This Week:
Tue Zoom (only) Huddle 10-11 All welcome!
Tue Noon pray for Light in the Night and other activities and needs on Zoom!
Wed Bread Ministry 10-12
Wed Dinner/Chosen/Family Ministries Huddles 6-8. Bring a friend! Pastor Don's cooking and we begin season 4of the Chosen
See attached the Activities handouts and prayer guides for next few weeks/months we had in the bulletin. Mark your calendars, pray and ask God how He wants to use you or provide through you and your prayers.
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Good Morning Chosen. Loved, Forgiven, Cleansed, redeemed of the Lord! PTL! Right? Oh what wonder love, grace, mercy and forgiveness we know, can know and can share. God loves you and wants you to share that amazing love with others He has prepared just for you. Who are they Lord? How do You plan to use me? help me see, know and follow well today! Prepare me! Purify me to serve! Embolden me! Send me! Amen!
Today God really threaded through my/our devotionals and wraps it up nicely with Harvest Prayer's blog at bottom. (Below that are the links to the handouts) Spend some time at His feet today, listening, surrendering, receiving and be prepared for the day ahead with a thankful heart! TWFYT reminds us that we have a BIG God and need to work on having a bigger concept of God and praying some big prayers in big faith. God's ways are not our ways, are they? He is so much more than we can know or imagine. Prov. 3:5-6 reminds us to stop leaning on our own understand! Allow God to inform your prayers and actions today. Sarah Young reminds us of the freedom we can know in Christ and the importance of casting all our burdens to Him and receiving His healing forgiveness and loving freedom. Charles Stanley reminds us that God's Word will convict, counsel and guide us as it leads to freedom and walking in the ways of Jesus. ODB reminds us that we are part of the family--THE family of God, by His grace and through our faith. Amen! And the UR reminds us that God will encourage us along the way. Look for it and listen as others speak life and encouragement to you and receive it as God's gift. God really loves you and us and has great plans for today. Talk to Him about that and prepare your hearts to worship. trust and obey! What's God saying to you? What will you do about that? I'm praying for you! Shalom for you are very loved, accepted and forgiven!
TWFYT:
SY:
CS:
ODB:
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“You don’t belong here.” Those words crushed an eight-year-old girl’s heart, and the pain stayed with her. Her family had emigrated from a refugee camp in a war-torn country to a new country, and her immigration card had the word alien stamped on it. She felt like she didn’t belong.
As an adult, although she put her faith in Jesus, she still felt alienated—stung by the feeling that she was an unwelcome outsider. While reading her Bible, she discovered the promises of Ephesians 2. In verse 12, she saw that old, troubling word alien. “You were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (nkjv). But as she kept reading, she saw how Christ’s sacrifice had changed her status. She got to verse 19, which told her, “You are no longer” a foreigner or alien. She was a “fellow citizen” with God’s people. Realizing that she was a citizen of heaven, she was overjoyed. Never again would she be an outsider. God had taken her in and accepted her.
Because of our sin, we’re alienated from God. But we don’t have to stay that way. Jesus brought peace to all who were “far away” (v. 17), making all who trust Him fellow citizens of His eternal kingdom—united as the body of Christ.
By Dave Branon
REFLECT & PRAY
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In what way do you feel alienated? What does it mean for you to know that God has called all His children to be united in Him?
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for allowing me to experience fellowship with You and with others who love and trust You.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
As believers in Jesus, we have His promise that we’re not strangers to Him: “You are . . . fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Ephesians 2:19). In fact, His care for us is so intimate that at this very moment, He’s preparing a home where we’ll live with Him forever! Christ said: “I go and prepare a place for you, [and] I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3). When we arrive at our eternal home, we’ll be in His presence forever.
Bill Crowder |
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UR: Encouraged at every Step
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. - Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
My home is Ukraine, but now I live in Estonia.
My friends and I still remember the horror we experienced during the first weeks of the war. We hid in the cellar of a high-rise building for 10 days during the air raids. Then we decided to start a long journey out of the country. We traveled through Romania, Hungary, and other countries to get to Estonia. Everywhere we journeyed we were met by people who helped us in countless ways. With God’s help we found our way out of danger and were encouraged by God’s Spirit at every step.
Once in Estonia, I decided together with my friends to get involved as a volunteer, helping to feed the refugees who were fleeing Ukraine. I find that the best way to deal with worries and haunting memories is to help other people. God has been good to us, and in turn we have tried to be good to God’s people.
Today's Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for guiding us and walking with us always. Thank you for all the friends you send into our lives. Amen.
Harvest:
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September 23 - Walking with a Holy God
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Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear.”
When we come into the presence of God, we will always behold one outstanding characteristic of His nature: His holiness. There is not a blemish in God; purity and impurity do not mix. If we are to have intimate fellowship with a holy God, then we must be clean before Him. David asked a question in Psalms 24, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?” He then answered his own question saying, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (24:3-4). Only the pure in heart will be able to enter into the presence of God and discover intimacy with Him.
Sin in the life of the believer hinders intimate fellowship with God. God is holy. When sin resides within the heart of a disciple of Jesus, it’s impossible for that disciple to walk in deep intimate fellowship with one who is absolute purity. We must confess our sins, and “He [will be] faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).
Lord, continue to create a pure heart within me and help me to be continually aware of anything that has become an idol in my life. Search me and reveal anything that sets my soul on a sinful path. I want to walk in intimate fellowship with You, Father. Reveal insincerity or anything that threatens our relationship. Transform me by the renewing of my mind and give me the perseverance to lean into Christ-likeness for the sake of people who love You, and those who have yet to claim You as Savior and Lord.
--Adapted from Giving Ourselves to Prayer: An Acts 6:4 Primer for Ministry (Chapter 37, Hindrances to Effective Prayer by Sammy Tippit). This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise the name of Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide.”
- Thank God for having given you everything you need for life and health in this week.
- Confess to him the times when you have begrudged giving a kind word or encouragement or forgiveness to another person.
- Commit yourself to reflecting God’s generosity and openhanded love to a difficult person in your life.
- Ask God to give you an extra portion of his Spirit as you strive to reflect his character.
- If there is a specific need in your family that only God can provide, commit this need to him in the faith that he will supply it abundantly (2 Cor. 9:8).
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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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