Sarah email and challenge below (*thanks Sarah)
*One correction, I believe Harry Hebig's service is at the Emmaus location. Will know for certain today when obit is published.
Study and meditate on Ephesians 2 this week as we will be discussing Sunday
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Good Morning Pursuers of God's Customized Vision and Plans and Doers of His Word! Amen! Check out Sarah's message about pursuing God's vision and plans for you. They are custom made for you for such a time as this and part of Jesus' easy yoke for you. PTL! We are reminded in Eph. 2:10 that we are God's masterpieces. We are made new in Christ. And that God wants us to do the things He has planned for us since He created us. Understanding your purposes needs to be followed by doing what God reveals. Sarah's picture of the stagnant lake reminds me of the Dead Sea. Why is it dead? Because nothing flows out. It takes in all kinds of nutrients and fresh living water that builds up, stagnates and dies because there is no outlet. How often have we heard teachings on doing and being doers of the Word? A lot, I believe. We have all this head knowledge about the Bible and know God, but unless we follow Him out and allow Him to use us to make Him known, we stagnate and eventually become useless for His purposes. But here's the promise, God knows, loves and has great plans custom made for you for today and everyday to follow. And He promises to guide us and be with us as we take those steps of faith to go and make Him known. PTL! We can do nothing of value without Him. So, seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness and then put on that easy yoke and go practice living and loving like Jesus and watch how He uses you, just as you are. Next thing you know, you'll be growing into His greater things He has planned for you and you will be known as springs of Living Water! Amen!
What's God saying to you as you seek Him and His plans for you and our Body? What will you do about it? Who is helping you process, plan and go? Pray for God to raise up your co-laborers and to connect you to a small group. Pray for us to get some prayer ministry and small groups started in the next few months. That is the vision God has given me for our Body--gather, pray, process, prepare and go make Him known. He has a perfect part in that just for you! Wonder what it might be? Whatever it is, it will be a joy because you were crafted to do it and God will be with you! Amen!
Our EC motto is to know Christ and make Him known. As we work on the EC vision of becoming a dynamic movement of God, it will be built upon seeking and knowing God and will only come to life as we go and make Him known. We all have a custom part in His Good News Delivery Co. What's yours? Seek Him and process that with some others today. He promises to go with you, guide you, and make Himself known to and through you. Check out the rest of our devos below and the Harvest blog on revival. God is speaking and weaving us together for such a time as this. May we be earnest in our pursuit to grow at becoming more like Jesus and living and loving like Him. Amen!
Yesterday was a unique Bread Ministry Day. they are all different, really. I always pray for God to use me and connect me to those He is sending and for Him to use me well. He always answers those prayers and in different ways each week. PTL! Your part could be to pray for God to open doors, draw people to Him and for us to connect to them and them to Him? Your part could be helping to serve the bread and greet people? Your part could be sitting there watching for the ones God is sending to you and allowing Him to use you? Maybe your part is helping to pick up the bread and set it up? Or maybe God has another plan for your day? Seek Him and follow well everyday!
Yesterday, God sent Joan, Karen Latch's sister. Joan usually stops in for a bit to get bread and chat and visit her sister. Yesterday she was there when we opened and stayed until we closed. She needed to be out of the house and around God's people that care. They rent an apartment in their basement to her husband's best friend. Monday that man waited for them to leave for dinner and committed suicide in their driveway. They are devastated and have no clue why. He obviously premediated everything, no one knows why. People passed in and out while we hung out and chatted. Then Amber and Arianna stopped in and sat down with us and shortly after Chuck joined us. We just sat and chatted. Chuck was hurting from having a funeral for a friend Mon. Amber and Arianna are praying for healing and peace for Ramone. It was just a time to sit, listen, chat and encourage. Then God sent an angel in a new face of a young Christian mother and her 6 month old. Shortly baby Asa (named after the King that brought revival to Israel) was on Joan's lap. Joan had been a NICU nurse for years and loves kids. God, Asa and this young mother were used by God to bring some peace and a heaven sent distraction for a few minutes. As bread ministry ended, and the others left, I was able to pray with Joan and for her husband. Now how hard was that? Jesus' easy yoke sometimes means just to show love, care, concern, share a listening ear and to just allow Him to place you right where He has planned for you to be, just as you are. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and He will direct you to what He has planned for you. Here I am Lord. Send me! Use me as I am. Bless others and You as I allow you to love through me. Thanks! Amen! What's your plan for me/us today? Lead us and be our Shepherd. Come! Bring revival and may it begin in me and through our Body. Amen!
