True reformation takes place when we allow the Holy Spirit to change our beliefs and behavior. It shows itself in humility, repentance, trust, obedience, and praise.
Month: October 2022
Day 32 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.” 1 John 4:16-17
Today, we will continue with 1 Corinthians 13. Paul goes on to say, “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth.” Boy! How important it is for us to internalize this considering we live in a world where evil reigns.
Paul continues, “It always protects, always trusts.” That’s trusting God, by the way. “It always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” And it never fails because God never fails, because the Lord Jesus did not fail to go to the cross for you and me, because he did not fail to rise from the grave and because he will not fail to return. And so until He returns He says to you and to me, “The measure of a real follower of mine is one who loves in the way I do.”
There is no way I can do that on my own, but I also know something else. God‘s Holy Spirit who dwells in you and me, gives us supernatural power to love like Jesus. Our Lord is speaking to each of us today and He is reminding us of the incredible importance of not simply letting our light shine, but letting our LOVE shine, because that love is His love. It is built on His love. it is anchored in His love. It is refined by His love. It is practiced because He is great and His word is true and it is possible to share it through His Spirit dwelling in us.
Oh, how we need to take sharing His love to heart. It is why the Scriptures remind us time and again of the importance of showing true love. We are called to practice what Jesus says, “A new commandment I give you. Love one another, even as I have loved you. By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Prayer: This is my prayer, help me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to love ALL. Lord, make me truly understand how much you love me and help me to live out that love each day and as I live each day in You, grow my love and give me the strength to live like Jesus. Let me share Your love with everyone. Amen.
By Pastor Chris Dodge
WE WILL BE OFFERING A GATHERING TOMORROW AT 6:30PM CT FOR THE LORDS’ SUPPER, PRAYER AND WORSHIP. Pre-registration is required.
You are invited to join us.
When: Nov 1, 2022 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvduisrzspEtb9WyfYagRWl-0xsflpwyaD
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Day 31 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verses:
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Jesus’ character, the character of the Living God, is His love endures forever.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.” Put another way, because God so loves me I will be patient with others even as He has been patient with me. Because God so loves me I will be kind to others even as my Lord Jesus has been kind to me. Because God still loves me, I will not envy others who have more than I have, but instead I will rejoice with them. Because God is all in all, I will not boast because everything I have, I did nothing to merit or earn, therefore I will not be proud.
The apostle Paul continues, “Love does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.” What happens when you and I put this type of love into practice in our lives with our family? With our friends? And, yes, even with those who are hostile toward us? What does love like this do? The answer is, it speaks volumes! It communicates in a way that nothing else can match because living like this is a living reflection of the Lord Jesus Himself and that changes situations.
It also changes us! We become different people. There’s no way we can do this on our own. God‘s Holy Spirit through the incredible gift of Christ Jesus makes this not only possible, but DOABLE! Even when we slip up, we have One who picks us up, dusts us off, shows us His enduring, faithful love and says, “Now, go on from here.” He is a good and gracious and loving God and His faithful love endures forever, and it is that love, His love reflecting in us, that He wants us to share.
Prayer: Thank You for Your faithful, enduring, steadfast love! Thank You for Your gracious goodness that is given to me daily. It is my desire to share Your love with others. Make me an instrument of Your love with my family, my friends, with strangers and even with my enemies. I want to shine with Your Light and Your Love. May people see You through me. Amen.
By Pastor Chris Dodge
WE WILL BE OFFERING AN ONLINE GATHERING FOR THE LORDS’ SUPPER, PRAYER AND WORSHIP.
Pre-registration is required.
When: Nov 1, 2022 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvduisrzspEtb9WyfYagRWl-0xsflpwyaD
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Day 30 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
I’d like to share a great story that comes out of China that I think is a powerful portrayal of Jesus’ kind of love. It is a true story told by a man by the name of Watchmen Nee. Watchman Nee was an incredibly brave and courageous Chinese Christian teacher and author of the 20th century. He endured great persecution. He was a man who lived his faith and he told a story about a fellow believer in China.
