Good Morning Team! Love you all! Thanks for all the love and prayers. Thanks also for being the church that loves like Jesus well! Outsiders tell me all the time how they feel the love and joy of the Lord in and through us and how comfortable they feel fellowshipping and worshipping with us! Keep up the good work! Amen! , our daughter visited for Mother's Day and even though she lives over an hour away, she loved it her and wondered if she could make this her home church. Thanks! Keep letting the love flow! I'm praising God for carrying me and using me to bring, love, joy, hope and His Word alive! The only way I can explain it is BUT GOD! I have this amazing peace beyond understanding and know He is with me and my family during this hard time. The other thing to remember is we don't mourn like this world does because we have hope and we know where our saved loved ones are and that we will see them again. He somehow turns our mourning to dancing and He comforts those who mourn is more than a saying, it's an experience we know as His loving presence wraps His arms around us and upholds us in His strong right hand. Amen! When we let go and let God, humble ourselves before Him and allow Him to help--He's always there. we discussed Jonah 2 and his prayer from the belly of the big fish. We were reminded that when we get to the end of ourselves and cry out to God we are at the best place to know and receive His loving, helping, comforting presence. Don't lean on your own thinking. be still and know and there is God waiting with open arms. PTL! Anyway, that's kind of what I am experiencing. God is good--always! Amen! And it always helps to have some loving brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside, encourage, pray and walk with us. That's you/us! PTL! Keep living and loving like Jesus team! he is for us and with us and using us! Amen!
There's nothing like the fellowship of believers we know and thrive in! We are one as He is one. People who don't worship with others like us are missing out on a great gift from God! We are made for community. We are God's community sent to love and prepared to receive all who will come. Amen! Check out the Upper Room below that speaks into this community thing. Then spend some time with Our Daily bread's teaching on our fragility and God's enduring love and His everlasting Word. He speaks to and directs and corrects us through our time with Him in His Word. Praying His Word brings great power to prayers. Don't lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge God and He will lead you to His best. Open His Word and hear His whisper as he invites you to come as you are and to prepare you to be transformed more in to His image. It's awesome! Worship and team up to listen as we seek first His Kingdom and then follow His provisions together. Amen! try it! You'll love it! Amen
UR: Holy Community
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. - Revelation 22:17 (NIV)
Driving in an older section of our town, we passed by a historic, majestic church building. A sign out front announced its closure and gratitude for the 110-plus years of its service to the community. I felt an overwhelming sadness as I imagined all the weddings, baptisms, and other celebrations that would no longer be held there. I also thought of the somber occasions — the funerals, the broken families seeking refuge. I imagined the people of that church praying with and for each other, sharing in their joy and grief.
, worship takes many forms. For some it is an online event. Others feel that the Lord doesn’t require four walls or a church community to worship God. There is truth to that. We can worship anywhere and anytime.
But for me, church is the place where I experience God with other believers, and being part of that has been a dynamic experience. There is something special about people of different ages and backgrounds joining together as a church family to worship God. Together we reach into our community and around the world to promote God’s word and to support and help each other.
What a joyous feeling it is to join with others in a shared love for God!
's Prayer
Dear Lord, we worship you and offer all praise and glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.
In the early 1900s, successful steel businessman Charles Schwab decided to build perhaps the most lavish mansion in New York City. Completed in 1906, his Riverside Drive estate took its inspiration from French chateaus and spanned an entire city block, with lush gardens, grand halls, and opulent interiors. It stood in stark contrast to the rising apartment buildings that would soon define Manhattan. Despite its grandeur, the estate struggled to find a buyer after Schwab’s death. The mansion was too large, too costly, and out of step with real estate trends. Riverside Drive estate was demolished in 1948. Both the mansion and the man faded away.
It’s easy for us to point to earthly realities like wealth, ambition, and mansions as destined to fade away. The words of Isaiah 40 remind us, “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field” (v. 6). Isaiah wrote to people enduring God’s discipline for their faithlessness. After He had corrected them, God would comfort them (vv. 1-2). What the prophet says about people, grass, and flowers is true (vv. 6-7). But the truth of God Himself? It will outlast men and mansions and wealth and ambition and accolades. Yes, “the word of our God endures forever” (v. 8).
It’s good to keep in mind how fragile we are. And it’s wise to remember God’s word is everlasting.
By John Blase
REFLECT & PRAY
What have you witnessed that has withered and faded away? How does God’s eternal nature and unfailing word encourage you?
Eternal God, I praise You because Your word endures forever!
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The words recorded in Isaiah 40:6-8 are sobering. There’s nothing flattering about humans being described as “grass [that] withers” (v. 7) or “flowers [that] fall” (v. 8). These word pictures describe the temporary nature of our human existence, which contrasts with the permanence of “the word of our God” (v. 8). The apostle Peter, before citing Isaiah 40:6-8 to biblically support the point he was making in 1 Peter 1:24-25, wrote these words: “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (v. 23). Isaiah wasn’t the only biblical spokesperson to grasp the potency and permanence of the Scriptures. The psalmist’s words in Psalm 119:89 touch on this theme: “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” Though constantly confronted with our frailty, we find comfort that “the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
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