Just Us: 4/21 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

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(Isa 55:1)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010

Question for the day:

Who wrote:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,

that we should be called children of God!”

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 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.

Mike Brommer is asking for the Lord’s guidance regarding their finances.

Pray for recovery for Steve Zill who was admitted this past Thursday with a blood clot in his lung. He was at Covenant Cooper in Saginaw. He is being released Tuesday to go home. --Gale Pretzer

Amber Lonczak - Baylee is still having a hard time, day 6. She finally stopped vomiting, but she is so out of it, I am afraid she is getting too dehydrated again. We would love some more prayers sent our way!

Sallie Piering – Protection for my kids, wisdom in raising teens

Booth Family – Bobby Wilson to turn his life over to God, Betty Wilson, continued healing

Rathbun Family – work

Gorney Family – Spiritual growth in our family, employment, following God’s path

Breedlvoe Family – Carolyn Young, Cathy Jacobs, praises for a wonderful women’s event day!

Trombley Family – all of God’s children

Gay Family – Linda Alexander

Boone Family – my friend, to love herself and her family

Shorts Family – my mom and the baby

Wayne Tennant – moving to Arizona , thanks for everything!

Northam Family – daughter Tari Wyse, quick recovery from emergency surgery

Carol Haut – my family

Carol Greyerbiehl – Praise God for the birth of her grandson Trayce and that both mother and baby are well! Continued prayer for her son Kyle.

Sirrine Family – People trying to rebuild their lives from natural disasters

Randi March – prayer for reconciliation of a relationship

Brewster Family – Karen Ulmer and Paul Mann, leukemia; Alicia Hadley, job; Riegle’s, Brewster’s, personal problems

Please pray for Fred Kreuger. He was hospitalized following a severe stroke on Palm Sunday. He is paralyzed on his leftside and can not swallow or eat. Pray that his doctors are providing him with the care that is best for him.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

April 21, 2010

Embraced by the Father

Susanne Scheppmann

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,

that we should be called children of God!

And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

Devotion:

Her smile lit up the room when her daddy entered. Her rosebud lips spread into a wide beam of a smile. Her silky black hair leapt about her face as she bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. She looked like Snow White after a large cup of espresso. The man started the music and began to walk toward her. He stopped and opened wide his muscular arms—the familiar invitation to dance. She raced to him and perched herself atop his feet. They began two-stepping to their special song, "My Personal Penguin." The princess was dancing with her Prince Charming—her daddy.

Bittersweet joy washed over me like a warm spring rain as I witnessed this scene between my son and granddaughter. Happiness for my granddaughter flowed into my heart, but there was also a tinge of sadness. I regretted never having experienced the same type of father-daughter relationship with my earthly dad.

My own father resembled the character of Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind. He was suave, handsome, and self-assured, but a rogue. I traveled through my childhood and adolescence wishing for a Rhett Butler type of man to whisk me off my feet. I desired a rogue to embrace me with a wild and untamed love. Because of my "father image," I actually desired imperfect love from people. A flawed love would hurt, but it still appealed to my broken heart. I believed falsely that love could only be achieved through volatile sparks of emotion, fueled by the uncertainty of the love.

Of course, it was all a misguided representation of a girl's broken heart. But now, I have learned to know a perfect love—the love of my heavenly Father. Only He has been able to fill my heart with a perfect love. The night I accepted His love, He began to reveal to me the character of a faultless Father. As the Father embraced me, my idea of errant love slid into oblivion. I learned the true meaning of love as I gained knowledge of God. He taught me His characteristics and personality through the diversity of His names, but my favorite will always be Father—Abba—my Daddy.

Do you know Abba—the heavenly Father? He is waiting for you with His arms wide open. Come and be embraced by the Father.

Dear Lord, thank You for revealing the true love of a Father to my broken heart. Help me learn to live out my life in Your perfect and holy love. Remind me that You love me just as I am—flaws and all. Thank You for Your love, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Read Zephaniah 3:17. Write down the activities that sound like a father loving his daughter. Imagine yourself sitting on the Father's lap and allowing Him to sing over you.

Reflections:

What is my mental image of a father?

Do I believe that God loves me as a perfect father would? Why or why not?

What hinders me from accepting God's unconditional love?

Power Verses:

1 John 1:2-4, "The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete." (NIV)

Galatians 4:6, "And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.'" (NLT)