Rise and Shine! This is the day the Lord has made! We will worship and be glad in it! Rejoice and shine for such a time as this!
Couple of updates: Dani did have her appendix surgery and is spending the night in the hospital. Indications are that she will be home today and able to fly to her cruise tomorrow. PTL and continue to pray for healing, favor, shalom and good times ahead for the family. Pray God would use this and they would shine bright during their trip!
Gladys Ketner is and will be spending an extended time at Parkland Manor receiving therapy and care during her stroke recovery. We had a great conversation and prayer time yesterday. She is resting a lot which is healing and still struggling some with getting her words from her thinking to her mouth but they are working on that. She is hopeful and we discussed and prayed for patience in the process and choosing joy.
We had 65 come for bread and ministry yesterday. God is using our servants to show love and bring hope and help. Several have signed up to join us Sunday. PTL! May we welcome them and invite them in with love. Many who come have had bad church experiences...but we aren't like that! We are Love! Pray for our Clothing Closet and servants. We are expanding to another room. Pray for God to bless the servants as they bless many in the name of Jesus! God sure is using us! PTL!
It's not too late to sign up for the brunch on Sunday after worship. Let Sarah, Lori or me know. We are buying food tomorrow. It's always a great time of fellowship and ministry opportunities!
Pray for Sarah as she prepares for Sunday's message for clarity and for God to speak to and through her.
Pray for our Congregational Meeting on Feb 4th that God would lead us. We are Evangelical Congregational, which means the congregation follows God and leads the church. What's your part? Thank God for all he's doing and pray for Him to lead us to new ministry opportunities and for Him to lead you too. Pray for His BIG plans and for dreams and visions to come. Praise Him for new members joining and pray we would multiply many disciples walking in Jesus' way.
Pray for our new members class Feb. 18th after worship.
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Good Morning Praying, Preparing, Sent Servants of Revival! Oh Yes pronounce that truth over you and us! God is on the move! He's informing and answering our prayers! He's leading you and our Body to be His instruments of revival for such a time as this! PTL! Be still and know. And be ready to move and follow as He leads! He has some great custom made plans just for you. He's also orchestrating some BIG things for our fellowship. But also remember that we are family. He's growing our family as we love and invite in like Jesus. He's sending more as He revives us and loves through us and expands His Kingdom. Pray that we would love, include and mentor like Jesus. Also remember that big or small, every part of our body and every act of service is critical. You matter! We matter! Come as you are and be loved, led, and used by God for such a time as this! Amen!
Check out and prayerfully engage with God through Harvest Prayer's revival blog and our devotionals today. God is speaking to you. What's He saying? Who might you process that with? What will you do as He leads with what you've been blessed with? Are you stewarding well all God's blessings? Are you sowing lavishly in love? Be bold and courageous, faithful and following--earnestly. Daylight's burning! God's ways are not our ways nor His thoughts like ours. Don't lean on your understanding. Turn off the noise. Acknowledge Him in all you ways and He will lead you step by step. PTL!
Note the tension between the two sides of the fence in the Harvest blog. It's just how it is when man tries to interpret God's plans. It's why we have all these denominations. BUT GOD is God and we are not nor can we fathom the depth of His plans. That's a good thing! We get to grow in trust and follow as He reveals each step of the journey. What if things are both/and in the Harvest blog? God has called me, and apparently others to sound the alarm to prepare others for the hard times coming. That was reflected in Sunday's message call to being earnest, persevering and ready. But also evident in that message was the other side of the fence--revival is coming. You know it can be both/and. And that's the faith stretching, relying on Him more kind of thing God does! God promises an end times harvest. Keep praying into that. But if it's an end times harvest that is coming, we will need to be ready to endure all kinds of hardships and persecutions. Are you ready for that? Honestly, that has been the history of God's Church--thriving and growing in the hardest of times and most severe persecutions. It's continuing like that today in many places around the world. It surly could be coming here soon. And what did He do to His faithful followers beginning in Acts 2...sent the Holy Spirit, raised up faithful followers and added to their numbers daily. That's both and! Yes God's ways are not our, yet He is always with us as He stretches, grows and uses us no matter what we are facing! So keep praying and keep preparing and being ready for such a time as this! Be earnest and be Jesus in the flesh more in '24! Amen! And may His peace beyond understanding guard your hearts and minds as you take each step of faith in your journey to being more like Jesus and following His way. Amen!
