Intentional Faith

O God, you raised up the blessed John the Baptist to make ready a perfect people for Christ the Lord. Give your people the grace of spiritual joy and guide the minds of all the faithful onto the path of salvation and peace. Amen.

Kings will stand up when they see you, and princes will bow, for the sake of the Lord who has been faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. Isaiah 49:7

1 Corinthians 7:3 (NLT)
³ The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.

1 Corinthians 7:5 (NLT)
⁵ Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Couples need to understand that God made them sexual beings to enhance the intimacy of their bond.  While passion may wane with age, it does not end and couples that set their sexual bond to the side weaken their relationship.  For heaven’s sake, don’t use it as a weapon for control.  This is your act of grace toward them and their fulfillment of your needs.  Treat it right.  Take you time.  Enjoy it.  Regularly. 

God will give you all the grace you will need for this day.  But remember…go to Him bright and early tomorrow morning and He will be waiting for you to give you even more grace…a fresh and ample supply for whatever that day may bring.  The manna will be fresh at sunrise.  There is no better time to gather it in.

Not often do we see two of our church family head home within a few hours of each other.  Ed Mulberry and Jerry Garrett will be sorely missed.  Jerry’s service is Saturday at 10 am at the church.  Ed’s is to follow on Sunday at 2 pm.  Remember their families

We go today to bid farewell to our fellow servant, Michaelene Haysler, minister at the Brownstown Methodist Church.  A kind woman and gentle  servant, her tenure with the pulpit was far too short.  We remember her husband George as he journeys alone now. 

I will also check on Gary Carmichael again today.  His surgeries are complete and now he begins rehab.  Keep him in prayers for the pain and the patience.

Jerry Garrett continues to remain and Leon is tired but both are trusting in the Lord.  Good men, all.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting.

It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is "hidden with Christ in God" ( Colossians 3:3  ).

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, "Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then." Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.

Brethren, be joyful. Try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Lord God, King of heaven and earth, guide and sanctify, rule and govern our hearts and our bodies, our feelings, words and actions, according to your law and following your commandments.   With your help, in this world and the next, may we deserve to receive freedom and salvation.

One day in the courts of my God is worth more than a thousand elsewhere.  I would rather be at the doorstep of the house of my God than live in the dwellings of sinners.

Now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God: in his own person he killed the hostility.

Supreme God, your light is brighter than the sun, your purity whiter than mountain snow and you are present wherever I go.  All people of wisdom praise you.  So I put faith in all your words, knowing that everything you teach is true.

In your mercy reveal to me all that I need to know in order to find peace and joy.  Tell me the truths that are necessary for the world in which I live.  I am never tired of hearing from you because your words bring life.

Amen.

Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the true light that lights all men’s paths to salvation.

  Give us the power, we pray you,

  to prepare for you the ways of peace and justice.

You live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

  God for ever and ever.

Amen.