Question for the day: Where have you seen God at work 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
FREE FOOD
(Isa 55:1)
Today in God’s Word
MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2009
Please join your brothers and sisters
studying and praying with us today…
It is great to have the opportunity to greet you again this morning! However, I have been blessed in several different ways over the last few weeks as we have heard from our staff, volunteers and interns. They did a great job of sharing their lives with us and leading us into what the Lord has been teaching them lately. We will hear from them again!
Before we begin this morning's devotion, let's take a moment to pray together for the awesome work God is going to be doing this week in the lives of children here at VBS.
Dear Father, send Your Holy Spirit to stir in the hearts of the children You are gathering for VBS this morning. Protect them from the evil one and his distractions and delays. Send Your angels out even now and prepare the way for the children's safe arrival. Dear Father, send Your Holy Spirit to fill and ready the nearly 200 volunteers that are stepping out in faith to be used by You to reach these children today. Give these people Your love, wisdom, peace and joy. May they have abundant opportunities to help the children meet Your Son Jesus and experience His love and truth. Thank You, Father! AMEN!
Outstanding! Thank you for taking time to prepare the way with prayer!
Yesterday in worship, we began a new series of messages entitled, "Metamorphosis: How God Changes Us from the Inside Out." Perhaps the most well known example of metamorphosis is the remarkable transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The transformation of the caterpillar doesn't happen because it tries to behave like a butterfly nor because it jumps up and down trying to flap nonexistent butterfly wings (can caterpillars even jump?). No, some kind of real and fundamental transformation has to happen for a caterpillar to actually become a butterfly.
What's true of caterpillars and butterflies also gives us insight to what is true for human beings.
What does a life being changed by Jesus look like? We don't get wrapped inside a cocoon or sprout wings. But Jesus does tell us there is an obvious way to tell someone is being transformed by Him. Think of it this way: If someone has been trusting and following Jesus for years or even decades, what should we look for that gives evidence of the change He is making in us?
The answer? John 13:35 sums it up well, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." The evidence that Jesus is transforming us from the inside out is not our trying to be good or putting on a good show. No, the evidence that Jesus is transforming us from the inside out is an increasing capacity for receiving and releasing love. It is not our intellectual capacity for recalling Bible data. It is not our capacity for calculating ways to find fault with others. It is our capacity for love.
Now, here's the key. This transformation is not a result of my trying harder to change myself. It is a result of Jesus changing me from the inside out. Only Jesus can change a human heart... including mine.
So how does Jesus change me? First, in His grace, He brings me to the end of myself. He knows that until He does, I will be too full of myself to receive what He freely offers. That's what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
When Jesus has brought me to the end of myself then I am ready to receive what He freely offers, His affection and wisdom. When I am all done and all empty, that's when I can receive a deep draught of His love and grace. When I am all out of answers and schemes to finagle my way, I am finally ready to receive and believe His wisdom.
And His affection and wisdom change me from the inside out. Some more.
Are you at the end of your rope, again? Jesus says, "Good." You are headed for a blessed day. Stop striving. Stop faking. And stop settling for too little. Instead, receive His affection deeply and believe His wisdom completely.
Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!
Pastor Greg
…and…
The Mechanism of Metamorphosis
Pastor Greg Finke
There is a unique power at work when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.
It is mysterious and beautiful. It is called metamorphosis.
A caterpillar doesn't become a butterfly simply by acting like a butterfly.
There is real transformation that happens.
God wants to transform the human heart, as well.
It is not something we can try to do. It is something He does, from the inside out.
He asks to have access to our hearts so that His metamorphosis can happen in us.
How does that happen? What does a changed life look like? Is it something I really want?
SEE OR HEAR MESSAGE AT
GDLC Message: http://www.gdlc.org/worship/sermons.aspx
Today in Scripture
Proverbs 3 and Luke 13
LISTEN AT
http://www.audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm
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 today in
Also,
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR PASTOR BOB ALLMANN
Pastor Bob is doing so well that he gave his testimony about his accident and road to recovery at St. Mark Lutheran Church in
Please pray for Jenny, she was 13 weeks pregnant and lost the baby, prayers for understanding and healing. --Kathy
Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg, whose doctors found 5 tumors in his bladder. He had surgery June 29th 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.
Please lift before the Lord our friend, Teri, who is facing an extremely large personal challenge. Pray that she will seek Jesus’ Face and strength, and the power found in strong Christian relationships, before it is too late for her to do so. Thank you, George and Sidney
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