Harvest Prayer Revival Blog:
January 25, 2024 - Praying for Revival (Day 25): Praying God’s Heart
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According to what some respected prayer leaders believe, we are moving into the greatest time the American Church has ever experienced. Revival is coming. We need to repent and pray together and then seize our destiny; we are standing on the verge of the greatest harvest in the history of the Church. This is what is coming—it is what God desires, they say.
Yet emails from other highly regarded prayer leaders contain stern warnings that the United States is moving into a time of judgment, persecution, and great hardship and that “even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them” (Jer. 15:1, NLT). Nothing is going to stop this judgment. It is going to occur—so get prepared.
These are radically opposite views from godly people of prayer who are, as the prophet Isaiah put it, “watchmen on [the] walls” (62:6). “What are we to believe and how are we to pray in our current seemingly contradictory situation?
We are not spinning out of control to some unknown end. God is the Watchman over history, sovereignly directing the best and worst of times. The question for people of prayer is, are we listening to God or merely praying what we want?
Peter gives the entire Ecclesia the responsibility of being alert watchmen: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray” (1 Peter 4:7).
We are to observe what is transpiring around us and go to God to learn how to pray. The entire body of Christ has the responsibility to watch, and if you will, to act as watchmen.
Father God, You are the Watchman over all history, and nothing is out of Your control! Increase my sensitivity to the Spirit as I watch and pray Your heart for all people and for the nations. Give me the humility to recognize the different perspectives that exist in the body of Christ, and that only You, Lord, know all things. Cause Your Church to be continually alert and sober minded in prayer about “the end of all things.” Establish me as a watchman over my family, my church, my city and my nation and help me to pray Your heart and trust You in these perilous and strategic times. You alone are God!
Pr a y e r Po i n t s:
• Praise God that He is the Watchman over all history—and nothing is out of His control!
• Ask God to increase your sensitivity to the Spirit as you watch and pray God’s heart.
• Pray for humility in recognizing the different perspectives in the body of Christ—and that only God knows all things. Pray for blessing upon those believers who may differ from your views.
• Pray that the Church will be alert and of sober mind in prayer about “the end of all things.”
• Invite God to establish you as a watchman in your intercession, that you will pray His heart and trust Him in strategic times.
--Adapted from Day 25 by Dale Schlafer: Do It Again, Lord (30 Days of Hope-Filled Prayer for Revival) compiled and edited by Carol Madison.
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ODB:
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God, why is this happening? Is this really your plan for us?
As a husband and a dad of young children, those questions and more swirled in my mind as I wrestled with a serious cancer diagnosis. What’s more, our family had just served with a missions team that had seen many children receive Jesus as their Savior. God had been bringing forth evident fruit. There was so much joy. And now this?
Esther likely poured out questions and prayers to God after she was plucked from a loving home and thrust into a strange new world (Esther 2:8). Her cousin Mordecai had raised her as his own daughter after she’d been orphaned (v. 7). But then she was placed in a king’s harem and eventually elevated to serve as his queen (v. 17). Mordecai was understandably concerned about what “was happening to” Esther (v. 11). But in time, the two realized that God had called her to be in a place of great power “for such a time as this” (4:14)—a place that allowed for her people to be saved from destruction (chs. 7–8).
It’s evident that God providentially placed Esther in a strange place as part of His perfect plan. He did the same with me. As I endured a lengthy battle with cancer, I was privileged to share my faith with many, many patients and caregivers. What strange place has He led you to? Trust Him. He’s good, and so are His plans (Romans 11:33–36).
By Tom Felten
REFLECT & PRAY
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When has God led you to a strange place? Why can you trust in His perfect plans?
Dear God, help me to trust You even when I don’t understand what You’re doing.
For further study read A Place for Doubt in a Growing Faith.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
“In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him,” says Proverbs 21:1. The book of Esther shows God doing exactly that. The villain Haman sought to destroy God’s exiled people (Esther 3:8-9). But God “channeled” the heart of the king to show favor to Esther and to her fellow Jewish citizens. Yet the book never mentions the name of God. Why is it in the Bible? Precisely because it shows the character and sovereignty of God, who loves His people even when they’re far from Him.
Tim Gustafson |
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TWFYT:
Charles Stanley
LISTEN ONLINE
