Worship tomorrow 10am live in person in our air conditioned sanctuary and on Zoom from the comfort of your home! Join us and invite some friends!
*Start reading Ephesians chapter 1 as we begin our trek through some of the Apostle Paul's letters to the early church. Ask God to speak to you as you read. Record what He's saying or any questions and come prepared to study how the early church learned to follow God and not lean on their own thinking or ideas.
Don't forget our gathering at Rita's Wed at 6. Be ready to move to the creamery across from Weis in the event that the expected bad weather comes. Let's put on the St Matts T shirts and go shine bright while enjoying some fellowship and cool treats! (That's putting on Jesus' easy yoke too!)
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Good Morning Patient, Worshiping, Followers of the God Who Leads Us! AMEN! This salutation flows right from our devotionals for today (below). Prayerfully meditate on them and notice how our God who speaks brings His Living Word alive and threads it through His plans for us. What's He saying to you? What's He have planned for you? Who are your processing, planning, going partners? I believe God is opening some doors for you, me, and us together. Seek first His Kingdom. Die to self, take up cross and crucify your own thinking and ways and commit to don Jesus' easy yoke and follow well and with some friends. I am amazed at how God is bringing the reality of His easy yoke alive to us! Thanks Lord! His easy yoke is stepping more fully into who you are created to be and doing the things He created you to do with Him and some friends for such a time as this. It's easy because it's made just for you at whatever season of life or circumstances you are journeying through too. It just flows naturally from who you are in Christ and brings such joy and many blessings to God, others and yourself as you follow Jesus and run your race. Thank God for this and ask Him to continue to lead you to His greater things as He grows you to be more like Jesus.
You know as I continue to sit at Jesus' feet and receive and process, it becomes very apparent that He does have some great plans for me, for some of you and for us together. He is informing, hearing and answering prayers and bringing His plans to life as He begins opening the new doors for us to discover and step through in faith. Can any of you perceive that? Is He giving you some ideas or stirring you to pray into something or process and plan with some others? Wherever God guides, He provides. Amen! Often that provision comes as we step boldly through an open door in faith and pray His provision into existence with our mustard seed sized faith. Those of you called to pray as part of your role in our Good News Delivery Co. please get at it and pray we see the open doors and step through in faith and for God's provision to come as we go. Some of you are called to step through some new door opened just for you. Do it! Some of you are called and prepared to lead us through an open door. Do it! Some of you are to remind us that some doors are closing and to refocus. Do it! We all have our custom made purposes and we need each other to process, pray, plan and go in God's power. Let us do that together earnestly! I am convinced that is why God wants us to Become More in '24 and Do More in '24 and become more like Jesus as we go. What's He revealing to you to work on, pray about and/or encourage others to do? Are you His provision for the things beyond those new doors? What's His easy yoke for you and for us as a Body?
Check out TWFYT about open doors. Then meditate on ODB reminder to begin with worship and prayer before we go. I have some ideas of things I believe God is planning for me and us that need patience and prayer before we go. I am reminded of Caesar K's teaching about slow is fast and small is big in God's Kingdom ways. I often pray for myself to remember this and wait on the Lord and also pray that I don't miss Him moving and neglect joining Him and also, that I stop banging my head against the closed doors. Be still and know is followed by process and go in God's perfect timing. The UR carries on the theme of patient waiting. But waiting does not mean doing nothing. It's abiding in the Lord, worshiping, discerning, praying, preparing and readying for the good fruit to come when God says go. Where are you in the good fruit production process? Whose helping you prepare, discern, praying for you or whoaing you down as needed? CS reminds us that God is always with us. That's in the waiting, preparing and going--always with us! Amen! God is with you and us. PTL! No matter what we are facing or celebrating, he is there working things together. He is the strength in our weakness and He inhabits our praise and He is with us every step of the way. PTL! How might He want to direct your steps today? What will you do about that? I pray it would be obedient praying, processing, planning and following! Amen.
God is on the move! New doors are opening and some are closing. Keep worshiping, praying, sitting at His feet and patiently following Him! Great things are coming! Rejoice! I am so excited an can't wait to share and process with some of you the things He is planning for me and us! Let us not grow weary or weary ourselves but step into our new nature and God's custom plans more fully as we don Jesus' easy yoke! Amen!
TWFYT:
ODB:
Worship First
They began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. Ezra 3:6
READ Ezra 3:1-6
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I’d never planned to start a non-profit organization about adult friendship, and when I felt called to do so, I had so many questions. How would the charity be financed, and who should help me build it? My greatest help on these matters ended up coming not from a business book, but a biblical one.
The book of Ezra is essential reading for anyone called by God to build something. Recounting how the Jews rebuilt Jerusalem after their exile, it shows how God provided funds through public donations and government grants (Ezra 1:4-11; 6:8-10), and how both volunteers and contractors did the work (1:5; 3:7). It shows the importance of preparation time, with rebuilding not beginning until the second year of the Jews’ return (3:8). It shows how opposition may come (ch. 4). But one thing in the story particularly stood out to me. A whole year before any building began, the Jews erected the altar (3:1-6). The people worshiped “though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid” (v. 6). Worship came first.
Is God calling you to start something new? Ezra’s principle is poignant whether you’re starting a charity, a Bible study, a creative project, or some new task at work. Even a God-given project can take our attention away from Him, so let’s focus on God first. Before we work, we worship.
By Sheridan Voysey
REFLECT & PRAY
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Why do you think the Jews built the altar first? How could worship fit into your workflow today?
Heavenly Father, I worship You as Lord of all, including the tasks You’ve given me to do today.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The book of Ezra is one of the post-exilic books in the Old Testament, meaning it recounts events following the exile of Judah to Babylon. After seventy years in captivity, when the people were allowed to return to the land of their forefathers, they found Jerusalem a mere shadow of its former glory. With both the impact of Babylon’s attack and the seven decades of neglect having taken its toll, the city needed to be rebuilt. However, the people also needed to be rebuilt in their relationship with God as His covenant people. Described as a teacher of the law (Ezra 7:6, 10), Ezra reestablished the law of Moses and called the people to worship the God their ancestors had forsaken—which had prompted the exile in the first place. Ezra was also of the priestly line, descending from Seraiah, the last chief priest to serve in Solomon’s temple (2 Kings 25:18).
Bill Crowder |
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UR: Patient Waiting
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. - Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)
In the summer before my senior year of high school, I worked as a waitress at an inn in New Hampshire. As I sat on the front porch steps waiting for my father to come for me, the warm sun was peering through the leaves of the tall elms, and the soft breeze gently tousled my hair. I was content to wait patiently.
A guest leaving the inn noticed me and said, “Patience is a virtue.” That encounter has remained with me. I pondered it, realizing that in that moment it was easy to be patient. Waiting on the inn steps, I had no fear that my father would not come for me. I trusted in his concern for me, and I knew he would not abandon me. My father soon came, and I relaxed in the warmth and comfort of his presence.
I have also learned to await patiently the Lord’s direction in my life. Our heavenly Father cares for us, too, and our patience and expectant waiting is never in vain. When we realize that God is in control of our lives, we can release our tensions and frustrations to God. We will never be abandoned.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for always being patient with us. Help us to wait patiently and trust that you will guide us as we await your answer to our concerns. Amen.CS:
