Just Us: Manna for 10/9/2009

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009

Question for the day: How can we make our relationships more constructive?

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

1 Corinthians 13

Listen at

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

The Way of Love

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.

3-7

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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 them to Kingdom-profitable loads to carry, and that He grants them safe passage today.

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!!!!!!!!!

Molly was confirmed with the flu. She has started the Tamiflu and an antibiotic for her lungs. Please pray for her healing and for her comfort as she waits.

Also my mom, Kathie, is having surgery on her wrist today. Please pray for safety in the procedure and for the doctors and nurses who will be caring for her. Thank you. --Denise O.

How Can I Make My Prayer Life

Come Alive?

Lysa TerKeurst

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words."

Matthew 6:7 (NIV)

Devotion:

I was tired of my prayer life seeming a bit stale. I used words that sounded official but my heart wasn't connecting. Too many times I found myself praying because I felt obligated - it was just something good Christians did.

But I didn't want my prayer time to be like an awkward conversation with someone I barely knew. I wanted more. As I examined the way I had been praying for years, I started to realize most of my prayers seemed to be centered around me and the ways I wanted God to bless me:

God, bless my kids and keep them safe.

God, bless me and my family with good health and strong, capable bodies.

God, bless my husband's business.

God, bless this food that you so richly provide.

God, bless our day today.

Now, it's not wrong to pray these prayers. They are honest prayers. These are heart-felt prayers. These are the prayers of many women who are rising to the daunting task of taking care of their families.

But, they set my expectations of God to be what I want, without taking into consideration the possibility of God's bigger plan. Praying only these types of prayers was stunting my growth with a focus on convenience and comfort, rather than growing me into a woman of character, perseverance and maturity.

Nancy Guthrie wrote, "There's so much to want—healed bodies, restored relationships, changed circumstances. But asking, seeking and knocking aren't secret formulas for getting what we want from God; they're ways to get more of God. As I listen to God speak to me through His Word, He gives me more of Himself in fuller, newer ways.

Then, if healing doesn't come, if the relationship remains broken, or if the pressures increase, I have the opportunity to discover for myself He is enough. His presence is enough. His purpose is enough."

Nancy goes on to share in the article that through changing her prayers to be more about getting to know God rather than getting what she wants from Him, she is changing from just knowing about God to experiencing Him in deeper ways than ever before.

I still present my requests to God but I don't make this the focus of my prayer. My focus when I pray is to better align my heart with God's heart. Instead of filling up my prayer time with my requests and my words, I spend more time listening to whatever He might have to say. Power enters our prayers not by our words sounding powerful, but rather by listening for even the slightest whisper from the One who is All-Powerful.

And that's when our prayer life really comes alive.

Dear Lord, forgive me for always praying, God bless me. Give me the courage to sometimes pray, God inconvenience me... so that I might constantly be reminded to draw near to You. Interrupt me, Lord. Shake things up in me, Lord. Reveal what's in me that's not of You, Lord. Oh Lord, more than anything, I want more of You, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Take some time to just sit and listen for the Lord to speak to your heart. I remember this being a frustrating exercise at first, but as I kept asking the Lord - sometimes begging Him - to reveal something to me, eventually He did. Sometimes the most powerful way I hear His voice is through reading and thinking about His words in the Bible. Let listening to Him help make your prayer life richer and more meaningful.

Reflections:

Have you ever felt your prayers were a bit canned and stale?

How might you change to make your prayers more God focused?

Power Verses:

James 5:16, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (NIV)

Jeremiah 42:3, "Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do." (NIV)

…and…

TURNING POINT

Dr. David Jeremiah

Stay Constructive - Part 1

Friday, October 09, 2009

We don't have to look very far today

without seeing some sort of division-governments,

companies, churches, and families are all full of dissension.

Everyone has an opinion, and they want to be heard.

If we're not careful when sharing our viewpoint with others,

we do more tearing down than building up.