Good Morning Trusting, Faithful, Hope-Filled Disciples (learners) and Apostles (sent ones) of Jesus! Rise! Shine! Give God all the glory this morning! He has created you for some special purposes and some just for today! PTL! Maybe it's a day to learn something, maybe to go share some hope, maybe a day to be stretched some? No matter what the day may bring, we know who brings the day and He is worthy of all praise, honor, glory and obedience. It is a day to trust and obey! God's got some great plans for you, even if you can't see it yet through the fog or aren't sensing His presence or call. As you go through each day, step by step with the Holy Spirit, God will reveal some mission or purpose just for you, just as you are and just where He has placed you. So, rejoice, be glad and keep your eyes open and hold loosely to your plans and agenda and give them to the Lord of you and this day.
Check out our devotionals for today below. They all thread through this salutation and theme. God has custom made plans for you that require your trust that will grow your faith as you go share His love and your hope. We are learning as we go and growing more like Christ and into our fuller potential and God's greater purposes. PTL! Worship and ask for help to run your race well today--everyday. God promises to be with you each step and working all things together for good. He is trustworthy and faithful and we have much hope and love to share from our experiences. Go! Live and love life Jesus, sent ones, learners, trusting ones!
OK begin your day with some stretching as you praise and pray and prepare for exercising your faith and sharing your hope today...OK reach to the sky and praise the Lord and say, "I love you Lord!" Now open your arms and receive His love and help for today and stretch out your arms and ask Him to help you go love well today. Remember to breathe well too...Breathe out the junk and breathe in the Spirit's freshness..."YH-WH....YH-WH" Now go love well! You're ready! Remember as you breathe God is on your lips and filling your soul---Breathe in: YH and out: WH. (Remember the teaching that scholars believe that God's name (we add the vowels) Yahweh (YHWH) may have been a breath prayer sound "YH (in)-WH (out)" Therefore from first to last breath and everywhere in between we are praying and pronouncing God's name with every breath. We may not know what to pray but the Holy Spirit does and Jesus hears and takes our prayers to the Father. PTL! Right? YH...WH, YH...WH, YH...WH. Come fill us with Your love and words and send us today with willing hands and feet prepared by you. Thank You YHWH, my Lord, Savior, Helper, and Always-Near Friend. Your will be done. Come! Fill me today. YH...WH, YH...WH... Amen
ODB:
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I held up a picture of people sleeping under pieces of cardboard in a dim alley. “What do they need?” I asked my sixth grade Sunday school class. “Food,” someone said. “Money,” said another. “A safe place,” a boy said thoughtfully. Then one girl spoke up: “Hope.”
“Hope is expecting good things to happen,” she explained. I found it interesting that she talked about “expecting” good things when, due to challenges, it can be easy not to expect good things in life. The Bible nevertheless speaks of hope in a way that agrees with my student. If “faith is confidence in what we hope for” (Hebrews 11:1), we who have faith in Jesus can expect good things to happen.
What is this ultimate good that believers in Christ can hope for with confidence?—“the promise of entering his rest” (4:1). For believers, God’s rest includes His peace, confidence of salvation, reliance on His strength, and assurance of a future heavenly home. The guarantee of God and the salvation Jesus offers is why hope can be our anchor, holding us fast in times of need (6:18–20). The world needs hope, indeed: God’s true and certain assurance that throughout good and bad times, He’ll have the final say and won’t fail us. When we trust in Him, we know that He’ll make all things right for us in His time.
By Karen Huang
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How does the Bible encourage and give you hope and confidence? What are some things you can thank God for?
Dear God, my hope in You is firm and secure, not because my faith is strong, but because You’re faithful to do as You’ve promised.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The author of Hebrews is never identified. Scholars suggest Paul or even Barnabas, Luke, Clement, or Apollos. But no matter, the author clearly understood that his readers needed perseverance to face trials and persecution. Throughout the book, readers are encouraged to endure and hold fast to Christ (2:1–4; 3:7–4:13; 5:11–6:2). And in 10:39, they’re reminded that as believers in Jesus they “do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” Then in chapter 11, known as the “Hall of Faith,” the author commends the many men and women of the Bible who lived by faith and sometimes died because of it. Because of their witness and example, believers in Jesus are prompted to “run with perseverance the race marked out for [them]” (12:1). And he bolsters them with God’s promise: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (13:5).
Alyson Kieda |
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Charles Stanley:
TWFYT:
