Today:

10-12 Donut Day Ministry at the Bread Ministry

Noon-12:30 ish: Fasting and Prayer for the denomination led by our bishop on Zoom and live from my computer in the Fellowship Hall (what's God wanting you to fast? For m it's lunch. But no need to fast, always a need to pray) See link below

6-7:30 Dinner Huddle and fellowship in the Fellowship Hall (it's called that for a reason!)

Good Morning Gathered Community of Jesus Followers! Amen! We need each other and are sent with Jesus to others to build community and fellowship with Him, the Father and each other. Jesus said, "Love God and others" and commissioned us to go make disciples as He did. The early Church modeled how as Luke tells us in Acts 2:42, "They met together constantly studying the apostles teachings, praying and eating and fellowshipping together, and welcoming others into their fellowship as God grew their numbers daily." May that be us Lord! May we live and love and welcome like Jesus and make disciples in His way together! We are Your family following You into our mission field. Lead us! Prepare us! Use us well! and add to our numbers those being saved daily. Teach us and excite us to  make disciples. Thanks! Your Kingdom come and will be done in, through and around me/us today for Your glory! Thanks. Come Jesus Come!

Busy day and I am late. Only one devo to meditate on and then Harvest Prayer blog to pray through. The Upper Room today reminds us we were designed for community and we will have several opportunities to choose to do that today! How cool! God is speaking all the time and leading us to His perfect plans. Our easy yoke is to be who God made us to be and allow Him to use us for the things we are created to do. It's a true joy when you find that sweet spot! Solomon reminds us that our purpose is to love God and enjoy life. Amen. May that come alive today as we gather and allow God to use us throughout this day to bring to life Jesus, His love and His way. Amen! Come join the fun, prayer, and fellowship! God has a part just for you today.

See you soon! Shalom!

UR: Designed for Community

Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

When I was in college, I participated in a volunteer program in Thailand with a group of 20 other students where we helped teach English to children in local daycare centers and schools. One weekend our group hiked through a beautiful jungle. At one point we needed to cross a turbulent, 4-foot-deep river.

Many of us were hesitant, and when someone in the group attempted to cross, he quickly lost his footing. It was clear that the current was far too strong for us to maneuver on our own, so we all linked arms and crossed the river together. When one of us lost our footing, the two people on either side helped them back on their feet. Without one another, we wouldn’t have made it across.

While I haven’t literally had to hold on to others like this in many years, I have faced challenges since then that I couldn’t have endured alone. God didn’t design us to go through life on our own; we need others. Jesus himself demonstrated the importance of community through maintaining a close group of disciples. We need God first and foremost, but we need others too — to lean on and to allow them to help lift us up.

Today's Prayer

Dear God, help us to lean on you as we not only lift others up but allow them to lift us up too. Thank you for designing us for community. Amen.

Harvest:

September 4 - Walking Faithfully with God We know that Adam and Eve walked in the Garden with God (Genesis 3:8) and that Noah, despite living in a sin-affected society, “walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9). The Bible gives us plenty of examples of what this walking-and-talking relationship looks like so we know what we’re aiming for.  In the Old Testament, we are introduced to a man named Enoch who had just such a relationship with God. Enoch made a brief appearance in the book of Genesis. We don’t learn much about him, but what we do find out is this: “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:22–24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14–15). Interestingly, Enoch’s name surfaced amid a genealogy. It was at a time when people lived upwards to 800 and 900 years. So Enoch might have been middle-aged, as it were, when “he was not.” Yet he was a person—a living, breathing human being, just like us. He is a powerful example to us in how he walked and talked with God: Day after day and year after year, he was faithful to his God, well pleasing to him. A future psalmist would well describe the kind of life Enoch lived this way: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” (Psalm 128:1). Then .  .  . one moment he was praying, praising, and pleasing God; the next he was gone. I once heard someone say that God said, “You know, Enoch, we’re closer to my home than yours. Let’s just go there!” I want to be walking with God so closely that that’s what I hear when the number of my days is up! Eventually the search was called off; Enoch was nowhere to be found.  Holy Father, I long to have the kind of relationship You had with Adam and Eve in the garden before sin entered into the world…and to have spent the kind of intimate time with You that Scripture indicates Enoch did. Walking in such a beautiful fellowship with You moment by moment, day after day and year after year must have been the most incredible experience! May the passion of my worship, adoration and conversation with You continue to grow until one day I am “no more” on this earth, but swept into Your glorious presence in heaven. --Adapted from Walking and Talking with God: A Simple Way to Pray Every Day by Dean Ridings. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount. Prayer Points Praise God for his constant presence with you every day. Thank him for always being near you even in times of extreme difficulty (Ps. 42:3). Confess those times when you’ve doubted God’s loving presence. Commit yourself to seeking his face every morning in prayer and meditation. Ask God to go with you throughout this day. Pray for all the leaders in your congregation: your pastor, elders, deacons, ministry heads, and others who come to mind. Pray for God’s obvious presence in their lives. 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.