christ, Satan’s flag was flying over that ground. We don’t like to think about it, but Paul describes our lives B.C. (before Christ) in stark terms.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
When we came to Christ, we were transferred from “the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.” We surrendered our life to Christ and gave Him the title deed. The flag of Christ now flies over the land of our lives and Satan’s ultimate rule is forever broken. We no longer belong to him.
But the Enemy does not give up easily. He comes crawling up the side of the cliff, peers over into our life and says, “I want to take back some of this land so this believer will not be a strong witness for Christ. I know I can’t own him anymore, but I’m going to tempt him to give up some ground to me so his life will not be a testimony to Christ.” He begins his subtle deceptions and temptations. He tempts us to look to our possessions to give us life, or to fall into moral sin, or to be proud, or angry, or prayerless. If we are not wise, we take his bait and relinquish areas to his control.
Heavenly Father, please help me to remember to put on Your spiritual armor and to clothe myself with Christ Jesus daily. I want to be continually aware of the battle raging around me so that I do not fall prey to Satan’s schemes against me. Help me to stay awake and alert and ready to do battle at a moment’s notice when temptation comes my way. I want the flag of Jesus to fly over every minute of my life!
---Adapted from Simply Prayer by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Give praise to God as the Comforter, who feels deeply for those who have been mistreated and abandoned (Isa. 49:13).
- Thank him for calling many believers into compassionate ministries for the sake of those who are suffering.
- Confess those times when you may have withheld comfort from others who needed it.
- Commit yourself to receiving God’s encouragement and grace each morning and allowing that to flow through you to others.
- Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his love, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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Friday, May 24 2024
Thank God I'm Forgiven! PTL! What are you thankful about for your salvation and growth to Christlikeness? Praise the Lord! Worship and choose to live your life as a thank offering--a sacrifice of praise poured out in gratitude. Amen! Help me/us to live like that Lord and always be filled with much gratitude, thanksgiving, praise and joy in our salvation! Amen!
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Gatherings:
Sun 10 am Worship with Children's Church (last one for the summer) 10am and on Zoom too.
Wed. 10-12 Bread Ministry
Sun. June 2nd 10 am Worship (there will be some activities for the kiddos in the upstairs nursery. Pray for our Children's Church workers to recharge during our summer break and for God to raise up some new teachers and helpers for the fall.) This service will also include new member installation and a vote on the Fellowship Hall air conditioning motion.
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Happy Friday Friends! May the joy of the Lord fill you to overflowing today!
I had no intention of blogging today, BUT GOD! It's been a great week of work, rest, renewal, deliverance from sickness and weariness, and worship! PTL! God has really been speaking to my heart this week and affirming much of what He has been leading me to as I pray to lead you with His heart and mind to His perfect plans for you and us (and me too)! God does really have great plans for you and us! Do you know what they are? Are you being pinched to respond? Is there someone you are, not only processing with, but planning and beginning to do what God is reveling? I can testify of the soul satisfaction and excitement that comes as we are being used by God, just as He planned for us long ago! Do you have any stories to share about that?
God threaded our devos through all He has been revealing to me, even for the past few years, as I try to lead you and our church to revival and to becoming a dynamic movement of God. Check out the devos below. What's God saying to you? Are you hearing echoes of what God has been saying to us and leading us to? (TWFYT) Where may you be resisting and how can we help each other to overcome obstacles to God's plans and best? Don't be afraid or shrink back in fear! God is with you and has plans just for you! PTL! Are you feeling like He's punishing you? (UR) Some feel like that every time something goes wrong and some never think about it. God will correct but ALWAYS in love! Seek Him and His Kingdom first and all things will fall into place as He leads and even redeems the years the locust has stolen. Amen! Romans 12:12 (ODB) is one of my life verses, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer." We can choose joy, patiently endure and remain faithful in prayer. Work at that and it will grow to be part of your nature and natural response to difficulties, corrections, and God's leading. PTL!
All of this ties to our Bishop's challenge to us to keep working at becoming a dynamic movement of God that God created us, our churches and denomination to be. I've been following the National Conference (Kathy will update us in a couple pf weeks). God is moving and He is leading us to His new things for us and towards growing as that dynamic movement. PTL! They had video issues so I included a link to his episcopal address below in print. It is awesome and filled with much affirmation for how God has been leading, or wanting to lead us, and for His plans for us over the next few months and years! It reminds how far we have to go yet in that process too. Please prayerfully read it over this weekend and next week. We will be discussing it June 2nd. (No quizzes but you will be asked to share your thoughts and assess our progress and hindrances). The Bishop reminds us that we have two choices before us: Surrender to God and allow Him to lead us to His plans for us and His Kingdom, or say "No thanks! I am okay with just finishing out my days." We are challenged to seek God, process together, make His plans that are custom made for us, go make disciples as we pioneer into His future. It's sowing lavishly and continuing to water and fertilize each step of the way. It's moving from stagnation, through addition to multiplying disciple making disciples. It will take trying all kinds of new things and investing in reaching others and making disciples. That is really what Jesus began and it has continued through the apostles, early church and so many others through the years. God has a custom part for each of us. PTL! What joy as we step into our anointing and celebrate all that God is and will do. Let us commit to pray earnestly into this and for God's heart and mind to be all about Him and His business! Amen!
When I return from vacation we will be gathering some small groups to pray, process, plan and to begin pioneering into the future God has planned for us. Pray about your involvement. Ask God to give us dreams and visions of His plans and the heart and willingness to follow Him well as we die to self, take up cross daily and follow Jesus. We can change the world. That usually happens one soul at a time. Who is God preparing for you? Let us agree and commit to earnestly working at becoming the dynamic movement of God that He created us to be! May we earnestly work at living, loving, teaching, leading and making disciples more like Jesus! As we do, His will will be done and His Kingdom will come alive all around us! Amen! I am so excited! I know we are moving towards our potential and God is sending in the harvest and provision, including harvest working pioneers (Y-O-U!). Amen!
TWFYT:
UR: Patience and Perseverance
Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. - Romans 12:12 (NRSVUE)
After completing my secondary-level education, I was unable to meet the requirement for college courses. After being at home for a year, a distant cousin told me I could find work in the city where many companies offered good pay; some would even pay for further study or professional training. My cousin said he could provide food and housing. With high hopes I went to the city with what little money I had.
After two months, however, I was still searching for a job. The house where we stayed had no proper light or water. It was crowded, and sometimes we had no food to eat.
Some days I felt bitter, angry, or filled with self-pity. Other days, I would tell myself to be patient and keep looking for opportunities. I prayed that God would make a way. Eventually I accepted my struggles and determined to be patient, though it was not easy.
Finally, after one year and six months I joined a construction company as a day worker, then as a driver, and then as a section supervisor with some study privileges. This experience taught me how to live out today’s scripture: “Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer.”
TODAY'S PRAYER
Lord Jesus, grant us patience in our struggles, and help us to remember your faithfulness to us. Amen.
ODB:
In his parable The Wise Woman, George MacDonald tells the story of two girls, whose selfishness brings misery to all, including themselves, until a wise woman puts them through a series of tests to help them become “lovely” again.
After the girls fail each test and suffer shame and isolation, one of them, Rosamond, finally realizes she can’t change herself. “Couldn’t you help me?” she asks the wise woman. “Perhaps I could,” the woman replied, “now that you ask me.” And with the divine help symbolized by the wise woman, Rosamond begins to change. She then asks if the woman would forgive all the trouble she’s caused. “If I had not forgiven you,” the woman says, “I would never have taken the trouble to punish you.”
There are times when God disciplines us. It’s important to understand why. His correction isn’t driven by retribution but by a fatherly concern for our welfare (Hebrews 12:6). He also desires that we may “share in his holiness,” enjoying a harvest of “righteousness and peace” (vv. 10-11). Selfishness brings misery, but holiness makes us whole, joyful, and “lovely” like Him.
