Just Us: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

11/30 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Question for the day: In what way do our priorities change during the Christmas season?

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

2 Timothy 2

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

Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg. He had surgery Nov 19^th and 2 more tumors were found, He is in a lot of pain. Please pray for the Lord’s Hand to help him overcome his anxiety as well as the cancer.

Our daughter, Heidi Hayes, is expecting to delivery the twins sometime in the next few weeks (actually her doctor said 'anytime'). Please lift her up in prayer for her safety during the labor and delivery and safety and good health for the babies. Heidi is an 'older' mother and more at risk but of course there is no risk in God's will. Toni & Steve

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

November 30, 2009

Sleeping Through Christmas

Whitney Capps

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,

and you will call Him Immanuel, God with us."

Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)

Devotion:

The mall was crowded with shoppers. I struggled to hold my infant and my crying, wriggling toddler. He was uncomfortable and I was in the middle of a hot flash. Is that possible at 29 years of age? Music in the background played, "It's the most wonderful time of the year."

"Whatever!" I thought "This is NOT the most wonderful time for me!"

Last year was ten month old Dylan's first official Christmas. For two year-old Cooper, it was his first Christmas in many ways too. Sure we have video of him sitting in front of presents his first Christmas. But he was just four months old at the time. I think he fell asleep before my husband and I finished opening his gifts!

He wore more of Christmas dinner than he ingested. Nap time interfered with celebrations. Instead of It's a Wonderful Life we watched Barney. Because we had tried all of these celebrations with Cooper, we should have known Dylan would not be able to comprehend the festivities around him. Still we went through all the same pomp and circumstance.

Looking back over the pictures I marvel at the ways we tried to help our young boys celebrate the season. A drive to enjoy Christmas lights turned into a meltdown of historic proportions. Family celebrations proved to be more exhausting than exhilarating. We had done it all - enjoyed meals, read the Christmas story, opened gifts, and as best as I could tell our boys were none the wiser to the real meaning of Christmas.

I couldn't help but wonder, Am I more like my naïve children than I'd like to admit? Did I fail to understand all that was happening around me? Did I let the magnitude of the season pass me by unnoticed? Had I slept my way through the celebrations with family and friends?

Was the One who orchestrated the very first Christmas waiting for this child to enjoy all that He had done for me?

I wish I could say I celebrated Christmas like a spiritually mature mother of two, but I'm afraid I slept through it. I was entertained. I was distracted. I was only partly there. I whined and whimpered. I fixated on the wrong things.

So how does one who slept through Christmas 2008 prepare for Christmas 2009? By accepting God's grand invitation to celebrate Christ's birth every day. Perhaps this is the only way to appreciate its magnitude. A few weeks ago I went to our basement where we store our Christmas decorations. I dug out my favorite ornament and hung it in my office, hopeful it will remind me to celebrate Christ today. Maybe after a month of wide-awake worship I'll be ready to show my children - and myself - all that we missed last year.

Dear Lord, help me celebrate You every day in every way. Father, I don't want my children to think that celebrating Your entrance into this world is relegated to just the month of December. Your birth changed me forever; may I celebrate it accordingly, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Resolve to think about Christmas long before the hustle and bustle begins. Start discussing with your children the ways your family wants to honor Jesus this season. Prioritize the weeks around activities and events that celebrate the Christ child.

Reflections:

Would those outside my family and friends look at how we celebrate the season and know that we see it as the life-changing, history-altering event it is?

Based on how we fill our days and nights, what priorities do we esteem during the Christmas season?

Power Verses:

1 John 2:16, "For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world." (NIV)

Luke 2:13-14, 20, "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'…The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." (NIV)

…and…

TURNING POINT

Dr. David Jeremiah

The Games Christians Play - Part 2

Monday, November 30, 2009

So many people are plagued with the disease of denial.

Despite overwhelming evidence, these people refuse to accept

facts placed before them because it's easier that way.

They'd rather live their lives based on feelings than facts.

Do they know what they're missing?

In the same way, many Christians live in denial of sin.

Dr. David Jeremiah will teach us that the denial of the power,

presence, and practice of sin can rob us of our joy in Christ.

Series: Living in the Light

1 John 1:3-2:2

VIEW OR LISTEN AT

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

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

Please send your prayer requests to

dysmasconduit.@gmail.com

Sunday, November 29, 2009

11/29 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Question for the day: What is the Bible’s $64,000 question?

What can we pray with YOU about today?

Good morning,

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

Today’s Chapter in God’s Word

2 Timothy 1

Listen at

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

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please continue to pray for three-week-old David Pearson.

Update:

He's better--BUT KEEP PRAYIN'! This hole in his heart (not rare but it usually closes B4 a baby is a month old) is smaller. They are going to give him aspirin to dissolve a blood clot in the aorta. The good news is he's been home for a week and Mama Annette can feed him--except she and Jeremia (5) have the "swine" flu. Pray John and Naomi (3) don't get it.

