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Friday, January 03 2025
This Week:
Tuesday Christmas Eve:
Bread Ministry 10-12
Worship with Communion 4PM followed by brief meal for those who need one
Wed: Christmas Day! Immanuel! God is with us! PTL! Amen!
Good Morning Very Blessed Co-Laborers! God made us, saved us, gifted us, lives in us and loves through us! What joy we know and get to share as His love overflows from us. Think about that today as you prepare for that last sprint to get it all done before Christmas Day. God is with you and watch for how He may want to love through you today and prepare to join Him. Maybe you still have your $50. to invest in someone. Ask God to lead you. Pray for those that we have already blessed. Think and pray about someone God may want you to invite to worship with us on Tuesday. Then ask and invite. God has custom made and gifted you for such a time as this. PTL! I can't wait to hear the stories of how God has used us this season to bless many! God is sure on the move in our midst! PTL! Thanks you to all the servants at St. Matts! We truly are being blessed to go bless and then being blessed back as we go do it! PTL!
Yesterday Sarah reminded us all about love and how God is Love and Love lives in us to love through us. We've often discussed this. How is God/Love loving through you? How is Love helping you to do your part in God's Good News Delivery Co.? We will be discussing some of this in the weeks ahead as we continue to seek Him and follow Him to His best plans for you and us. Maybe start journaling all that He is doing the next few days to be prepared to share that. So many will be encouraged and led to glorify God as you share.
Today I wrap up my homebound visits, Lord willing. So many I have visited ask about all of you and say Hi. They are hearing stories of how God is moving and using us. Some are really struggling and could use some love and encouragement. Reach out as able. Some of us are facing a difficult Christmas season. Who is God bringing to mind for you to reach out and love on? Do it! Today I am just sharing two devos that are speaking to my and will to your heart. God is our provision and He fills us with Love and Light to share and He uses us to go live and love like Jesus. May today be a day filled with Christ, His Love and Light and may the and they be incarnated (brought to life) through you and us. God is writing some stories right now for us to live well and share. Dwell in His Love today and allow Him to come to life in and through you and then share those stories. We are God's love story, written in red. For God so loved you that he sent His Son. And His Son wants to love and love through you today. Rejoice and ask Him to use you well. Amen!
Harvest:
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December 23 - God Is For Me
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Before you begin, meditate on this thought: God is for me.
How I praise and thank You Father, for once I walked in darkness, but now I have seen the Light of Jesus! Thank You for giving Your one and only Son for me--He who had never sinned--for me, who sins continually. How can this be? There are no words that adequately express how thankful I am for what You have done for me!
For Your willingness to be born in human likeness and bear my punishment on the cross--Thank You Lord Jesus!
For removing my sin from me as far as the east is from the west and remembering it no more--Thank You Lord Jesus!
You are Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace and I celebrate and announce that You are the Christ, Messiah--Emmanuel!
Thank You Father for the gift of Jesus that expresses so lavishly, Your great love for me--that You are for me. If You would give me Jesus, is there anything for my good that You would withhold? If You are for me, is there anyone who can be against me? If You are for me is there anything that I should fear?
I ask Father that You give me a fresh glimpse of Your face as You cheer me on in this race that You have marked out for me, a fresh understanding of your great love for me from which I can never be separated. Spur me on by the Holy Spirit in my pilgrimage with You until I am truly able to live as “more than a conqueror”! In spite of trouble or hardship, remind me continually that Your love is holding me fast--that there is nothing--past, present or future that will ever separate me from Your immeasurable love expressed in Christ--nothing! Hallelujah!
This day I ask Wonderful Counselor that You open my mind to help me understand in a deeper way what it means that You are for me. Mighty God, reveal Your power in my life in such a way that strongholds are exposed and come crashing down! Everlasting Father embrace me with Your love and acceptance. Prince of Peace calm my anxious heart and reveal Yourself in the midst of the storms of my living, for You are for me, and nothing will separate me from You great love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Isaiah 9:2; John 3:16; Philippians 2:6-11; Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 9:6; Romans 8: 31-39; Hebrews 12:1)
--By Tiece L. King, author of the Pray the Word series: Pray the Word: 90 Prayers That Touch the Heart of God, Pray the Word: 31 Prayers That Touch the Heart of God, Pray the Word for Your Church. These resources are available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise “the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (Jas. 1:17).
- Thank God for remaining the same throughout all eternity (Ps. 102:27).
- Confess that sometimes you are not as consistent as you would like to be in your walk with God.
- Commit yourself to remaining true to that which does not change, the eternal God (2 Cor. 4:18).
- Ask God to glorify himself in your life.
- Pray that the stewardship of resources in your congregation will please God. Ask that members will be willing to give generously of their time and talents as well as their finances. Pray that they will experience joy in giving.
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Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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Sarah Young
ODB:
Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil of Caesarea were celebrated leaders in the fourth-century church and also close friends. They first met as philosophy students, and Gregory later said that they became like “two bodies with a single spirit.”
With their career paths so similar, rivalry could’ve arisen between Gregory and Basil. But Gregory explained that they avoided this temptation by making a life of faith, hope, and good deeds their “single ambition,” then “spurring each other on” to make the other more successful in this goal than themselves individually. As a result, both grew in faith and rose to high levels of leadership without rivalry.
The book of Hebrews is written to help us stay strong in faith (Hebrews 2:1), encouraging us to focus on “the hope we profess” and to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:23-24). While this command is given in the context of a congregation (v. 25), by applying it to their friendship, Gregory and Basil showed how friends can encourage each other to grow and avoid any “bitter root,” such as rivalry that might grow between them (12:15).
What if we made faith, hope, and good deeds the ambition of our own friendships, then encouraged our friends to become more successful in this goal than ourselves individually? The Holy Spirit is ready to help us do both.
By Sheridan Voysey
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What qualities do you see in Gregory and Basil’s friendship? How could you encourage your friends to grow in faith, hope, and good deeds?
Dear Jesus, please make my friendships rich in faith, hope, and good deeds.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The words priest/high priest occur nearly forty times in the book of Hebrews. The priestly ministry of Jesus comes into view in the earliest verses of the book: “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3). Accolades for Jesus as high priest include words like “merciful and faithful” (2:17) and “great” (4:14; 10:21). The chorus of praise in 7:26 is of note: “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” What are the implications for believers in Jesus that He occupies this role? The “therefore” and “let us” phrases help us. “Therefore, . . . since we have confidence . . . and since we have a great priest . . . let us draw near to God . . . let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess . . . let us consider how we may spur one another on” (10:19-24).
Arthur Jackson |
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Don 
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