Rosamond asks the wise woman how she can love a selfish girl like her. Stooping to kiss her, the woman replies, “I saw what you were going to be.” God’s correction too comes with love and a desire to make us who we’re meant to be.
By Sheridan Voysey
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How have you understood God’s discipline in the past? How might He have disciplined you recently in order to make you more lovely?
Father God, thank You for Your correction, as painful as it can be. You bring it for my good.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The writer of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12 in the explanation of God’s loving discipline (Hebrews 12:5-6). Proverbs 3 is well known for verses 5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
When we’re going through difficult experiences, it can be easy to think that we don’t deserve them, and that God has stepped into our lives just to discipline us. But the context of Proverbs 3 paints a picture of walking alongside our heavenly Father. Sometimes, like wandering children, we stray from God’s side, especially when we trust in our own understanding. His discipline brings us back—not just to correct behavior but to a close relationship with Him. Our kind Father loves us and wants us on the right path. After all, that’s where He is too.
Jed Ostoich |
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Harvest Blogs:
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“You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (2 Chronicles 1:8-10)
Of all the things he could have asked for, Solomon chose something that pleased God. And God said to Solomon,
“Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” (verses 11-12)
Solomon became the richest, most powerful, most successful king in Israel’s history. He was world renowned for his wisdom. An interesting side note to this prayer: though God didn’t mention this, Solomon was also the only king in Israel’s history who enjoyed peace throughout his reign. How’s that for blessing!
Lord, may every prayer I pray be one that pleases You and brings You glory! Help me to seek after the things You desire to bless me with and to grow me in. I want to always pray “Your will be done” rather than my own, even though this is so difficult sometimes. Help me to hear clearly from Your Holy Spirit so that I am able to pray what You want to accomplish in and through my life.
--Adapted from The Power of Personal Prayer (Learning to Pray with Faith and Purpose) by Jonathan Graf. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise God as the Rock, your stronghold and fortress (Ps. 144:1-2).
- Thank him for being a solid foundation on which to stand spiritually, so that nothing can shake you (Mt. 7:24-25).
- Confess those times in your life when you have stepped off the rock solid foundation of God’s Word and relied on your own understanding.
- Commit yourself to building your life on Christ’s teachings. Ask God to help you plant your feet firmly in his Word each day.
- Pray for the devotional times of the families that you know, that regular times of prayer and Bible reading will help bond family members to each other and to God.
- Pray that your single friends may find a group of spiritual brothers and sisters to do this with as well.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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Bishop's Episcopal Address: Click link and prayerfully engage with this. It is God's plans for us!
Don 
Friday, May 24 2024
Thanks for praying for Karen and me! We had a healthy, fun day celebrating her birthday! Pray for us as we transition back to work today. Thanks! We appreciate and feel your prayers! He leads us beside streams of Living Water! Amen!
Good Morning Attached to and Rooted in Christ Prayer Warriors! "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends." (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) Yes I'm on vacation; BUT GOD! He awoke me early, speaking to my heart about the words we say and the importance of agreeing with Him and pronouncing His truth and blessings over ourselves, others, situations and in powerful praying. So pronounce the truth of this salutation over yourself and our church and even your role in God's Good News Delivery Company: I am always attached to and sinking my roots deep into Christ, the True Vine, My Source of Life, Who is producing good fruit in me and through my powerful prayers and actions. Amen! Now believe it and live as if it's true! You are His masterpiece! You matter! You have great potential! You are a fruit producer in the way of Jesus! You are His, living for His glory! PTL! and AMEN!
Too often we get bound up in our, or our perceived, faults and inabilities. Stop it and turn off that noise! You are a very loved, known, forgiven, connected, masterpiece with many purposes to discover and accomplish. Pronounce and receive that today! Are you a sinner and unworthy? Sure; BUT GOD! What amazing love and grace we know! As we come to God with right hearts and sink our roots deep into Him through time in His Word and prayer, we grow in relationship, strength, ability and His power to do all He has for us. PTL! Abide! And prepare to flourish! Do we make mistakes? Every day! (well at least that's me) BUT GOD! He redeems. I had a boss tell me once, "There's no such thing as a stupid mistake, unless you make it a second time. Mistakes prove you are trying things." We are not God nor even close to perfect. We will mess up. That's ok. Get back at it. You are not disqualified.
Maybe you find yourself, caught by the bait of Satan, overflowing with bitterness directed to God, at others and maybe even your choices. Satan seeks to get you all bound up in bitterness. Can you remember the times you shook your fist at God in anger? It is often one of the stages of deep grief. Check out the Psalms, and their truthful assessments that turn to trust and praise and worship through all kinds of difficulties. Invite God into your pain. He knows, cares and promises to comfort and bring you strength to carry on. Eventually you start to crawl out of the dark pit and into your loving Saviors arms. He knows and is with you--always. Try to have that stored up in your brain and remember, no matter what, He is at work and will restore.
Yes God is speaking to me this morning and maybe to you as well. What are you hearing, learning, applying as you abide in Him? Process that with someone. And keep moving forward in Christ and towards your fullest potential and His greater things. Choose joy too! And His shalom will overwhelm and overflow from you. Amen! (I will probably not be blogging through the weekend. But don't be surprised if God has other plans or speaks to you in my time off. I am staying attached and praying for you and pronouncing God's favor and for will to be done through our Body. He's always busy. Are you always working from rest as you move from abiding to good and lasting fruit production? OK, time for a nap! Shalom!
Upper Room: Staying Rooted
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:5 (NIV)
One summer, I planted a young tomato plant and placed a cage around it for protection. But the following morning, I found that deer had eaten all its leaves. It stood like a skeleton in the cage.
I decided to continue watering and caring for the plant since its roots were still intact in the soil. After many weeks, new leaves began to sprout. Eventually, the plant produced many delicious tomatoes.
That plant’s transformation from stark and skeletal to lush and fruitful reminded me of the power of staying rooted in God’s word. Having strong roots and being nurtured helped the plant to grow and produce bountifully.
This is just what Jesus taught about in today’s scripture reading. When we remain connected to Jesus, we will bear much fruit. We can choose to nourish our roots in the soil of God’s word and stay connected to the branch of Christ. Doing so enables us to endure and flourish through devastating experiences.
Daily time spent reading scripture, praying, and in devotion and meditation helps us to maintain and nourish our roots. Even when life breaks us down, our ties to the Lord continue to nurture our growth.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Gracious God, help us to stay grounded in you even when the distractions of this world threaten to uproot us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Harvest Prayer Blogs:
May 23 - Abiding in Jesus
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In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. (Hebrews 5:7)
Does God hear everyone's prayer? Surely, as an all-knowing God, He is capable of hearing everyone. But, apparently there are some prayers to which He gives lesser attention. Jesus, our ultimate example, was always heard by His Father, and the writer of Hebrews tells us why.
There are some conditions to prayer. One is desperation with the humility that is borne out of our recognition of need. But further, God hears and answers the prayers of those who are willing to humbly obey as He instructs. Why would He answer our prayers if He knows we have no intention of obeying Him?
Jesus was heard “because of his piety.” We do not, and cannot, be sinless like Christ. But there should be in us a heart’s disposition to follow Him as faithfully as we can by His grace.
For instance, let's say your son not only wants a car, but he needs a car for transportation and he asks you for this provision. But, he has repeatedly violated the use of your car each time it has been entrusted to him. And he openly tells you that if he gets a car, he will use it to speed, go places where he should not go, and do things you know are harmful to him. Would you answer his pleas for a car? To do so would be less than loving. Further, to wisely withhold the provision would potentially create a desire for the car that is so great it might lead him to humbly submit to your directives about its use.
