Week of July 31

Waiting on God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

This is God’s way: that through his weakness, Christ gave himself up to death – totally emptying himself and becoming obedient to the worst of deaths, as the letter to the Philippians asserts (2:5-10).  Such a totality of weakness, of perfect submission to the will of the Father (as frequently recorded in the Gospel of John) makes possible the perfection of God’s dwelling in the world through Christ....

Even as Christ accomplished atonement for us by suffering and death, so the Lord accomplishes witness to the world through our weakness.  In fact, God has more need for our weakness than of our strength… God’s way is not to take us out of tribulations, but to comfort us in the midst of them and to ‘exchange’ our strength in the face of them.  By our union with Christ in the power of the Spirit in our weaknesses, we display God’s glory…. 

There is something seriously wrong with our lives and churches if we are operating out of strength rather than the weakness in which God dwells.

-Marva Dawn

Monday	2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Tuesday	Isaiah 40:26-31
Wednesday	Matthew 11:25-30
Thursday	Hebrews 4:14-16
Friday	Psalm 94:17-19
Saturday	2 Corinthians 11:18-30

What is the relationship between God’s glory and our weakness?  How is God’s glory revealed in our weakness?  Have you ever seen God’s glory revealed in weakness?  Is it possible that through relying on our strengths that fail to show God’s glory and His Spirit working in us?  Think about the exemplary Christians you have known in your life and discover where their weaknesses revealed God’s glory.

     Remember to pray for the Spirit to clarify the mission for Oak Chapel and for the Spirit to give us the power to work in this mission.

 

 

Thanks for checking out the new website!

Feel free to make comments through the week on your thoughts

and reactions to the devotionals and what you are learning!

Week of July 24

Waiting on God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

      On June 29, Pastor Dou Shaowen who is currently serving a one-year sentence for “engaging in illegal activities” was secretly transferred to Shifo Re-education Through Labor Center in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, according to China Aid Association.

His family was not informed of his transfer. Pastor Dou, his wife Feng Lu and five other believers were arrested on June 14 when government officials raided and closed the Rock Church. The police confiscated computers and other church property from the church. Pastor Dou and his wife were sentenced to a year in prison and the other believers were sentenced to 15 days in detention and fined 500 Yuan (US$ 73). However, Feng Lu will serve her sentence at home so she can care for their 12 year-old daughter.

China Aid reported that Pastor Dou has been treated inhumanely in the labor camp. According to China Aid, Pastor Dou was forced to squat when he wanted to talk to police officers, he was also forced to work 18 hours a day from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. midnight. China Aid reports that some prisoners have contracted diseases while at the camp because of overcrowding, more than 70 people sleep in a room, the hot weather and poor sanitary conditions.

Feng Lu attempted to visit her husband in prison, but was told she could not visit him for a month. She is required to report to the Public Security Bureau police regularly, and could be sent to labor camp again if she is found “engaging in illegal religious activities” again.

The Voice of the Martyrs has worked with and supported persecuted Christians in China for more than 30 years. VOM encourages you to pray for Pastor Dou and his family during this challenging time. Ask God to protect and encourage them. Ask God to especially minister to their 12 year-old daughter during this time.

Monday	Philippians 2:1-11
Tuesday	Acts 14:19-22
Wednesday	2 Timothy 2:1-13
Thursday	Philippians 3:7-11
Friday	1 Peter 4:12-19
Saturday	2 Corinthians 4:16-18

 

Suffering is an import aspect of the Christian life.  This week, go to www.persecution.com and go to their newsroom to read more stories of suffering Christians around the world.

During your reading this week, ask yourself about what the importance is of suffering.  Why do we suffer as Christians?  What brings about the suffering?  What does the suffering bring in our lives?  What is the purpose of suffering as a Christian?

Feel free to make comments through the week on your thoughts

and reactions to the devotionals and what you are learning!