Love Worth Finding

Pastor Adrian Rogers

NOVEMBER 29

A Merciful Delay

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,

as some men count slackness;

but is longsuffering to us-ward,

not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance."

2 Peter 3:9

Have you ever wondered why Jesus has not yet returned? I'll tell you why—because our Lord is waiting on people to be saved. He's waiting on your family member, your neighbor, your co-worker, or maybe you, but one of these days soon, and very soon perhaps, Jesus will come.

You see, it is the mercy of God that holds back the Second Coming of Jesus, but the justice of God and the judgment of God require that one day He will come.

Even now, the raging waters of God's wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of His mercy. And one of these days, the dam of God's mercy will give way to God's judgment, and the day of the Lord will come. Our Lord is coming!

Does the Lord's return make your heart beat faster because you anticipate His coming or dread His coming?

and

The $64,000 Question

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Life is a series of asking questions and finding answers,

so perhaps that's why so many popular TV and radio shows –

such as the famous 1960's show after which this sermon is titled –

have been based on asking questions.

But what is the $64,000 question in the Bible?

Hebrews 2:1-4

VIEW OR LISTEN AT

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

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

Please send your prayer requests to

dysmasconduit.@gmail.com

Saturday, November 28, 2009

11/28 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2009

Question for the day: What can we pray with YOU about today?

Good morning,

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

Today’s Chapter in God’s Word

1 Timothy 6

Listen at

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

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Can you please be praying for my mother-in-law Maureen she was diagnosed with Kidney cancer today. They will be operating tomorrow morning. Pray that the cancer has not spread anywhere else in her body. That God will heal her. --Steve Lampi

Please continue to pray for three-week-old David Pearson. He is fighting for his life in a German hospital, having already endured his third blood transfusion. So many complications in such a brief life! Please pray also for his parents, John and Annetta – as well as grand-parents and personal good friends, Dan and Sondra Pearson, as they stand vigil for baby David.

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!

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

Thanksgivings

"The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trust in Him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving." ~ Psalm 28:7 (NLT)

David knew the power of thanksgiving. He understood that thanksgiving reflects a humble heart and is rooted in humble gratitude. He was genuinely grateful. For him, God was his only solution, his only escape from danger. And he trusted God to show up and deliver him. For David, God meant life.

No matter what our circumstances, we can always thank God for who He is and for delivering us from every evil darkness into every blessing of light.

James 1:17 says, "every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights . . ." (NKJV).

Thanksgiving honors God. It is a facet of praise, a biblical precept, a key component of prayer and our Christian love walk. The dictionary defines thanksgiving as "a prayer that offers thanks to God . . . an expression or an act of giving thanks . . . a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness."

Philippians 4:6 instructs us to pray and petition God with thanksgiving. The NIV note for this scripture tells us that thanksgiving is "the antidote to worry."

Psalm 95:2 says, "Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song."

I Corinthians 10:16 refers to the communion cup as "the cup of thanksgiving," which we take in remembrance of Jesus who died for us so we can have eternal life.

The word "Hallelujah," which we often sing, translates into the Hebrew word "halleluyah," which literally means "praise ye the Lord." The dictionary defines Hallelujah as a thankful cry of "relief, welcome or gratitude."

I did a rare thing for myself one day: I bought a cup of coffee at my local grocery store and decided to take my time shopping for our week's meals. God spoke to my heart as I came upon the book aisle. There, I spotted TV anchor Deborah Norville's book, Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You.

"Interesting choice of words," I thought.

I flipped through the book, having recalled Mrs. Norville publicly proclaiming years earlier that she is a woman of faith. I saw that she included lots of supporting material—quotes and studies professing that the principle of thanksgiving works. And, indeed, in the final chapter, she directly addresses "people of faith," encouraging readers to attend assemblies of worship.

As I stood in the aisle of that market, I was reminded that the same biblical principles that we Christians are to live by also work in the world. God doesn't want to leave anyone out. He loves us all.

It caused me to pause and ask myself, "How is my attitude of thanksgiving? How grateful is my heart? Do I really honor God enough with prayers of thanksgiving? What gifts from above have I taken for granted?

Indeed, thanksgiving is a powerful principle that touches the Father's heart. May we ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, and may we give the Father of Light thanks for every good and perfect gift.

…and…

John MacArthur

Grace to You

Rejoice Always

A loving family . . . steady job . . . good health –

all blessings that should make you happy.

But even if you lost all those things,

there'd still be plenty to rejoice about . . .

as John MacArthur shows you,

today on Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thessalonians 5:16

VIEW OR LISTEN AT

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

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

Please send your prayer requests to

dysmasconduit.@gmail.com

Friday, November 27, 2009

11/27 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009

Question for the day: What was yesterday's greatest blessing?