Andrew Murray, in “The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer” said, “Why are there such numberless unanswered prayers? … Christ taught us that the answer depended upon certain conditions. He spoke of faith, of perseverance, of praying in His Name, of praying the will of God. But all of these conditions were summed up in the one central one: ‘If you abide in Me, ask whatsoever you will and it shall be done unto you.’ It became clear that the power to pray the effectual prayer of faith depended upon the life. It is only to a person given up living as entirely in Christ and for Christ as the branch in the vine and for the vine, that these promises can come true.”
Father, how I long to come to You as one who is filled with humility, who longs to be obedient in all things, and who always intends to stay attached to the Vine! Yet, I am not always this person. Would You give me a deeper longing to be someone whose effectual prayer of faith is always marked by the deepest longing of my heart? I want to live in and for Jesus and to pray with a depth of persistence that can only come with the greatest desire for all that You are!
---Adapted from Prayer with No Intermission by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Praise God as the provider and sustainer of all things (Ps. 145:15-16).
- Give thanks for the tenderness and the care that the Lord gives to the creatures that he has made (145:8-9).
- Confess those times this past week when you have forgotten to look on other people or other parts of God’s world with the same love that is in God’s heart.
- Commit yourself to treating others with the same compassion as God does.
- Ask God to fill your heart with his care, concern, and tenderness.
- Pray for families in which the parents are too busy to really listen and respond to their children’s needs. Ask God to help them set their priorities in line with his will for their families.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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The Word for You Today:
Charles Stanley: Two days of causes for unanswered prayers and wrong thinking
Our Daily Bread: Reminder that we can see and find God in His creation and through His Word. Redirect! Reconnect! Abide! Thrive! God is speaking and longing to connect to you--always!
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Alex Smalley wants everyone to wake up earlier—or perhaps pause more at day’s end. Why? To gaze at sunrises and sunsets. Those fleeting moments are the most beautiful, awe-inspiring times of the day, according to Smalley, the lead researcher of a British study on awe-inducing weather effects. Even more than blue skies or glittering nightscapes, a stunning sunrise or sunset can improve mood, increase positive emotions, and decrease stress. Smalley says, “When you see something vast and overwhelming or something that produces this feeling of awe, your own problems can feel diminished and so you don’t worry so much about them.”
His findings on wonder echo those of the prophet Jeremiah: “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
King David also beheld God’s creation, declaring, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2). As for the sun, “It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth” (v. 6). God’s glorious creation reflects the all-powerful Creator. Why not take time today to look to the skies and marvel in Him!
By Patricia Raybon
REFLECT & PRAY
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Where is your favorite place to view a sunrise or sunset? When you behold the heavens, what do you discover about God?
In Your glorious heavens, Father, You show me the wonder of Your power.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Psalm 19:1-6 is David’s ode to God as Creator. In the verses that follow, however, his focus shifts to how he views the Scriptures (vv. 7-13). This abrupt shift has caused some scholars to question if these are two separate psalms. But God revealed Himself both in creation and in the Scriptures and both are powerful expressions of who He is. Theologians refer to these two ideas as general revelation (creation) and special revelation (Scripture). They describe how God makes Himself known—but the ultimate revelation of Himself is in Christ, the living Word. As Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” The author of Hebrews describes Jesus as “the exact representation of [God’s] being” (v. 3).
Bill Crowder |
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Friday, May 24 2024
Good Morning Filled with the Holy Spirit and Potential, Servants--Masterpieces of God! Now there's a great place to begin your worship this morning! You are filled with the Holy Spirit as a seal or guarantee that you belong to God because of your faith in Jesus. You are God's masterpiece, created with potential that is now activated because you have been made new in Christ. And that Holy Spirit has come to seal, and help you and He came with gifts custom tweaked for you to help you reach your potential. WOW! Right? The Word for You Today triggered this all with their Eph. 2:10 teaching and prayers. Do you realize how much you matter to God? Oh how He loves us! Amen! And as we dwell in His loving presence, He speaks to our souls and we can hear Him singing blessings over us. He affirms us and reminds us of our purposes He created, has enabled and will empower us to complete. As we do, we grow into our fuller potential in Christ and glorify God! Hallowed be His holy name! Amen! Be Me in '23 and Become More in '24 are all about being the people God created you to be and earnestly seeking Him for more this year and beyond. He has some amazing plans for you to discover and do! Amen!
I am so blessed and honored to be part of what God is doing in and through our Body! We are populated with prayer warriors, servants growing into potentials, and worshipers that are fulfilling their purposes and glorify God! You guys are doing what you are created to do for such a time as this! You are God's Hands and Feet doing what you can with what you've been blessed with and to do as The Upper Room discusses today. You allow God to stretch you and love through you as you seek to live and love more like Jesus. Our church is bucking the trends and a lighthouse to those being drawn by God and a beacon for struggling churches too. Thank you all for stepping into your roles as part of God's Good News Delivery Company and your created potential! You matter and have purpose and God is with you and using you! Thank you! And thank God for leading and using us! Your Kingdom Come and will be done! Amen
Charles Stanley reminds us of hindrances we can place upon ourselves as we often view ourselves unworthy of God's presence and His speaking to and leading us. We sometimes ask, "Why would He use a sinner like me?" Well, fact is that we are unworthy and deserving punishment and Hell. We all are sinners doomed to Hell. BUT GOD! He created you, knows, and still loves you enough to run to you with His forgiving, restoring, transforming love. PTL! He accepts you just as you are and longs to lead you to your fullest created potential with patient love! Now that should just lead to some worship and affirmation! You matter--ALWAYS! And are always loved! There are so many people around you that need to hear and come to believe this Good News! Talk to God about your part and process and plan with some friends. Then go, just as you are and love like Jesus--like you are loved. Amen
Our Daily Bread carries on this theme about forgiving yourself and forgetting the past. They remind us that God is the God of the present and your and our future too. Sure build on your past and don't allow Satan or your old nature to drag you back to living, if that's what you can even call it, in your past. God's always up to doing something new! Get your eyes out of the rearview mirror and look with anticipation out the windshield of the future God has for you and us. The Bible ask if we can see the new things that God is doing. Are you looking ahead with anticipation, expectation and thanksgiving in prayer and choices? Let's face it, times are hard and very hard for some of us. Things look bleak. BUT GOD! He is with you always and wanting to transform you and situations. Will you receive His loving help and redirection? Read and meditate on the Jeremiah passage today. He has great plans for you, just like for the Israelites. Yet they chose to keep sinning and distancing themselves from Him and they paid the price of captivity. But, when the time was right, He rescued and restored them. Is He stretching you? Are you obeying and choosing well? He does have great plans for you and for good! Choose well, my friends. He really loves you and longs for you to choose His best. You can know true joy in Christ and the satisfaction of living for Christ well.
Yesterday we discussed the folly and sin of many churches and denominations today that are like the Israelites that were sent to captivity. God's judgment is promised and on its way. Will He find you faithful and being about His business and continuing to work at becoming more like Jesus? That is my prayer! That me, you and our Body stand firm, live for Christ, found faithful and become world changers. May it be so Lord! Thank You for creating us for such a time as this and preparing and using your faithful servants. May that be us! Come! Fill us! Mold us! Use us! Change the world and bring revival! Glorify Your holy name! Amen! I included yesterday's Harvest prayer blog that ties all this together! Always remember that God loves you, is with you, for you, providing and protecting and cheering you on! Amen! You have a future and a hope and you matter! Rejoice! You are created for such a time as this and for completing the race God has for you well. Amen! Worship and choose to live and love more and more like Jesus! God is enlarging our territory in response to our prayers and choices. He's using unlikely people like us because of our good choices. Salvation, revival and God honoring great fruit are budding! PTL!
TWFYT:
UR: Hands and Feet
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. - Colossians 3:23 (NIV)
Scripture tells us that we are to be the hands and feet of Christ. In the parable of the good Samaritan, who cared for a stranger alongside the road, Jesus shows us what it means to serve others. The Samaritan helped the man in several ways by tending to him physically as well as paying for the cost of his care. The Samaritan could have walked right by the man, just as others before him had done. But the Samaritan stopped and cared for the man.
