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Saturday, January 25 2025

Sunday: Worship at 10 with the beginning of Children's Church Armor of God several weeks of projects. Congregational Meeting after worship followed by brunch. Another great day of worship, fellowship, feasting and being the church!

    * we don't expect a very long meeting as our teams, including finance have done a great job and have prepared well and a good budget for us to approve.

    * The main order of business is to approve the budget which includes a vote to retain or release our organist. Pray for wisdom and direction for this. Patti's salary is just over $9000./year. She no longer directs any choirs. Her salary is the shortfall for meeting budget. If we vote to retain her, we will need to come up with funding from you for her salary. It should be noted that we have several other options for hymns on Sundays including several pianists and even video hymns. So please ask God to guide and provide. Thanks!

Soon we will be starting spiritual gifts discovery and processing for those interested (maybe Tues evenings?) I need a head count for those interested as I have to order material and sign us up for testing and there are group discounts for this. So please let Sarah or me know of your interest and watch for a sign up sheet shortly and more info. we expect to start by mid Feb.

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Good Morning Earnestly Seeking God and His Ways Friends! May that be me, us and us as Your Body! May we seek, knock and follow well for Your glory! May we be Your team of revivalists. May revival fires fan into flame in each of us! Light the fires of revival all around us and lead us to Your perfect plans to connect to the people you are drawing and to connect them to You and make disciples like Jesus! May we and Your Kingdom come alive in '25 and may Your perfect will come alive in and through and around each of us! Sens us! Protect us! Ignite us! Amen!

Yesterday was another unique Wed of ministry in our building! The day began for me with a visit to Sandy Ritter who was awaiting release and she was sent home yesterday afternoon. PTL! Then I arrived at 10 to find the doors open and people moving through our Bread Ministry. It was a light day possibly due to the cold but was God's plan since we had a light amount of bread due to people stocking up for the storm. But there were opportunities to have conversations, prayers and invites for Sunday's Brunch and last evenings dinner huddle. All the turkeys were prepared for Sunday's brunch and some conversations were had with some of our servants after bread. Then last evening we had all of Family Ministries cancel and several of our regular attendees were absent due to colds or other obligations. It appeard there would only be 5 or so of us and then several new people showed up. Some from the Bread invite and we had a great night of feasting and fellowship. God is using us and drawing many as we invite in and love and serve! PTL! Keep praying for God to continue to draw and connect many (even 30) this year. And thank Him in advance for all He is doing and will do in, through and around us. He is definitely on the move and bringing in the harvest while growing and using us. PTL!

I had all kinds of ideas for our blog today...BUT GOD! he led me to just include harvest Prayer's blogs for today for you to engage with God with. Spend some time with Him, these blogs and your own devotionals. I'm praying for you and for God to bring alive His Kingdom in, through and around us. May we be about His business earnestly and for His glory! Amen!

Harvest:

January 23 - Thirsty for Personal Revival

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny; and this is what he confessed: “I am not the Christ.” And so they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he *said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, ‘Make the way of the Lord straight,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” (John 1:19-23)

You’re thirsty for personal revival. You want true biblical Christianity. The kind you read about in the New Testament. Lukewarm, cultural, go-with-the-flow, worldly Christianity will never do. 

You want to radically burn and shine like John the Baptist (minus the locusts and camel hair). Jesus described John the Baptist as the greatest man who had ever lived. He lived…and died…to point the way to Jesus. I want to burn and shine for Jesus like that. 

I want to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord. I know you do as well. 

John the Baptist’s ministry was forged in the desert. Howling winds, endless ribbons of sand, and no relief. The desert produces thirst. Thirst leads to seeking water. Seeking water brings about finding water. Finding water leads to drinking to your fill. Drinking to your fill imparts abundant life. You don’t have to wait for the apathetic, lukewarm Church to get revived in order to experience personal revival. You can get on fire for God now. You can be a living, breathing, walking revival—setting everything you touch ablaze for God! 

But personal revival starts with thirst. God uses the desert to create an unquenchable thirst for Jesus. Nothing this world offers will satisfy. Nothing. Only Jesus. 

It’s in the crucible of the desert that God brings you to a point of insatiable thirst and holy desperation for Him. It’s here He shows you there is more—much, much more—than what you’re living.

Many view the believers’ faith in the four Gospels and Book of Acts as living, impossible-to-attain, super-saint Christianity. But for thirsty Christians, this radical level of faith is both achievable by the grace of God—and the goal. Thirsty Christians don’t measure their walks with God by the Christians around them, or even by someone who’s done great exploits for God. Jesus is now the standard. 

A Christian who has been personally revived lives true biblical Christianity. Not perfect Christianity. If that were the case, none of us could experience personal revival. I certainly couldn’t. I need God’s mercy almost daily. I know I’m not alone. 

Father, I am so thirsty for all You have for my life! Help me to lean into Your heart as I seek more and more life in Christ Jesus. Forgive me for not chasing after You with everything in me! Grow my desire to experience personal revival through Your power and Your grace! Show me how to live in such a way that others want more of Your life-giving presence too!

--Adapted from Thirsty: A 31-Day Journey to Personal Revival by Jamie Morgan. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.

Praying through the President’s First 31 Days
Day 4


Pray that our president would demonstrate kindness and speak truth to all with whom he interacts on a daily basis.
 

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and a good reputation in the sight of God and man…By mercy and truth atonement is made for wrongdoing, and by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil. When a person’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He causes even his enemies to make peace with him (Proverbs 3:3-4; 16:6-7).

Prayer Points

  • Praise God, who is your refuge and strength (Psalm 46).
  • Give thanks for his “ever present help in trouble” (v. 1). Confess any desire to live life apart from God.
  • Commit yourself to being still and knowing that he is God.
  • Ask him to prosper you and not harm you, to give you hope and a future (Jer. 29:11).
  • Pray that your pastor may have a fruitful ministry and that he may handle responsibilities with grace and patience.
  • Ask that he may have a harmonious working relationship with other congregational leaders. 
     
    Prayer Pointer
    “Prayer is the most vital force in world evangelism.” —Anonymous
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) © 2025 is a free devotional published daily by OneCry Prayer. Find more resources at www.onecry.com
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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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