21 Days of Prayer & Fasting - Day 12

Day 12 - Fri 1/19/24
Good day to each of you!  Let's go in...

Devotional Scripture & Thought
Here is today's scripture with underlined areas of the verse(s) for us ALL to contemplate. I will share a brief thought and you are invited to share your thoughts about the scripture and those highlighted areas in the comments below...

"They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) 

The image of the first church of God coming together and how they approached life is a marvel that instructs us to this very day. Their devotion to each other and to learning how to be followers of Christ was incredible. What do you sense about how they were living together? I envision people who did not necessarily have everything easy, but were focused none-the-less on holding on to each other and to Christ.

This very group of verses, among others, are a key driver for me. The question I ask myself is how can we play our part to transform what the anemic Church (universal NOT just speaking ill of our local family of faith - but we also are not off the hook from Godly scrutiny either) has become into one that looks more like they did in the beginning? What contextual adjustments can we make to embody to spring to life in our growing congregation the fruit that was operating abundantly then, now for us? I will admit, there is a lot that comes to mind and we are going after it fully!  I'd love to hear your perspective and I am available to share some of the bigger picture visions we are working from to embrace this kind of life in Christ!

What are you reading and what are some of your thoughts...?

My Journey's Observations
The soup has been a great change of pace and it helps me not be overwhelmed with coldness, especially in the evenings. I am kind of use to not having things like breads- which is a biggy for someone like me who loves pizza and doughnuts. At this point, I do wonder how difficult it would be to move towards eliminating certain things from my diet that aren't good for me say like 99%?

How have you been doing with eating and with scrolling? I would love to hear about what some of you are doing and your thoughts so far. That's all I have for now...

How about you?

(I also wanted to remind us of a great resource called RightNow Media that you have free access to for quality teaching. If you need help getting to it, please give me a call. In fact, here is an invite if you haven't already signed up.)

For those of you who are news junkies and are seeking a more healthy alternative I wanted to share something called The Pour Over. It strives to be a neutral source of news bites that decidedly points people to the bible. Remember, we should always be working to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to plant our feet on higher (and higher, and higher...) ground.

Finally
Remember, if you slip and eat or do something you were intending to fast from, just reset and restart. That is part of the learning curve as well.

I love you with the love of God...

Have a wonderful day and a tremendously blessed week!

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

2 Comments


Gianni - January 24th, 2024 at 12:30am

I don't know how relevant this might be, but it kinda sounds like when we used to be in college and it might be only 5 of us, and each of us had a $1, so that meant we all had enough to pool our money together and get a Little Caesar's pizza lol... we didn't have a lot, but we had enough for that night... and when we were together we had fun. It would be nice to recreate that now, just like minded people hanging out and pooling resources together. Guess that's what fellowship is about

Mel Conley - January 24th, 2024 at 5:58pm

Beautiful. I don't think we'll find it much different in heaven; giving, sharing, meeting the needs as they arise. "What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, to look upon the face of the one who saved me by his grace."