This fellow Christian believer had a rice patty next to another rice patty that belonged to a communist official. Every morning the Christian got up and worked a pump that was basically built around a bicycle. (You would pump with your feet and it would pump water from the river into the rice patty.) Every morning the Chinese Christian pumped that water into his field and as soon as he was finished and left, his communist neighbor came and removed the boards that separated their two rice patties allowing all of the water to flow into the communist official’s rice patty. As the believer understood what was going on, he cried out to God. He said, “Lord, I need this rice patty to provide for my family and if this keeps up I’m not going to have any rice and we are going to be in absolutely desperate straits.” It was at that point in prayer that the Holy Spirit revealed to the believer what to do next. On the next morning the Chinese Christian got up earlier than ever, went to the rice patty and removed the boards, went to the pump and watered his neighbor’s rice patty. Then he put the boards back in and watered his own. He did that day after day and in a matter of just a few weeks both rice patties were flourishing, but something else happened. His communist neighbor became a follower of Jesus, because you see, genuine love speaks to even the most hardened of hearts.
Love, dear friends, is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. It is at the heart of what it means to be a genuine and true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is something that you and I need to take seriously in our lives, especially as we find ourselves in these days, on display to the world and questioned by many. We’re living in a time when many are incredibly hostile to the things of God and, I might add, often hostile to those who follow the Living God. Yet our response is not to be one of anger and bitterness. It is not to be one of outrage. Instead, it is to be the very thing Jesus spoke, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Because the true measure of discipleship, the genuine indicator, the ultimate indicator, is Love.
Prayer: Lord, I want to be like Watchman Nee’s friend who displayed genuine love to his neighbor. I want to return love to all, to those who are easy to love, but also to those who are difficult to love, and even to those who have hurt me or even hate me. Fill me with the heart of Jesus. Remove any outrage, anger and bitterness in me and replace those with genuine Love, like the ultimate Love shown to me by Jesus, who came not just to give His love to me, but because He came to give His love to ALL. Help me be part of passing that Love on. Amen.
By Pastor Chris Dodge
WE WILL BE OFFERING AN ONLINE GATHERING FOR THE LORDS’ SUPPER, PRAYER AND WORSHIP.
Pre-registration is required.
When: Nov 1, 2022 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvduisrzspEtb9WyfYagRWl-0xsflpwyaD
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Day 29 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“Listen to this message from the Lord, you nations of the world; proclaim it in distant coastlands: The Lord, who scattered his people, will gather them and watch over them as a shepherd does his flock.” Jeremiah 31:10
Sheep, when scattered, are vulnerable. Without a shepherd, sheep are helpless, and often doomed. The picture, the prophet Jeremiah is painting, is true in the natural, and even more true in the spiritual. We are like sheep, who often turn away from God and do our own thing, rendering ourselves helpless and doomed spiritually.
That’s why Jesus Christ came, to be our Good Shepherd, to gather us to himself, to protect us from the evil one, and to care for us as his own. A sheep knows his shepherd’s voice, and you and I know our Lord’s voice. Jesus says this in John 10:27, “my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”
For all the “rugged individualism” we like to talk about in America, we actually are very much like sheep, who need a Shepherd. And that’s what Jeremiah, the prophet, predicted many years before Jesus was born.
Today, Jesus is gathering people from all the “nations of the world”, and we are seeing large movements of people coming back to God. Will you let Jesus “shepherd” you? Will you let him gather you to himself, watch over you and care for you? Read John 10 for yourself and hear what Jesus says to you. Then let Him in.
Prayer: I recognize that I am vulnerable, because I have turned away from my Shepherd and Lord, I am sorry. America is also vulnerable, wandering aimlessly, on its own, away from the Shepherd. Shepherd me, Jesus, for I am your sheep, and I need you. Shepherd all the people I care for, as well. Gather them and draw them close to you, Lord. Shepherd America, it needs you! We need you!! I ask this from the bottom of my heart. In Jesus’ name.
By Pastor Kevin Schuessler
Day 28 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“‘Save your people, O Lord, the remnant of Israel!’ For I will bring them… from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and lame, the expectant mothers and women in labor. A great company will return! Tears of joy will stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They will walk beside quiet streams and on smooth paths where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s father.” Jeremiah 31:7-9
The people of Israel had been exiled, taken from their own land and deported to another. This was a natural consequence of their rejection of God, their Father, and choosing other “gods” and doing things their own way. But God loved them with a faithful, unfailing love. So he brought them back home again. Notice he brings EVERYONE, even those we’d consider vulnerable or weak? Notice the people’s reaction – tears of joy! Notice how he prepares the way home – beside quiet streams (a constant, fresh, water supply) and on smooth paths, so no one stumbles. This was an historic event that happened to real people.