How are we being called to help others today? Perhaps a neighbor needs help mowing their lawn or shoveling snow. Maybe a stranger alongside the road needs a meal. We can befriend someone who is lonely or volunteer when no one else is able or willing. We can give financially to meet a need. Each of us may be inspired to help serve in different ways. Let us all be alert for opportunities to serve as Christ’s hands and feet.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear Jesus, thank you for showing us how to be your presence to others. Bless those we serve in your name. Amen.CS:
ODB:
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It had been years since we left the Oregon town where we raised our family. We’d made great memories there, and the recent visit reminded me of moments I’d forgotten: our girls’ soccer games, our old home, church gatherings, and our friends’ Mexican restaurant. The town had changed, but there was enough of the familiar to spark my desire to return for a visit.
When the Israelites went into exile in Babylon, they missed the familiarity of people, landmarks, and culture. They forgot they’d been exiled for rebelling against God. When false prophets told the exiles they’d return home within two years (Jeremiah 28:2-4; 29:8-9), they found a receptive audience. It was easy to listen to the slick words of false prophets who promised a return home soon.
God didn’t take kindly to these peddlers of the past and their false promises. “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you,” He said (29:8). He had plans for His people, “plans to give [them] hope and a future” (v. 11). The situation was challenging, difficult, and new, but God was with them. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” He told them (v. 13). God would bring them “back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (v. 14), but in His timing.
Nostalgia plays tricks on the mind, making it easy to long for what once was. Don’t miss what God is doing right now. He will fulfill His promises.
By Matt Lucas
REFLECT & PRAY
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What difficulty are you facing today? How is God showing Himself faithful?
Father, may I continue to look for You in the present and not long for the past.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The prophet Jeremiah ministered during the reign of Judah’s last five kings: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoichin, and Zedekiah (about 640–586 bc). This was a time when false prophets abounded. Jeremiah foretold doom to the unrepentant nation, while his contemporaries assured the people of peace. These false prophets prophesied lies in God’s name. Yet God had “not sent them or appointed them” (Jeremiah 14:14). They spoke “visions from their own minds” (23:16), saying what the people longed to hear (see 2 Timothy 4:3). Jeremiah passionately delivered God’s message despite suffering greatly for it. He was thrown into prison (ch. 37) and a cistern or well (ch. 38). He was rejected by his family, friends, neighbors, false priests and prophets, and kings. Because the people didn’t listen to God’s words to turn back to Him, spoken through Jeremiah, they were captured by the Babylonians in 586 bc and were exiled for seventy years.
Alyson Kieda |
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Harvest Blog (Sun)
May 19 - Is God Enlarging Your Territory?
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One of the keys to prayers of petition is learning what to ask God. Petition can move into the realm of selfishness very quickly if all we ask for are material things beyond our basic needs. It’s one thing to pray for the necessary money to cover the repairs on your only car; it’s quite another to ask that you win the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.
One of the most interesting individuals in Scripture was a man named Jabez. We know absolutely nothing about him other than what is told in two verses in 1 Chronicles. What makes this intriguing is that these two verses stand out in nine chapters of solid genealogy—“The descendants of Judah: Perez, Hezron, Carmi” and so on (1 Chronicles 4:1). Tucked in between are these words:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (verses 9-10)
Why on earth would God interrupt these genealogies with a brief picture of this obscure man? That’s a good question. The Navigators prayer coordinator Lee Brase always insists on asking that question. He believes we need to look closely at the praying people in the Bible “because the prayers in the Bible represent a wide variety of prayers and fit most any situation. God has chosen to record them for us. When we look at them we need to consider what was intended when they were originally written, and why did God keep them for us today?”
God was obviously pleased with Jabez’s prayer. Pleased enough to make him stand out, to include him as an example for the centuries to come. “Bless me and enlarge my territory,” was Jabez’s request. Seems selfish. “I want more money, more power; I want to be someone.” But that wasn’t it. Jabez simply wanted to count for God. He wanted everything God had for him.
In his best-selling book on Jabez (that’s right, an entire book on these two verses!), Dr. Bruce Wilkinson says, “To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for or to impart supernatural favor. When we ask for God’s blessing, we’re not asking for more of what we could get for ourselves. We’re crying out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness that only God has the power to know about or give to us.”
There’s nothing wrong with praying for that kind of blessing in our lives. God loves that kind of faith and trust. “When we seek God’s blessing as the ultimate value in life,” writes Wilkinson, “we are throwing ourselves entirely into the river of His will and power and purposes for us. All our other needs become secondary to what we really want—which is to become wholly immersed in what God is trying to do in us, through us, and around us for His glory.”
So God takes pleasure in our asking for that kind of blessing. Enough pleasure that He put Jabez’s short prayer in Scripture for us to model. “We have God’s permission to pray this way,” writes Todd Gaddis. “In fact, we have His invitation. The imprisoned prophet Jeremiah received a challenge to do so from the Lord: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ . . . It’s worth considering: What blessings might be eluding you simply because you haven’t asked?”
So when you petition God, ask for spiritual blessing. Ask for God’s best for you. Ask to have your territory enlarged.
Lord God Almighty, may I never be guilty of not asking! I ask You for spiritual blessing! Enlarge my territory Father! Deepen my faith and trust so that I am able to ask with a fresh depth of believing You are able to do beyond all I could ever think or imagine!
--Adapted from The Power of Personal Prayer (Learning to Pray with Faith and Purpose) by Jonathan Graf. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise the Lord, “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6).
- Thank God that you have been forgiven of all your sins because of Jesus’ work for you.
- Confess in detail your sins, asking for a greater awareness of sin in your life.
- Commit yourself to putting on “the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24).
- Ask “to be made new in the attitude of your [mind]” (Eph. 4:23).
- Pray that no animosities or rivalries will be at home in your congregation, and that your congregation will experience peace and wholeness. Ask that you and your fellow Christians will prize the healthy relationships which you have with each other.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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Friday, May 24 2024
Wagner's News below. (They visit us Sunday)
Pastor Don will be on vacation the next few days and a few days next week. Pray for Sarah as she covers for him. Blogs will be hit and miss next two weeks.
Good Morning Abiding, Choosing Well, Fruit Producers! Amen! Are you choosing well? Are you resting, abiding, dwelling in God's loving, restoring, informing presence? Are you working from rest or having no choice but to rest from work? God desires health for us-physical, emotional, financial and spiritual. He has healthy rhythms that lead to that and begin as we still ourselves and abide in His presence. Are you choosing well? I'm including today's and tomorrow's Charles Stanley devotions that speak into good choices and what God desires and enables in us. Be still and know and go live as an act of worship and obedience. Even when on vacation, Karen and I never neglect our quiet time with God. Sometimes in our busyness we need a reminder to slow down and abide. Please pray for us to realize that before God has to step in. Karen and have been sick the past two days. I don't think it's a result of over-busyness, just a stomach bug. However, we have chosen well to slow down and abide instead of pushing through busyness to get our agendas accomplished before vacation tomorrow. Appreciate prayers for good health and a fun day off for Karen's birthday tomorrow. Please pray I endure the heat well and bless her during our trip to Longwood. Thanks!
The Upper Room (below) reminds us that God will take care of us and promises to meet our needs. The question is, do we believe that and live as if it's true? Sometimes we have to catch ourselves when in the storms of life and turn to God by praising and worshiping. Are you humbling yourself and bowing before God as you recount all your many blessings? Keep building and using those gratitude list. Keep asking to be able to redirect your thinking and renewing your mind quicker by praising when storms begin. God will answer that prayer as you take every thought captive before Him and still yourself at His feet. Amen
The Word for You Today continues our teaching from Sunday and ties to today, Do you see the tie? Keep a clear conscience by listening to and obeying God and all those little Holy Spirit promptings along the way. Make sure your conscience is connected to God's heart by spending time with Him daily and make sure you are not chasing your own foolish ways. Turn off the noise and tune into God as you open His Word prayerfully and allow Him to inform your choices. Amen! Redirect. Abide. Reload. Then go.
