Don't forget is a busy day at church being an Acts 2:42 church (They gathered, studied, prayed, ate together, fellowshipped and served the least of these--that is us! PTL!)
10-12 Bread Ministry with Weis products
6-7:30 dinner huddle with prayer study and family time
Good Morning, Praying, Loving, Accepting Disciples of Jesus! Amen! This salutation flows from our devotionals as God threaded them together for me to share with you. Really contemplate and meditate on these, the associated Scriptures, and listen as you abide. Be still and know, receive, prepare and go fulfill your purposes for . God has great fruit-bearing plans for you and he is speaking as you pray, focus and join Him. What's He have for you /this week? What will you do about that? Join Him and your team to go live, love, pray, serve and make disciples like Jesus, I hope!
Begin with the Upper Room and Psalm 66:20, "Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love for me." Wow! Do you believe this? Have you experienced it. Be still and know and be refreshed in His love! PTL! Yes rejoice too! Give it all to God. Turn your sorrow to praise and abide in His love! We next encounter God speaking through The Word for You devo about being careful who we listen to. All kinds of voices and noise are clamoring to drown out God's still small voice and his Truth. What are you listening to? Who has your ear? Is it God and Truth or fools and lies? Turn off the noise and abide in Truth and Love with the Living Word and fill up with His Living Water! God is for us! Anything not of Him will sound like rubbish to the trained Christian ear. Remain steadfast in God and His purposes for you and don't let Satan or others sidetrack you. And then we come to Our Daily Bread. Love as God loves. What's that look like? Find joy in all those He is drawing and those whose hearts he has. Turn off the noise, falsehood and annoyances and focus on God's best. Listen to what he is teaching you and apply it to your life and help us as His Church to walk in His good ways. Live, love, teach, pray, lead and make disciples as we love them like Him. Love! Peace! Joy! That is life in Christ worth focusing on. Try it and team up to process and hold accountable and pray and even go together! God has great plans awaiting! Choose them! Obey the voice of reason and Truth and go bring streams of Living Water to a dry and thirsty land right outside your door. I'm praying for you and us and for His Kingdom to come and will to be done. Amen!
UR: The Prayer Tree
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! - Psalm 66:20 (NIV)
I was visiting a friend in a small village in Central Java. One rainy afternoon, my friend led me along muddy paths, dodging puddles, to an enormous banyan tree near a modest wooden chapel. Beneath the tree, a group of villagers in a circle, their voices rising and falling in prayer. My friend told me the local people gather here at The Prayer Tree to share their struggles and joys and to listen for God’s guidance. I watched as an elderly woman held up a basket filled with rice stalks. “We prayed for rain, and God answered. My crops are saved.” The group responded with soft amens. It struck me how ordinary her story was. Yet, in her voice, I felt the weight of her gratitude.
Later, as I under the tree’s sprawling branches, I thought about my own prayers. I rarely stopped to truly listen, to connect my daily life with God’s whispers. Watching the villagers, I realized prayer isn’t just about asking — it is about being still enough to hear God’s answers in unexpected ways.
As I prepare for the week ahead, I’m reminded of the woman’s basket of rice. Her story inspired me. , I encourage us all to pause, to bring fears, hopes, and gratitude to God, and to listen for God’s word.
's Prayer
Dear God, thank you for hearing our prayers. Help us to recognize your presence in our daily lives and to receive your answers to our prayers with gratitude.
TWFYT:
ODB:
Loving Children as God Does
The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14
All summer long, the children in the house behind ours spend hours swinging on their swing set. Their noisy swing set. Its creaky noise doesn’t bother the children who seem, some days, to swing endlessly. Complaining, I asked my husband why their parents don’t oil the swing. Praying about it, however, I noticed a change in my heart. I could see the children’s laughter and joy bursting from the trust they find in their family’s yard, and in having parents within calling distance nearby.
Jesus spoke of such trust when speaking of children. People were bringing their children to Jesus so He could bless them, but His annoyed disciples scolded the parents, rebuking them (Mark 10:13).
Seeing this, Christ “was indignant” (v. 14). “Let the little children come to me,” He told them, “and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” He added, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (vv. 14-15).
He’d already taught His disciples this when they’d argued who among them was greatest. Taking a child in His arms, on another occasion, Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (9:37). Demonstrating the same idea, “He took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them” (10:16). What beautiful reminders to be childlike in our trust in Jesus.
By Patricia Raybon
REFLECT & PRAY
What do you enjoy about the joy of children? How can you learn to love those who annoy you at times?
Please grow my love for others, ever-present and loving God.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The scene from ’s Scripture passage (Mark 10:13-16) occurs not long after Jesus had made another comment about children. As Christ and the disciples were “[passing] through Galilee” (9:30), His disciples got into a quarrel about which of them was the greatest (vv. 33-34). Jesus knew what they’d been discussing, of course, but He didn’t preach a sermon against their sinful ambition. Instead, “He took a little child whom he placed among them” and said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (vv. 36-37). His object lesson about humility was obvious. That’s why it’s surprising when they “rebuked” people who were literally “bringing little children to Jesus” (10:13). They still hadn’t learned that “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (v. 14). As we express our childlike trust in Christ, we’ll want to welcome all who’re overlooked and undervalued.
LISTEN ONLINE
