Zoom Huddle cancelled . (DUH! What day is it? I'm still trying to figure that out after my extended hospital vacation. Sorry Huddle mates, I went and scheduled some homebound communion visits for --ones that are hard to change and keep. So we will resume . Thanks for understanding!)
10-12 is donut day at Bread Ministry. Come hang out! Its always a great time and God will use you to bless someone and/or to be blessed!
Good Morning Balanced and Healthy in Christ Servants! Too often we think that we are choosing that and it's always easy to see when others are failing at choosing healthy rhythms. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you some areas in your life (and even our church life) that needs adjusting and the strength and courage to allow it! I engaged with the reminder of the triangle that represents the balanced life of Jesus--Up-In-Out. By nature and preference we tend towards one or two of these as our call and find pleasure in performing the duties under those. BUT we are called to balance and to a healthy walk with Jesus. Help us choose well Lord and work to bring the deficiencies into alignment. Thanks! May we worship well (UP), Love and serve each other well, and may we intentionally and purposefully love outsiders well and lead them to Christ and His ways. Amen!
The past few days, God has had me contemplating and seeking to move towards more balance and joy as I walk in healthy choices. Well, thinking about it! I have to choose to do something about it! I've been going a little extreme on eating decadently and living for my joy and pleasure since my discharge. And numbers don't lie! It's time to start to actually choose healthy rhythms, eating habits and walk with Christ. I can think about it all I want and know all about the benefits available but I still have to choose and actually work on them. Help me Lord! That is also something we all face as disciples of Jesus. How do we run our race healthy and balanced in mind, soul, body, spirit, health and finances??? Ask for God's heart, mind, spirit and for the desire to choose well and healthy daily and even minute by minute and the courage and boldness to actually try what He has revealed. Amen!
God has custom plans for custom made you and for our gathered fellowship. May we choose well and follow Him to the green pastures, still waters and His overwhelming love. Amen! Take some time abiding in the Vine through meditating on the devos below and the Bible verses pertaining to them. Jesus' easy yoke is awaiting our wanting to put it on and it's pretty cool that it is a custom fitted yoke for you in this season of your life. Release control to God, partner with some prayer and accountability partners and go live and love more and more like Jesus--starting right now! Worship with full abandon and devotion like Jesus (UP). Love on and serve each other with joy (IN) and then go live and love like Jesus (OUT) in a way that draws outsiders to HIM. Amen! Pray into that please!
So, what's God speaking into your heart right now and what will you do about that? Yes Lord, come and be our Vision and Sustainer...our Friend! We love you and long to be at a place we can pour ourselves out for God to lead and control. COME! Amen!
I'm praying for me and you and then us to embrace this and step into our custom easy yokes and seek and follow the Holy Spirit well and always and may we balance our parts like Jesus did. Amen! OK time to return to bed and hopefully sleep well for several more hours. Amen!
ODB:
Prayer of Desperation
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” John 11:23
In 2011, Karey Packard and her daughter were packing boxes for a move to a new home. Suddenly, Karey collapsed, and her heart stopped. Doctors revived Karey, but her condition worsened through the night. Her husband, Craig, was told to call family to say final goodbyes. They prayed what Craig called “a prayer of desperation.”
How often have we prayed a prayer of desperation in a crisis? Mary and Martha did. They sent a desperate message to Jesus: their brother Lazarus, “the one you love,” was gravely ill (John 11:3). When Christ finally arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha, in anguish, said to Jesus: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). She knew Christ could heal sick people but could not imagine His power to overcome death. Jesus, of course, raised Lazarus, a foreshadowing of His own resurrection weeks later.
Karey had officially flatlined, yet miraculously God brought her back to life. In the stories of both Karey and Lazarus, it’s easy to miss the point: God has purposes that we don’t know. He neither heals everyone nor brings all dead people back to life. But He gives us a transcending assurance: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (v. 25). As believers, whatever happens, we know we’ll be with Jesus. Maybe that makes our desperate prayers a little less desperate.
By Kenneth Petersen
REFLECT & PRAY
What desperate experiences have you had? How have you prayed through them?
Father God, please help me see the bigger picture of Your purposes.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The idea of a future resurrection (see John 11:23) was an ancient Jewish belief. Job was confident that after his death he would “see God” (Job 19:26-27). The prophets proclaimed that people would rise from the dead when the Messiah came (see Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2). Paul warned that “if there is no resurrection . . . , then not even Christ has been raised” and we “are still in [our] sins” (1 Corinthians 15:13, 17). Because Christ has “been raised from the dead” (v. 20), we can look beyond our desperate situation to the day when “the dead will be raised imperishable” (v. 52).
K.T. Sim
UR: Faithful and Just! (AMEN!!!)
The one the Lord doesn’t consider guilty — in whose spirit there is no dishonesty — that one is truly happy! - Psalm 32:2 (CEB)
I have played the piano for over 20 years in a variety of settings, and now I am blessed to be a church pianist and a piano teacher. Playing through a song without making any mistakes is a goal that even the most talented pianists can only hope to achieve. My years of learning and practicing have helped me to make fewer mistakes, and the ones I do make often go unnoticed by those listening. But I am aware of every wrong note I play. I have to be willing to forgive myself for them while pushing myself to try harder next time.
Similarly, God knows about the mistakes we make in our daily lives, including the sins that no one knows about. These mistakes can’t be undone, but they can always be confessed to God — who is “faithful and just to forgive” (1 Jn. 1:9). As someone who is guilty of worse things than playing the wrong notes, I feel grateful when I remember that God sees every wrong I commit but is still willing to forgive me. God always gives me another chance to do things better. This continual forgiveness is the attitude I wish to have and to inspire in others.
's Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for forgiving our sins and giving us a chance to live free from guilt. Help us to show forgiveness to others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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