As significant as this homecoming was for the remnant of Israel then, it’s even more significant to us today, what Jeremiah predicted through Christ’s coming. Through the cross and empty tomb, by placing our trust in Jesus, you and I are considered the “remnant.” You and I are being freed from our adversary (slavery to sin, eternal death and the power of the evil one) and being led “home,” back to a close relationship with God now, to be with him forever.
The “new covenant” Jeremiah predicted in chapter 31:31-32 is unfolding NOW, among us. People are coming back from their “exiles” and coming back to God. They are turning away from the “gods” of this age, and putting their trust in Christ Jesus. They are experiencing the “tears of joy,” the “quiet streams,” and “smooth paths” he is providing. Will you let him free you and father you?
Prayer: You are not only Israel’s father, you are my Father. I receive the freedom you are providing for me, freedom from my adversary, and freedom to be in daily relationship with you. Not only me, but would you help each person that is locked up and exiled to experience your freedom. I pray the see the Truth of Jesus. In Jesus’ name.
By Pastor Kevin Schuessler
Day 27 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“Long ago the Lord said to Israel: ‘I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.'” Jeremiah 31:3
Your Father says, “I HAVE loved you,” not “maybe someday down the road,” but TODAY, already activated and in place. He says, “ I have loved you with an EVERLASTING love,” a love that lasts forever with no end. His love for you never trails off, never runs out of steam, or gets revoked. It’s everlasting. He loves you with an “unfailing love”, which speaks to his character – faithful. His love is never based on one’s performance toward him, how good or bad, faithful or faithless, for HIS love is always faithful. With unfailing love, he has “drawn you to himself,” embracing you, like the most wonderful, earthly father (times a billion) does for his child. He’s not loving you from afar, but up close and intimately. Notice he is doing the initiating, always extending his love towards you, drawing you close and embracing you. That’s just who he is.
Today is a good day, to BE LOVED. Let yourself be completely and entirely loved, to the core. Let him wipe away your tears, heal your hurts, forgive your sins, and wash away your regrets. This may be a new experience for you, this language may make you uncomfortable. It’s OK, he knows. He knows you very well, for he formed you within your mother, and even knew you before you were even conceived, and loved you then, and loves you entirely now. You don’t have to jump through hoops or get your act together first, to become more “lovable.” Forget that. Let him love you today with an everlasting, unfailing, drawing-you-close kind of love.
That’s what the prophet Jeremiah predicted, and that’s what Jesus came to accomplish and establish. It’s an historic event – for you. Today. Will you let him?
Prayer: Father, I receive your love today. I will let myself relax in your arms, and rest in the strength of your love. Help me not to resist, or squirm away, but receive all that Jesus accomplished for me on the cross. I pray for my family, my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers, that each of them would receive your unfailing love as well. I want this more than anything. In Jesus’ name.
By Pastor Kevin Schuessler
Day 26 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Let’s step back from that for a second, is that really a NEW commandment? Doesn’t the Torah say, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” in Leviticus 19? Jesus, in fact, said that verse was one of the two greatest commandments, when He was asked the question, in Matthew 22, “What is the greatest commandment?” He replied, “The greatest commandment is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.” So, is this verse in John 13:34, really a NEW commandment?
Yes, because it goes further than what we read in the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus says, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Now that is supernatural love for He laid down his life for us, because He loved us to the cross. That love is absolutely amazing! Or as the song writer put it, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” It is truly a NEW commandment but let’s not stop there. In verse 35 Jesus goes on with, “By this,” He said, “everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That is the ultimate indicator of a disciple of Jesus, that we love as Jesus loves, there is no other way.
There is no way that you and I can ever do that in our own strength. The only way we can do this is by the influence and indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Living God, and by lives that are transformed, because they are lived in the presence of the Living God. They are lives that are built on a relationship with Jesus and that is at the heart of what our Savior was speaking that night. It is at the heart of God and it is what God says to us, today.
We are living in a time of unbridled hatred and anger and the only way to respond to that, that will make a difference, is the way Jesus spoke. As He has loved us, so we are called to love one another. At the heart of Jesus’ teaching is this:
“Our devotion to the Living God is demonstrated in the way we love other people… including even our enemies.” (Pastor Chris Dodge)
And oh how I need to hear that, oh how we need to hear that, because it is so easy to get carried away by prevailing winds of public opinion and by the foolishness and folly of a world that rejects the Living God.
