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DYSMAS CONDUIT

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(Isa 55:1)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2009

Question for the day: Why are we most resistant to seeing a doctor when we’re sick? … Please visit http://dysmasconduit.weebly.com/

What can we pray with 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

Today’s Chapter in God’s Word

Galatians 5

Listen at

http://www.audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm

The Life of Freedom

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

2-3

I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. 4-6I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

7-10

You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.

11-12

As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn't matter one way or the other. Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

13-15

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

16-18

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

19-21

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

22-23

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24

Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please pray for Mike Brommer as he spreads the Lord’s Seed and witnesses 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 Mike safe passage today to Baltimore, MD.

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR PASTOR BOB ALLMANN

Please remain in prayer concerning his continued healing and that he is upheld by the Spirit, becoming physically strong as he returns to serving the Lord… what he loves to do!

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.

UPDATE:

After more testing, the doctors have found that, despite the number of tumors found in and around the bladder, that the cancer has NOT spread to any surrounding muscle tissue or organs. They are looking at completely removing the bladder and replacing it with a piece of intestine. WE PRAISE GOD AND GIVE HIM THE GLORY FOR THIS; WE ALSO PRAY THAT BILLY WILL RECOGNIZE THIS AS GOD WORKING IN HIS LIFE!!!!!!!!!

Please put Cole Overly (Pat’s grandson) on your prayer list. He has H1N1. I know that many people in the area have already had it or have it now with so many schools closed. Cole has had RSV since he was a baby so we all worry about him. Thanks --Pat

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

October 30, 2009

Calling the Great Physician

Tracie Miles

"On hearing this, Jesus said to them,

‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor,

but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

Mark 2:17 (NIV)

Devotion:

Recently I came down with an infection. After ten days of misery, I finally went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis. Feeling much better after a few days of antibiotics, I wished I had sought out a physician's help sooner, preventing all those days of unnecessary suffering!

As I considered my stubbornness in deciding to call on a doctor, I thought about how our walk with Christ is often just like that.

For example, we have problems in our lives, but we think we are qualified to handle them ourselves. We have burdens, but we assume we can carry the weight on our own. We have questions, but don't really trust God to supply the answers. We need help, but stubbornly refuse to ask.

Some people call God the "The Great Physician." Although we think of this in terms of physical healing, Jesus walked the earth to provide something more: spiritual healing.

In Mark 2:13-17, the Pharisees asked Jesus why He was eating with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus explained that He came so we would know Him, and be healed from the inside out. You see, if the world were a righteous place, there would have been no need for a Savior. But God knew just how much we needed a Great Physician. Out of compassion for us, He sent His Son to fill that role. In order to tap into His healing power, we simply have to seek Him. And the sooner, the better.

In another recent situation, I quickly and desperately sought God's intervention. A few days later, I happened to notice I felt a peace I could not explain. In fact, I was confused as to why I was so calm. I thought to myself,"Why am I not obsessing about that problem every second? Why am I not more distraught and worried?"

Then God quickened my heart and reminded me that I had turned that problem over to Him. He had taken the weight off of my shoulders. He had given me spiritual healing in the form of peace.

I had sought a cure from the Great Physician, and He had provided it. Not a cure for the problem, but a cure for my heart as I dealt with the problem under His care.

If you need a physician who knows your suffering, understands how you are feeling, and has the cure, make an appointment to spend time with God today.

Dear Lord, forgive me for sometimes coming to You for help only after I have exhausted all efforts to handle the problem on my own. Please fill me with a peace that surpasses all understanding in the situations I am facing. Grant me spiritual healing, and help me see You working in and through me. Thank You for always being available and on call, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Put God on your virtual speed dial - make a commitment to call Him every morning.

Reflections:

Is my heart and spirit in need of some spiritual healing?

What specific sins in my life desperately require God's intervention? Have I asked Him recently to intervene?

Power Verses:

2 Corinthians 12:9, "But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (NIV)

Philippians 4:7, "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (NLT)

Jeremiah 17:14, "Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." (NIV)

…and…

TURNING POINT

Dr. David Jeremiah

Stay Convinced - Part 2

Friday, October 30, 2009

It doesn't take very long for us to be convinced of something.

We see a segment on the news with footage to back it up,

and we store it away as truth!

How would our lives change if we were

just as easily persuaded that Christ is returning?

Dr. Jeremiah concludes his series,