Prayer update:
Please be in prayer for Diane Schwenk. Healing from a fib and wisdom for docs as they assess treatment for stage 4 breast cancer. She is scheduled to be discharged from hospital today. Pray for daughter Tracy and granddaughter Brittany for shalom and wisdom.
Pray for Darlene Skinner who will be having knee replacement surgery tomorrow.
Pray for Yvonne and Chris Muik. Healing for Chris, provision for disability and insurance needs and peace.
Pray for Gail and Houstin Lichtenwalner for peace, discernment and healing. Houstin has many appointments and a lung biopsy tomorrow.
Pray for our Support team meeting tonight and for wisdom and direction as we process roof and insurance possibilities and other issues. Thank God for His servants and provision. we are making progress with roof and insurance. Pray we are able to have new insurance in place by Oct 15th so we can keep doors open. Pray for God to lead us to the right company and His provision. Thank Him that roof is not as bad as first believed and will need minor repairs. Thank Him for the insurance settlement. Pray for us to be the best steward of all God's blessings!
PTL for a great day of ministry in our building yesterday with bread, EC Day of fasting and Prayer and dinner huddle. Thank God for His provision and for teaching and using us! Pray for new opportunities and connection points. Pray we become a dynamic movement of God. God is on the move! PTL!
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Good Morning Surrendered, Trusting, praising-in-the-Storm, Directed-by-God Followers of Jesus! Amen! Please Lord! Help my unbelief and help me choose joy as I grow in trust. You are with me always! May I trust and follow well today and always. Amen!
Last night's Chosen episode had two profound insights and depictions of God's wisdom coming to life. It was a deep insight and affirmation to me that God is with us and working all things together as we surrender, trust and work on following Jesus better. We often quote Proverbs 3:5-6 as one of our guiding commands and truths: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your steps." So true! In the episode Jesus was talking to Matthew or Peter and said, "Man complicates things too much by leaning on his own understanding." I think we all can tend to do this as things come at us and begin to overwhelm us. We start down some dark holes, start grumbling and complaining, start to not expect God to show up, let alone acknowledge that He is with us always and knows, cares, and is at work. I've been discussing this with some of you and some of our homebound members the past two weeks. So many of us are in some really hard places right now. BUT GOD! Don't lean on your own understanding. Trust Him with all your heart. He is at work! I forget where in episode Jesus said that, maybe when He was telling Peter to forgive 70x7 or all the time? There was a lot going on in this episode including Matthew asking Peter for forgiveness and Peter's struggle to do so, but finally embracing Matthew in forgiveness. Who do you have to forgive today as you stop leaning on your own understanding? Are you able to die to self, take up your cross daily and follow our Shepherd and love like Him? Yes some hard things we are walking through! Are you able to turn off the noise of all the chaos going on around the world and in our neighborhoods and your life? Do you trust God with all your heart and are you able to get out of your own head and allow Him to lead to His best? Man, pray into that and find some to partner with to help you in the journey!
This all ties to another quote from last night's episode. Matthew was talking to Gaius and trying to explain the peace of following and trusting Jesus. There are a lot of back stories to this, just like we all have different backstories. We need the Good Shepherd to come, provide, guide, lead us beside still waters and bring His peace beyond understanding. Gaius asked something about Matthew not being worried about things and Matthew responded, "I only have one thing to do--follow Him and the rest will take care of itself." Say that out loud. Pronounce that over you, us, our church and all the chaos! "I only have one thing to do--follow Him and the rest will take care of itself." Stop leaning on your own understanding and trying to fix things or do things your way. Trust God with all your heart and follow Jesus and the rest will work itself out! And you will know His peace too! Amen! Help me/us Lord! Our devos for today (below) thread through this. Meditate and prayerfully contemplate them as you still yourself at Jesus' feet today. What's He saying? How does He want to bring His shalom or direct your steps. Write it down, share it and keep praying it into reality one step of faith at a time.
