Just Us: Manna for July 21, 2009

Question for the day: What’s your temperature today?

What can we pray for YOU about today?

Good morning,

This is just a reminder that every day, while we are studying God’s Word to add to our website, someone from our ministry, Dysmas Conduit, is holding you up before the Lord in prayer. May He greatly bless you today as you pursue His will and He is glorified through you.

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please pray for Mike and Sandy Brommer as they spread the Lord’s Seed and witness to His glory while on the road today. Please pray also that the Lord will lead him to Kingdom-profitable loads to carry, and that He grants them safe passage to Delaware.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR BOB ALLMANN

http://stmarysofmichigan.org/

Treatment Location:
CARE-TEL

6700 WESTSIDE SAGINAW ROAD

ROOM 108

BAY CITY, MICHIGAN

Phone:

989-667-9800 x610

Bob was in a car accident Thurs. 4-9-09 at about 6pm in Midland. Someone ran a stop light at about 50 mph and hit him in the driver side door and flipped his Cutlass on its roof. He was hanging upside down by his seatbelt. The jaws of life had to be used to remove him. He was taken to Midland Hospital and then transported to St. Mary's. He has about 6 broken ribs on his right side, collapsed lung, broken pelvis and broken wings on his vertebrae.

Since that time, God has done wondrous things in Bob’s life, and has him known as the Miracle Man because of the way he has mended. Bob was transported to Covenant Select Hospital, and most recently to CARE-TEL. Something tells me that Bob won’t be there long… He may just get on his motorcycle and scoot out to his daughter’s wedding in Colorado. God is AWESOME!

Monday, July 20, 1:38 PM - Wendi:

As we are anxiously awaiting Pops' care conference tomorrow, he continues inpatient therapy. I will head up in the morning and attend this conference with him and we will have an update as the doctors' see his progress. Please pray for this meeting to go well enough that Pop might be able to move to an outpatient rehab status! --Wendi

Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg, whose doctors found 5 tumors in his bladder. He had surgery June 29^th and the biopsy results showed a cancerous condition. He will be undergoing chemo & radiation treatments and will need the Lord’s Hand to overcome his anxiety as well as the cancer.

CONFIDENTIAL: on-going divorce and custody battle

Deb VanSumeren: Becca & Bubba Young – loss of their mother

Joy Desimpelaere: Julie Creasman – third time, diagnosed w/cancer, this time it’s aggressive stage 4 in her lymph nodes.

Dave/Carol Taylor : our country, our state, those looking for jobs, my 2 unsaved sisters (Cheryl & Dianna)

Maggerts: young man just home from Iraq struggling to regain a life.

Breedlove: Jill’s aunt Liz – 92 yrs old and not doing well.

Sharon/Tony Calkins: praise for success in my job.

CONFIDENTIAL: for my family to get back together and to forgive each other’s sins

Ken Hicks: Alan & Joe 2 men lost in their addictions.

CONFIDENTIAL: my family

Pam Ward: Steve Ward @ Via de Cristo Weekend

Linda Radek: Stefan’s homecoming 7/31

CONFIDENTIAL: my brother w/diabetes who has an infection in foot and could possibly loose his leg.

Burkhard: thank you for all your prayer for Michelle and Eliana! They have been felt! Please continue to pray for continued healing for Michelle as she has a long road of recovery ahead of her.

Sharon Kidder: Praise – my grand son, Sandro does not need surgery to remove the cyst in his brain. They’ll just watch it closely. Thank you for your prayers. I am healing from colon cancer surgery that took place on 6/27. God is so good.

Greg Beck: those away

Vicki Puz: my friend Jennifer Lamont and family, her son has cancer and she needs the strength to get thru this she can’t do it alone.

Brenda Keenan: I am going to Singapore for several months.

Carol Greyerbiehl: continued prayers for my boss’s chemo is going much better and has another treatment this Friday.

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

Today in God’s Word

TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2009

Please join your brothers and sisters

studying and praying with us today…

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

July 21, 2009

Spiking a Temp

Karen Ehman

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were either one or the other!

So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold—

I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)

Devotion:

Lawn chair? Check! Extra blanket? Check! Team roster? Check? Piping hot drink to ward of any chill? Check!

It was one of my favorite events of the year; opening day for my son's travel baseball team. On that early spring day, I'd gathered all the components for a picture perfect time and headed up to our town's ball fields. I unloaded my car and made my way to the sidelines. Now all I had to do was sit back and watch my son throw strikes and hit balls while I hollered and cheered for the red and black Redwings.

After about half an inning, I sensed something was missing. I ran through my checklist again in my mind. It was then that it hit me--my drink! I'd left it in the car. I waited for the third out and then quickly trekked back to the parking lot to get my drink and return so as not to miss any of the action.

When I got back to my lawn chair, I settled in and took a sip from my cup. Now, this wasn't just a cup of black coffee. Since it was opening day, I'd sprung for a treat. I'd ordered my current favorite: a tall, decaf, skinny, sugar-free mocha with a shot of sugar-free hazelnut, light whip, and no garnish. How I'd looked forward to sipping on that hot specialty latte! Only now it wasn't hot. It was lukewarm. And, it wasn't very appetizing. In fact, it tasted awful. When it was hot, it was delicious. Why, even when it was cold, served over ice during a sunny, scorching July baseball game, it was wonderfully refreshing. Now, in its subdued temperature, it was just plain awful.

Sometimes we are just like that ho-hum drink. We lack an extreme temperature. We are complacent, idle and ineffective. Today's verse tells us that God had the very same problem with the church in Laodicea. Because they were neither hot nor cold, but had turned a disappointing temperature of lukewarm, he was ready to be rid of them. While there are differing views of the interpretation of the temperatures hot and cold, Jesus words are simple and clear. "I wish you were either one or the other!" In biblical times cold water was good. It was refreshing. And hot water was good. It could be healing, as in a steaming hot bath. There was, however, little need for lukewarm.

May we see today's verse as a challenge. Knowing God has no need for lukewarm, may we seek to be those who offer refreshment and healing to a dying world. May our thoughts and actions not earn us the label of indifferent or ho-hum. After all, the God of the universe is on the sidelines watching us in the great game of life. May we please Him with our heart's desires and our deeds done only in order to glorify Him!

Dear Lord, teach me to be intentional in my spiritual life and not complacent. May my words, thoughts, deeds and actions please You and not be considered lukewarm, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

What spiritual disciplines can help me avoid becoming lukewarm? Prayer? Scripture memory? Concentrated Bible study? A personal retreat to be alone with God?

Plan now to make time for some of these disciplines in your everyday life. See if a friend would like to journey with you in this venture.

Reflections:

When in my spiritual life have I felt I was really on fire for God? If that fire died down, what happened?

How do I feel when I am living a lukewarm life? How does it affect my attitudes and relationships?

Power Verses:

I Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." (NIV)