Worldwide Communion tomorrow at 10. We will also be collecting for Everlasting Life Ministries
Good Morning Blessed, Willing, Joyful, Testimony-Sharing Servants of the King of the Universe! Amen! Please Lord! Stir us, Your faithful servants to receive all your blessings, choose joy, share our lives and stories willingly. WOW! We get to worship as we live and love more like Jesus and bring Him and His ways alive! Thank You! Stir us to more of this for your glory! Use us as You redeem and in spite of our circumstances. Thanks Lord! Come! Redeem! Revive! Lead! Use! Amen!
This week has taken us through all kinds of highs and lows and in it all is God! PTL! He has great plans for you that He has been unleashing. He brings His wisdom and peace beyond understanding as He guides us to His greater things. REJOICE! What story has He given you of His faithful love and provision? Who needs to hear that? What is your part in His story? Do that for His glory! Check out my devotionals for today that thread through our salutation, choices and lives in Christ! he is able to do immeasurably more than we can think or imagine and he created you and gifted and empowered you to be His representative, just as you are, for such a time as this! Trust and follow Him well today and write that new story to share! He is working all things together for good, even though that seems hard to believe today. He is with you and sending you to go change the world one soul at a time by living and loving more like Jesus today. Go! Love like Him and write and share those stories! Amen!
I was going to just use ODB and UR devos today about sharing our stories and taking one step of fait but all the devos I used today (below) thread through this as God is speaking to my heart and informing my steps for today. Is He doing the same for you? What's He saying? Who will you process with? What will you do in response? Pray, receive, process, plan and go share your story one step of faith at a time. And then add to your gratitude lists as you see God respond and then you will have another story to share of His faithful love and of using His surrendered servant to go love and impact the world for His glory. Amen! We get to choose to jump in His river of love and life and allow Him to bring Living Water from us as He leads us along through today, Yes rejoice! What an awesome God we love and get to worship and serve!
Sarah Young
Charles Stanley
Joyce Meyers
Our Daily Bread
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I opened the memory box and pulled out a small, silver lapel pin, the exact size and shape of a ten-week unborn baby’s feet. Caressing the ten tiny toes, I remembered the loss of my first pregnancy and those who said I was “lucky” I wasn’t “that far along.” I grieved, knowing that my baby’s feet were as real as the heart that once beat inside my womb. I thanked God for freeing me from depression and using my story to comfort others who were grieving after losing a child. More than two decades after my miscarriage, my husband and I named the child we lost Kai, which in some languages means “rejoice.” Though I still ache from my loss, I thank God for healing my heart and using my story to help others.
The writer of Psalm 107 rejoiced in God’s established character and sang: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (v. 1). He urged “the redeemed of the Lord” to “tell their story” (v. 2), to “give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” (v. 8). He offered hope with a promise that God alone “satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (v. 9).
No one can escape grief or affliction, even those who’ve been redeemed through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We can, however, experience God’s mercy as He uses our stories to point others to His redeeming love.
By Xochitl Dixon
REFLECT & PRAY
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How has God healed your heartbreaks? How has He used someone else’s story to comfort you?
Dear Jesus, thank You for healing me and using my story to point others to Your redeeming love.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The Psalms are divided into five “books,” or sections. Psalm 107 is the first song in the fifth of those books. Verse 3 provides a clue as to when it was written—likely after the Jewish people had been exiled from their homeland. It refers to them as “those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south,” an indication that they’d been scattered among the nations. The psalm recounts Israel’s checkered past as it praises God for His frequent deliverance. Repeatedly they forgot God, which led to dire circumstances. Four times we hear the refrain, “Then they cried (out) to the Lord in their trouble,” and four times we read that He delivered “them from (out of) their distress” (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28). The psalm concludes, “Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord” (v. 43).
Tim Gustafson |
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Upper Room: One Step of Faith
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord. - Psalm 84:1-2 (NIV)
My youth was spent in an existential void filled with doubt. I was searching for something and wanted to fill that void by surrounding myself with people and possessions. Paradoxically, the more I searched and the more things I acquired, the emptier I felt. I finally reasoned that the answer to my deep yearning lay in a spiritual awakening, but I resisted: What would people think?
One afternoon I passed by a church that was usually full of people; but that day it was not. In my quest to find answers to my questions, I went in and spent a few minutes there in silent reflection. In those few moments I found the tranquility and peace of mind that I needed. I came to understand that the fullness of my existence did not depend on things but on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I began to seek out persons of faith to guide me on my spiritual journey, a journey that restored my life and helped me restore relationships with my family. My newfound faith also inspired me to share in loving fellowship with others who were on the same quest. Most important, as I spent time in prayer and Bible study, my spiritual awakening drew me closer to God.
Today's Prayer
God of hope, remove anything that prevents us from walking in your light. Thank you for the pioneers of faith who show us how to experience the fullness of life in relationship with you. Amen.The Word for You Today
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