Sarah email:
Good evening, church family,
Just a few things to share with you:
Harry Hebig is finally home, in the arms of Jesus. His services will be on Monday, July 22 with visitation from 10 - 11am, and the service will begin at 11:00am at the Bachman Kulik Funeral Home, 1629 Hamilton St Allentown
Please continue to keep Harry's family in your prayers during this difficult time.
Mary Rehm had her shoulder surgery today. I spoke with her this evening, and she is home and resting. Dealing with some pain. She is scheduled to being therapy on Friday. Pray that she gets a good night's rest. She is very thankful for Marshall being there to assist her. You both are in our prayers!
Bread ministry went well today. Please continue to pray for all the volunteers that it takes to make the bread
distribution take place and bless many families.
Continue to pray for those that are still without electricity due to the storms that have passed through. Also pray for the safety of all the workers who are cutting down trees and repairing the electrical lines.
Marylou Snyder is a proud grandmother......her grandson, Matthew Bachert. He has been working towards becoming an EMT on the National Registry. A few weeks ago he passed the practical part of the test. Yesterday, he took the final exam and he passed!!! Matthew Bachert is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician. Congratulations, Matthew! Marylou is sooo proud of him!!
Don't forget to pop a birthday card into the USPS box for GLADYS KETNER, She will be celebrating her birthday on Saturday. Let's le her know that we are thinking of her.
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Where are you going?
Many of us like to write out a list to help us accomplish things, things that need/should be accomplished in your day.
I like to have lists as I like to check or cross the items off as I accomplish them.
Some have said that if they don't have a list, or agenda to follow, they fear their day would be wasted, as they wouldn't know what to do with their time.
The list gives them direction, provides guidance and helps hold them accountable for their day.
We could say the lists we make, whether daily or weekly could be called our "VISION"
Vision is defined as the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be. Think about it, if we didn't have a vision of what we wanted to get completed, we may just end up sitting on the sofa or our favorite chair all day long........
Even our awesome God tells us that it's necessary for us to have a vision - to know where we are headed.
Provers 29:18 says, Where there is no vision {no revelation of God and His Word} the people are unrestrained. But Happy and blessed is he who keeps the law (of God)
God wants each of us to seek out His vision for each of their lives; for our church families. For if we don't have a vision from God, as to where He wants to use us or take us, we become like a stagnant pond - that is filled with water that just sits there.
Eventually the water becomes yucky and bug infested and not good for anything. You can't swim in it, you can't drink it, and it's not even pretty to look at. If we don't ask God for HIS VISION for our lives, we will become like that pond - nothing is flowing in (God's Words are not flowing into our hearts/minds) and nothing is flowing out (meaning there is no evidence being shown to the world around us, of our Love for God. There is no evidence that we even have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
We Need to have a vision as we travel on our Jesus Journey -
May I challenge you today, that if you are unsure of your vision for Christ, and what it is...... ASK HIM. ASK Him to open your eyes and heart so you may see your vision being revealed to you by your Heavenly Father.
Whatever He shows you is His vision for YOUR life - know you are not alone - He will help you to work through it. He will not leave you alone - As Jeremiah 29:11 says " For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
If you discovered your VISION a while back and have seemed to have forgotten it or you have never really sought out what your vision is.....now is the time! May I challenge you, today, to find some quiet place to sit and ask God - "what is Your vision for me?"
Prayerfully open your heart and ears to receive what God is going to tell you!!!
That is all I have for now, praying you all have a great rest of your week!
Blessings,
Sarah
Harvest:
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July 18 - Awakening from Spiritual Slumber
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There have been six seasons of great revival and spiritual harvest in America to date. Historians debate the dates and the extent of each has varied.
- The First Great Awakening 1735-1742
- The Second Great Awakening 1800-1825
- The Prayer Revival 1857-1858
- The Welsh Revival 1904-1905
- The Jesus Movement 1969-1971
Notice that every 50-60 years in our history God has graciously come in power to our nation bringing the course correction that we desperately need.
The telling mark of these movements have not been just the change in the churches, but the rapid expansion of the gospel. Awakening implies that a man is in a spiritual slumber, unable to find God. God in His grace quickens his heart, bringing him to an awareness of his sin, a deep desire for repentance, and faith to believe in Christ. In times of national spiritual awakening this happens with stunning speed.
