Today: Bread Ministry 10-12; EC Day of Fasting and Prayer to become a dynamic movement of God (Pray with our bishop 12-12:30 (live from Fellowship Hall); Chosen Dinner Huddle and Family Ministries 6-8
Tomorrow Vison Team Zoom Meeting 6:30 pm. Please pray for us to have God's dreams, visions and plans as we seek to follow Him and plan for the rest of the year. This meeting will inform our budgeting process too. Pray for God's wisdom and heart for us to sow lavishly and steward wisely all His blessings. Thanks!
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Good Morning Abiding, Delighting in God, Directed Followers of Jesus! Amen! Be still and know He is God as you still yourself at His feet and allow and invite Him to inform your prayers and steps today. He has great plans just for you today! PTL! Strip off the old, step into your new nature, your true identity and allow God to lead you and use you and grow you more like Jesus. Flow through the devotionals below as God speaks to your heart and loves on you. You can know His peace as you still yourself, yoke to Jesus and allow Him to speak to your heart and lead you to His still waters and green pastures today. Amen!
Harvest Prayer begins things today with the reminder to be God focused. Sarah Young continues this track with the reminder to keep seeking God first and to abide in Him. Start everyday delighting in the Lord and travel through each day with praise and adoration as you keep your mind fixed on things above. Opening His Word helps too and helps us to be truthful about ourselves, our choices and with God. He already knows you and loves you. Be transparent and truthful and allow Him to lead you to wisdom and Truth. God wants to heal you and help you. Invite Him to do so as you still yourself and abide in him and His Word today and He will lead you to experience His peace--a peace beyond understanding. He sure does love you and we have so much to be thankful about as we allow Him to forgive, refresh and lead us beside the still waters of peace and then to those fresh, productive, fruit producing, green pastures. Oh what joy we can truly know and live! Thanks Lord! Help us to abide, share openly with you, receive and repent and follow You well today. Thanks for the plans you have for me/us today to prosper and bring a future and a hope. Thanks for all the answered prayers! Help me/us to complete our races well as we work on becoming more like Jesus today. Amen! May Your Kingdom come and will be done in, through and around me today. Be glorified! Amen!
I've been praying and abiding since 2:30 this morning. God has refreshed and will lead me revived into this long day of ministry and service. Thanks Lord! Hear our prayers and prepare us all for Your plans for today and move us to step into them fresh and informed! Thanks! Amen!
Harvest:
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November 6 - Be God Focused
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A young wealthy man wanted feedback from Jesus concerning his walk with the Lord. Jesus challenged him with the answer: Sell your possessions and follow Me. The young man walked away disheartened.
Matthew 19:17-19, 21, 23-24, 26: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” … “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” … “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” … “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God”.… “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”
God is the Source. He must be the focal point of our lives; if anything else distracts, we’re missing the fullness of who we can be in the Lord. God draws all people unto Himself, and He transforms the most difficult cases to follow Him.
Lord, thank You for making all things possible! I repent for any time I’ve been so concerned with this world that I’ve held back from walking with You. I repent for when I’ve judged my walk as satisfactory, instead of asking You about it. I repent for any time I’ve refrained from following You, Your ways, Your wisdom. I repent for when I’ve failed to acknowledge that Jesus has made my salvation and perfection possible.
Regardless of what happened in the past, I declare You make all things possible. The most hardened of hearts, You can bring to a blessed place of desiring You. I declare I will hold nothing back from obeying You and Your commands.
I thank You that You’re good. I thank You that Your love is complete and all encompassing. I thank You that You make me able to do what is impossible in the flesh. I thank You that You have formed me in my mother’s womb and shaped me into a vessel usable by You. I thank You that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. I thank You I lack nothing through You.
I praise You that You’re the miracle-working God. I praise You that You’re omniscient and omnipresent. I praise You that You’re always willing to dialogue with me. I praise You that You desire to glorify Yourself via my life. I praise You for who You are!
--Adapted from Praying What Jesus Says by Natasha Miller. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise God, your Father and great Teacher.
- Give thanks for teachers and mentors who helped make your paths straight (Prov. 3:6).
- Confess that you sometimes focus more on their quirks than their virtues.
- Commit yourself to noticing the good in those who can teach you more about faith.
- Ask God how you can best support education in your church.
- Claim the Holy Spirit’s power to woo family members or friends who say Christianity makes no sense.
Prayer Pointer
“A man’s state before God may always be measured by his prayers.” —J. C. Ryle
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CS:
UR: Tracks to safety
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. - Psalm 119:105 (NIV)
I remember being caught in a snowstorm while driving through a high mountain pass. The snow soon developed into a blizzard, and I was unable to see more than a few feet ahead. But a truck in front of me was leaving tire tracks in the six-inch deep snow, so I did the only thing I could; I followed the tracks. If it had driven off the cliff, I would have been right behind! Eventually, though, the truck led me down the mountain to safety.
That experience caused me to remember these words from Psalm 119: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Spiritually speaking, it can be as difficult for us to know the way forward as it was for me to find my way in that snowstorm. Temptations may be intense at times. Or we may simply find ourselves at a fork in the road, unsure of which path to take. No matter the cause, the way forward for us at times may not be clear. But when we rely on the wisdom of Psalm 119, God’s word can dispel the darkness and reveal the way we should go. When we are grounded in scripture, God’s guidance keeps us ready for any trial.
Today's Prayer
Dear God, help us to hear your voice speaking to us through scripture, especially in difficult times. Guide us each day, and reassure us of your presence with us. Amen.ODB:
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Cinematography? Well done. Soundtrack? Reflective and calming. Content? Intriguing and relatable. The video presented a study in which Redwood trees were injected with a substance similar to adrenaline to keep them from going dormant. The injected trees died because they weren’t allowed the natural cycle of “wintering.”
The video’s message was that this can happen to us as well if we’re always busy with no seasons of rest. And that can be true. But the video was inaccurate. There never was such a study. Redwoods are evergreens and never go dormant. And the trees in the video were giant Sequoias not coastal Redwoods. As thoughtful as the video seemed to be, it was based on falsehoods.
We find ourselves living in an age where, due to our technologies, lies are magnified and multiplied to the limits of convincing us they’re true. The book of Proverbs, that compendium of godly wisdom, speaks often of the stark difference between truth and lies. “Truthful lips endure forever,” says the proverb, “but a lying tongue lasts only a moment” (12:19). And the very next adage tells us, “Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy” (v. 20).
Honesty applies to everything from God’s commands to videos about wintering. The truth “endures forever.”
By John Blase
REFLECT & PRAY
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How might you wisely question the narrative of what you see, hear, and experience? How will you live out your commitment to the truth?
Dear God, please give me discernment as I daily pursue what’s true.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Solomon, who wrote most of the book of Proverbs, begins by stating his purpose for these wise sayings: “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence . . . knowledge and discretion” (Proverbs 1:2-4). The proverbs are meant to help the reader walk “in the way of wisdom” (4:11), which is the way of truth. Like the proverbs, the apostle John had much to say about truth. Most importantly, Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). And “if you hold to [His] teaching . . . you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:31-32). Christ said, “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light” (3:21). When we walk in the light of Jesus, who is truth embodied, we’re truly walking in wisdom.
Discover more of Solomon's wisdom in this study on Proverbs.
Alyson Kieda |
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CS:
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JM
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