Just Us: Manna for October 1, 2009

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009

Question for the day: When you see a rose bush, do you focus on the petals, or on the thorns? … Please visit http://georgeandsidney.blogspot.com/

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

Today’s Chapter in God’s Word

1 Corinthians 5

Listen at

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

The Mystery of Sex

1-2

I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?

3-5

I'll tell you what I would do. Even though I'm not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what's going on. I'm telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. Assemble the community—I'll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.

6-8

Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.

9-13

I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please pray for Mike and Sandy Brommer as they return to spreadimg the Lord’s Seed and witnessing to His glory 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.

I have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am having surgery tomorrow at 7:30am. Please pray for my surgeon and all of the medical team involved in my care and that the surgery will be successful. Praise God for the big red target that he placed on me that seemed to say "tumor here", otherwise it may taken longer to find it. Pray for my family as they begin dealing with this.
Thanks you all. God is good, --Lynda Grosteffon

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!!!!!!!!!

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

October 1, 2009

Thorns and Petals

Lysa TerKeurst

"The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear,

but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries,

riches and pleasures, and they do not mature."

Luke 8:14 (NIV)

Devotion:

My life has not been a bed of roses.

What an odd statement. It is supposed to mean that I haven't lived a life without snags and hurt. However, think of an actual bed of roses. Doesn't it have both thorns and flowers?

Let me say, if I was reading this devotion and I saw it was going to be about roses, I might be tempted to click "delete" while rolling my eyes and thinking the last thing the world needs is another cutesy Christian analogy. But stick with me here. There is something significant to be discovered about roses and thorns.

My aunt has grown roses for years. When I was in middle school and my family was falling apart, I went to live with my aunt for almost a year. I remember her telling me not to run through her rose garden. After all, she had what seemed like hundreds of other acres that unfolded in wide open fields. I could run there.

But I didn't want to.

I only wanted to run through the rose garden. I wanted to spread my arms wide open and run between the rows brushing my fingertips across all the velvety blooms. I wanted some of the blooms to burst and shower petals all around. Then I could gather the petals and spread them along my path.

As if I could carve a new place in this world lined with beauty and void of adult words like divorce, rejection, and hate ... I wanted my world to be soft, pink, and lovely. So, I took a running start with my arms outstretched only to be shocked with searing pain within the first few steps.

Thorns. Big, mean, vicious thorns. Thorns that ripped my flesh and opened up the flood of tears I'd been so determined to hold back. Suddenly, I hated that bush. I wanted to chop it down and beat it into the ground. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to destroy something that produced such beauty.

I stood back from the source of my pain and wondered should I call it a bush of thorns or a bush of flowers. Really, it could go either way.

Suddenly I wasn't just staring at a bush. I was staring at my life. My life. Such a bed of roses. Would I see the hurt or would I see the beauty?

Luke 8:14 says, "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature." The seed being referred to here is the Word of God. Isn't it interesting that people who are choked by life's circumstances and never mature are referred to as having thorns in the soil of their soul? Yes, life sometimes hands us thorns but we have the choice to park our mind on the thorn or on the beauty it can eventually produce in us if only we'll cling tightly to God's Word. For however a person thinks is how they will eventually become.

If we dwell on and think about the negative in life, we will become negative and God's Word will have a hard time taking root in our souls. If, however, we acknowledge the negative but choose instead to look for the good that can come from it, God's Word will take root in our souls and produce a lush crop of beauty.

It all comes down to choice. That day in my aunt's garden, I chose to be aware of the thorns but park my mind on the petals.

And I guess you could say, I've been making that choice every day since.

Dear Lord, it can be really hard to focus on the petals rather than the thorns of life. Really hard. Will you help me? I want the soil of my soul to be healthy and ready to receive Your Word. I want to produce beauty in my life despite the thorns by which I've been so hurt. Will You show me how? In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Application Steps:

Look at today's key verse again and list out the ways people are choked by life's circumstances.

Isn't it interesting that it's not just the worries of life that can choke us but good things too? What are some things that might be hindering you right now?

Reflections:

What does this verse reveal is the outcome of the person consumed with focusing on thorns? Have you ever struggled with feeling like you aren't maturing in your Christian walk?

Power Verses:

Hebrews 6:8, "But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned." (NIV)

Mark 15:17, "They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him." (NIV)

…and…

TURNING POINT

Dr. David Jeremiah

Slaying the Giant of Jealousy - Part 1

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Series: Slaying the Giants in Your Life

VIEW OR LISTEN AT

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Turning_Point/

GDLC Message: http://www.gdlc.org/worship/sermons.aspx