(Special Time!!!) Worship at 10:30/Congregational Meeting 11/"Souper Bowl" Brunch 11:30 All in the Fellowship Hall. Fellowship and greeting time before worship at 10. Anyone bring soup is asked to bring it warm, mark crocks or containers with your name and soup kind.
Good Morning! Lots in our devotionals . I have to get out and shovel. Meditate on these and the Connection blog. What's God saying to you and what will you do in response. He has called us to be His Good News Delivery Company and His House of Prayer. We all have a part we are custom made and gifted to do and we all have some teammates prepared to pray, encouraged, spur on and build His Kingdom with. Talk to Him and them and keep praying and loving like Jesus. Sarah reminded us that some observe Lent in this season as a time of shedding and adding and reflecting on God's love as we prepare to go love like Him. Maybe pick a word or Bible verse to work on and share it so we can pray and encourage and hold accountable. My verse is 1 Peter 1:18, Prepare your mind for action and practice self control. That's perfect for a Lenten focus. What's yours? I'm praying for God to draw, refine, prepare and send us into the white harvest fields together and humbly for His glory. Come Lord! Amen!
Connection:
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Houses of Prayer in the Church Context
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7).
Here are three distinct ways that a lifestyle of becoming a house of prayer can be built into the fabric of your church using a prayer, care, share lifestyle:
1. Where members live. Members of a church can form Houses of Prayer right where they live or work and begin to pray for and reach out to those right around them. Praying, caring, and sharing the good news is easiest and most natural when we do it with the people who are near us. Using this pattern, members of a local church cover blocks, streets, and workplaces.
If you have multiple members living in the same neighborhood, they can team together to pray. Or, if your members know other believers on their blocks, who go to a different church, why not still encourage your members to recruit them to join in the House of Prayer for their neighborhood.
2. A target area. A church may choose to focus its House of Prayer efforts on a target area such as the area immediately surrounding the church, a new housing development, an apartment complex, a dormitory, or a prison. In this situation, the Houses of Prayer may meet someplace within the target area or they may meet in an entirely different location. Distance is not a problem when God is doing the work.
3. Existing small groups. Many churches have existing small groups for Bible study, fellowship, caring, and prayer. These cells can develop powerful evangelistic prayer ministries if they are willing to focus outward and to invest adequate amounts of time and energy in intercessory prayer. Most small group prayer focuses entirely on the personal needs of the group. Encouraging your small groups to pray outwardly in this way can have a powerful effect on both the individuals and your church. Tacking prayer on to an existing group will not work, however, if the focus of the group remains inward and the commitment to prayer is minimal. In using this approach, be aware that some members of the existing group will not welcome a new prayer assignment. They’ll choose to stick with the original group goals that caused them to join in the first place.
Grace-filled Father, I long for my church to be known as a house of prayer for all nations. Give us a passion for Your holy presence in our midst! Help us to love one another and those in our community so well that we are hungry to see everyone we meet drawn into a relationship with Jesus! Stretch us beyond our own wants and needs in prayer and give us Your kingdom focus. Teach us how to reach out in prayer to our neighbors and to the nations, and, if possible, help us to become the answer to the prayers we pray!
Praise the saving God whose paths are beyond tracing out! (Rom. 11:33).
Give thanks for his continual, personal care for you.
Confess any failure to maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord.
Commit yourself to disciplined, joyful Christian living, recognizing the tremendous blessing of belonging to Jesus Christ.
Ask that you will be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Rom. 12:12).
Pray that any personal difficulties experienced by unsaved persons around you may be opportunities for them to come to know the grace that is found in Jesus Christ.
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.
My friend Butch Briggs has been the beloved coach for the swim teams at a local high school for fifty-one years. Out of curiosity, I asked him how many state championships he’d won during his five decades. In his trademark, gentle tone he quipped, “I’ve not won a single championship because I’ve never swum in a single race.” Trying again, I asked him, “How many championships have your swimmers won?” He happily responded, “Thirty-nine.”
Butch taught me a valuable lesson. A coach plays an important role, but he didn’t want to take credit for what his swimmers accomplished.
Butch’s humility reminds me of how John the Baptist saw his role. John was tasked with pointing people to Jesus as the Messiah—the one who fulfilled God’s promise to send a rescuer. But John garnered so much attention that the religious leaders wanted to find out exactly who he was. In response, Scripture records that John “confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah’ ” (John 1:20). Even when they pressed him, John was clear that his role was to announce Jesus’ arrival (vv. 21-23). Jesus was the one they’d longed for (v. 27).
This aspect of humility—not taking more credit than is due—is a way we can keep a proper perspective regarding our accomplishments while recognizing others for the assignments or roles they’ve been given.
By Lisa M. Samra
REFLECT & PRAY
Where might you struggle to display humility? How might the Spirit empower you to act humbly?
Dear Jesus, please grant me grace to act with the humility You so vividly displayed and modeled for us during Your life and death.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In John 1:19-28, John the Baptist offers a striking picture of humble leadership. When questioned by religious authorities, he refuses to elevate himself. He’s not the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet they were expecting. Instead, he identifies himself simply as “the voice of one calling in the wilderness” (v. 23), pointing others to the coming Jesus. John’s leadership is defined by clarity of purpose—he knows who he is and who he isn’t. Rather than seeking recognition, he lowers himself, declaring that he’s unworthy even to untie the sandals of the one coming after him (v. 27). This posture of humility gives power to his witness. John’s role wasn’t to gather followers for himself, but to prepare the way for Christ. His example invites us to embrace humility and not seek our own recognition but to direct our attention to Jesus.
J.R. Hudberg
UR:Gentle Answer
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. - Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)
The other day I went to the convenience store to buy milk. I grabbed a gallon jug from the cooler and strolled to the checkout. I recognized Reggie standing behind the counter working the cash register. Several people were ahead of me in line, but I could plainly hear the argument happening at the register. A man raised his voice to Reggie and both got upset. Tempers rose and their voices got louder. Just when I figured it would get out of hand, Reggie said, “Jesus loves you, and so do I.” Instantly, the argument was over, and the two parted amicably, not as enemies.
The Bible tells us how to quell arguments, and that day at the store I saw it lived out. Reggie’s gentle answer ended the quarrel with kindness, and I hope to use this method when I’m faced with a similar situation. It takes courage and humility to respond with a gentle answer, but with God’s help and the Spirit working in us and through us, we can do it.
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's Prayer
Dear Lord, help us to approach disagreements with love and grace. Please help us to communicate gently and humbly with others, following your example. Amen.
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