DYSMAS CONDUIT
FREE FOOD
(Isa 55:1)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Question for the day: When were the loneliest hours of your life?
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 Timothy 1
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 to
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!
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.
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
November 23, 2009
Making the Most of Loneliness
"I no longer call you servants,
because a servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from my Father
I have made known to you."
John 15:15 (NIV)
Devotion:
My little boy sat facing the back of the couch. His head resting on his crossed arms. He stared out the window. His little head moved from left to right as he watched two neighbor boys race past on bikes, laughing at a shared joke.
I watched my second-grade-son from the kitchen door, drying my hands with a dishtowel. My shoulders drooped as Josh took a deep breath and let it out in a despairing sigh. Mirroring his sadness, my throat tightened and hot tears burned my eyes. Throwing the dishtowel into the sink, I quietly stepped to the couch and slipped down next to him. Without saying a word, I scooped him into my lap and enveloped his little frame with my arms.
His face nuzzled mine and our tears mixed together. I could almost feel the wishing and hoping pulse through his small body: Will they stop by my house? Will they invite me to play? A smothered sob escaped from my little boy who was trying valiantly to be "big."
Ever since our move to
The loneliness was oppressive, and I felt it too. In fact, that period of my life was one of my darkest times. We all left life-long friends when we moved. Those friendships had been born of common experiences, and years spent together. They were effortless. Now we faced unknown territory, not just geographically, but culturally and socially. This was a new world to us, and Josh felt it as painfully as I did. And yet, during that time, we all learned some things about God and ourselves that we wouldn't have learned had we stayed in
Although loneliness is painful, it isn't always a bad place to be for a time. C.S. Lewis said "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
God definitely spoke to us in our loneliness. And I started wondering if perhaps there are times when God allows loneliness into our lives as an invitation to pursue Him as our closest friend. When our friends have left us, or we have left them, God reveals His presence in new ways. Tim Hansel, author of Through the Wilderness of Loneliness writes, "Loneliness is not a time of abandonment…it just feels that way. It's actually a time of encounter at new levels with the only One who can fill that empty place in our hearts."
God longs to fill our hearts with Himself. Yet we often try to fill the desires of our hearts with the things of this world. We also discover those attempts to find replacements for God are fleeting and insubstantial, leaving us even lonelier than before.
As you or your child face a time of loneliness, take this opportunity to look to Jesus as a best friend. Jesus Himself calls us friends in John 15:15, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
Even though we were designed for community, God has a purpose for loneliness. If we can learn from it, rather than resent it, I believe we'll find a life-long Friend who'll never leave us lonely.
Dear Lord, thank You being a friend who will never leave me. Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming. Please be real to me today. I want to learn from this time of loneliness rather than resent it, in Jesus' Name, amen.
Application Steps:
Spend 10 minutes sitting in the presence of Jesus. Invite Him to be real to you, and listen for His voice.
Reflections:
What characteristics does God display when He reveals Himself to us as a friend?
What can you do to be a better friend to God?
Power Verses:
Psalm 37:7a, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him…." (NIV)
Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (NIV)
…and…
TURNING POINT
Dr. David Jeremiah
So Why Should I Be Thankful?
Monday, November 23, 2009
Have you ever watched a mother train her child
by providing the opportunity to make a choice?
Often it's very effective and develops the child's ability
to reflect on the decision, even at a young age.
From the moment we wake-up, our lives are filled with choices.
So making decisions isn't foreign to us.
But what about the choice we need to make regarding our thankfulness?
Dr. Jeremiah continues his series today,
God, I Need Some Answers, by answering this important question,
"So Why Should I Be Thankful?"
Series: God, I Need Some Answers
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
No comments:
Post a Comment