Clothing Closet open today 10-1
Worship tomorrow at 10 in person and on zoom.
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Good Morning Crying Out to God Pray-ers! Do not fear questioning God, crying out in despair, feeling lost, hopeless, depressed. Why God? How Long will You...? Where are You? Where were You? I need You! Forgive my unbelief and help me trust and worship again. Jesus...sometimes that's all we can pray...Jesus. He knows and the Holy Spirit intercedes for you in groans and moaning's we cannot understand. Are you at that place today or is someone you are praying for and ministering to? Cry out to God for help and for Him to make His presence real and irresistible. Are you in a state where you are sitting in sackcloth and ashes and feel like you will never depart from that deep grief or depression? You need to know that God sees you and is with you. He will run to you if you open your heart and will take away your heart of stone and give you one of flesh again. Jesus is standing beside you weeping as you sow in tears. The hardest thing to grasp in these hard times is that His ways are not our ways and to not lean on our own understanding. Those may be just mumblings as we shake our fist at God in anger for allowing something terrible and for not being able to grasp why. What a hard journey grief can be with no light at the end of the tunnel and no hope to ever be able to adapt and move forward. BUT GOD! That is where He works miracles and comes to you as you give up and run out of your own strength and understanding. Jesus...Jesus...Jesus...He hears, cares and is there with you. lean deep into Him and allow Him to help you rise from the ashes and eventually get to the place where you can again soar on wings as an eagle. When it feels like the deepest, darkest pit of despair has covered and robbed His Light from you. His Light can break through and lead you to the other side of that dark valley. Run to Him. Cry out...Jesus! Be still and listen for His encouraging, loving whisper of His presence with you and look for the crack of light breaking through. He is there waiting for you. His hand is waiting to hold yours and to walk with you. He does really love you even when you can't quite love Him at the moment.
As we minister to those going through some very dark, hard times and grief, ask God to help you to know what to do or not and what to say or not and how to be His vessel of His promised comfort and peace. Be still in their anguish and pray and then respond as the Spirit leads. Karen and I have found ourselves being His vessels too often lately, but God has prepared and does use us as we still ourselves, offer ourselves and seek His wisdom and allow Him to love and minister through us. It's hard sometimes to cry with others. Remember Jesus wept with His friends in their grief and anger. He is a compassionate God. Yet He allowed Lazarus to go to the grave before resurrecting Him. Why? For His purposes which are often way beyond our understanding. We may never have answers this side of heaven. Yet God expects us to choose to stay connected and allow Him to lead us through and then redeem and use us for His glory. Jesus! Help! Come! Hold me...Jesus...
We are a broken people, redeemed by God. He is enough and all we need even when we can't believe it or when we don't want to. He is enough and He is always good, even when our hearts don't believe it anymore. Prepare yourselves for the crushing, breaking that may be coming. Know that it is filtered through His hands for His purposes and prepare to be able to persevere when it seems impossible or that that God abandoned you. Our minds will never grasp His ways. But we can have faith that in the end He is always good and working all things together for our good. Jesus...How can I praise like Job and trust that the lord gives and takes away...praise be the Lord. I can't right now...Jesus...Jesus...Jesus...He is there!
Pray and intercede today for those in deep dark pits of despair. Ask God to prepare you to endure through in faith. Ask Him how He wants to use you. Allow Him to mold and shape and send you for such a time as this. As times continue to accelerate into more darkness, persevere and allow Him to carry you and use you. Be still and know and ask for His help today. Jesus! Come! Your will be done! Use me! Prepare me! Uphold me in Your strong right hand. Jesus...
Two devos today. One from Sarah Young and Our Daily Bread. Be still. Meditate. Receive. Trust always and follow well today. He loves you beyond measure and is with you right now whispering His love into your heart. Receive it. Amen! Help us Lord! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...I trust you. Come! Help and forgive my unbelief. Come inform my prayer and move my feet to go love like You. Help! Amen
Sarah Young...Jesus Calling devo
ODB:
ODB
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When the basketball team from Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) took to the floor for the college basketball tournament, the fans in the stands cheered for the underdog squad. The team hadn’t been expected to make it past the first round, but they did. And now they heard their fight song blaring from the stands, though they didn’t have a band with them. The University of Dayton band had learned FDU’s song minutes before the game. The band could have simply played songs they knew, but they chose to learn the song to help another school and another team.
This band’s actions can be seen to symbolize the unity described in Philippians. Paul told the early church at Philippi—and us today—to live in unity, or of “one mind” (Philippians 2:2), particularly because they were united in Christ. To do this, the apostle encouraged them to give up selfish ambition and consider the interests of others before their own.
Valuing others above ourselves may not come naturally, but it’s how we can imitate Christ. Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves” (v. 3). Instead of focusing only on ourselves, it’s better to humbly look “to the interests of . . . others” (v. 4).
How can we support others? By carefully considering their interests whether learning their fight songs or providing whatever they might need.
By Katara Patton
REFLECT & PRAY
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Whose interests can you look after today? How does looking out for others promote unity?
Humble Savior, please show me ways I can help others by looking to their interests.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
As believers in Jesus, we’re to live differently from nonbelievers. We’re not to “conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2)—we’re not to follow its mindset and the value system. Instead, we’re to be “conformed to the image of his Son,” which is God’s predetermined purpose and goal for us (8:29). God wants us to be like Christ in our thinking, attitude, and actions. To be like Jesus, we must “live as [He] did” (1 John 2:6). In Philippians 2:1-8, Paul teaches us how to think and live like Christ, having “the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (v. 5) and imitating His selflessness, sacrificial service, humble servanthood, and unquestioned obedience (vv. 6-8). Jesus invites us to serve with Him in humility: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).
K. T. Sim |
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