Good Morning Worshipers! Prepare your hearts to worship and join us on Zoom at 10. With the thick ice, below freezing temps at worship time, and with concern for safety we decided to have Zoom only Church . This will also allow for any sicknesses to fade away before we meet again.
I've got to get moving with setting up the service but I want to share two devotionals to ponder and meditate and pray through for . First, check out Sarah Young's Jesus Calling devo about God being our refuge and strength--our help in time of trouble. He is our ever-present, aware God who is working all things together for good. Turn off the noise and tune into God by opening your Bibles, abiding in in His presence and being still and chatting. Focus on God, not all the noise, distractions, chaos-stirring and busyness. Be still and know that he is God who is with you, loves you and has solutions and plans for you. Seek first His Kingdom! And then meditate on the Upper Room devo on sowing seeds and praying for it to fall on good soil. We are sowers, waterers, fertilizers, and even harvesters in Christ. He is with us and has someone for you to pray about and sow lavishly, water, fertilize and maybe even harvest for the Kingdom. Ask Him for your person and for how to do your part. He does have great plans for you!
Now, offer yourself to Him and determine to be who He created you to be and do what He created you to do, with His help and the help of some friends, for such a time as this! Begin with some worship and abiding and invite God to inhabit your praise and direct your steps. Don't lean on your own understanding and turn off the noise. Focus n God with feet determined to follow to good and lasting fruit. Amen!
See you soon on Zoom! Pray for Sarah as she brings the Word, Mike as he leads the festivities and me as I set it all up. Thanks!
Sarah Young
Upper Room: The Seeds We Sow
The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. - Matthew 13:23 (NIV)
One , the lay youth leader at church had the children act out a scene from an old TV show. The moral of the lesson was that each of us has a mission from God to fulfill in our daily lives. I still think about that lesson every day. Since then, it has been my custom to ask God, “What is my mission ?” Then I write down my daily to-do list, which usually includes humdrum tasks and chores. But occasionally I am inspired to add something else — send a note to a friend, call someone unable to leave home, or do a task that takes me out of my comfort zone.
One day I mentioned to the youth leader how much that lesson had meant to me, and she replied, “I don’t remember that at all.” How curious, I thought. However, I have found that we often sow seeds of kind words or good deeds that we forget. They may go unappreciated, but sometimes they land where they do good. So I vowed to keep writing that list and checking it off in hopes that some God-inspired actions or words will fall on good soil, exactly where they need to be.
's devotional is available to you for free because of the generosity of our donors.
Thanks to donor support, anyone can read 's meditation without logging in for up to 7 days.
Please consider supporting our ministry. Your donation or paid subscription helps ensure that readers around the world continue to receive spiritual encouragement every day.
's Prayer
Dear God, open our hearts to your will, and help us to reach out to others with kind words and deeds. Thank you for surprising us with the joy of seeing our seeds of kin
