DYSMAS CONDUIT
FREE FOOD
(Isa 55:1)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010
Question for the day:
Have you ever made a seemingly innocent choice
that led you down the wrong path?
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
CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please pray for the family of Patti Loree. Patti's grandmother has been taken to ICU in a
Hey all,
Please keep the
The
The team will be meeting here at Church tomorrow Wednesday @ 2:15 if you would like to come and pray to send them off.
We will be having a time of prayer and sharing with
the prayer team and all who would like to pray tomorrow Wednesday from 6-8 pm in the church at Messiah.
The team who drove the supplies down to
They made some good connections with Missionary Flights International and have been helping out there today.
Please keep the team and this very special mission to bring healing and hope to the Haitian people in your prayers the rest of this week.
Pastor Kurt
Please continue to lift up Carolyn Young and her family as she begins treatments for lung cancer. She has started radiation treatments and will soon be starting chemo, as well. Carolyn wanted me to thank those of you who have been praying already. She is a strong believer in the power of prayer and has already experienced the difference it is making. Thanks also to those who have sent cards or in other ways have shown their care and support. --Pastor John
Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg. He had another surgery and two more tumors were discovered. Discussion is forthcoming concerning bladder removal. Please pray for the Lord’s Hand to help him overcome his anxiety as well as the cancer.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY
January 27, 2010
Little Decisions Make a Big Difference
Glynnis Whitwer
"Be very careful, then, how you live—
not as unwise but as wise …."
Ephesians 5:15 (NIV)
Devotion:
Do you ever get tired of making decisions? I do. Every day, decisions line up for my attention. I decide what I'm going to do, how I'll spend my money, and what I'm going to say. Conversely, I make decisions about what I am NOT going to do, spend or say.
One of the biggest challenges I face right now has to do with what I eat. You see, I'm on Weight Watchers. For the past 18 years, I've battled to be at a healthy weight. Coincidentally, my oldest child is 18. I'm certainly not blaming him…but, I'm just saying…
The first week on the program I recorded a respectable loss of 1.5 pounds. The second week on the program, I lost nothing. I was shocked. It seemed I had exercised and sacrificed more that week than ever. But the scale told the truth.
The kind lady at the reception desk tried to help me think it through. "Maybe you aren't eating enough," she said. No, that wasn't the problem. "Are you drinking enough water?" she asked. Yes; that wasn't the problem either.
Then it hit me. The problem wasn't what I was eating when I sat down for a meal, it was all the bites that led up to that meal. It was the French fry before dinner, and the bite of casserole as I put away the leftovers after dinner. It was the nibble of my son's double cheeseburger, and the extra scoop of dip with my carrots. No, it wasn't the big decisions that hurt my weight loss; it was all the little decisions.
Unfortunately, I had minimized in my mind the potential damage of all those little bites. Yet they added up to derail me from my goal of losing weight that week. The next week I took control of those BLTs (bites, licks, tastes and sips) and had a nice loss.
As I've pondered this reality, I've applied it to other areas of my life. I easily minimize the damage of daily unwise decisions. They aren't sin issues, so I can dismiss them as unimportant. However, when added up, they have a big impact on achieving some of my personal goals. For example, when I make a decision to not read my Bible for one day, there's no noticeable impact. But when I neglect this important part of my spiritual growth repeatedly, I find myself lacking in godly wisdom and discernment.
If you find yourself on a plateau in a certain area of your life, perhaps this truth can apply to you as well. You may be making all the right big decisions, but the little ones are having a cumulative negative impact on you.
Not only that, but I believe God desires to do amazing things through us, and is continually testing us to see if we can handle bigger responsibilities. It's in the arena of little responsibilities that our true dependability is revealed. The truth is those little decisions that seem minor, and inconsequential, really do matter. They matter to me as I pursue personal goals, and they matter to God.
My challenge today is to make every decision count. I ask myself, "Is this decision going to get me closer to my goal, or further away from it?" "Is this decision going to show God I can be trusted with the little things?"
Sometimes I ask this question every hour. Which is why I ate steamed vegetables for dinner, and my family had overstuffed burritos. (Not that it's Thursday night and I'm weighing in Friday morning or anything.)
Father, thank You for caring about every detail of my life. I know You have placed goals and dreams in my heart that will take diligence to carry out. Help me to look to You when faced with a decision, and I pray for Your wisdom as I make the right choice, in Jesus' Name, amen.
Application Steps:
Identify one big goal you have for your life. Name one helpful "little" decision you can make that will help you achieve that goal.
Reflections:
What are some examples of little decisions we make every day that can impact us positively over time?
Have you ever made a series of innocent choices that led you down the wrong path? What did you learn from that experience?
Power Verses:
Ephesians 5:8-10, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." (NIV)
Colossians 1:10-11, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…" (NIV)
YOU TUBE SONG FOR TODAY
Jesus Will Still Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP4GFr0Idwk
Things change, Plans fail
You look for love on a grander scale
Storms rise, Hopes fade
And you place your bets on another day
When the going gets tough
When the ride's too rough
When you're just not sure enough
(Chorus)
Jesus will still be there
His love will never change
Sure as the steady rain
Jesus will still be there
When no one else is true
He'll still be loving you
When it looks like you've lost it all
And you haven't got a prayer
Jesus will still be there
Time flies, Hearts turn
A little bit wiser from lessons learned
But sometimes, Weakness wins
And you lose your foothold once again
When the going gets tough
When the ride's too rough
When you're just not sure enough
(Repeat Chorus) (2x)
When it looks like you've lost it all
And you haven't got a prayer
Jesus will still be there
…and…
Taking a trip on the Bible Bus
Hosea 3:4…4:2
Hosea 3:4-5 (NIV)
For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. [5] Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Hosea 4:1-2 (NIV)
Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
because the Lord has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
"There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
[2] There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Listen to Scripture at
http://www.audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm
Listen to Thru the Bible
Dr. J.
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Thru_the_Bible_with_JVernon_McGee/
Please send your prayer requests to
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