I end with Dave Butts blog on the Lord's prayer. I noticed God drawing Sarah to use that Sunday and He's been leading me to it the past few weeks. It's a great model for how to pray and as we activate God's plans and bring His will alive in prayer and through our obedience. Come Jesus Come! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UViC6DllCeA
Abide as you prepare and follow, restore and regroup before the next move of God. See you soon! Shalom! God is with you and has great plans to discover that begin as you spend time at His feet. Amen! Come Jesus Come! Lead us to Your best ways and use us for Your glory. Amen!
CS: (2 days)
UR: Like A Bird
I know every mountain bird; even the insects in the fields are mine. - Psalm 50:11 (CEB)
When I suddenly became unemployed, I had no source of income and no immediate prospects. I watched my savings shrink and my dreams disappear. I sank into overwhelming debt. I would lie awake at night while visions of bills paraded through my mind.
One morning, I glanced bleary-eyed out the window where a tiny bird sang its cheery song then flitted on its way into the wind and rain. I marveled that such a delicate creature could sing and keep busy in spite of the perilous weather. “Let me be like that little bird, Lord,” I whispered, “who praises you in the midst of trouble.” Slowly my blessings filled my mind. I bowed my head to thank God for all I had. I realized worrying wasn’t improving my situation. Like the birds, I needed to keep moving, keep busy, and praise God for watching over me and working in my life.
Inspired by the bird, I kept my focus on praising God rather than allowing worry to keep me from worship. I didn’t want to waste my life worrying about my financial state when I could be living my life for God. I took action to change my outlook. I talked to my pastor about doing volunteer work instead of giving money. Financial help slowly came, but those days gave me wealth in new friends, new skills, and a stronger faith in God.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear Father, show us how to praise you with our hearts and actions each day. Amen.TWFYT
Dave's Blog
BRINGING HEAVEN TO EARTH
by Dave Butts
No matter how long I teach on prayer, I don’t think I’ll ever plumb the depths of the teaching of Jesus on prayer through what we call The Lord’s Prayer. In its simplicity it is packed with practical guidance for effective prayer. I believe that the focus of this prayer is the heart of Jesus’ other teaching as well…the Kingdom. Jesus’ lifestyle and teaching focused on the Kingdom of God. So it shouldn’t surprise us that when he teaches on prayer, he points us to pray about the Kingdom.
“Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Those simple, familiar words should both motivate and populate our prayers. As I hear those words I am motivated to pray for the advance and eventual triumph of the Kingdom of God over all other pretenders. I know I will someday see Jesus crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords, and I want to see Him acknowledged as such in the here and now of everyday life. I long to see all of creation begin to understand what it means for Jesus to be Lord.
As Kingdom praying begins to dominate my daily prayer life, I find that I have shifted from the “gimme” prayers that used to be pervasive, to a deeper desire for what pleases the Lord. The prayers seem to be “bigger” and less selfish. Even if the prayers deal with my own needs, they are now couched in yearnings that deal with Kingdom values.
Perhaps a good place to begin is to ask the Lord what is happening in heaven that He wants to see occur on earth. That is, after all, the way he phrased this prayer for us. From Scripture it appears that heaven is most of all, a place that is overwhelmed by an awareness of the Presence of God. The continual worship seen in heaven is the natural response to the Presence of God. Praying for an increased awareness of His Presence brings heaven to earth and can result in an amazing revival for the Church!
Harvest Prayer Starter:
- Praise God as the one from whom all things have come; praise him as the one to whom you are going when you are called home.
- Thank God that your relationship with him extends beyond this life.
- Confess the times when your focus has been only on physical needs, not God’s eternal purpose for you (Mt. 6:33).
- Commit yourself to seeking God’s will for you and to hearing the voice of his Spirit through the preaching of the Word.
- Ask God to reveal himself to you in his splendor and glory.
- Pray for those preachers in other countries who must serve eight or ten churches at a time. Ask God to give them strength and to provide lay leaders who can minister in their absence.
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| Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount. |
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Wagner's news:
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Greetings Friends,
As we started writing, we realized that we had a lot to share…too much for a single email or blog. So, this update will be focused on ministry related news and the next one (in just a few days) will focus on personal news. Here’s what you will find in this message:
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- RVA Update – flooding and staffing needs
- Prayer Cards and Missions Resources – help you and your church expand visions for missions
- Travel Schedule – where we will be and when over the next couple of months
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Our staffing needs are being filled as God continues to faithfully provide. He always seems to provide exactly who is needed, often exactly when they are needed. There are still a few holes to fill…primarily high school girls’ dorm parents…some for the entire school year and one couple for just first term…late August through late November. PRAY that who God wants as dorm parents will become clear to everyone.
Thank you to those who contributed to relief for the flood victims. The rains have slowed in Kenya but it is still the normal rainy season. With the ground already over-saturated, even the normal rains can cause severe problems. Continue to PRAY for those whose lives have been devastated by the rains and for the rains to continue to subside. |
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| Prayer Cards and Missions Resources |
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We did have new prayer cards printed in February. If would like a prayer card or several, please message us with your address and we will mail them to you. We will also be at the EC National Conference this week and will bring lots of prayer cards for churches.
We also have a blog site that has links for lots of great missions’ resources. There are videos, books and even a 5-session course on missions. We periodically update these links as we find high quality resources that can be used for building vision for missions in your churches. This is also a location where we post current prayer requests along with past updates. |
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| Our time in the States for home assignment is rapidly coming to a close. We have a few more churches we will be visiting and places we will be. We would love to see you! |
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Thursday, May 23 – EC National Conference, Messiah University
Sunday, May 26 – St. Matthew’s EC Church in Emmaus, PA
Saturday, June 1 – Twin Pines Camp in the Poconos
Sunday, June 2 – Bethany EC Church in Tamaqua, PA
Mid-June Brian will be in Kansas City, MO for AP Reading
Missy will be in Myrtle Beach, SC and Minneapolis, MN
June 24-27 – Brian will be facilitating an AP Calculus APSI in Columbus, OH
Sunday, June 30 – Rexmont EC Church in Cornwall, PA
Mid-July Coastal North Carolina
Thursday, August 8 – Returning to Kenya!! |
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Thank you so much for your prayers! You are appreciated.
In His Service,
Brian & Missy |
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Friday, May 24 2024
Worship at 10 with Children's Church. Live in person and in living color on Zoom!
We received word that Hal Scanlin stepped into Jesus' arms last evening. His race has been run well. Let us keep Joan, Lenore and the whole family in our prayers.
Chris Muik has returned home to heal. Keep he and Yvonne in your prayers for healing, patience in the process, Provision and shalom.
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Good Morning Worshipers! Everything we do can be an act of worship, if done as for the Lord! May it be so Lord! Amen! Prepare your hearts to enter His court with thanksgiving and praise and continue to prepare yourself and all you do as an act of worship. Remember as Romans 12:1 reminds us, these bodies are God's temple--His dwelling place. May He find them worthy of His presence and thank God for His forgiving, cleansing love!
Many churches and denominations have strayed from God and His Word and Way. They have become more like the world and being about scratching "itchy ears" than living to truly bless and honor God. Forgive us Lord for anything we do that leads us or others from You, Your Truth and Your true Way! May we always be about You, Your business and doing what we are created to do as an act of true worship. May we honor You always and live and love more like Jesus everyday. May we become an act of worship in all we think, say and do individually and as your Body. Bless the EC denomination as they gather this week for National Conference and always as a denomination that stands firm in You, Your Word and Way. Thank You. Bless Kathy as she represents us. Bless our leaders. May they be men and women after Your own heart and led by the Holy Spirit to Your best. Revive us and may we become a true dynamic movement of Yours. Thanks! Amen!
