Today:
Bread Ministry 10-12
Noon-1ish Pizza lunch with Pastor Don--all welcome to feats, fellowship and chat and pray
6 PM Rita's hangout
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Good Morning Learning Sent As You Are Followers of Jesus! We are Disciples and Apostles of the Lord! We are seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness and allowing Him to transform us into His image and to prepare and use us for His glory. Amen! What's Jesus saying to your heart today? What is He leading you to do about that. Who is He sending you to and with since we are His Team on mission. He's prepare you and some opportunities to discover and step into today. Could it be at one of our gatherings? Pray to have His heart and mind, insight and courage to follow well to your custom made part today. Amen! Come! I can't wait to see how He wants to teach and use me and us today!
This morning I awoke thinking the sun was rising and I overslept. However, it was 3 AM. The moon light was driving back the darkness just as we are sent to do. We have the opportunity to shine very bright and be His Light all the time but it seems even more so in this election season. There is all this drama, attacking, confusion and darkness stirring in a whirlwind around us. It's hard to associate with "friends" of different political views. Turn off that noise and receive Jesus' peace. God always wants to bring His shalom to the chaos and that is part of our mission. Jesus commands us to love like Him. he loved Pharisees, Sadducees, Romans, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilot, and all the common folk. he didn't approve of their choices and corrected in love, but He loved and offered forgiveness. Ask for His help and wisdom for how to be peace, joy, and love bringers. Encourage and help each other too. Our times are no different than when Jesus and the early church walked the earth and His Church exploded into a movement of God. Pray to be a part of that as His mission continues today and he has a custom part for you today. That takes dying to self, seeking first His Kingdom and an earnestness to stand firm and follow well. I don't think it will ever be easy but Jesus has an easy yoke fitted just for you to walk with Him in to today. Will you put aside you and put on that yoke? How does He want you to change the world? With love, peace and joy as you make disciples one soul at a time and as you allow Him to transform you into His image and lead you to His plans for you this day to be His Light. Amen! (As far as the election...study what you believe honors God and which candidate will do that the most. They are just a man and a woman. Which is being led by God and will honor Him with their policies, practices and life more of the time? Choose that. And then let all that chaos behind as you seek to follow Him to light up someone's heart and life today.)
How is God calling you to glorify Him today? How does he want to teach, prepare and send you? Sit at His feet and open his Word prayerfully and receive His instruction for the next step of faith. God does have some awesome custom plans for you. Seek out and do those and you will know His peace and joy and be overflowing with and walking in His love. Amen. Start with the Upper Room's call to Seek First. Embrace Our Daily bread's teaching to be encouraged and seek God assisted endurance for your purposes as you take that next step in faith. And then pray to see the open door before you that The Word for You Today discusses. May he illuminate your heart mind and path as you surrender, cast your anxiety to Him and receive His loving encouragement and directions. yes put on that easy yoke and go be who He created you be and do what he has planned for you today. Amen! I'm praying for you and for you to see God at work today and to have a willingness to join Him.
Begin with preparing your heart with some worship and invite Jesus in to your heart: Tremble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZZb6RbLJs
UR: Seek First
Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
The purple loosestrife is a tall plant with a dramatic, purple feathery flower on top. But for all its majestic beauty, the purple loosestrife is an invasive species where I live, and it is a menace. A single plant can produce over 2 million seeds yearly! Removing purple loosestrife from the environment requires hard, physical labor.
As I was thinking about this plant and the negative impact it can have, I was reminded of my Christian walk. Many times I have allowed beautiful things to invade my life. However, I often found my time with the Lord being pushed aside by this busyness. I liked staying busy because I thought it would make others see me as important. I lost my perspective. My pride kept me focused on seeing only what others saw in me.
Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added. So I knew I would need to stop and refocus my priorities. Was I seeking God first? Oftentimes, I had to get rid of the good so that I could allow the best to come into my life.
Removing anything that isn’t from God is vital. It is a life-long process but one that is crucial if we are to live the life Christ calls us to.
Today's Prayer
Father God, help us to see and reorder anything that might distract us from our mission of glorifying you. Amen.
ODB:
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James Innell Packer, better known as J. I. Packer, died in 2020 just five days shy of his ninety-fourth birthday. A scholar and writer, his best-known book, Knowing God, has sold more than 1.5 million copies since its publication. Packer championed biblical authority and disciple-making and urged believers in Christ everywhere to take living for Jesus seriously. He was asked late in life for his final words to the church. Packer had one line, just four words: “Glorify Christ every way.”
Those words reflect the life of the apostle Paul who, after his dramatic conversion, faithfully set about to do the work before him and trusted God with the results. Paul’s words found in the book of Romans are some of the most theologically packed in the entire New Testament, and Packer sums up in close company with what the apostle wrote: “Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:6).
Paul’s life is an example for us. We can glorify (honor) God in many ways, but one is by living the life set before us and leaving the results in God’s unchanging hands. Whether writing books or taking missionary journeys or teaching elementary school or caring for an aging parent—the same goal holds: Glorify Christ every way! As we pray and read Scripture, God helps us live with devoted obedience and keep our daily lives on track to honor Jesus in everything we say and do.
By John Blase
REFLECT & PRAY
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What results do you find hard to leave with God? What’s one way today you can trust His plans and in doing so honor Christ?
Dear Father, please help me to honor You today.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul quoted liberally from the Old Testament, which in his day comprised all of Scripture. In today’s passage, he draws on Psalm 69:9: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me” (Romans 15:3). Written by David, the psalm is clearly messianic—that is, it’s about the Messiah whom David anticipated. Now Paul employs that statement to point to Jesus. Psalm 69:9 is also referenced in John 2:17, just after Christ had turned over the tables of the merchants in the temple, driving them out with a whip. At that point, the disciples recalled the first half of that verse: “zeal for your house [God’s temple] consumes me.” Other messianic references in the psalm include “many are my enemies without cause” (Psalm 69:4) as well as an accurate reference to Jesus receiving vinegar for his thirst (v. 21; see John 19:29-30). The Old Testament unfailingly points to Christ.
Tim Gustafson |
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