Today:
10-12 Bread Ministry
12-12:30 EC Day of Fasting and Prayer. We will join our bishop on zoom to pray for the denomination and our churches. Please stay muted as we will be on with many pastors and churches. Here's the link:
Meeting ID: 891 9950 0308
Passcode: 196504
Tonight 6-8 Dinner and Chosen Huddles for Families and Adults. All welcome!
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Good Morning Unified, Fruitful Followers of Jesus! We are one in the Spirit, one in the Lord and they will know we are Christians by our love. Love is a Fruit of the Spirit and a measure of how well we are doing in our walk with Jesus and as His united missionaries. This morning during our pastor's prayer huddle we discussed John 17:20-25 and Jesus' prayer for us on the night before His crucifixion. He prayed for us to be united and one. I think our church is doing pretty good with that and today at noon we will pray for that for our denomination and churches as well. I think we are taking steps to being unified on mission with Revival Church that meets in our building as we pray, plan an will serve together at our Light in the Night Trunk or Treat. (Don't forget we need lots of candy bars and are collecting those or donations to buy some) Keep praying for God to unite us, His Church and to send us to light up the darkness with fellow believers. Amen! Here is John 17:20-25 and Our Daily bread using Gal 5. We will be discussing this on Sunday. Pray into both of these. What's God saying to you and leading you to do? What will you do about that? Who will you unite with in love to bring His love alive? I'd love to hear your answers! Gal. 5:14 reminds us of our call to serve each other in love and to go love our neighbors. Paul says that fulfills the Law. It's all about love! Agape, dying to self love, love in action, loving others well. Let's keep working on that! Let us be earnest in our pursuit to live sacrificially and love lavishly more like Jesus everyday! He made us to love and to be one! Amen!
John 17:20-25,
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! 25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me.
ODB:
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Following a challenging tour in Afghanistan, Scott, a sergeant in the British Army, fell apart. He remembered: “I was in a dark place.” But when he “discovered Jesus and began following Him,” his life changed radically. Now he seeks to share the love of Christ with others, especially veterans with whom he competes in the Invictus Games, an international event for wounded and injured members and veterans of the armed forces.
For Scott, reading the Bible, praying, and listening to worship music grounds him before going to the Games. God then helps him “to reflect the character of Jesus and show kindness, gentleness, and grace” to the fellow veterans competing there.
Scott names here some of the fruit of the Spirit that the apostle Paul wrote about to the believers in Galatia. They struggled under the influence of false teachers, so Paul sought to encourage them to stay true to God and His grace, being “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18). By doing so, they would then produce the Spirit’s fruit—“love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (vv. 22-23).
With God’s Spirit living within us, we too will burst forth with the Spirit’s goodness and love. We too will show gentleness and kindness to those who surround us.
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
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How can God help you to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit? What practices can help you to stay in tune with Him?
Life-giving God, thank You for Your Spirit. Please produce within me fruit for others to enjoy.
Learn how to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Galatians, Paul warned against the teaching that gentile believers in Jesus needed to obey the law revealed to Moses. This was one of the most contentious issues in early communities of believers; it was difficult for many to fathom gentile believers not being required to adhere to the requirements of the law as inspired by God (such as circumcision; see Galatians 5:6). But Paul argued that the law had a temporary teaching role in God’s plan (3:23-25). It had no power to overcome sin. Christ frees and empowers believers to be “led by the Spirit” (5:18) in a life of love (vv. 22-25).
Monica La Rose |
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