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DYSMAS CONDUIT

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(Isa 55:1)

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2010

Question for the day:

What is your greatest hope for this year?

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 Mike and Sandy Brommer. Sandy’s mother passed away suddenly on 3/26. May the Lord guide both Mike and Sandy through the grieving process, and soothe the entire family with His love and compassion as they face one of the most difficult of all trials in any of our lives.

Please lift up Scott and Karen Morden in your prayers. Scott was in a terrible car accident last night. Another vehicle hit him broadside and pushed him into a telephone pole. He has a crushed pelvis, his lungs were collapsed last night, he has head injuries, he stopped breathing for a little bit last night. He was airlifted from Saginaw to Hurley. As of early today, he was still in a coma, they found more internal bleeding that they had not discovered last night. Right now they are just keeping him as stable as they can. Until he wakes up, they will not know if he has any brain damage.

Please pray for God’s will to be done, that His will is that Scott will pull through this. Pray for the doctors and nurses caring for Scott. Especially pray for Karen, that God will give her comfort and strength in this trial. Karen has been through so much in the last several months, caring for her parents who were almost killed in a car accident last year! --Barb Patrick

Trombley Family – Faith, strength and healing

Brewster Family – Karen Ulmer – bone cancer; Paula Mann – leukemia, family strength

Jeanne Starin – my walk and relationship with God

Hassen Family – families with illness, my family

Gorney Family – our family and their growth, guidance from the Lord

Sirrine Family – Grandpa Kelly, his wife died last Easter and this is a sad time for him

Swarthout Family – husband, lung cancer; Harriet, breast cancer; Flo, throat cancer; many others at the VA in Ann Arbor with cancer

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

April 1, 2010

Life Springs Anew

Colleen Reske

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Devotion:

I see purple buds! The first crocuses are up! Within a day or two, the gentle little flowers emerge, oblivious to the fact that several inches of snow are forecast for later in the day.

Springtime in the upper Midwest is a very welcome guest. Its arrival is long awaited and much anticipated. We spend the long winter months navigating snow-covered frozen ground, wary of nearly invisible "black" ice and the potential to lose control of our legs or vehicles at any given time. As winter progresses, we watch the pristine white snow turn dingy along the roadways, and mountains of the dirty stuff are thrust up in parking lots, eliminating parking spaces. At times, the longing to see green again becomes almost overwhelming.

We would lose all hope, except for one truth that we know to be real. Under the frozen blanket of winter snow, the earth is only asleep. Soon, the snow will begin to melt, and the rivers and creeks will flow again. The geese, and then the cranes, will come back to the marsh as it thaws. Slowly, signs of life return as the natural world gradually awakens to the light of an ever-warming sun.

Knowing springtime and Easter are intertwined always lifts my heart. Just as the earth is coming back to life, we celebrate the resurrection of our Risen Christ. The earth seems to die during months of freezing temperatures and bone-chilling winds. However, we know the truth: the greenness of the earth will return. And so we wait, resting in the knowledge that springtime always follows the winter.

It is the promise that life will return which we celebrate through the Easter season. The parallels are apparent as we mourn our Savior's brutal death. Three days later we share in joyous celebration at the wonder and promise of the empty tomb and Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

This promise of life returning to us means we are Easter people. We can live the resurrection story at any time in our lives. We are constantly dying little deaths; in our relationships, our grief, and our personal journey carrying our own cross. But there is always the hope of our resurrection, and this can only come through knowing our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6, NIV).

The only way to know peace is to know the truth of our existence. We were made to love God, and to use the gifts He has given us to honor and please Him and to further His Kingdom here on Earth. He has given us the gift of abundant life, if we will only live our lives for Him.

I praise God for Jesus, giver of life everlasting. And I praise God for springtime, for it is the reminder of the promise that all things can be made new in Him, who gives us life.

Dear Lord, thank You for Jesus, Your ever-present reminder of our opportunity to know new life. Through the gift of Your Son, we can know You and know Your peace amidst the chaos in our lives. Lord, show us Your ways. For it is only when we surrender our will to Yours that we are able to follow the path that You have laid out before us; the pathway that leads to peace and a closer relationship with You, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Reflections:

Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt that you were given a second chance? Can you see God's grace in this season of your life?

Do you long for the hope that can only come from God's promises for us? There are 159 references to "hope" in the Bible, with 31 in the Psalms alone. Go to God's Word to find the hope you need.

Power Verses:

Psalm 25:4-5, "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (NIV)

John 14:6, "Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except trough me.'" (NIV)

…and…

Back to the Bible

Woodrow Kroll and Tami Weissert

Peter: Hope for the Bankrupt Heart

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Peter was at his worst denying he even knew Jesus.

But Peter's worst was transformed by Jesus' best.

That's the next Back to the Bible...

Series: Finding Hope in Jesus' Resurrection

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

Please send your prayer requests to

dysmasconduit.@gmail.com