God really loves you and is singing over you right now! He has great plans lovingly created just for you and His Spirit is in you to guide and help you! Rejoice! Be still and know! Turn off the noise. Open your Bibles and refresh in His presence this morning!
Good Morning Redeemed of the Lord! Rejoice and be glad in this day the Lord has made! Again I say rejoice. Praise, worship, meditating on His Word and trusting more are good places to begin each new day. God is speaking to you all the time. What's He saying? Who are you processing with? Check out our devotionals below. Can you see the thread through them as God releases His powerful Word to, over, and through you today? He's wanting to lead you and us, His Church, to His best and His greater purposes. That all begins with one informed step of faith after another. That grows as we process and go together and all along the way. As we go, we grow. God doesn't waste anything and redeems and even gives back what the enemy has stolen! He uses us right where we are, just as we are, for His plans and purposes and grows us to the greater things and our fuller potential in Christ. What a great life in Christ this is! What joy and shalom we can choose, know, and praise God for! Don't listen to the crowd or all the noise around you! Focus on Jesus and what He's doing and cry out to Him for help and deliverance. He will come to you and lead you through the valley. Allow Him to conform you to His image, grow you and your faith and stir your imagination as He uses you to grow His church and connect to others and fulfill your part in making disciples that our fellowship of believers is called to do.
Dig into the Living Word today as you ask God to grow you more into the image of Christ and using you to do more of your created purposes well as you follow Jesus. No matter where you are or what you are going through, God is at work and has a plan just for you. What is it? Use your imagination. God gave it to you to use to come up with ideas of how to reach and disciple others. How might He use you today, this summer, this year to connect to some neighbors He is leading to you? How might we find new places to serve and connect? What are God's ideas for fun things outside the building for the spring and summer for us to do as His Body that He will use to lead people to our fellowship? We all have a part. What's yours? What will you do about it today? Who will you partner with? We are the Church and sent to be His Church (gathering of believers) that connect others to Him and His love and help them to become disciples of Jesus. We need some new connection points. Pray into that. What are you doing where God might want to use us to connect to others? Let's make some plans. Since the fellowship hall is too hot for us to gather in the summer, where is God leading us to feed, serve, and connect and minister to neighbors? What is your part in that? Ask Him and make some plans. He has something just for you! Use your imagination and share your thoughts with us. Let us reason and plan together. And let us be determined to go and love more like Jesus together as well! I know some of you are experiencing some Holy Spirit pinching with ideas. Nothing is too small or silly to try of God is leading us to it. And where He guides, He provides and that includes servants (you) that implement His plans. Come let us reason, process and plan together for the summer and beyond (I'm already working on fall and Christmas ideas but focusing more intently on summer plans.) What's God saying to you? Who are you sharing and processing that with? Love God. Love people. Make disciples. That is our mission. How does God want to use you?
Charles Stanley:
UR: Why Me?
We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. - Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
Prison is a breeding ground for human suffering. Having spent the better part of my adult life behind bars, I have witnessed much pain. Countless times I have cried out to God, “Why me?” Today’s scripture readings remind us that God can use our suffering to change lives. Central to that plan is the transformation of our spirits.
For many of us behind bars, we come to the point where the only place left to go is to our knees and cry out to God to forgive our transgressions and welcome us home like the prodigal son. I spend my days in here trying to be the man that God created me to be, trying to use my experience and years of suffering to help others. Today I take comfort in knowing that the Lord is using me as a vessel of compassion and love. Today I allow God to use my life as an example of true spiritual transformation. If we allow it, God will change us.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Merciful God, use us to demonstrate your ability to mend broken hearts and transform lives. Amen.ODB:
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For days, the sickly cat cried, huddled in a box near my workplace. Abandoned on the street, the feline went unnoticed by many who passed it by—until Jun came along. The street sweeper carried the animal home, where he lived with two dogs, which were former strays.
“I care for them because they’re the creatures no one notices,” Jun said. “I see myself in them. No one notices a street sweeper, after all.”
As Jesus walked toward Jericho on His way to Jerusalem, a blind man sat begging by the roadside. He felt unnoticed too. And on this day especially—when a crowd was passing through and all eyes were focused on Christ—no one stopped to help the beggar.
No one except Jesus. In the midst of the clamoring crowd, He heard the forgotten man’s cry. “What do you want me to do for you?” Christ asked, and He received the heartfelt reply, “Lord, I want to see.” Then Jesus said, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you” (Luke 18:41–42).
Do we feel unnoticed at times? Are our cries drowned out by people who seem to matter more than us? Our Savior notices those the world doesn’t care to notice. Call to Him for help! While others may pass us by, He’ll stop for us.
By Karen Huang
REFLECT & PRAY
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How would knowing that Jesus sees you change how you view yourself and your life? Who are those around you who might need to be noticed, and how can you “stop” to encourage them with the Savior’s love?
Dear Jesus, thank You for hearing me when I call to You. Like the blind man who received his sight, help me to follow and praise You all my life.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The healing of the blind beggar in Luke 18:35-43 is also told in Matthew 20:29-34 and Mark 10:46-52, but with differences in the details. Matthew says there are two blind men, whereas Mark and Luke choose to tell the story of only one, whom Mark calls “Bartimaeus” or “son of Timaeus” (10:46). The Gospels tell of several other instances where Jesus healed the blind: Matthew 9:27-31 (two blind men); 12:22 (blind and mute demon-possessed man); Mark 8:22-26 (blind man at Bethsaida); and John 9 (man born blind). In addition, Matthew records a general healing of the blind (15:30; 21:14). At the start of His public ministry, Christ read from Isaiah 61:1-2 about the ministry of the Messiah. Healing of the blind is one of the signs of the Messiah (Luke 4:18-19, see also Matthew 11:2-6). After the Scriptures from Isaiah were read, Jesus declared that He’s indeed the Messiah: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
K. T. Sim |
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