Thank God I'm Forgiven Friday!!! Yes PTL everyday for His mercy, grace, forgiveness--His agape love! He was willing to die for you, for me and for all who will come! PTL! Thank God for these things and for those He is still drawing and drawing through you and us! Yes! PTL! Pray for Him to use you and open your eyes to the ones He has for you to share the Good News with and minister to and disciple. Pray we become a disciple making hub for the Emmaus area and thank Him for the harvest workers and harvest and for drawing workers from the harvest. Thank Him for the 30+ new people He is sending our way! Pray for many new opportunities to be His hands and feet and for new connection points to those He is drawing. Thank God for revival and new life, restored and redeemed life and for spurring us towards becoming His dynamic movement! God is on the move! PTL! What's your part? Ask and follow well and process with some friends as you team up to be His vessels of love, healing, hope and Good News! Amen! (Check out the flow through this with our devos below). We are God's team, gathered and sent to go live and love like Jesus! How are you being Jesus in the flesh? How's the process of becoming more like Him going? Talk to Him and some friends about that today! he's listening and ready to help! Are you?
Good Morning Renewed, Readying, Revivalists of God! Praise and pray into that! Pray with expectation and much thanksgiving! I'm excited! Are you? We are not called to be couch potatoes or pew sitters but to be more than hearers as we work at becoming doers of His Word. Is that you--doer? It can be! We all have an age and circumstance appropriate part to play in God's Good News Delivery Co. We need each other and all of us to be excited to have the opportunity to do our parts in serving God, each other and others and building His Church! Yes, PTL! There are so many things to be excited about! There is so much to pray for with expectation and thanksgiving! We are God's very loved people, called, gifted and sent to change the world one soul at a time. Who is the one God has for you? Ask and follow and team up to go live and love more like Jesus! Who are the people of peace you are connecting with? Ask for boldness, courage, words and God's heart and mind to do your part in Kingdom building--one soul at a time and just as you are.
I only have another blog or two before Karen and I fully disconnect and head away for a vacation of renewal, revival, rest and much fun, Lord willing! We appreciate your prayers for God's favor, protection, provision and for us to choose to disconnect and reload. Thanks. (pray I bless Karen and agape well and for fair weather too. Thanks!) Anyway, we are so excited! This will be our first ever full week, big getaway as we celebrate our 20th anniversary and our birthdays. We've never done more than a few days within a hundred miles or two. To say we are excited, scared, anxious, and ready is an understatement. It got me wondering if we are excited, scared, anxious and ready to follow Jesus to His new things and people He is preparing. Are you? We get to do this! We plan for this. And now it's time to go as we step out in faith, gifted, prepared, and ready. That is how it is for us for vacation and also this time of rest is preparation for the new things God has for us when we return. Are you readying and excited for all that's to come? Pray into that because God has been revealing a lot of ideas for what's next and a future of being His agents of revival. And that's for all of us! We all have a part. (However, you cannot be a part of our vacation and restoration time, except to not text or email. Contact Sarah with any ministry needs next week). You see, we are a team. And we all have our parts to carry out for that team to prosper and produce great fruit. Sometimes, self care is part of that. For Karen and me self care and rest is key right now to be ready to roll with Jesus moving forward. Sometimes we need to rest and abide. Sometimes we need to crawl, then walk, then run. And sometimes we need to endure a marathon with some teammates cheering us on and handing us some living water as we run our race. We all have a season and roles and God with us! PTL! What's His plan for you? What season is He leading you through that will produce better fruit? Who are your cheerleaders and helpers? Who are the ones God is sending you to or to pray for? Step into your anointing and season with joy, thanksgiving and expectation like getting ready for a big vacation and new thing of God! He is on the move, working all things together for good and He wants to lead you to His best! Yes rejoice, surrender, rest and abide and prepare to thrive and produce some amazing fruit. And worship! What a mighty and awesome God we serve! He knows you and is calling you by name to come to Him for His perfect plans for you for this season! Rejoice! Amen! It's time to come alive in '25! Expect and prepare for that! It's coming alive and so are we! PTL! It's time to choose and know His abundant life! It's time to choose to really live and love like Jesus! Amen! I can't wait to see all things God has for us to choose as we allow Him to lead us to be His dynamic movement and followers of THE Way!
Sarah Young
I to We
UR: God Will Make A Way!
I will recount the Lord’s faithful acts; I will sing the Lord’s praises, because of all the Lord did for us, for God’s great favor toward the house of Israel. God treated them compassionately and with deep affection. - Isaiah 63:7 (CEB)
I grew up in abject poverty, and my education would have ended after primary school. But because of my passion for education and knowledge, I worked to save money to go to secondary school in one of the prestigious institutions in the western part of my home country, Nigeria.
Two years into my secondary education, I had spent all my savings, and my hope of finishing school was dashed. But then God brought people into my life who helped me through. The principal of the secondary school gave me a scholarship. Two American missionaries, serving in the town where the school was located, sponsored me and took responsibility for all of my other educational expenses. From then on, I was able to continue my education through scholarships from different sources. Now I have several degrees. By God’s divine providence, these three individuals raised me from poverty to what I am today.
Through my determination, focus on my goals, and the faithful help of community, God made a way for me. Nothing is impossible for God. We need only to have faith and believe in God’s promises.
Today's Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for sending us helpers when we feel hopeless. May we support others as we have been supported. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
ODB
Bert placed his debit card atop the restaurant bill. The waiter scooped it up and then paused to ask, “Wait, who is this guy who says, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life?’ That’s so conceited!” Bert realized the waiter was reacting to the words printed on the card by his Christian financial company—Jesus’ words from John 14:6. Amused at the waiter’s response, Bert explained the identity of “this guy” and His sacrificial offering to bring us to God.
When we encounter people who know nothing about our faith, we might respond with ridicule or even judgment. But the apostle Peter challenged us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Then he warned, “Do this with gentleness and respect” (v. 15). In Colossians 4:6, Paul explained the power of such a response, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Just as salt on our food enhances flavor, salty answers invite others to come closer to faith.
Questions may come in surprising settings from those completely unfamiliar with Jesus. When we respond with gentleness and grace, our answers offer a saltiness that entices questioners to yearn for more.
By Elisa Morgan
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How have you been surprised by a question about God? How might you prepare yourself to give a “salty” answer to the questioners in your life?
Dear God, please prepare me for the questions You bring my way, that I may give gracious and loving answers.
Be prepared for the next time you need to give an answer for your faith.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
First Peter was written to believers in Jesus who were being persecuted because of their faith. In chapter 2, echoing Christ’s teachings in Matthew 5:10-16, Peter encourages believers to live holy lives and to do good so that those who don’t believe might be won to Jesus (1 Peter 2:11-25). In chapter 3, he says to remain faithful, to continue to “revere Christ as Lord” and to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (v. 15). Paul makes similar calls for righteous living in his letters (see Philippians 2:14-16; Colossians 4:5-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; Titus 2:7-8).
K.T. Sim |
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Pastor Don
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