Week of October 30

Expecting God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

God is changeless. In the world of events, he is everywhere present at every moment. In a truer sense that the most watchful human justice is said to be everywhere, he, never seen by any mortal being, is omnipresent, everywhere present, at the least and at the greatest, at what can only figuratively be called an event and at what is the unique event, when a sparrow dies and when the Savior of the human race is born. When to all appearances everything is unchangingness, in the upheaval of everything, he remains just as unchanged; no variation touches him, not even the shadow of variation; in unchanged clarity, he, the Father of lights, is eternally unchanged. Now change takes place around us, and the shadow of variation slides changingly over us; now the changing light from the surrounding world falls upon us, while we ourselves in all this are in turn changed within ourselves. But God is changeless.

~ Soren Kierkegaard ~

Monday	Genesis 12
Tuesday	Joshua 3- 4
Wednesday	Ruth 1-2
Thursday	Ezra 1
Friday	Esther 2
Saturday	Job 1 and  42

Each of these passages highlights a time of transition in the lives of people in the Bible or in the history of the nation of Israel.  As you read through these times of transition, look for ways that God works in the lives of the people.  Does God change his direction for the transition?  Is God supporting his people?

You may notice that God remains the same in each of these transitions; it is only the people, places, and events that change.  In our times of transition, whether it be at church, at work, or in the family, it doesn’t matter what changes: God doesn’t.  God still loves you.  God still supplies your needs.  We should respond to God’s changelessness by trusting him and by obeying his will.

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.

Week of October 24

Expecting God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

A little bit of math for the Christian:

1 + God = A Majority

Will you be that one?  Will you put yourself in a position to be used by God?

O Lord, we ask You mercifully to receive the prayers of Your people who call upon You; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

Monday	Acts 2:1-47 - Peter
Tuesday	Acts 6:8-7:60 - Stephen
Wednesday	Acts 8:26-40 - Phillip
Thursday	Acts 9:26-31 - Barnabas
Friday	Acts 16:16-40 – Silas and Paul
Saturday	Acts 17:16-34 - Paul

These stories from Acts show different ways the Christians named who were in the church would put themselves in a position that God could use them. What do you need to do to put yourself in a position that God can use you like he used the early church in the book of Acts?  What do you need to do at work, with family, with friends, at the store, while driving, etc?  What do you need to do with other Christians in UNITY and community so that God can use you?  Why do you not put yourself in a position that God can use you?  What do you do already that puts yourself in a position for God to use you?

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.

Week of October 16

Expecting God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”  Since we were created in the image of God, we are his.  We are to give Him ourselves in worship and service.  In doing this, we are to be conformed back into his image without the scar of sin.  This is what all Christians are called to do.  Our God is a holy God.  Nothing opposite his nature of love and perfection (holiness) can be in his presence.  Read 1 Peter 1:15-16.

“Holiness is loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving my neighbor as myself.  Simply put, holiness is Christlikeness.  In Christ I find purity, power, and obedience.  Jesus Christ himself is the definition of holiness.  He loved His Father and His neighbor perfectly.  Love and Obedience – one springs from the other.  Holiness is perfect love.”

~ Keith Drury ~

Read the verses this week and see how God’s image and likeness is shown.  What do these verses say about God?  If this is his image and likeness, how can you be more conformed into this?  How can you look more like God?  Where in your life do you not look like God?  What needs to happen for you to be more conformed to God’s likeness?

Monday	Psalm 29 ~ Romans 15:5-13
Tuesday	Isaiah 9:6-7 ~ Exodus 15:1-11
Wednesday	Psalm 42 ~ Hebrews 12:14-17
Thursday	Isaiah 42:1-9 ~ 1 Peter 5:10-11
Friday	Psalm 139 ~ 2 Corinthians 13:11-14
Saturday	Isaiah 52:13-53:9 ~ Luke 7:36-50

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.

Week of October 9th

Following God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

At the same time that we are justified, yea, in that very moment, sanctification begins. In that instant we are born again, born from above, born of the Spirit.  We are inwardly renewed by the power of God. We feel “the love of God shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”; producing love to all mankind; expelling the love of the world, the love of pleasure, of ease, of honor, of money, together with pride, anger, self-will, and every other evil temper; in a word, changing the earthly, sensual, devilish mind, into “the mind which was in Christ Jesus.”

From the time of our being born again, the gradual work of sanctification takes place. We are enabled “by the Spirit” to “mortify the deeds of the body,” of our evil nature; and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God. We so on from grace to grace, while we are careful to “abstain from all appearance of evil,” and are “zealous of good works,” as we have opportunity, doing good to all men; while we walk in all His ordinances blameless, therein worshipping Him in spirit and in truth; while we take up our cross, and deny ourselves every pleasure that does not lead us to God.

It is thus that we wait for entire sanctification; for a full salvation from all our sins, —from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief; or, as the Apostle expresses it, “go unto perfection.” But what is perfection? The word has various senses: here it means perfect love. It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love “rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in everything giving thanks.”

- John Wesley on the duty of all Christians

Monday	James 1:19-27	Thursday	Psalm 24
Tuesday	Colossians 3:1-17	Friday	Ruth 1:1-22
Wednesday	Ephesians 3:17-32	Saturday	Galatians 5:19-6:6

 

Live out John Wesley’s description of a Christian this week!  Think on those things from Philippians 4:8.  Live out the duties of a Christian.  Proclaim the gospel of Jesus with your life.  Live in perfect love: loving all mankind, all the time, with all your very all!

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.

Week of October 2

Expecting God

Sowing our Prayer… Reaping the Spirit

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.

~ Emmanuel Teney ~

I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.

~ Madeleine L'Engle ~

Monday	Psalm 46:1-3
Tuesday	James 1:2-4
Wednesday	Psalm 37:1-6
Thursday	Hebrews 6:10-12
Friday	Psalm 27:1-4
Saturday	1 Corinthians 15:50-58

As you read these scriptures this week, reflect on how God is faithful during difficult times.  Also reflect on what God asks of us in those difficult times.  In order for us to benefit from his faithfulness, we must remain faithful to him.  We must remain steadfast in our trust of him. 

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.