|
Wednesday, April 10 2024
He is risen--indeed! Festive Family Worship with communion at 10 and on Zoom. Prepare your hearts and communion elements
Good Morning Children of the Resurrection! Today we celebrate the greatest event in the history of the universe! He is risen and victorious! PTL! We are forgiven and His Spirit lives in us and He is interceding before the Father for us. We have exchanged our filthy rags and put on His righteousness! WOW! How good is our God and how blessed are we! What love! Hallelujah! Rejoice for Christ our Lord has risen today! What can be added to that?
Check out a couple of devos below and Joe Toy newsletter. Reminder: Pastor Don begins vacation after worship today. Sarah is available for any emergencies this week. There probably will not be any blogs this week. Tue Huddle and Wed night dinner huddle have off this week. Enjoy a week of worship, rest and renewal! God loves you and is speaking to your hearts! What's He saying to you? Be still and know! Karen and I covet your prayers for a fun week of rest and renewal, great weather and health too. Thanks! Jesus loves you and so do we! Shalom!
Charles Stanley:
Our Daily Bread:
|
Before Charles Simeon attended university in Cambridge, England, he loved horses and clothes, spending a huge sum on his attire yearly. But because his college required him to attend regular Communion services, he started to explore what he believed. After reading books written by believers in Jesus, he experienced a dramatic conversion on Easter Sunday. Awaking early on April 4, 1779, he cried out, “Jesus Christ is risen today! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” As he grew in his faith in God, he devoted himself to Bible study, prayer, and attending chapel services.
On the first Easter, life changed for the two women who arrived at Jesus’ tomb. There they witnessed a violent earthquake as an angel rolled back the stone. He said to them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:5–6). Overjoyed, the women worshiped Jesus and ran back to tell their friends the good news.
Encountering the risen Christ isn’t something reserved for ancient times—He promises to meet us here and now. We might experience a dramatic encounter, such as the women at the tomb or as Charles Simeon did, but we might not. In whatever way Jesus reveals Himself to us, we can trust that He loves us.
By Amy Boucher Pye
|
How has God shown Himself to you? How have you changed because of your encounter with Him?
Risen Jesus, thank You for coming and dying on the cross that I might have life eternal. I worship You.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Matthew’s resurrection account is stunning, particularly in its honesty. In addition to the joy of the women upon seeing the risen Jesus (28:8), we’re also told of the disciples’ unbelief (v. 17). When you weave together the resurrection accounts in the various gospels (and 1 Corinthians 15), it’s clear that Jesus had appeared to His disciples several times at this point, yet some still doubted. We might find a small measure of comfort in that. In spite of all Christ has done for us and the ways He’s proven Himself merciful and faithful, we still can struggle with doubts as they did. Like the father of the demonized boy, we find ourselves praying, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Bill Crowder |
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Toy Newsletter:
|
|
| “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” |
|
|
Dear Friends,
One of our prayer items as we prepare for an outreach is to have team unity. Each team is made up of diverse people from many differing backgrounds and various levels of spiritual maturity. The Lord truly blessed us with a great team of students from Liberty University. Even though we had a few people with timid personalities, they jumped into the task each day and did their best to share the gospel and represent Christ to the lost. One of our team shared this, “I was very uncertain when I first signed up for the trip and I didn’t even know if I wanted to go. However, I realized that I would never put myself out there and evangelize if I did not force myself to. The trip was an eye-
|
opening experience and helped me to realize that to grow closer in my relationship with God and challenge my faith, I would need to do things like this.”
One of the blessings of being an evangelist is to take others with us and give them experiences to see the power of God at work in the ministry. All of these young people learned to trust God and were challenged to do things whereby they had no choice, but to seek God’s help each day, whether it was teaching inner city children or sharing their faith in Christ with college students and international tourists who were visiting Miami Beach. |
|
|
This was our third year of working in Buena Vista Apartments and the welcome mat was out. Miss Bella called us to make sure that we were coming and as we arrived she was already gathering up the children. She is the matriarch of this small community and is well respected by all her neighbors. It was an awesome start to our five day club as we had over thirty kids in attendance. Our team did a great job interacting with the kids as they learned Bible verses, sang gospel songs, enjoyed object lessons and observed an illustrated bible lesson each day and of course who does not love game time. One student's reflection of her time is summed up this way, “The very last day of the kid’s ministry was the best in my opinion because I got to share the gospel with a group of kids that were very attentive and listening and seemed receptive to the message.” These types of mission trips not only impact people with the gospel, but also transform the lives of the team as they see the need to reach the lost.
|
|
|
The city of Miami Beach made it very clear that they were divorcing themselves from Spring Break. They no longer desired to deal with the toxic behavior of drunken students, who would fight, riot, and even shoot each other as has happened the last few years. There were no planned events, parking in city lots was $100 and they implemented a midnight curfew. On Friday night, there was probably only ten percent of the crowd that was there last year and the police presence was unreal. In all my years of ministry with the countless events, I have never seen this many police at one place. We spent most of our night on Ocean Drive on South Beach. Although the crowds were not thick, we had plenty of people to talk to each night. Our main tool was an illustrated puzzle which end with the question, “Is there life after death?”
|
The team did a great job interacting with whoever stopped. One night Gretel, who is from Hong Kong, was able to use her language skills to share the gospel with a group of Chinese students. How awesome is the Lord to set up that encounter!
I can remember talking to groups of people from Africa, India and Brazil in my first hour on the street. Some encounters are sad as one young man told me, “I am a little too drunk to talk about this right now and I am just not ready yet.” I thank God that I was able to share some gospel truth with him. One of our team had the blessing of leading a young lady to the Lord as she stated, “I think that I need to do this now”, so they prayed together as she called out to Christ. Needless to say, that was an exciting God moment that fired up the team. The seven days together went fast, but the memories remain. |
|
|
A big thanks goes out to Calvary Chapel Miami Beach for housing us as we had our housing fall through and they made room for us. They were a big help to us and a great reflection of Jesus' love as they offered us their hospitality. May the Lord bless them richly. Keep us in your prayers, God bless you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LISTEN ONLINE
