: 10:30 Worship with Communion in Fellowship Hall/11 Congregational Meeting /11:30 Souper Bowl Brunch
*Note: We will be collecting for Everlasting Life Ministries. Those bringing soups, please bring warm, mark container with your name and soup type. Thanks
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Good Morning United in Christ teammates! Amen! Let us continue to work on growing in faith, teaming up and serving together. Let us spur each other on, encourage and build God's Church together as we are created, gifted, and empowered to do. We are created for such a time as this and gathered to grow and go live and love more like Jesus. Pray for His Kingdom to come and will be done, for unity, for tearing down of strongholds and for revival. We all have a part in His Good News Delivery Company. Pray to know what your part is and to do it with the help of your friends and God's Spirit. Pray we become a House of Prayer for the Nations and that all who come would be loved to Christ! Check out the Upper Room and Daily Bread below and allow them to speak to your heart and inform your prayers and actions. Take very thought captive before the Lord as you die to self and grow in Christlikeness. Yoke to Jesus and follow well . I'm praying for you and us. We are His people, called by His name, may we repent, turn from our wicked ways and be revived in Christ. Amen! Come Jesus Come!
UR: Doubly Blessed
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. - 1 Corinthians 12:26-27 (NIV)
Last week our church observed Communion. Because of health issues, I was unable to go forward to receive the sacrament. One of the ushers noticed my problem and asked if I would like for the servers to bring the bread and cup to me, but I was reluctant. However, when they brought the elements to a woman in the row behind me, my friend motioned for them to serve me as well. I was humbled by this unexpected hospitality.
The server holding the loaf bent over and softly said, “The Body of Christ broken for you,” as she placed a small piece of bread in my palm. Her companion leaned over and held the cup out to me so I could dip the bread in it. In a soft voice he said, “The Blood of Christ shed for you.”
I had heard both these phrases spoken dozens of times before, but this time they reached through all my mental clutter and touched me on a deeply personal level. Two of God’s servants answered the call of someone in need without fanfare or hesitation. So I was doubly blessed — by the sacrament itself and by their loving outreach to me. In that moment they exemplified what it means to be part of the body of Christ.
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's Prayer
Dear Lord, guide us in fulfilling our role as a part of your church. Help us to grow in our strength and understanding of your will for the world you created. Amen.
ODB
Abusing God’s Name
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Exodus 20:7
The vintage photograph from World War II, taken outside a town’s Nazi headquarters, carries a warning for all of us. In the photo, a comfortably dressed woman is crossing the street. A man in a suit walks down the sidewalk, while another has stopped to read a bulletin board on the corner of the building. All seem oblivious to the large banner hanging above the headquarters’ front door, half as long as the building. It reads, “By resisting the Jew, I fight for the work of the Lord.”
This kind of treachery is what God had in mind when He commanded, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Exodus 20:7). This command covers misusing His name when we curse or when we carelessly shout God’s name when we stub a toe or smash a finger. It also includes perversion—using God’s name as cover for evil.
We shouldn’t assume we’re doing God’s work simply because others say we are. We must prayerfully check our work with what God reveals in the Bible. How can we know we’re serving Him? Psalm 119:9 says, “By living according to your word.” The God who commands us to “always give [ourselves] fully to the work of the Lord” has told us what that work is in His holy book (1 Corinthians 15:58). Let’s listen to Him.
By Mike Wittmer
REFLECT & PRAY
What work have you done in the name of God? How do you know it was what He wanted?
Dear Father, please help me be wise, loving, and careful with what I do in Your name and help me guard Your name at all times.
The first five books of the Bible, the Torah, have many laws—613 according to Jewish reckoning—so it’s easy to miss their relational framework. The Ten Commandments begin: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). Their obedience to God’s commandments expressed loyalty to their rescuer.
There’s another purpose for obedience to these covenantal laws: “Observe them carefully, for . . . what other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-7). Israel’s obedience would reveal God’s character and presence to watching nations. To fail at this would bring dishonor to His holy name. , we can ask God to help us be wise in how we use His name as well.
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