There was one scene that really struck me last night. You may be feeling something similar as you realize you were one way and God is and has led you to being another as you follow Jesus and allow Him to work things out. Throughout the Bible God gives people new names to coincide with His new plans for them and as a result of following Him earnestly or as a prophetic pronouncement of things to come. Abrim became Abraham (Father of many) What new name is God pronouncing over you? Simon (hearer) became Peter (the little rock). God is calling you by your real name and maybe new name today. He knows you and your created potential that meshes with His plans for you. You are redeemed, sent, and a very loved child of God. You were one way and God is pronouncing His new things over you as He leads you to new and greater things. Receive them! Start walking in them with God. Amen! Peter was lying in bed unable to sleep as he contemplated what it meant to have a new name. He was feeling a heavy weight of new responsibility and uncertainty of how or what now, or really, me? I experienced this and the Chosen depicted it well. The night after finding out that I was called to my first church, this heavy weight of how and of all of a sudden being responsible and held accountable for many souls fell on me like a heavy blanket. I couldn't sleep as I wrestled with, the thoughts of why me Lord? Who am I? I can't do this without you! And that's the truth! None of us can do anything of value without God. I, like Peter, was forced to draw very close to Jesus, work on getting out of my own head, grow in trust and allowing Him to lead. He has been faithful, even when I fail. He keeps leading me to growth and new things. As I trust Him with all my heart and keep seeking Him earnestly, He directs my steps and sometimes that means walking through some dark valleys that develop my trust, grow my faith and prepare me for the next thing He has. What an awesome, praiseworthy, trustworthy God we serve. He is love and lovingly is working all things together for the good of those who stop leaning on their own understanding and ways and acknowledge Him. Is that you? Are you feeling that weight today? Be still and know and invite Him to lead you to His perfect plans for you and what's next. What's your new name He is pronouncing over you? Healer? Warrior? Faithful follower? Good and faithful servant? My vessel? Joy bringer? Disciple maker? He has great plans custom made just for you for such a time as this. Fix your thoughts on Him and things above. Turn off the noise and take that next God-guided step in faith! Know His peace! Amen!
Man! God gave me a sermon today that He has been writing for a long time for me and for us! He knows you, loves you and is calling you to come and find rest in Him and His good ways. Amen! Here's our devo thread to meditate upon! Shalom!
UR: Other Plans
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. - Psalm 94:18 (NIV)
My professional career had many twists and turns.
I climbed the corporate ladder to become an assistant vice president at a bank. I had expected to spend my entire career at that bank, but organizational changes occurred which ended my banking career after 26 years. I then worked for a non-profit organization, but funding deficiencies there made me leave. I finally retired as a public-school teacher.
It was during all these employment woes that God became most real to me. At no time did I ever feel that God had abandoned me. I could relate to the psalmist’s feelings in our scripture for today. Every time I was out of work and interviewing for another position, I thought, I’m slipping, Lord! But each time I can say that God was kind and saved me.
No matter our circumstances, when we turn our lives over to God, we can trust that God will see us through and renew our hope.
Today's Prayer
O Lord, when we face disappointments, encourage us to trust in you. Amen.
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ODB:
When asked if I’d accept a new responsibility at work, I wanted to say no. I thought of the challenges and felt inadequate to handle them. But as I prayed and sought guidance from the Bible and other believers, I realized God was calling me to say yes. Through the Scriptures, I was also reassured of His help. So, I accepted the task, but still with some dread.
I see myself in the Israelites and the ten spies who recoiled from occupying Canaan (Numbers 13:27-29, 31-33; 14:1-4). They too saw the difficulties, wondering how they could defeat the powerful people in the land and subdue their fortified cities. “We seemed like grasshoppers,” the spies said (13:33), and the Israelites grumbled, “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?” (14:3).
Only Caleb and Joshua remembered that God had already promised He’d give Canaan to His people (Genesis 17:8; Numbers 13:2). They drew confidence from His promise, seeing the difficulties ahead in the light of God’s presence and help. They’d face the difficulties with His power, protection, and resources, not their own (Numbers 14:6-9).
The task God gave me wasn’t easy—but He helped me through it. While we won’t always be spared difficulties in His assignments, we can—like Caleb and Joshua—face them knowing, “The Lord is with us” (v. 9).
By Karen Huang
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When have you felt inadequate to do a task you knew God was asking you to do? How do Caleb and Joshua’s examples help?
Dear God, please help me to follow You wholeheartedly.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The word picture used to describe the land promised to God’s covenant people is one that “[flows] with milk and honey” (Numbers 13:27; 14:8). This attention-grabbing phrase that depicts richness and abundance first appears in Exodus 3:8, where it describes the land God has allotted to His people: “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” The word flowing is as significant to the phase as the other words. The same Hebrew word (zuv) is translated “gushed out” in Psalm 78:20 and 105:41. Such visual images of what God has promised helps to strengthen our faith.
Arthur Jackson |
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