In the First Great Awakening 15% of the population was saved. Do the math on your city or state and you will see the massive nature of such a movement. During the height of the 1857 revival, it was reported that 20,000 people a week were coming to faith in Christ! In the Welsh revival, 100,000 people experienced salvation in 9 months, fulfilling the vision God had given to Evan Roberts in prayer, and this happened the a country that is the size of a small American state. That Awakening literally swept around the world, dramatically affecting America as well.
Records of the largest denomination of its time, the Southern Baptist Convention in America, show that more students and teenagers were baptized in 1969-1971 than any moment in that denomination’s history—before or since. This was during the Jesus Movement.
If you long for millions to be saved, pray for a nationwide, spiritual awakening.
Lord of the Harvest, awaken Your people again! Thank You for what You have done in the past to draw people to Yourself. I give you thanks for awakening sleeping churches and calling generations of believers to cry out to You for the lost. Do it again, Lord! Hear the prayers of Your people, and give me a deep desire to see another nationwide spiritual awakening that leads to millions of salvations.
---Adapted from Simply Prayer by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Praise the Lord Jesus, who will be “revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels” (2 Thess. 1:7).
- Thank him that he will come to restore justice and righteousness in the earth.
- Confess the times when you have not lived in awareness of Christ’s coming again in power and judgment.
- Ask him to help you desire and look forward to his coming, and commit yourself to preparing yourself and others for “the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (1:10).
- Ask the Spirit to give the churches in your community a sense of urgency in bringing the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection to the unchurched and unbelieving in their neighborhoods.
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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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Upper Room: Broken Crayons
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. - Psalm 51:17 (NRSVUE)
At the end of each school year, my mom would put all the broken crayons from the classroom in a container for me to use at home. I never liked broken crayons, but those broken crayons still colored.
My granddaughter, Arianna, is an artist. For a project, she once took brand-new packs of crayons and broke them on purpose into different lengths. She then carefully arranged the pieces on a piece of wood until a picture emerged: a child’s hand and an adult’s joined together with a butterfly hovering above them. The beauty of the colors and the amount of work that went into the piece of art are apparent to all who view it.
God wants to make us new — to transform us. Even when we feel broken and useless, God still has a purpose for us. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he urged them to offer their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” and to “not be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Just as broken crayons still color and can be repurposed into something beautiful, God can transform and redeem our brokenness.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for helping us to find new purpose even when we are broken. Transform us so that we may serve you well. Amen.Our Daily Bread
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A pair of eagles built a giant nest in a tree a few miles away from my house. Before long, the enormous birds had eaglets. They cared for their hatchlings together until one of the adult eagles was tragically struck and killed by a car. For several days, the surviving eagle flew up and down a nearby river, as if searching for the lost mate. Finally, the eagle returned to the nest and assumed the full responsibility of raising the offspring.
In any situation, single parenting can be challenging. The delight a child brings combined with possible financial and emotional pressure can create a broad range of experiences. But there’s hope for those who have this important role, and for anyone trying to manage a situation that feels overwhelming.
God is with us when we feel exhausted and discouraged. Because He’s omnipotent—all powerful—and doesn’t change, His strength won’t ever expire. We can trust what the Bible says: “Those who hope in [Him] will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Coming up against our own limits won’t determine what happens to us because we can depend on God to supernaturally recharge us. Hoping in Him allows us to walk and not faint, and to “soar on wings like eagles” (v. 31).
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
REFLECT & PRAY
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What feels overwhelming in your life? How might God be encouraging you to rely on His strength?
Dear heavenly Father, I can’t manage this life on my own. I need You. Please give me Your supernatural strength today.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Isaiah 40:30-31 includes three classifications of people. “Youths” refers to children into the teenage years. They’re often bundles of energy and vigor. But—naturally speaking—sooner or later, they wear out. The term “young men” refers to those in the prime of life, but they also have limitations. The third category is a spiritual category that’s not defined by age, stage, or other human metrics: “those who hope in the Lord.” Such are candidates for strength of a different kind—supernatural spiritual strength. It enables them to do through God what they can’t do on their own: “[God] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Those who put their trust in Him are candidates for Godlike spiritual strength. Like Him, in whom they trust, they “will not grow tired or weary” (Isaiah 40:28).
Arthur Jackson |
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TWFYT:
CS
Shalom! God loves you and has great plans for you! Rejoice!
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