UPDATES:
PTL! Thank you givers! Our AC installation is going to be fully funded with a few more donations that are on the way this week! You guys ROCK! Keep seeking God for His plans for us for the rest of the summer and to use our building to lead many to Him and become a House of Prayer for the Nations and a disciple making hub.
Those of you that have been asking about Gunther (Bobby Gunther Walsh) I prayed with him this morning around 4:30 before he began his first day back on air. He's working from home but getting back at it will help emotionally and physically. Keep praying for his healing and patience in the process. he has a long way to go with rehabbing his injuries. he thanks everyone for their prayers and encouragements.
I hope to finish up homebound communion visits this week. Pray for our homebound. Send a card or call. They all miss you and are lonely.
Wed is Bread Ministry from 10-12 followed by volunteer brunch. Family Ministries opted to gather inside Wed due to heat and weather threat. We will mini golf another time.
Sunday's worship at 10 will be led by Sarah. pray for her. We will celebrate communion. Prepare your hearts and if you are joining on Zoom, don't forget your crackers, bread and juice. We have a few people looking for rides to be able to join us for worship, even if only able to do so once a month, it would be appreciated. Talk to Sarah or me about that if able to help
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Good Morning Journeying Friends of God! Step by step we journey through time until we step into eternity. We know we have a blessed future and hope in God's presence. Being in His presence began at the second we were saved. PTL! We grow in relationship with Him and grow into our fuller potential, even storing up treasures in heaven, during our journey here on earth. We work on becoming more like Jesus and at growing into our fuller potential. We move from being one way to another improved way to another because of Jesus and His work in and through us. But for that all to happen and happen well, we need to die to self, take up cross daily and follow Jesus. And that always works best when done with others. God has some great custom made plans for you to discover and grow into and those plans will always involve custom made and gathered others to journey with. Every time I think of all of you, I thank God for allowing us to be gathered and sent together. I thank God for prayer warriors that cover me, those that encourage and those who help and even hold my feet in the fire. Thank you! I thank God for the fresh breath of the Spirit and the new things He is revealing and doing! I thank God for those He is sending and for using us in many different custom made ways in His Good News Delivery Co. I thank God for partnering us in worship, praise, laboring, and usefulness. We are well on our way to becoming a dynamic movement! But there is still work to discover and do and people to bring into the sheepfold. Keep digging! Keep plowing in prayer. Keep seeking, dying to self and following. Keep working together. Daylight is burning! God is moving! He does have great plans for you and us! PTL and Amen! (Hammer Down!) What's God saying to you right now and what will you do about it? Who will you process with? Deny yourself, take up your cross today (what needs to be crucified right now), seek, process, plan and follow Jesus. He is humble and gentle at heart and made you for such a time as this. Put on His easy yoke by being who He created you to be and focusing on and working at the things you are custom made to do just as you are and right where he placed you. And then do that with those He is gathering you with. Love God, people, yourself and go love like Him today! Amen! He is journeying with you and singing over you. He's calling you by name and inviting you into His awesome plans for today. WOW! Enjoy! Begin with some quiet time with Him through our devos for today (below). Prepare your hearts and go! Love in action is God's way! I'm praying for you and us!
OK time to get out and get some yard work done on this beautiful morning! This is the day the Lord has made! Rejoice and be glad! reload and go live and love like Jesus! Shalom!
Charles Stanley
Upper Room: Improving with Time
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSVUE)
Recently I considered replacing my 40-year-old acoustic guitar with a newer model. However, after trying out many guitars, I found that my old guitar produced warm and pleasing tones that sounded much better than the new guitars. I chose to have my old guitar worked on by a guitar technician instead. The technician said that old wood makes a richer and more pleasant sound because as an instrument ages, the wood dries out and the sap loosens from its grain, allowing vibrations to move more freely through the instrument. My guitar’s wood has gradually become less and less like it was when the guitar was new. Over time it has become a new creation — a new form of what it was.