Check out our devos below and sit at Jesus' feet and listen, receive and prepare your heart to follow Jesus well. What's He saying to you? Who are you processing with? What are you doing about what He's led you to? He has some great custom made plans for you and us as His gathered body! Amen! May we worship and follow well and go make Christ known and make disciples of Jesus! May we become His House of Prayer for the Nations! May the Holy Spirit always guide us and may we allow Him to use and speak through us, even when we don't know what to do or say. May nothing hinder us from becoming all God created us to be and doing what we are created to do. May we always be a sweet aroma to God as we stand firm and persevere in faith. Amen
TWFYT
ODB:
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A love for God and for people undergirds Kathryn’s Bible translating work. She rejoices when women in India come to a deeper understanding of Scripture, reading it in their mother tongue. She remarks that when they do, “They often start cheering or clapping. They read about Jesus, and they say, ‘Oh, wonderful!’ ”
Kathryn longs for more people to read the Scriptures in their own language. In this desire, she holds close to her heart the vision of the aging disciple John on the island of Patmos. Through the Spirit, God ushered him into the throne room of heaven, where he saw “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). All together they worshiped God, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God” (v. 10).
God continues to add to the great number of people praising Him. He uses not only the work of Bible translators and those praying for them, but also those who reach out to their neighbors in love with the good news of Jesus. We can rejoice in this joyful mission, marveling at how God will spark more people to join with the angels in saying, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever” (v. 12).
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
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How do you see God spurring on people to praise and honor Him? How might He invite you to join in His mission of spreading the good news of Jesus?
Saving God, thank You for the gift of Jesus. Please help me to share Your wonderful love with others.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The book of Revelation (in Greek apokalypsis) is considered apocalyptic literature—a term which today is often used to describe literature that portrays the end of the world. This is due to the graphic imagery of the prophecies contained in Revelation. However, apokalypsis means “to reveal, to unveil something that has been hidden.” Primarily, the book of Revelation isn’t about the end of the world; it’s about Jesus, who’s referred to as “the Lamb” (see 5:6-13; 7:9-17). This description also appears in John’s gospel: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29); “Look, the Lamb of God!” (v. 36).
Bill Crowder |
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UR: Our Advocate
The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. - Romans 8:26 (NRSVUE)
As I was reading about this verse in a Bible commentary, the word advocate jumped off the page. My mind went to the definition of a special education advocate. This type of advocate assists parents and teachers with developing a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to help them succeed in their schoolwork.
I recalled the time when my husband and I asked a friend, who is a special education teacher, to be our child’s advocate in an IEP meeting we attended several years ago. I felt an overwhelming peace knowing someone was there to support us when we weren’t sure what to say.
Looking back at this experience, I think about how God has given us the Holy Spirit as an advocate. We can come to God in prayer even with a burden that feels so big to us that we don’t know what to say, and our heavenly advocate will present our requests to God. The more I learn about God, the more I realize how amazing God is.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for providing the Holy Spirit as an advocate to support us when we don’t have the words to say. Amen.
CS:
Saturday, May 18 2024
I'm baaaack! My cardioversion was a success. PTL! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragements! I must be back to normal as I am so rested and God awoke me at 3 to come chat and write. At least yesterday and so far today, I feel great and ready to get back at it! PTL!
Today is the last day for the Clothing Closet until Aug 17. Pray for them to serve well today and to refresh in the weeks ahead. Pray for leaders and workers for this ministry to be raised up by God.
Tomorrow is worship with Children's Church at 10. Next Sunday is our last Children's Church until Sept. Pray for Children's Church volunteers to be raised up by God. In the fall CC will be for 12 and under only. If you are interested, let us know so you can get clearances and training.
June 2nd is our next new member installation day and our vote on AC for fellowship Hall.
June 9th at 10:30 at Community Park is our church picnic with worship
Pastor Don will be on vacation off and on the next two weeks, if he can't be reached please reach out to Sarah who will be overseeing things while he is off. Thanks Sarah!
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Good Morning Praying Friends Who Know Christ and Make Him Known! AMEN! Our EC motto is to know Christ and make Him known. How's that going for you? How are we doing as Christ's Body with that? Our vision statement is to become a dynamic movement of God led by us who have a burning passion for God and missionary zeal to reach the lost. We are on our way to this! PTL! Everything we do of importance and value, including getting to know Christ and making Him known, is birthed and sustained through prayer. Revival begins when one person prays earnestly. Check out our devotionals and blogs below tying this all together. Keep praying and getting to know God more so that will overflow to revival and others getting to know Him. That's how making disciples in the way of Jesus works too. Pray, receive, listen, process, plan and follow well today. Amen!
The Word for You Today begins with teaching us about how to know God. That is the beginning of true life and finding our purposes in life. We can know all about God but until we really get to know Him life is meaningless. We are His created masterpieces, made new in Christ, to do all the things He created us to do. (Eph. 2:10) It only makes sense to have a relationship with the One who made us. He teaches, gifts, empowers and directs our steps. When we stop relying on self and focus on Him and our relationship and through prayer too all that falls into place. Charles Stanley then reminds us about the importance of knowing His ways, as well as, knowing Him in all his faceted existence. He is--well--Everything! Creator, Sustainer, Shepherd, Helper, Leader, Source, Protector, Provider, Friend and so much more. Dwell in some of these today and worship as you prepare to follow His ways. One of my continual prayers is for me and us to come to know and follow THE Way. Jesus is the Way! His ways are best and He has a way just for you to follow! How cool is that! Get to really know Him and His ways and you will be well on your way to bringing Him to life to others and fulfilling your purposes too. And then check our Our Daily Bread. You are called and equipped and as you get to know Him and His ways, He will lead, teach, empower and use you and your abilities and talents to fulfill your purposes. PTL! Right? He has great plans for you! And the Upper Room reminds us that He always wants to lead in the right paths. As we persevere in surrendering and following Him well in faith He will lead us and perfect us as He uses us well, just as we are created.
Man, can life in Christ get any better? The world has no idea what joy and life satisfaction they are missing out on! Who do you see God drawing and what will you do to make Him and His ways known?
I am so thankful that God redeemed me and made me new and keeps growing me to fulfill why He created me! There is much joy in that and in helping others to get to know Him, their purposes and to step into His ways. Let us commit to keep working at this together as we go, make disciple and teach them all about Him and His ways and what a real relationship with God is all about. We are gathered as His Good News Delivery Co and will become His disciple making center as we get to know and make Jesus and His ways known. Amen! So be it Lord! Come! Fill us, transform us and use us as we birth and sustain all this in prayer and follow You. Amen. Only you can do what you are created to do and that grows and changes as you mature and persevere in your faith and your race throughout life. You were made for such a time as this! Rejoice and keep at it! Day Light is burning! God is with you! Enjoy the ride!
TWFYT:
CS:
ODB:
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“Your job for the international book expo,” my boss informed me, “is to organize an onsite radio broadcast.” I felt fear because this was new territory for me. God, I’ve never done anything like this, I prayed. Please help me.
God provided resources and people to guide me: experienced technicians and broadcasters, plus reminders during the expo of details I’d overlooked. In retrospect, I know that the broadcast went well because He knew what was needed and prompted me to use the skills He’d already given me.
When God calls us to a task, He also equips us for it. When He assigned Bezalel to work on the tabernacle, Bezalel was already a skilled craftsman. God further equipped him by filling him with His Spirit and with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of skills (Exodus 31:3). God also gave him an assistant in Oholiab, as well as a skilled workforce (v. 6). With His enablement, the team designed and made the tent, its furnishings, and the priests’ garments. These were instrumental in the Israelites’ proper worship of God (vv. 7-11).
