10-12 Bread Ministry with Weis products (Next donut day )
10am Undecorate church--the more the merrier!
worship at 10 in person and on Zoom...don't forget to get your new envelopes, update the directory, and let Debbie know if you'd like a year end giving statement.
Next brunch at 11:30
Annual Congregational Meeting after worship in the sanctuary (All reports due . the 5th)
Good Morning Born Again, Being Made New Children of God and Co-Laborers! We were one way and then another better way and then another better way. We are being made new in Christ as God continues to transform us more and more into His image and into the people He created us to be as He keeps preparing us to do all the things He created us to do each step of our journey to reach our fullest potential in Christ. What an awesome, loving, forgiving Creator God we serve! Celebrate your new birth and God's good plans for you for such a time as this! Celebrate with me as I remember and celebrate my new birth in Christ . Dec. 29th, 2001 in Tempe AZ. at around 8pm I surrendered my life to Christ, asked for forgiveness and help to repent of all sins and received Him into my heart! It's all a blur but I know that I know that I know that I am His, forgiven and being made new daily in Christ! PTL! The next morning dawned with this fresh breath of the Spirit upon me and a new perspective and outlook on life. I knew things would be different and this love, joy and peace just flooded over me. Some of us have this same experience. Who might you share that with? Some of us just kind of grew into our faith from birth and life spent in church. Who might need to hear about that experience and how God keeps transforming and working on you? Ask God to lead you to share what the Good News of His saving love means to you and go do it!
You all know how I love snow. I was in the desert of life and in the desert of Tempe AZ. I was there as a Band Aid for the Reading High marching band at the Fiesta Bowl. The band was scheduled to take a train from the desert to the Grand Canyon. As we traveled it started to snow and by the time we reached the Grand Canyon it was a full blown whiteout blizzard! God said to me, "See, I have washed you white as snow and I have answered your prayers for forgiveness and new life. I love you!" I'll never forget those two days nor my return with a deep driving to find a Bible I could read and understand. God led me to a clerk at the Bible store who put a New Living Translation Study Bible in my hand. PTL! I wore it out and have been using my new one daily since. God speaks to and teaches me through it daily. His Word is powerful, active and even cuts to the marrow sometimes! God knew I would need to hear Him through a study Bible I could understand as the Lutheran church I attended and her pastor had no clue what to do with a born again Lutheran. However God placed this broke, broken and delivered drug addict in a place that would fund his education and Bible college and support this new life and transformation until I would be called to the EC church in 2006 after graduating from Bible college.
In Feb. of 2002, God answered a lifelong prayer to find a good Christian woman. I felt the lightning hit as I shared my new birth with one of my customers (she didn't feel the lightning. It was the day her divorce became final). Karen endured my awkward pursuing of her and finally accepted my proposal and we were married Dec. 11th 2004 while I was still a student. When people ask how I ever ended up with such a wonderful, Spirit-filled woman, I have to and do give all the credit to God. It had to be a God thing! It was a God thing! And now just over 21 years of marriage I am so blessed to be called a child of God and unified in love and marriage to the answer to my prayers and God's gift, Karen. I have much to celebrate as loving her has driven me to change and grow too as God transforms me from a selfish, prideful "smooze" to more of a man after God's heart and to love like Christ loved the Church. (Yes, I am still a work in process and progress! PTL!) "I was one way and now another and the thing that happened in between was Him!" PTL!
And who would've know back then and through my whole life and church experiences that God was forming me and leading me to my call to St. Matts.! I am so blessed by God, Karen, and you all! And I know God still has plans for us to grow more like Christ individually and as His Body and plans to change the world around us with the love and light of Christ. He has gathered and is preparing us for such a time as this to allow Him to transform us more and use us more for His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom! May His Kingdom come and will be done in and through each of us and us together!
