Tomorrow Night (Wed at 6) Rita's fellowship and outreach gathering. All welcome~! Wear your St Matts T-shirts. Let's party! In case of rain (it is forecast for intermittent showers) we will move indoors across the street at the Creamery. Watch for a last minute adjustment.
Good Morning Very Blessed, Celebrating, Trusting, Followers of Jesus! How long is your gratitude list that we have been building. Mine is like one of those long scrolls that keeps unrolling! We have so much to be thankful about! Counting our many blessings is something that never ends as God provides, guides, protects, delivers, forgives, redirects, encourages and continues to bless beyond measure. We always need to celebrate God and all His workings in our lives, our church and what He is doing all around us. We even show our trust as we expectantly pray with thanksgivings. As we pray for God to use us tomorrow we start and end with thanksgivings. Thank You Father for all you are doing, for leading and using us. Thank You for the harvest and connection points You are preparing for tomorrow. Thank You for going before us with favor. Father may our joy and thanksgiving and celebration as we fellowship overflow and draw many to You and Your Living Water that flows from us. Thank You! Your Kingdom come and will be done! We can't wait to see what You will do. Thanks! Amen.
Oh yeah baby, we do have so much to celebrate and be thankful about! Amen. The more we share the stories of God's faithfulness and celebrate, the more confident we become and we grow in trust. Plus that becomes contagious as we celebrate and live and love like Jesus. Check out Our Daily Bread reminder that it is time to party! Charles Stanley teaches us how to overflow into being a channel of blessing. The Word for You Today reminds us that even when God leads us in a round about way, it's for His purposes and plans and we can celebrate His goodness, wisdom, refining, preparing and perfect plans. The Upper Room reminds us to refocus in praise and celebrate that God is always with us, hears us and provides all we need when we need it. And Harvest Prayer reminds us of past revivals and how, at just the right time, God breaks through for His earnest, repentant, faithful remnant with deliverance, provision, and revival. Pray along and praise and offer thanksgiving for God readying this nation and the world for massive revival and for using you and your prayers. He knows, cares, loves, is able and is on the move! Rejoice! Celebrate and lift much worship and thanksgiving today! Hallelujah! Amen! We are very loved and blessed, growing in trust and celebrating followers of Jesus! Celebrate that!
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Our former church in Virginia held baptisms in the Rivanna River where often the sunshine is warm, but the water is frigid. After our Sunday service, we’d load into our cars and caravan to a city park where neighbors tossed Frisbees and kids mobbed the playground. We were quite a spectacle, traipsing to the river’s edge. Standing in the icy water, I would offer Scripture and immerse those being baptized into this tangible expression of God’s love. As they emerged, soaked to the bone, cheers and clapping erupted. Climbing up the bank, friends and family enveloped the newly baptized in hugs—everyone getting drenched. We had cake, drinks, and snacks. The neighbors watching didn’t always understand what was happening, but they knew it was a celebration.
In Luke 15, Jesus’ story of the prodigal son (vv. 11-32) reveals that it’s cause for celebration whenever someone returns home to God. Anytime someone says yes to God’s invitation, it’s time to party. When the son who’d abandoned his father returned, the father immediately insisted on showering him with a designer robe, a shiny ring, and new shoes. “Bring the fattened calf,” he said. “Let’s have a feast and celebrate” (v. 23). A massive, exuberant party including whoever would join the revelry was a fitting way “to celebrate” (v. 24).
By Winn Collier
REFLECT & PRAY
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Where have you seen transformation and healing happen? What could celebration in these moments look like?
Dear God, I have much to celebrate, and this joy flows from You and Your work in my life.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In the background of Jesus’ parable of a father’s embrace of his returned son are the religious leaders grumbling that Christ “welcomes sinners” (Luke 15:2; see also 5:30; 7:34). Yet it was “tax collectors and sinners” who “gather[ed] around to hear Jesus” (15:1). Listening to Christ and responding appropriately is a theme in Luke’s gospel (6:27, 47; 8:8; 9:35; 10:16; 11:28-31). Before this parable, Jesus told two others—of a “lost sheep” (15:4) and a “lost coin” (v. 9). In both parables, the theme is “rejoicing in heaven” (v. 7) over sinners returning.
Monica La Rose |
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CS:
TWFYT
UR: Finding What I Need
I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. - Psalm 81:10 (NRSVUE)
Early on summer mornings, as I pray and read my devotional for the day, a hummingbird makes trips to the feeder hanging outside my window. I keep the feeder filled with the sugar water he needs, and his frequent visits indicate that he knows he will always find necessary nourishment waiting on my front porch.
This morning during my time with God, I prayed about a critical situation in my life that I am unable to resolve. I was struggling with feelings of anxiety when I saw the hummingbird land on the feeder again. Suddenly, it became clear to me that in the same way my visitor simply trusts that his nectar will be there, God anticipates my needs. I can come to God and trust that the resources I need are always waiting.
If I can be faithful to one of God’s smallest creatures, how much more can I trust God to provide abundantly for me. Like the hummingbird, I realized suddenly that I had “landed” in peace beside the never-ending Source of all I will ever need.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help us look to you and not just to our own resources for protection and provision in difficult times. Amen.Harvest:
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July 23 - United, Fervent Prayer
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If you love the cause of world missions, you should pray for revival. When God revives His people, their hearts begin to beat in sync with Him who came to “seek and save that which is lost.” A quick study will reveal that every major mission movement in history came out of the fires of revival.
The mission advance with Count VanZinzendorf and the Moravians began with the Moravian Pentecost, igniting a prayer meeting that lasted 100 years and sending missionaries around the world in a day when this was unheard of. Most Moravian missionaries left with their goods packed in a coffin, vowing to give their lives on the field for the cause.
The modern mission movement with William Carey and the Haystack Prayer meeting happened in the early 1800’s in the fever-heat of the Second Great Awakening. Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, and William Booth were all men touched by extraordinary movements in their nations. If we love missions, we must pray for revival!
We cannot manipulate God to send such movements, but we are charged by God to unite our hearts in repentant prayer for such awakenings. There is a clear cycle in the Bible and human history. As the church declines, God sends His disciplining judgments. This is the mercy of God. Like pain to the human body, this is remedial and intended to wake us up and bring us back to Him. When we get desperate enough, we begin to cry out to God in united, fervent prayer. And there is something uniquely irresistible to God about a united cry. In answer to this cry (orchestrated by God Himself) He hears and answers, sending the revival and awakening we need.
Merciful Father, You are waiting for a repentant people to cry out to You in desperation to send another move of the Spirit. Stir me up to be keenly aware of my great need for revival in my own life. Help me pray more fervently for the sleeping Church to awaken and for a great spiritual awakening to sweep across our nation once again! Plant a desire deep within me for those who are lost and face an eternity apart from You! May Your Church lift up a united cry before Your throne!
---Adapted from Simply Prayer by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Praise God for not leaving you “as orphans” but for giving another helper to be with you forever (Jn. 14:16, 18).
- Give thanks for God’s presence and power, and trust him to continue to energize you, keeping you on the right course.
- Confess the times you are dissatisfied or frustrated in your walk with the Lord.
- Commit yourself anew to God and let his Spirit help you in your weakness, especially in prayer (Rom. 8:26).
- Ask him to reveal himself to you today in a new and fresh way.
- Pray that your family and friends will have the joy, peace, and stability that comes from knowing God personally and spending time daily with him (Col. 3:15-17).
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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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