Bezalel means “in the shadow [protection] of God.” The craftsman worked on the project of a lifetime under God’s protection, power, and provision. Let’s courageously obey His prompting as we carry out a task to completion. He knows what we need, and how and when to give it.
By Karen Huang
REFLECT & PRAY
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What task is God calling you to carry out? In what areas can you pray for His guidance?
Father, thank You for equipping me with all that I need.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Exodus 35–38 gives specific instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and all its furnishings. In today’s passage (31:1-11), we read that God equipped specific people to carry out this important and detailed work. God filled Bezalel with “the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills” (v. 3). He also equipped Oholiab to assist him (v. 6). In addition to being given technical skills, Bezalel and Oholiab were to teach others how to do the work (35:30-35). God equipped all with what was needed to accomplish the task (36:1).
J.R. Hudberg |
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UR:
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. - Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
“Don’t take your eyes off the path; that’s the best way to ensure you’ll be safe,” our guide told us as we walked 45 minutes toward our destination. The path was indeed quite uneven. At the end of the excursion, I was one of the few who did not suffer any incident along the way. I accomplished the feat because I followed the instructions closely.
The guide’s simple directions reminded me of today’s scripture in Hebrews about “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” This brief instruction invites us to keep our eyes on the right path — the path God laid out for us in Jesus Christ.
The journey of life is full of difficulties, distractions, and “easy outs” that promise to lighten our burdens. But there is only one true path — the way of Jesus. He can guide our footsteps, fill us with purpose, and offer us eternal life.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Merciful God, thank you for being our source of hope, peace, and eternal love. As we fix our eyes on Jesus, we join in the prayer he taught us: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:2-4, NIV). Amen.
Harvest Prayer Blog:
May 18 - Walking in the Presence of God
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Prayer is the key to God’s presence and power resting on our lives and the lives of others. Prayer is always the precursor to revival. Can you imagine God bringing revival to a prayerless people? Spiritual awakening can always be traced back to the mercy of God in response to some praying individual or group.
Prayerlessness is the worst sin because it is the highest indication of pride. A day without prayer is a day we’ve told God we can live without Him. It speaks of a lack of trust and the vain work of human ability alone. How can we hope to know God’s agenda? Lead people where they need to go? Give them what God is saying? See God’s power resting on those we are called to lead? See real life change in us and others?
Paul says we must “pray without ceasing.” I long for that continuity. It is my great prayer that those three words would someday be said of me. That people would remark, “Well, he is not this nor that, but he prays all the time. Our pastor walks in the presence of the Lord. He constantly breathes the oxygen of heaven … and he leads us there. And when he says something or leads us somewhere, we know it is initiated by God.”
If you are not good at prayer, cry out. Pray until you are a better intercessor. Get around people who pray. Find a regular, weekly prayer partner and learn together. Call together a dozen people and work diligently at your most important task. Read books on prayer. Study and memorize the prayers of the Scripture, which will dramatically help you in your praying.
If you are desperate for prayer, God will exponentially help you in your pursuit. He knows that prayerlessness is the one weakness you cannot afford as you love and lead people for whom He died.
Father, I want to breathe in the oxygen of heaven every moment of my life! Teach me how to intercede continually and strengthen my life of prayer in ways that bring You glory! Keep me from prayerlessness and help me to encourage and teach others how to pray so that You will be pleased to pour out revival in the midst of Your people!
---Adapted from Prayer with No Intermission by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Praise God as your faithful Creator and Re-creator in Christ.
- Give thanks that you can “participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:13).
- Confess the times in which you have shirked responsibility by failing to speak or act for Christ.
- Commit yourself to living up to the weighty name “Christian.”
- Ask that you will never “repay evil with evil or insult with insult” (1 Pet. 3:9).
- Pray for people who are experiencing the effects of natural disasters. Pray that they will feel the closeness of God even in the turmoil, and that relief will be offered to them in Jesus’ name.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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Saturday, May 18 2024
Next new member installation Sun June 2nd during worship. See pastor Don or Sarah for more info. June 2nd is also congregational meeting and vote after worship about AC in fellowship hall
FYI: No Blog tomorrow as I will be leaving early for outpatient heart surgery (cardioversion=shocking AFBIB back into rhythm). I covet your prayers! Thanks Gail for leading prayer with bread gals over me yesterday! That means a lot! For some reason I have these thoughts that tomorrow may be the end for me. I know I'm overmedicated and not thinking clearly lately. But many of you know from experience how easy it is to get all twisted up in your own thinking sometimes. I trust God and the docs and staff. This is a common and easy procedure. And if by some strange chance something happens, you know where I'll be and I'll be waiting for you, so rejoice! Joy comes in the morning! Turn off that noise and step into God's shalom, Donald! Amen!
OKAY! Enough of that foolishness, but these are my journal entries and I document my heart in many of them. I will be splitting my last week of vacation, before the July 1st reloading, over the next two weeks so blogs will be hit and miss the next two weeks. Know I am spending time with God and praying for you and I'll share when I am home and not on vacation. Plus we are celebrating Karen's birthday too! (How blessed I am that God brought us together and that she gave herself to me! What was she thinking? It had to be from God! Thanks Lord! I am soooo blessed!)
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Good Morning Friends! One of my most frequent prayer requests is for our church to become a House of Prayer (HOP) for the Nations. We are moving towards that! PTL! One of our focuses needs to be on loving all people that God loves well. Living and loving like Jesus is our goal. Check out Harvest Prayer blog about that below and pray to love and make disciples like Jesus. He was a friend of sinners and some very unreligious church outsiders. We are welcoming all kinds of people to our giving ministries (bread and clothing) and our fellowship meals on Wednesdays. Some are feeling comfortable enough with us and getting to know we are not judgmental, legalistic Pharisee-types that they are joining worship and the church too. Keep at it and keep praying into our growing as a HOP for the Nations and many to be drawn to God's accepting love. Thank God for what He's been doing, is doing and will do! PTL!
One of my daily prayer requests is that we start and develop small group ministry all over the place--houses, dinners, neighborhoods, maybe even in the building. How is God stirring you to that? I keep getting all kinds of ideas and people keep coming to mind to invite to a small group. Who are your people of peace that God is drawing together? Will you do something about it? Is this the summer God fires us up to do this? Talk to Him about it and share what you are hearing and feeling. Ask for His heart and mind and willing hands and feet.
One of my prayer requests for the past several years is that we learn to turn off the noise and chaos all around us and even in our heads and spend more time with God and in His Living Word filling our minds with His love, wisdom and truth. How's that going? I sometimes struggle but as I pray to and ask to be made aware quicker when I am failing, God helps me catch myself much sooner and I am able to redirect my thinking and focus on Him better. PTL! It helps to be saturated in His Word and familiar with His voice to catch yourself quicker. It also conditions us to knowing when He is at work and inviting us to join Him. Just like Gail did yesterday when she stepped out of comfort zone and led prayer over me. Keep focused on God and tune out the noise. And we all have experienced that noise. How are you doing at redirecting your thinking and renewing your mind? Check out Charles Stanley's reminder about who you allow to speak into your life and The Word for You Today's reminder to be like Bereans and check all things I say and others say against Biblical truth. God is speaking to you all the time and has great plans for you. Stay focused on Him and working with like-minded believers to achieve all He has planned for you and us. Amen!
One last thought...will God carry on this work without me? If something would happen to me, would you guys continue the good works He has started? We all need to be developing our replacement and that comes through disciple making small groups. Jesus had 12 in His small group and since we aren't Jesus, our groups will probably be much smaller but He promises they can be as effective as He fills us and leads us and uses us. Pastor All paved the way at St. Matts, trained and released me to carry on and God keeps expanding that work that started at least ten years ago. Will it continue through me and you? We all have a role to play in His Good News Delivery and Disciple Making Co. What's yours? What are you doing about it? What can you share that we can celebrate as God uses you and works through you and all around you? We need to celebrate! That encourages us as we see that this is all really working and it motivates us to carry on. Amen!
