Good Morning Bringers of Peace and Joy! Amen! Check out the Connection Blog below about being a peace-living, shalom-bringing, peace-filled follower of the Prince of Peace! That is one of my constant prayers for me and us. The Upper Room is Titled Give Me Strength. Our strength comes from God and His power in us helps us to choose joy and peace and to bring it--incarnate it to others. Amen! And Our Daily Bread reminds us to be the best stewards of all God's blessings--mind, heart, body, wisdom, finances, relationships, time, and even joy and many other blessings. We even steward His Light and Love as we light up and salt all around us! Amen! Focus on these things and receive from God His directions for you and as Her reveals your co-laborers to travel with through this journey to peace, joy and love.
I just wanted to update things. Karen and I just completed a very refreshing and fun week of rest and vacation. PTL! Please pray for Karen as she transitions back to her very hectic and stressful job after a ten days of fun and refreshing. Pray for our dog Maggie as she has an enlarged heart and her days are numbered. Pray she stays healthy until I return before Easter. I am heading out at 4am to head to Fla. on family leave to spend time with mom and Terry and to help get things prepared and to be a blessing. Pray for me and them. Pray for favor with the TSA checkpoints and for connections. Pray for safety. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray for God to lead and guide us and for God to heal Terry and mom. Thanks. I hope to be back for Easter but expect a few more trips back to help. (I have 3 weeks of vacation to use before . Guess this is why God had me save them!) Thank God for Sarah and Mike as they preach and lead and for Adam as he helps with Easter. I expect to have some blogs this week as this will be a working vacation. I'm praying for you all and praising God for all our servants and all He is doing in, through and around us! May we be the best stewards of all His blessings as we bless Him, each other and others. It's so cool to watch God at work in and through you and our gathered Body sent to live and love like Jesus! Shalom shalom!
Connection blog:
- Let Your Peace Come
If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. (Matthew 10:13)
Jesus had peace within him. He could not only speak of peace, but could offer it to others. And in a wonderful transference, he gave that ability to his followers. When the peace of Christ becomes a living reality within us, we not only speak of it, but we offer it to others. In practical ways that means we pray God’s peace for others, we model living in peace in front of others, and we offer the good news of the Prince of Peace to those who do not know him. When we do this, we become distributors of the peace of God!
One very practical and historical way of doing this, and of regularly reminding ourselves that we can indeed give peace, is the “passing of peace” during a worship service. I did not grow up in a church tradition where this was practiced, but I find it to be a helpful way of speaking peace into others’ lives and receiving peace from others.
The following excerpt gives some insight into this ancient and modern practice:
“Christian worship is filled with profound actions: heads bowed in prayer, arms raised in praise, standing in reverence during a Scripture reading, coming forward to give an offering. One ancient and significant gesture in worship is the passing of the peace. Passing the peace is a tradition rooted in Scripture that embodies our identity as peacemakers (Matt. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:20) and trains ours hearts, hands, and tongues in the ways of peace.
From the beginning Christians have exercised this practice. Peace be with you’ is a greeting Jesus himself used with his disciples (Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 26). The apostle Paul opened each of his letters with the words “Grace and peace be with you” (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2).
in many congregations, we may pass the peace during a mutual greeting, after words of assurance, prior to celebrating the Lord’s Supper, or at the conclusion of a worship service. At these times we leave the comfort of our seat, turn to our neighbors, grasp their hands, and speak the words, ‘The peace of the Lord be with you’ and receive the words in turn, ‘And also with you.’
The gesture is simple, but the meaning is profound. When we extend our hand to another, we identify with Jesus, who extended his life to the point of death to make peace with humanity (Col. 1:20-21).
What’s more, in the midst of divisions, we symbolize our unity through handshakes and hugs (Eph. 2:14-21). Likewise, when we regularly pass the peace, we practice God’s call to make every effort to maintain the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3).”
—from ReformedWorship.org, Issue 99,
Whether you choose to “pass the peace” in worship gatherings or not, we all need to accept our role as those who are emissaries of the Prince of Peace. We live out his peace in our lives. We look for ways to give his peace to others. We learn to shout with the angels outside of Bethlehem long ago, “on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
Choose to whom you will give the peace of Christ. Ask the Lord to open the door for you to do so.
Lord, thank you for giving me your peace. You literally spoke it into being in my life and I am so grateful. Help me to carry your peace with me wherever I go. Forgive me when I have failed and instead brought division and dissension. Show me how I can give your peace to those around me .
Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior. - Psalm 38:22 (NIV)
Sometimes I look at the day ahead of me and ask myself, Where will I get the energy that I need? As I ponder my situation, I think of King David. He often found himself in circumstances where he felt he did not have the strength to carry on. And he turned to God for help, like in ’s quoted scripture. His cry not only expressed his feelings of despair but also his confidence that God would help; he had experienced God’s help many times before.
Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.” God knows how we feel. God is with us every day, even though our days may be difficult. Like the air currents that enable eagles to soar, God gives us the strength and inspiration to keep going and not grow weary.
God gives me the wisdom to focus my energy on things that matter and to avoid spending time on meaningless or unhelpful activities, such as endlessly scrolling through social media posts. Not only does God give me the strength to do what I have to do, God helps me to be a better person — to treat others with respect and to have compassion on those who are struggling.
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's Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for hearing us when we cry out to you and for giving us strength and the help we need to make a difference in the world. Amen.
ODB:
Faithful Stewards
It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2
In , a US aerospace corporation failed a safety audit conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration. The audit came on the heels of multiple safety incidents, including a flight that had experienced a dangerous drop in cabin pressure when a door-plug panel on the jet had torn away. A spokesman for the company acknowledged that the failures were due to instructions for employees being difficult to understand and altered too often, resulting in them not faithfully adhering to approved procedures.
Paul told the church at Corinth that they should view him and other leaders as faithful and approved “servants of Christ” and declared that he’d been “entrusted” with being a steward for God (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). Stewards in Paul’s day were entrusted with overseeing the management and distribution of household resources. Above everything else, a fundamental requirement for those given these responsibilities was faithfulness. Paul labeled himself as a steward who “[worked] hard with [his] own hands” to live out his responsibilities (v. 12)—carefully using what God had given him, especially the wisdom He’d been given and the mysteries of the gospel (vv. 1-2).
As Jesus provides, let’s strive to be faithful stewards, adhering to His approved and flawless standard in our spiritual practices, work duties, and personal relationships.
By Marvin Williams
REFLECT & PRAY
How can we be faithful to the trust God has given us? What does it mean for you to be a steward for Him?
Heavenly Father, please help me be a faithful steward for You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to address specific problems that had arisen in the Corinthian church: criticism of his ministry (chs. 1-4); sexual immorality (ch. 5); lawsuits (ch. 6); marriage, divorce, and singleness (ch. 7); food offered to idols (chs. 8-10); women in ministry and the Lord’s Supper (ch. 11); use of spiritual gifts (chs. 12-14); resurrection (ch. 15); and offerings (ch. 16).
In chapter 4, he deals with the root cause of these problems. The Corinthians’ arrogance, self-importance, and self-sufficiency (vv. 6-13) had caused division in the church. The apostle deliberately and confidently uses himself as an example of how to be a faithful servant of Christ (vv. 1-2) and to live a Christlike life of simplicity, transparency, integrity, and humility. , we can ask God to help us be faithful stewards of what God has given us.
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