Devotions

Our devotions for Sunday....

Sunday July 1, 2007
And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love! Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other's nerves you don't snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out. Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. Don't suppress the Spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil. I Thessalonians 5: 12-22

Morning Devotion

Sunday July 1, 2007
Mid-Day Devotion
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body": 
apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, those who pray in tongues.
But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts. I Corinthians 12:26-31

“It is a colorful God we worship. It is not a black and white, neatly package, clear-cut, judgmental, prescriptive relationship God offers us. No. It is a relationship as rich and varied as the shades of blue in a Bermuda sea. It is a relationship inherently as vivid as the green in a Main forest. It is a colorful God we worship. This is something adults can learn from children. God’s vast love is as colorful as the flags outside the United Nations building…It is as colorful as the skin, eyes, and hair of God’s people in Nairobi, Nepal, China, Sweden, and the United States.”
Q: Who or what has provided color in your life when it felt dark? A whimsical child? A mountain range? A tender grandparent? A raging river? Perhaps God? --Patricia M.B. Kitchen