Week of July 17

Waiting on God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

Thus, "having peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ," "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God," and having power over all sin, over every evil desire, and temper, and word, and work, he is a living witness of the "glorious liberty of the sons of God;" all of whom, being partakers of like precious faith, bear record with one voice, "We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!"

 It is this spirit which continually, "worketh in them, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." It is he that sheds the love of God abroad in their hears, and the love of all mankind; thereby purifying their hearts from the love of world, from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It is by him they are delivered from anger and pride, from all vile and inordinate affections. In consequence, they are delivered from evil words and works, from all unholiness of conversation; doing no evil to any child of man, and being zealous of all good works.

-John Wesley

Monday	Matthew 3:13-17	Thursday	1 John 3:1-3
Tuesday	Matthew 17:1-8	Friday	Romans 1:1-6
Wednesday	John 1:9-13	Saturday	1 Peter 1:13-16

The first two scriptures are the baptism of Christ and the transfiguration, the only two places where we hear the Father speak of his son, Jesus Christ.  Both times he says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  The other four scriptures are about what it means for us to be children of God.  What can we learn from Christ’s example as a son of God?  According to these scriptures what does it mean to be a child of God?  What does each of scriptures teach us about being children of God? What is expected of a child of God?

Remember to pray for the Spirit to clarify the mission for Oak Chapel and for the Spirit to give us the power to work in this mission.

Thanks for checking out the new website!

Feel free to make comments through the week on your thoughts

and reactions to the devotionals and what you are learning!

Week of July 10

Waiting on God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

The church that is not jealously protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption. The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own strength and forgets to watch and pray.   

-A.W. Tozer

Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival; men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.

- Charles Spurgeon

Monday	Ephesians 6:10-18
Tuesday	Romans  8: 26-27
Wednesday	Ephesians 1:19-23
Thursday	Luke 18:1-8
Friday	1 Timothy 2:1-8
Saturday	James 5:13-18

Prayer is our method of combat.  Prayer is our fight.  Prayer is our connection to the one who makes everything move.  Prayer is our connection to the King, the Commander.  What if we were more like the description of people in the quote by Charles Spurgeon above?  What if we protected the church like the A.W. Tozer quote describes?  What would our church look like then?

 Remember to pray for the Spirit to clarify the mission for Oak Chapel and for the Spirit to give us the power to work in this mission, in this will of God. 

Thanks for checking out the new website!

Feel free to make comments through the week on your thoughts

and reactions to the devotionals and what you are learning!

Week of July 3

Waiting on God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

To pray effectively we must want what God wants—that and that only is to pray in the will of God. – A.W. Tozer

Prayer is not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to him of our sense of need. – A. W. Pink

Really to pray is to stand to attention in the presence of the King ant to be prepared to take orders from Him. – Donald Coggan

Beware in your prayer above everything of limiting God, not only by unbelief but by fancying that you know what he can do.

 – Andrew Murray

The self-sufficient do not pray, the self-satisfied will not pray, the self-righteous cannot pray. – Leonard Ravenhill

We should spend as much time in thanking God for His benefits as we do in asking him for them. – St. Vincent de Paul

Monday	Ephesians 3:14-21;  Psalm 90
Tuesday	Matthew 6:5-15;  Psalm 139
Wednesday	2 Samuel 22:1-51;  Psalm 47
Thursday	Philippians 1:9-11;  Psalm 19
Friday	Habakkuk 3:1-19;  Psalm 15
Saturday	Acts 4:24-31;  Psalm 25

These are some of the prayers in the Bible.  There are so many that it was difficult to limit which were included for this week.  Every Psalm is a prayer, and the variety allows for different Psalms to be prayed for occasions or life-experiences. 

Look at these prayers this week and look specifically at the things said.  For what does the prayer ask?  What does the prayer say about God?  What does the prayer show about the relationship between the person and God?  What is common in all these prayers?  Make a list or jot some things down that you notice about these prayers and compare it to the prayers you pray.  What is different?  What is the same?  What should you focus on in prayer?  What might you focus on too much?