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Saturday, November 23 2024

Today is Bread day from 10-12 and tonight is our last Chosen dinner huddle until the new year. starts at 6-8ish (next week we gather Tues at6 for our Thanksgiving Eve Eve Taco Tuesday dinner and worship time.)

Pray with us for what God will have us study after the new year.

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Good Morning Very Loved, Very Productive in the Lord Friends! Amen! Right! Pray with me...May that be us Lord! We know we are very loved and created for your purposes. Thank You! We know You have sent Your Spirit to us to gift and empower us to produce good fruit and it is coming alive! Thanks! Thank You for gathering us to be Your team of Good News and fruit bearing disciples ad apostles! We are students and works in process and progress and yet You are producing good fruit in and through us. Thank You! Father, we love and trust You and offer ourselves to You today. Your Kingdom come and will be done in and through and around us today. may many see you and be drawn as we learn to live and love more and more like Jesus. Protect us. Thank You! Provide and guide. Thank You and may we be the best stewards of all Your blessings! Lord go before us with favor as we pray for 5 neighbors for 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Inform our prayers and open our hearts to respond as You draw. Lord lead us with the Christmas giving and blessing challenge. Open our eyes to what you are doing and how to sow lavishly into your works. Lord, bless our finance team as they work on Your budget for next year. may we as a church, Your Body live sacrificially and love and sow lavishly like Jesus. Lord, thank You for new members and attendees and answered prayers. We asked for 12 and are at 11. Yu hear and answer and bless. Thank You. Send more and connect us to the harvest and raise up harvest workers from the harvest. We do know and are experiencing Ypour promise that You have good plans for us! Plans to prosper and not harm. Keep iit up Lord. We offer ourselves to you and ask that You would help us to seek first the Kingdom and Your good ways and not lean on our own understanding, so that, You would direct our steps to Your best and perfect plans You have created and gathered us to do. You ROCK! We love You Lord! Thank You for being our God, Savior, Lord and Leader and even Help in time of trouble. Your have greAT THINGS FOR US! Thanks! Come! Be glorified! May Jesus be lifted up and come alive in and through us today. Thanks! Amen!

God allowed me to sleep in this morning and I missed my 6 am huddle. BUT GOD! How nice to be refreshed and ready for this day that He has planned. I have just finished up my quiet time and need to get on the road to church to shop, cook, prep and be part of bread ministry. God's got this and I asked Him to be my Lord and Shepherd today. And He is and will for He has plans for me and us today. Invite Him in. Dwell in Him and His love. Receive His direction and go live and love like Jesus today. Then watch for how He'll use you and worship! He made you for such a time as this and is going before you today to lead you to His best. PTL! I can't wait to hear the stories of His love and faithfulness! Share them with us and others who need to hear of His loving faithfulness and good plans.

OK it's time for me to rock and roll. But before I go, below are the devos God ordered for us today as He is speaking to me and directly to some of you as you engage with Him through them and your quiet time. What's He saying to you and what will you do about it? His plans are perfect for you, His beloved, gifted, equipped and led child. He's calling you by name to come sit at His feet, reload for today and follow Him to His best and good and lasting fruit custom fitted for custom made you. PTL! Be still and know and then prepare to go live and love more like Jesus today! Amen! He's leading you to His best. Rejoice! Follow well today my friends! Shalom shalom!

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Sarah Young

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Charles Stanley

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Our Daily Bread

Speak to the People About Jesus

Please let me speak to the people. Acts 21:39

READ Acts 21:27-22:1

audio playLISTEN ONLINE

Paul had gone to the temple for the Jewish purification ceremony (Acts 21:26). But some agitators who thought he’d been teaching against the Law sought to take his life (v. 31). Roman soldiers quickly got involved and arrested Paul, bound him, and carried him from the temple area—with the mob shouting, “Get rid of him!” (v. 36).

How did the apostle react to this threat? He asked the troops’ commander if he could “speak to the people” (v. 39). When the Roman leader granted permission, Paul, bleeding and bruised, turned to the angry crowd and shared his faith in Jesus (22:1-16).

That was two thousand years ago—an old Bible story that we might find hard to relate to. More recently, a man named Peter was arrested while visiting a jailed friend who believes in Jesus in a country where believers are regularly persecuted. Peter was tossed into a dark prison cell and blindfolded during interrogations. When the blindfold was removed, he saw four soldiers with guns pointed at him. Peter’s response? He saw it as “a perfect . . . opportunity to share his faith.”

Paul and this modern-day Peter point out a hard, vital truth. Even if God allows us to experience tough times—even persecution—our task remains: “Preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15). He will be with us and will give us the wisdom and power to share our faith.

By Dave Branon

REFLECT & PRAY

How have you or someone you know faced persecution for faith in Christ? How will you “proclaim the gospel” today?

Dear Jesus, please give me courage to represent You with love and wisdom.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

In Acts 21, Paul is accused of bringing “Greeks [gentiles] into the temple” (v. 28). This false accusation relates to how Herod’s temple was divided. The outer court was divided into the court of Israel (only for Jewish men), the court of women (where all Jewish people could enter), and, furthest out, the court of gentiles, the only court where gentiles (all non-Jews) were allowed to worship. These divisions weren’t called for in Scripture but were taken seriously—with threat of the death penalty for gentiles who ventured beyond their designated court.

Monica La Rose

Upper Room: Staying Available

In all your ways submit to [the Lord], and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:6 (NIV)

My ministry entails editing a newsletter to help inmates like me who are on death row. Recently, while I was organizing the next issue, an elderly inmate came to my cell and asked me to help him find his glasses. Though a little frustrated at the interruption, I went to help. An hour later, I had just sat back down when another person came to vent to me about his marital problems. I listened. After that, someone else called for me, also needing my time and energy.

I was getting irritated because I felt I couldn’t focus on editing the newsletter — the work God had called me to do. I prayed for peace, and God brought a verse to mind: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps” (Prov. 16:9). I realized that although my writing ministry is valuable, sometimes God wants me to serve in unpredictable ways.

It is easy for us to get locked into patterns of service and make ourselves unavailable to God. But we are not our own; we are God’s. There are many ways to minister, and God is always at work (see 1 Cor. 12:4-6). Our job is simply to maintain humble, willing, and obedient hearts that follow where God leads.

Today's Prayer

Loving Father, grant us the wisdom to see your guiding hand, and remind us to stay open to unexpected opportunities to serve. Amen.TWFYT

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Harvest prayer Starters

Prayer Points

  • Praise God, the one who is your dwelling place (Ps. 90:1).
  • Thank him for giving you a wonderful inheritance in Jesus Christ, “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade” (1 Pet. 1:4).
  • Confess moments during the past day or week when you’ve looked for other “dwelling places.”
  • Commit yourself to living under the authority and love of your heavenly Father.
  • Ask God to show you today why his “dwelling place” is the best.
  • Pray that you will be enabled to show to an unbeliever by your word and deed why it is that you trust God as your dwelling place.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here.
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St. Matthew's EC Church

5th & Ridge Streets
P.O. Box 433
Emmaus, PA 18049
Telephone 610.965.5570
Email: stmattsecemmaus@gmail.com

ABOUT US

We are learning to live and love like Jesus. 

We are working on becoming who we were created to be and doing our custom made purposes well. 

We are part of the Evangelical Congregational Church http://www.eccenter.com/

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