I always pursue correctives and affirmations from God about the fruit this past year and for the fruit that is budding for the year ahead. He is still alive and active and does have great plans for me, you and us to discover and step into in faith. Let us commit to earnestly pursue Him and His plans together and to allow Him to use us and grow us towards our fullest potential in Christ and as His Body for such a time as this. Those are earnest prayers of a righteous person that lead to answered prayers and a mighty moving of God! Amen! I can't wait to see what He has in store for you, me and us and to hear the stories He is writing in and through us! Rejoice! Celebrate with me! Celebrate your new life transformed by Christ! Surrender anew with me! And invite our loving Father to have His way in, through and around us in the year ahead. Amen! Keep praying into these things and keep praising as God inhabits our praises and informs our prayers as we abide and follow. Amen! And keep praying for some teammates. God wants us to partner with others! We are made yo do so and then produce much good fruit together. That's how His Kingdom works. Just like He works through Karen and me together, He will use your team to go live and love more like Jesus and change you and those around you and maybe even allow you to experience your part in His harvest to come. Amen! Check out these devos that spoke to my heart . Praying God speaks to you as you celebrate, humble yourself and abide in Him and His love>
Sarah Young:
ODB
Joyful Resilience
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:18
Scientists studied the resilience of sixteen societies worldwide, including the Yukon and Australian Outback. They analyzed thousands of years of archaeological records, tracing the impact of famines, wars, and climate. One factor stood out—the frequency of downturns. One would think that they would weaken societies, but the researchers found the opposite to be true. Instead, they found that societies that faced frequent hardships developed resilience, bouncing back faster from future challenges. Stress, it appears, can forge resilience.
The prophet Habakkuk understood this kind of resilience. As he considered Judah’s impending devastation, he painted a bleak picture: “crop fails,” “no sheep . . . no cattle,” and barren land (3:17). Amid earthly securities being stripped away, however, the prophet declared, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (v. 18). His joy wasn’t tied to circumstances and earthly pleasures but anchored in God’s unchanging character and salvation. In the bleakest seasons, the prophet chose joy and became more resilient.
Like Habakkuk and those resilient societies, our spiritual endurance grows through repeated adversity. When we face difficult seasons in life, let’s cling to our hope in God and remember that He’s with us—using our challenges to grow our joy and resilient faith.
By Marvin Williams
REFLECT & PRAY
How do you find hope in God? Amid adversity, what prayer of rejoicing can you offer to Him?
Gracious God, I will find hope in You when life is barren and empty.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Much of the short book of Habakkuk is dark and foreboding. It begins with Habakkuk crying out, “How long, Lord, must I call for help?” (1:2). God answers by telling him the terrible things that will happen to His people (vv. 5-11). Habakkuk recoils from this strange reply with a complaint to God: “Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?” (v. 13). By chapter 3, however, the prophet is compelled to praise this powerful, terrifying God: “Lord, I have heard of your fame” (v. 2). He recounts how God “shook the earth” (v. 6) and “in wrath . . . strode through the earth” (v. 12). Habakkuk understood this power would be displayed on His people’s behalf. “You came out to deliver your people,” he says. “You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness” (v. 13). He concludes in hope: “The sovereign Lord is my strength” (v. 19). , when we face adversity, we also can cling to our hope in God and remember that He’s with us.
Tim Gustafson
UR: Feeling Lost
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. - Psalm 139:9-10 (NIV)
It can be a terrifying feeling to lose your bearings and come to the realization that you are lost. As a young teen at scout camp, the leaders would remind us that if we lost our way in the dark, we should walk toward the light of the campfire.
Getting lost can happen to anyone — not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In such circumstances, it is wonderful to have someone to lean on, a friend that comes alongside us, a guide to help us negotiate the unfamiliar terrain we are passing through.
Psalm 46:1 tells us that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” God will not abandon us. God knows where we are, what we need, and how to help us in our distress. When we are overwhelmed and feeling lost, we can look to Jesus, the Light of the world, and ask for God’s guidance.
'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 Lord, may we be ever mindful that you love us and will never forsake us. You are always near, even in our darkest hour, to strengthen our faith and lift us up as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:9-13, NIV). Amen.
LISTEN ONLINE