You and I are called to a far higher calling and it is not possible to live that calling out in our own strength. It is only possible under the influence and authority of the Holy Spirit, in a relationship with the Heavenly Father, and through Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for laying down your life for me, for loving me all the way to the cross. Thank You for demonstrating Your amazing, divine love. I ask for a transformed life in my relationship with others. I ask to receive Your love into the core of my being through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and through my relationship with You. I ask that You transform my heart to love others as you have asked in this NEW command. Lord, help me to love others as You have loved me, as You have loved the world, so that everyone will know that I am Your disciple because of Your love in me. Amen.
By Pastor Chris Dodge
Day 25 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance. Surely they will say of Me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’ All who rage against Him will come to Him and be put to shame.” Isaiah 45:22-24
I was on the sidewalk in front of our house in the early ’50’s. I was trying out my neighbor Bill’s old rusty coaster wagon. While barefooted, I was kneeling with my right leg in the wagon while pushing with my left leg as I held on to the tongue of the wagon for steering. I was moving briskly. Suddenly, I was unable to move my left foot. This mystified me, so I pulled hard a couple of times trying to see why my foot was stuck and was horrified by what I saw. Bill’s wagon didn’t have a cotter key holding the wheel on the axle, but a big bent-over nail. The sharp end of the nail was stuck in the back of my heel so my foot couldn’t move. I had felt no discomfort until I saw it, then, suddenly, there was excruciating pain! I screamed, “MOM! Help me!” Followed by a series of, “Ouch, ouch, ouch – ouches!” My Mom rescued me, got my foot loose, cleansed the area and applied a band aid. A doctor visit followed. I healed.
Some 60 years later, this story has interesting parallels with the state of our country:
Front Year Early 1950s > USA Today
• Unsafe equipment > Walking without the Lord God
• No Safety Gear (shoes) > Risk of losing the Lord’s protection
• Nail in my heel, but no pain > Spiritually blind, but we don’t know it
• I’m stuck / I can’t move – why > Grid lock – wrong values; wrong actions
• Saw it for what it was – then pain! > Pray for eyes to be opened – repentance
• I screamed for help: “MOM!” > Pray, “Lord Jesus: Save Us!”
• She pulled my foot away from the nail. > Pray, “Turn us (USA) back to you, Lord!”
• Doctor visit (Wound cleaned/bandaged) > Pray, “Lord, cleanse us! Heal us!”
• Healing followed. It’s only a memory. > Pray, “Holy Spirit, Heal this land!”
• I didn’t use Bill’s wagon ever again. > Lord, may we be filled with your Spirit, not other spirits or ideas
• My wagon had cotter keys and hub caps. >. May we hold on to the Gospel of Jesus. He forgives us. He saves us. He makes us new.
Prayer: Pray for our eyes to be opened to see Jesus as the Savior, that there might be a heart-yearning to turn back to Him. Pray for a cleansing of our waywardness and for repentance to happen in the hearts of us all. Pray for the lost to be saved and that the Lord would bring an infilling of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Pray that Jesus’ love would be evidenced in our lives and actions. Pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit our land would return to God and be healed. In Jesus’ name!
By Care Minister Bob Johnson
Day 24 of 40 Days of Prayer for America
Bible verse:
“His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” Isaiah 9:7 (NLT)
Governments are supposed to guard their citizens and protect them. But they are often flawed and limited. Jesus is neither. His government and Kingdom offer complete fairness and justice. And peace! King David represented God’s purposes during his lifetime, but God promised “a child is born to you”, who would usher in God’s Kingdom now, and lasting into eternity. This is so key. We all long for the fulfillment of this promise in eternity, but Jesus kept saying, “the kingdom of God has arrived among you” (Luke 11:20), referring to himself.
Jesus, in his final moments before his trial and crucifixion, prays to his Father for you and me, saying, “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world” (John 17:15-18).
You and I, through faith in Jesus Christ, are already citizens of God’s Kingdom. For a short time now, we have a role to play, first to step into God’s way of thinking and God’s way of loving others. And to continue expanding his Kingdom by the way we conduct our lives for him. He promises that “the passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” God has placed his full resources behind you and WILL accomplish this! Will you align yourself with the Lord Jesus and let him work through you to bring others into his Kingdom? If so, just watch him do just that!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for adopting me and claiming me as a citizen of your Kingdom. I give you my will, to accomplish this in my circle of people as well. May I live your truth and share your Truth (the Lord Jesus) with the people I love and interact with today. In Jesus’ name.
By Pastor Kevin Schuessler
Awake Us Now 