As growing Christians, I think we change in a similar way. Over time as we absorb God’s word and follow God’s guidance, we become less like our former selves and transform into new creations. As our faith matures and changes, God’s influence is able to move more freely within us. And in time, we can produce more beautiful “music” because we are living more harmoniously with God.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Loving God, help us accept the ways you have made each of us wonderful and unique. Give us wisdom as we grow in faith and become new creations in you. Amen.The Word for You Today
Our Daily Bread:
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A phobia is defined as the “irrational fear” of certain things or situations. Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders (though some might argue that’s a perfectly rational thing to be afraid of!). Then there’s globophobia and xocolatophobia. These and some four hundred other phobias are real and documented. It seems we can become afraid of most anything.
The Bible tells of the Israelites’ fear after receiving the Ten Commandments: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning . . . they trembled with fear” (Exodus 20:18). Moses comforted them, offering this most interesting statement: “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you” (v. 20). Moses seems to contradict himself: “Don’t be afraid but be afraid.” In fact, the Hebrew word for “fear” contains at least two meanings—a trembling terror of something or a reverent awe of God.
We may laugh to learn that globophobia is the fear of balloons and xocolatophobia is a fear of chocolate. The more serious bottom line about phobias is that we can be afraid of all kinds of things. Fears creep into our lives like spiders, and the world can be a scary place. As we struggle with phobias and fears, we do well to be reminded that our God is an awesome God, offering us His present comfort in the midst of darkness.
By Kenneth Petersen
REFLECT & PRAY
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What in your life are you afraid of? How does God’s love help you overcome those fears?
Dear God, I find myself afraid of so many things. Please comfort my heart, and help me to rest in Your love.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19:1-2). Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb (3:1; 33:6), was the place where Moses first got to know who God was at the burning bush (3:1-12). Now the whole nation would get to know the “I am” (vv. 14-15). Their arrival is a fulfillment of verse 12: “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” It marked the beginning of their privileged status as God’s covenant people—“a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (19:6). It’s here that God gave them His laws—instructions for how to relate to God and worship Him (20:1-11) and how to live as His holy people (vv. 12-17). They camped at the foot of Mount Sinai for about a year (Numbers 10:11). Their stay in the Sinai wilderness is told in Exodus 19 through Numbers 10.
K. T. Sim |
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Harvest Prayer
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June 24 - Bending to the Will of God
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Most of us think prayer is a matter of getting God to do what we want so He will give us what we need. But the greatest purpose of prayer is to come into the presence of the Father and align our will with His. To let Heaven re-adjust our plan to God's perfect, sovereign plan.
Such praying is our best antidote to temptation. We may ask that God alleviate some of the temptation and He can. But we will, like Jesus, face extraordinary temptations in our daily lives. Our greatest prayer should be that we would not "enter into" temptation—to indulge, latch on. This should be our constant, daily prayer.
Can you imagine what this week would be like if we never entered into the temptations before us? The temptations were there, but we consistently bent the knee in prayer and bent our will to His will? How effective we would become! How clearly we would hear God! What leadership and witness we could give to others! What a testimony we would have of the power of answered prayer!
Where do you need to bend your will to the will of God? Wrestle with God in prayer about this today until you have submitted to His will … and then, go meet the day!
Holy God, how I long to live in Your glorious presence each moment of my life! Show me how to turn my attention back to You when I am distracted or tempted towards worldly things. Surround me with Your Spirit to protect and inform my heart, thoughts and actions. I want to align myself with Your perfect will in order to hear Your voice more clearly and to become a living testimony of Your greatness!
---Adapted from Prayer with No Intermission by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Glorify God as the all-sufficient one, who through his limitless power fills everything in every way (Eph. 1:23).
- Thank God for giving you his Spirit to meet all your needs as you do his will.
- Confess those times you have sought fulfillment in ways which did not honor God.
- Commit your needs to him (Phil. 4:19).
- Ask God for a greater awareness of his power to help you grow spiritually (2 Pet. 1:3-8).
- Pray for friends who struggle with material or spiritual poverty. Ask God to help them understand that he can meet both areas of need with his riches in Christ.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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