Friday, February 23, 2007

Lent Calendar & FM 103.2 Devotionals

Hi Guys,
There are a lot of great things happening within our connection group! Thanks Whitney for sending through the Lent Calendar. I have posted the past couple of days and today and tomorrow's reading for the first few days of Lent. I will continue to post them up as they come, so that you guys can come to the blog to refer to the readings :D

Also have included another devotional that i get sent each morning... again, i recommend subscribing! Its from the Christian Radio Station, FM 103.2. They're 'pearlas' :D! (For the Americans in the group-- ask us on Tuesday what that means!)

Have a great day!
xo Van

Fm103.2 Devotional for today:

Spiritual Growth

Psalm 1:3

“And in whatever he does, he prospers”

What a promise God has made to us! Be careful not to make the promise say what you want it to say. It doesn’t mean that if a 50-year old man tries out for a professional basketball team, he will be one of its top players!

It doesn’t say whatever he does prospers, but rather that he himself prospers, no matter what he does. You may have thought that being blessed by God means that you are making top marks at school, or that your business is booming, or that the person you are interested in is also crazy about you. And those are great blessings.

But what this Psalm is telling us is that even when your business is not prospering, you can be prospering — in your inner life! Even when your heart-throb doesn’t love you back, you can still be finding joy in your relationship with God.

Do you see God’s invitation to you in this Psalm? He is inviting you to go deeper than surface Christianity. He is inviting you to walk close to him, to measure your Christianity by more than your bank balance. To find out that life’s greatest blessing happens inside you, not outside. To know that the richest person is the person whose inner life is in tune with God. Are you prospering on the inside?

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.


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LENT PRAYER CALENDAR


Wednesday, February 21

Read: Deuteronomy 24:19 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don't go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that GOD, your God, will bless you in all your work.

Consider: For God, the widow and the orphan are always paramount, always a central place in our claims of love. Almost 19% of our children and youth live in poverty, not in some far away place, but right here. What does that mean in your life?

Pray: For the 19 % of children and youth who live in poverty in North Carolina.



Thursday, February 22

Read: Deuteronomy 8:9 It's a land where you'll never go hungry--always food on the table and a roof over your head. It's a land where you'll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.

Consider: Most of us have never known what it is to be really hungry. Most of us will not get wet when it rains, will not be chilled when it is cold, and will be fairly secure in our ability to garner the resources we need to survive and thrive. Yet, there are many among us who will not. What will be your response for them?

Pray: For Jose, whose lunch at school is the only food he gets all day.

Friday, February 23

Read: Isaiah 10:1-3 Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims-- Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, Exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you?

Consider : We live in a world where the weak among us suffer the most. As people of God, we are a community who live out of a history of concern for the most vulnerable. We worship a God who equates justice with compassion and mercy. God is always concerned when social systems aren’t well structured to care for the least. Are we? How might we demonstrate such concern?

Pray: For 73 year old Anne, who must choose often between buying medicine and buying food.

Saturday, February 24

Read: Leviticus 19:10 Don't strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am GOD, your God.

Consider : To share one’s resource with the least, this is one measure of our walk with God. God offers God’s abundance, not so that we can claim it for ourselves, but so that we might know the joy of sharing with one another. Who have you shared with today?

Pray: For Henry and Sally who never have a chance to eat pizza, because it costs too much.

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