***Attention!!! Don't forget to turn your clocks BACK (Fall Back) . Evening!
Worship is 10 am (not 9 or 11) We will collect for Everlasting Life Ministries and we will begin a month of focus on things we can be and are thankful about. We will start with working through Ezekiel 34. (Read ahead and see if you can find things to be thankful about). We will also have a time of sharing about . and all the things God did so we can lift and praise. (If you were part of . prepare to share how you saw God at work and if too timid write it out for us to read) Please keep praying for God to show up and use us on Wednesdays and for many to see Him and glorify His name. Amen!
Thank God I'm Forgiven! (and for an extra hour of sleep)! I am so thankful for God's love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. I am so thankful we get to dress in Jesus' righteousness and God's armor. PTL! What are you thankful for about your salvation and new life? Share that with God and someone who needs to hear it !
Good Morning Forgiven, Empowered, Praying Disciples of Jesus! Amen! There was much in our devotionals I thought I was to share with you and God may still lead me to that but then I got to my Connection online blog and was stopped in my tracks and taken deeper into His presence with praise and prayer and my focus shifted as again God affirmed the things He has led us to become--a House of Prayer for the Nations and a disciple making hub. Check out their blog below. Engage prayerfully with God and your prayer partners as you ask Him and seek help to process and put a plan together to bring this to life. What's God saying to you and what will you do about it?
We have to start with how we define disciple and disciple making. There are many interpretations of this word and ministry in our church and denomination and throughout Christendom. What is a disciple, a disciple making disciple and the process to make one and are we doing that? Where's the real fruit? Tough questions! The basic answer is a disciple is a student learning from Jesus and true Jesus followers to become like Him. We have been defining discipleship as the process of becoming who Jesus would be if He were me. So, are you in process to become a disciple making disciple? Are we leading others to that and is that leading us to do our parts in His Good News Delivery Company and to become a House of Prayer for the Nations. Check out what the Connection blog is teaching us . I's love to hear your thoughts! remember discipleship is different and deeper than evangelizing. We are saved and transformed and refined when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. That is the beginning of becoming a disciple. Discipleship is more than doing the "right" things. It is becoming who we are created to be and becoming more like Jesus and then going to make disciples and doing the things Jesus would do if He were you. We all a have a custom made part and for many in our aging fellowship it is to be a prayer warrior, encourager, helper and imparter of life stories of God's faithfulness and good ways. We are called to reach the generations for Christ and help them to become disciples in the way of Jesus that make more disciples. We are called to pray in and multiply His Kingdom and to become more and more like Him until He calls us home. How's that going for you and us? That's the fruit we need to keep assessing and adjusting to produce well.
We are on a journey and together we can grow, produce good fruit, make disciples as commissioned by Jesus and become a dynamic movement of God as challenged by our bishop. We all have a part and are created, saved, gifted and empowered to do the things we are created to do which includes praying, process together and doing your part. Let us pray and encourage each other and figure out the next steps for us to go and make true disciple of Jesus that walk in his ways and make more disciples. Amen! TGIF is the beginning of our age, circumstance and custom gifted journey that never ends until we are called home. Let us not grow faint or weary or give up. let us run our race with endurance and our focus always on God. May we be about Him and His business and shine bright as we go! Amen! And don't forget your partners! Seek to be one like Jesus. He has great plans for you and us that are blossoming and beginning to bloom! PTL! May the fruit continue to ripen and multiply! Amen!
Connections Blogs:
- Blinded Unbelievers
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
Maybe your story is like mine. I became a believer as a teenager, but nobody taught me to be a disciple of Christ. My church told me what I needed to do (like read the Bible, pray, and witness), but it did not show me how. Nobody told me how to walk in truth, righteousness, and faith (see Eph. 6:11-17). As a result, I lived a defeated Christian life for far too many years.
The enemy aims his arrows at young believers who have not been discipled. He strikes them with doubt and discouragement. Sometimes he hits them with loneliness, as they move away from their non-Christian friends and try to fit into a church that is unfamiliar to them. At other times, he lures them with the same temptations they faced as non-believers. Whatever his strategy may be, he wants to strike at new believers before they are solidly planted in the Church.
This issue is related to prayer in at least two ways. First, many new believers are never taught how to pray. What they are told to do, they are not taught to do—and the result is a frustrated believer who longs to pray but does not know how. The enemy thus wins when the new believer gives up trying. This failure to disciple is, in my estimation, a primary cause of prayerlessness in the Church .
Second, undiscipled believers often live defeated, sinful lives that hinder praying in the first place. Both Isaiah and the psalmist (Isa. 59:1-2, Ps. 66:18) knew that God chooses not to respond to the prayers of those who live in sin. It is the fervent prayer of a righteous man that makes a difference (Jas. 5:16), not the prayers of one living in unrighteousness.
How, though, does a new believer know how to stand for righteousness and fight against temptation unless the Church teaches him? An undiscipled believer may realize that his praying is ineffective, yet not know enough to understand why—and he gives up on the power of prayer. The enemy again wins.
A brief summary is in order here. The enemy seeks to keep unbelievers blinded to the gospel, thus holding them in bondage. He further schemes against believers, striving to discourage and defeat them so their faith is weakened and their prayers are ineffective. Powerless, prayerless believers make little difference in the war inherent in evangelism.
Father, my heart grieves for the generations of young believers whose spiritual condition has been disregarded or ignored by parents, pastors and brothers and sisters in Christ. Ignite our hearts to embrace the young people in our churches; to come alongside of them with encouragement and to pray fervently for their spiritual growth and ministry! Prick our hearts for our children and turn our prayers and attention towards them with intentionality and the desire to grow them into disciples whose hearts will not turn away from Your Truth!
Praise Jesus Christ, the Lord, the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4-5).
Thank God for making “his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6).
Confess times of disinterest in knowing God fully.
Commit yourself to thinking daily about him and his glory.
Ask God to make his light shine more fully in your heart.
Pray for God to shine through you to your family and friends, even though they know you well enough to see your weaknesses. Thank God that this shows even more clearly that the power is from him rather than you (4:7).
Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