What can we pray with YOU about today?

Good morning,

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

Today’s Chapter in God’s Word

1 Timothy 5

Listen at

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

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

May I please ask for prayers for my mother. She needs both a double bypass and an aortic valve replacement. Her surgery will occur no later than Friday, assuming that they can keep her stable. We'll be traveling to IL to be with my parents as they go through the next few days. My mother is strong and otherwise healthy, despite being 85 years old. God willing, she will pull through just fine. --Scott D.

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!

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

November 27, 2009

A Thirsty Woman

Rachel Olsen

"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,

and one who waters will himself be watered."

Proverbs 11:25 (ESV)

Devotion:

I sat in the crowded café of a bookstore working on my laptop. My stomach growled repeatedly—I'd not yet had lunch. Hunger urged me to pack up and head in the rain to a restaurant but I purposed instead to focus on the project at hand. Then something else caught my attention.

A woman wearing a green rain jacket walked by. I noticed because she walked with the gate of a person with a disability. Several steps past me she stopped, turned and looked at me. I smiled. She spoke to me in incomprehensible syllables. Not sure how to respond, I kept smiling. She repeated her groaning.

"What is it?" I inquired.

After "speaking" a few more sentences, she reached her hand toward me. All her motions were noticeably slow. With her arm extended, she wiggled her fingers while looking at me with soft eyes that didn't seem to fully focus.

Patrons at surrounding tables stared in our direction. The awkwardness was growing. She kept wiggling her fingers, uttering sounds no one understood. I looked around. She was alone. I smiled again and asked, "What do you need?" She came closer, her hand reaching for my wrist. Maybe she just wants to touch me for some reason, I thought.

Instead, she took my hand and pulled me up from my chair. My eyes made contact with the man at the next table. He looked at me with a mix of surprise and questioning. I suspect my facial expression matched his.

She lead me by the hand to the coffee condiments counter that housed a stack of plastic cups and a help-yourself pitcher of water. She grabbed the cup-stack, wrestling four off the top. For over a minute she struggled to separate one cup from the four. I held out my hands in a gesture of help but she never allowed me to reach the cups. I waited.

Once she had her single cup, she pointed to the water pitcher. I lifted it and poured her a glass. She drank the whole thing, and pointed to the pitcher again. I poured another cup. She downed it and reached for the pitcher herself this time. Uh oh, I thought.

I watched, gauging her ability as she attempted to pour her own drink. Moving ever so gingerly, she tilted the pitcher while holding the cup. She seemed in slow motion. Her aim was off a few fractions of an inch, so at the last second I maneuvered her hand with the cup to the precise spot to catch the water.

All this while she didn't look at me or speak to me. I just stood next to her at the counter.

When the cup neared full, I said, "OK." She stopped pouring and drank her third glassful in a row. Wow, she was thirsty. Maybe she just doesn't know when to stop. I wondered if I should cut her off when she began pouring a fourth cup. Instead I let her fill it, as slowly as before.

As she drank that fourth cup, I wiped the small spills from the counter. Suddenly this passage flooded my mind:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.'

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'" (Matthew 25:34-40, NLT)

I'd just been chosen to share water, perhaps with a woman and perhaps with the Living Water Himself. This was the best thing I did all day. All week. All month even. Maybe all year.

After the fourth cupful, a caretaker came and led the woman away. She looked back at me one last time. I smiled. By the time I returned to my seat, the café patrons were no longer watching me or the woman—our interaction at the condiment counter had been lengthy and quiet. They'd gone back to reading their books. I, however, couldn't return to my project. My thoughts were captivated by Jesus' words, and the woman in the green rain slicker.

Dear Lord, I give thanks today for the food and drink on my table. Help me see ways to share it with those less fortunate, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Share. Give. Serve. Bless.

Reflections:

What are two ways I can provide food, drink, clothing, medical care or hospitality in the weeks to come?

Power Verses:

Proverbs 19:17, "Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed." (ESV)

John 4:13-14, "Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" (ESV)

…and…

TURNING POINT

Dr. David Jeremiah

The Games Christians Play - Part 1

Friday, November 27, 2009

With the current job market,

a lot of people are relocating to find work –

perhaps to a place they never imagined living.

In situations like this,

it's easy to focus solely on the daily routine in the new location,

never becoming a part of the community

or realizing that new friends and experiences are available to them.

In this message, we'll discover that, in the same way,

many Christians never take the opportunity

to experience the joy of fellowship with Christ.

Series: Living in the Light

1 John 1:3-2:2

VIEW OR LISTEN AT

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

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

Please send your prayer requests to

dysmasconduit.@gmail.com

Just Us

Monday, November 30, 2009

11/30 Manna

Sunday, November 29, 2009

11/29 Manna

Saturday, November 28, 2009

11/28 Manna

Friday, November 27, 2009

11/27 Manna

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