Good Morning Fellow Servants of God's Good News Delivery Co.! Are you hearing God speaking to your heart? Are you processing with others, praying, planning, and following God into the places around you that He is at work? What's your part in His Good News Delivery Co? We all have a custom made part prepared specifically for us. And we begin with prayer, offering ourselves just as we are and then joining God as we travel through each day. He provides, protects, guides, stretches, grows, equips, empowers, prepares others and uses what we have been given to complete His perfect plans. Amen! I am so blessed to see how God is using many of us to share His blessings and spread His love and Good News. He has just begun to lead us to the next and new things He has prepared for each of us, small groups of us, and all of us together! PTL!
Talking to some of you, I am hearing that you don't know what your part may be. The parts are as varied and many as you and unique to you. Has God molded you, shaped you, equipped you, allowed you experiences, do what do you enjoy? Those are just some of the filters to use in discerning your part which will include how He made you and gifted you. Probably two of the most important tools in discerning your part is talking to God about it and processing with others. Others often see things we miss, hear God speaking encouragement or correction over you, pray for you, and hold you accountable to carrying through. We are family that God has gathered to prepare and use to expand His Kingdom, even today! PTL! God is calling us to earnestly pursue Him more in '24. Discern more. Plan more. Do more. Become more like Jesus and doing more of what He created us to do.
It's obvious that this world is going to Hell in a handbasket. That is not what God desires for His creations. He is preparing you and us to be part of His rescue mission. He has a custom part in that just for you. So, pray into that and start looking for the others He is wanting you to partner with and reach out to them. They may be getting some of the pieces of the puzzle that you seem to be missing. Who are your peeps? What is your part? What are you doing about it?
God has really been doing a work in me and speaking to me as I surrender more of me to Him. I am convinced that He put me in the hospital to do some of His spiritual heart surgery. I am a different man since then. PTL! And I am learning my part and letting go of things that, though good and better things of God, are not His best for me or are other people's parts. He is preparing me for such a time as this to lead us to what's next. He's closed some doors and windows and opened some others. He's given me a change of perspective as I release some of my preconceived notions of what He wants me and us to do and let go of some of my plans to make room for His. And man does He have some great plans for us this summer and beyond awaiting you to step into your part! Check out the prayer in the Upper Room (below) today and pray into releasing your preferences, plans and busyness and be open to allowing God to adjust your thinking and plans to His. They are really good! So much peace comes as we let go and let God! Then process ODB (the one God had me study yesterday) about sharing your faith. WOW! God is speaking to each of your hearts and inviting you to come follow Him and He will teach you to fish for people. What is your response to that invite? Pray through these two questions...Where is God calling you to share your faith? How might He empower you to do this today?
We will be processing this over the next month or so and also with our Vision Team in April. In the meantime, pray hard into this and look around at what God is doing around you. Talk to Him about hosting or leading a small group that reaches the people around you or into the things you are already doing. God's got a custom plan just for you and for a group of friends. Talk to Him about that. I'd encourage you to reread and pray through the last two days blogs as well. God is revealing His plan for our summer out of the building and for our future as we change the world for Christ. It is time to move from isolation to distribution. And it's time to start really living out the purpose of where God has placed you and to do so with some friends. We all have a part! PTL! Ask Him to reveal yours and begin processing and planning! Amen! We are His Good News Delivery Co. sent out to rescue some souls right around us and change the world outside our doors. Amen!
UR: God's Shadow
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. - Psalm 91:1 (NIV)
In Scotland, UK, where I was brought up, we don’t have a lot of warm sunshine. I remember as a teenager sitting outdoors sunbathing, trying to get a tan. I’d sigh with disappointment when a cloud obscured the sun temporarily, covering me in a cool shadow.
My feelings toward shadows changed dramatically when I landed in Madras, India, in May 1975 to serve on the staff of a teacher-training college. I stepped off the plane into what felt like a hot oven — 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Overhead was a cloudless blue sky. In what can be an oppressively hot and humid climate, people long for shadows which can offer shelter. The students used to sit in groups under the spreading foliage of trees to study together.
Likewise, in the warm, sunny land of Israel, where David composed his psalms, a shadow would be thought of as a gift, a comfort, a protection — something to be valued. How much more valuable, then, is “the shadow of the Almighty!” In God’s shadow, we find shelter and safety.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for the change in perspective new experiences can bring. Inspire us today to rest in your sheltering shadow. Amen.ODB:
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In 1701, the Church of England founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in order to send missionaries around the globe. The motto they chose was transiens adiuva nos—Latin for “Come over and help us!” This has been the call on gospel ambassadors since the first century, as followers of Jesus take the message of His love and forgiveness to a world in desperate need of it.
The phrase “come over and help us” comes from the “Macedonian call” described in Acts 16. Paul and his team had arrived at Troas on the west coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey, v. 8). There, “Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’ ” (v. 9). Having received the vision, Paul and his companions “got ready at once to leave for Macedonia” (v. 10). They understood the vital importance of the call.
Not everyone is called to cross the seas, but we can support those who do with our prayers and finances. And all of us can tell someone, whether across the room, the street, or the community, about the good news of Jesus. Let’s pray that our good God will enable us to cross over and give people the greatest help of all—the opportunity for forgiveness in Jesus’ name.
By Bill Crowder
REFLECT & PRAY
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Where is God calling you to share your faith? How might He empower you to do this today?
Loving Father, You sent Your Son for our rescue and forgiveness. Equip me to be an agent of Your great good news that forgiveness and freedom are available to whoever will receive Jesus by faith.
For further study, read Gospel Conversations: Sharing the Story of Jesus.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
There’s a fascinating note in Luke’s description of Paul’s journey to Philippi (Acts 16:1-12). In verse 6, he says: “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.” The apostle had been prevented from preaching by the Spirit! Somehow, in God’s good plan, they were to bypass Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) in order to cross over to Greece and begin the movement of the gospel in Europe. The text doesn’t tell us why this was done, but we can be sure that—knowing God’s heart for the lost everywhere—it wasn’t a reflection of any lack of love for those in Asia Minor.
Bill Crowder |
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