That's all from the heart today. It is also what I am discerning from God that He has for us. What's God saying to you? Let's talk, pray and process together as we make plans to move from adding disciples to multiply them....from Emmaus to the Lehigh Valley, to the world! Amen! God is on the move!
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Harvest Prayer:
May 16 - Refuse to Judge by Appearances
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Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. (John 7:24)
We Christians quickly dispute any notion that we are as judgmental as the world claims, but if we take an honest look at our lives, what do we see? Are we only comfortable with those who share our culture? Are we quick to look down our noses at anyone who holds a different political view than ours? Do whole groups of Christians whose worship looks unlike ours make us squirm? It seems that we have taken our preferences and our assumptions based on outward appearance to a level that would mirror idolatry. We desire our comfort and our opinions more than we want to see Jesus worshiped and his love shared with the entire world. The book of John tells us that Jesus died because God so loved the world. What prejudices and preferences can we put aside to share the gospel? If Jesus truly died for everyone and his love is available to anyone, how can we possibly see that one we judge through any eyes but his? We must ask Jesus to give us his eyes to see and his heart to love all for whom he died.
Precious Jesus, we love you. Because we love you, we want you to teach us to love all whom you love. Thank you for dying on the cross for us, and also for those we judge. We repent of selfishness, fear, and prejudice of every kind. Please forgive us for the pride that convinces us that we know the deepest part and ultimate destiny of every individual. Only you know the plans you have for those you have created. Only you know how to bring us all to the purpose for which we were made. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we may live with a hope not only for ourselves but for those around us. Help us to trust your power to bring about the work you have for all of your people. Show us how to help those who are weak, encourage the strong and love everyone. There is no way we can do any of this on our own. Fill us with your Spirit today so we may believe you for your work of unity in our community. Strengthen us so we may fight for the oppressed and forgive the oppressor. Give us patience and endurance to believe when the change we all need is slow in coming. Give us love to cover the sins that so easily entangle us all; give us hope to believe that you are working a mighty plan of restoration in our lives. We love you, Jesus. Show us how to love our brothers and sisters, in your name.
--Adapted from Praying God’s Word Over Your City: 40 Days of Prayer for A Transformed Community by Trey and Mary Anne Kent. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise the Lord, your Savior and your God.
- Thank God for the hope that he gives to you and for the fact that he never forgets you.
- Confess all the desires which you have that crowd out your desire for God himself.
- Commit your soul to panting after God “as the deer pants for streams of water” (Ps. 42:1).
- Ask that you will “delight yourself in the LORD and [that he will give] you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).
- Ask God to cause your friends and family to have a deep thirst for him, and to allow nothing else to quench that thirst.
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Saturday, May 18 2024
Just a quick Thank God I'm Forgiven blog before I leave for procedure.
God loves and pursues you and you are forgiven and will be with Him forever. Meditate on the below devos and blogs today and thanks God for all His many blessing! I have great pace and God is in control! Thanks for all the prayers and encouragements! See you soon! Shalom!
Harvest Prayer Blogs:
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So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. (Romans 8:6, NLT)
When you read the above passage from Romans, it seems like a very clear and easy choice. Death . . . or life and peace. But when it comes to practical choices, in the middle of the stressful seasons of life, it isn’t that clear. Christians who don’t want to let the sinful nature control their minds can find that happening, often without realizing it. When peace seems to be elusive, it’s a good bet that the Spirit is not in control of our minds.
Trusting the Holy Spirit to deal with circumstances beyond our control can be very freeing and can bring rest and peace into our souls.
There is a key word in Romans 8:6 that appears twice: “letting.” It is used in the context of allowing either your sinful nature or the Spirit to control your mind. The clear implication of Scripture is that you get to choose who will control your mind. The result of your choice will be either death or life and peace. This isn’t a small choice but something that can forever change the direction of your life.
Sometimes, when life is out of control, we can so easily forget to relinquish our desire to seize control rather than trust God to bring his “rightness” to our circumstances. We feel compelled and overwhelmed and as a result, we forget to choose that which brings life and peace. When we decide instead to let the Spirit control our minds, we are able to lay aside the anxieties of life and choose God’s peace. On a very practical level, perhaps the easiest way to do this is simply to ask the Lord for his help.
Lord, help me today to let your Spirit control my mind. It is so easy for me to step in and try to fix or control things that are beyond me. My trust is in you. I choose to let you control my thoughts and desires today and each day of my life.
--Adapted from Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God (A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus) by David Butts. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise God as the master even of the grave.
- Thank the Father that “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
- Confess your failure to place your life and death fully in the hands of the risen Christ.
- Commit yourself to standing firm in the victory which Christ has achieved over sin and death and hell.
- Ask that you will “know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (15:58), and so work with extra fervor.
- Pray that the people of your congregation will become well-grounded in the basics of the Scriptures, and that they will faithfully live their beliefs.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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ODB:
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My friend Joann passed away from a stroke just as the coronavirus began to spread in 2020. At first her family published that her memorial service would be at her church, but then it was determined it was best to hold it at a funeral home to control the size of the group attending. The new notice online read: Joann Warners—Changed Venue.
Yes, her venue had changed! She’d gone from the venue of earth to the venue of heaven. God changed her life years before, and she lovingly served Him for nearly fifty years. Even while she lay near death in the hospital, she asked about others she loved who were struggling. Now she’s present with Him; she has changed venues.
The apostle Paul had the desire to be with Christ in another venue (2 Corinthians 5:8), but he also felt it would be better for the people he served for him to remain on earth. He wrote to the Philippians, “It is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:24). When we grieve for someone like Joann, we may cry out to God something similar: They’re needed here by me and many others they loved and served. But God knows the best timing for their change of venue and our own.
In the Spirit’s strength, we now “make it our goal to please [God]” (2 Corinthians 5:9) until we see Him face-to-face—which will be far better.
By Anne Cetas
REFLECT & PRAY
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In what ways are you revealing your love for God and others where you are right now? How might you serve Him today?
I give myself anew to You, God. Please fill me with Your Spirit of love and make my life count for You.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1) is the destination of “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27), those who by faith have received Jesus as their Savior. In that wonderful place, there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (v. 4). Heaven is where God dwells (1 Kings 8:39, 43, 49; Psalm 33:13-14). When He was on earth, Jesus confirmed this to be true. He stated He came from heaven (John 3:13; 6:33, 51) and would return there (14:2), where He would be seated at the right hand of God (Luke 22:69; Hebrews 12:2). After He ascended, two angels reminded His disciples that Christ would one day return to earth from heaven (Acts 1:6-11). When believers die, they’re eternally in the presence of God!
Alyson Kieda |
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UR:
Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” - John 16:33 (NIV)
On a recent family trip to Florida, we had a week of beautiful weather. But then the governor declared a statewide emergency because Hurricane Ian was on its way. I could feel my anxiety level rising. People who lived in the area began to talk of evacuation before the storm’s predicted arrival in three days. I was thankful we were leaving that day and would be long gone before the storm arrived. But I wondered, What must it be like for people who live here permanently to be in a constant state of anxiety during the hurricane season?
I live far from tornado and hurricane zones. But at the same time, life has many “storms” waiting in the wings most of the time. We get news of the latest calamity. Famines, floods, and fires fill the television screen. Will we have enough water, food, or even money in the future? But Jesus reminds us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We too can be overcomers when we give our worry and fear to God (see 1 Pet. 5:7). Doing so, we can live in peace, trusting that whatever happens God will guide, comfort, and strengthen us hour by hour, day by day.
TODAY'S PRAYER
O Lord, help us to live without fear, knowing that though storms will come, you are with us. Amen.
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