Bread Ministry 10-12 today. Wed night gathering postponed until next Wed. (There was a one call but some of us don't receive it. Sarah is working on correcting that. Pray for favor)

Good Morning Handcrafted Vessels of God! PTL for His creating, recreating, molding and preparing of you and us as His vessels of love, healing, hope and revival. Thanks Lord! Help us to die to self, humble self and allow you to have Your way with us as you continue to prepare us for what is ahead. May we be useful now, just as we are, and willing to allow you to transform us for usefulness for what's next. Come! Have your way with us and use us well for Your glory always. Revive us, direct our steps, protect us and prepare us for Your best. Bring joy alive as we learn to trust you more, love you more and allow you more access to us. More of You and less of me! More love! More power! More incarnating of Jesus and His good ways through us more often. Reveal to us things You desire for us to work on this year. Give us words and move us to work on those with You, Your Holy Spirit and each other. Lead us to Your best and use us well. Amen!

I'm going to just allow you to saturate in God's presence this morning through the blogs and devos below. God has a word for you this morning. What's He saying to you? How is He pinching or moving your heart? How does He want to inform your prayer and choices today. Invite Him to be the Lord of your heart and choices today and this week. Humble yourself. Turn off the noise and be still and reload in His loving presence. Ask Him to bring His will alive through your prayers. He has some great things awaiting your discover and cooperation. PTL! Allow His Spirit and presence to warm you to the bones and fire you up for what's next for today and beyond. Bring those revival fires to those out in the cold of distance from the One who loves us and pray for a warming of cold hearts. Ask to have a burning passion for God. Pray to be on fire for the Lord! AMEN!

Harvest prayer:

January 17, 2024 - Praying for Revival (Day 17): The Reality of Christ’s Presence

In a Christ dominated revival, the Holy Spirit increases vision for what’s ahead. He deepens our yearnings for greater approximations of the coming Kingdom. In New Testament-style revival, Christians are aroused to a reality of Christ’s presence and power already theirs, but currently overlooked. They are summoned not only to recapture their first love for Christ (Rev. 2), but to discover a passion for Him that surpasses whatever they have known before (Eph. 3). Re-awakening us to greater dimensions of His glory, New Testament revival is ultimately about recovering and enlarging hope in Christ. In other words, God infuses His Church with fresh hope, passion, prayer, and mission by refocusing us on Christ for ALL He really is. In revival a church is re-captivated with the supremacy of Christ by the Spirit of Christ. That’s why my favorite term for this phenomenon is a “Christ Awakening.” Thank You, Father, for how you have transformed the history of the world through revival and spiritual awakening. My heart looks forward to fresh expressions of the reign of Jesus Christ in my day! Please increase my vision and longing for another Great Awakening in this nation. Help my church to experience a new awakening of the presence and power of Jesus and that we will all recapture our first love in ways that transform all our relationships and everything we do. Pr a y e r Po i n t s: • Look back both in Scripture and in this nation and praise God for the moves of revival and spiritual awakening that have transformed history. • Look forward to fresh expressions of Christ’s reign and pray that it will happen in our day. • Invite God to increase your vision and yearning for another Great Awakening in our nation. • Pray for your church to experience a new awakening of the presence and power of Christ. • Pray that you and your family will recapture your first love of Christ in ways that transform your relationships. --Adapted from Day 17 by David Bryant: Do It Again, Lord (30 Days of Hope-Filled Prayer for Revival)  compiled and edited by Carol Madison.

Charles Stanley:

 

ODB:

Choosing to Follow God Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . . As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15 READ Joshua 24:14–18 LISTEN ONLINE “The average person will make 773,618 decisions over a lifetime,” claims the Daily Mirror. The British newspaper goes on to assert that we “will come to regret 143,262 of them.” I have no idea how the paper arrived at these numbers, but it’s clear that we face countless decisions throughout our lifetime. The sheer quantity of them might become paralyzing, especially when we consider that all our choices have consequences, some far more momentous than others. After forty years wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel stood at the threshold of their new homeland. Later, after entering the land, Joshua, their leader, issued to them a challenging choice: “Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness,” he said. “Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped” (Joshua 24:14). Joshua told them, “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (v. 15). As we begin each new day, possibilities stretch before us, leading to scores of decisions. Taking the time to ask God to guide us will influence the choices we make. By the power of the Spirit, we can choose to follow Him every day. By Bill Crowder REFLECT & PRAY What choices have you regretted making? How might you have handled those situations more wisely? Father, sometimes life can feel overwhelming—and so can the many choices that confront me. Please guide my steps and my decision-making so that I honor You in the choices I make. For further study, read Dangerous Decisions: Learning from the Mistakes of Lot and Achan.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT The challenge from Joshua to the people of Israel who are about to take possession of the promised land (Joshua 24:14-15) gives us insight into their religious history during their time of slavery in Egypt. While some continued to worship Yahweh during their captivity, as seen in the fear of God displayed by the midwives Shiphrah and Puah (Exodus 1:15-17), today’s passage indicates that worship of Yahweh was only one form of their worship. To the second generation that had come out of slavery (the first generation had died in the wilderness), Joshua proclaimed these words: “Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. . . . Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:14-15). This shows that the descendants of Jacob who were in slavery in Egypt had adopted various religious practices. JR Hudberg

UR:

God's Protection

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. - Psalm 57:1 (NIV)

My wife and I operate a small farm.

One evening, we were away from home when we received a call from our neighbor who told us that one of our cows was having her calf in the pasture.

The time immediately after birth can be dangerous for both the mother and the newborn since both are weak and the birth process often attracts predators.

It was dark when we got home. After getting our flashlights and going out to the pasture, we were rewarded with the sight of a healthy newborn calf lying beside its mother. We also found our llamas and our livestock guardian dog standing in a circle around the cow and calf. The llamas and dog provided comfort and protection to their vulnerable charges. As we moved the cow and her calf to the shelter of the barn, we were escorted by the llamas and dog.

For me, that was a memorable illustration of the protection and refuge God provides. We may not face the same physical threats as livestock, but we do face fear, worry, temptation, loneliness, and grief that prey on our relationship with God. When I look back at difficult times in my life, I can see that God provided protection and comfort, often in the form of support from fellow Christians. Just as the llamas and dog provided protection and comfort to the cow and her calf, God provides protection and comfort to us.

TODAY'S PRAYER

Our Father, thank you for the many ways you comfort us when we are vulnerable. Help us always to find our refuge in you. Amen.