Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

Luke 14:14

and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Effective Prayer

In Joshua 10:12-14 we read about Joshua asking the Lord to have the sun and moon stand still.  After reading this passage, I began to think about how audacious Joshua was to pray such a thing and fully expect God to grant such a request.  I mean he was asking God to do the impossible!  Can we expect the same from God when we pray?  I looked up scriptures about prayers and how we can be assured that God hears them and will answer them.  Here is what I found:

1.  We should have Faith   Mark 11:24, Matthew 21:22

2.  We should live a Righteous life  1 John 9:31, James 5:16

3.  We should Stay in the Word John 15:7

4.  We should pray with Thankfulness  Philippians 4:6

5.  We should be Forgiving of others Mark 11:25

6.  Pray According to God’s Will  1 John 5:14 – 15

7.  Pray with Confidence  Hebrews 4:16

8.  Ask in Jesus’ name – John 14:13

9.  Be Watchful – Colossians 4:2    Yes, we can expect God to listen to us and grant our request, no matter how audacious, if it is in accordance with His will.

Gail Morrison

Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

 

John 6:54

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

John 6:44

 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

Missions Moment

This summer, I (Ellie Mullins) went to Doryumu, Shai-Hills, Ghana, West Africa.  I went with Adventures in Missions for a one-month journey with twelve other girls.  While in Ghana, we worked with the Cities of Refuge Ministries (CORM).  CORM works with the International Justice Misson (IJM) to rescue children from Ghana’s fishing industry, a form of trafficking on Lake Volta which is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.    The lake is home to thousands of fishing boats with child workers, mostly young boys ages 3-10.  Fishing is pretty much a way of life in Ghana, so many people don’t see that there is anything wrong with it. The parents send their children to work on the lake for four cedis, the equivalent of 1 USD a day.  The conditions on the lake are horrendous. The children are submerged in the water for a large portion of the day and their skin develops a condition that inhabits the surface of the whole body with sores and boils.  There are parasites and other diseases that can come into the bodies of the children.  There are also eels and dangerous trees in the water that cause eye injuries.  The children are given 1-2 non-nutritious meals a day, and they are often unclothed.  CORM believes that this is NOT how life should be for these children.    After the children are rescued, they are sent to the CORM compound where they live, rehabilitate, learn about Jesus, and are simply children. The children go to school on CORM’s campus at a private Christian school called Faith Roots International Academy.  The ages of children do not correspond to their grades because the children were not in school when they were working on the lake.  The grades they are placed in depend on test results when they arrive at CORM.  One of the children I got closest to is named Moses.  He is 16 years old and in a 5th grade classroom.  The children also do not know how old they are.  When they were trafficked, they didn’t have a way to keep track of how much time had passed, and many were so young that they didn’t know their birth date.  The children receive a new birthday when they arrive at CORM.  The date becomes the day that they were rescued, and the year of their birth is determined by physical examination.  The ages of the children often prove to be inaccurate.
At CORM I was a third grade teacher’s assistant.  I taught class a couple of times, but mostly I graded papers and created relationships with the children in my class.  The school is for the children that live at CORM.  It is also open to the community which creates an unknown, as we do not know what kind of home life the community kids come from.  This was the hardest aspect of the trip for me.  I had a little girl in my class, Lily, who would turn in her tests after 2 minutes and go back to put her head down on the table.  Lily was a house slave for a family that barely let her rest.  The kids were allowed to nap after they had completed their work, so this was Lily’s strategy for getting the rest that she was deprived of.  The education system is very corrupt and it was hard to stand by and watch. There are a very few children who have parents that actually have an education and care about their children’s studies.  There are some children that excel, while others lag further and further behind.  Many children are not given adequate time at home to study because they are forced to work.  There is not enough help to catch these children up, so they get frustrated at never knowing what is happening in school and usually they drop out.    While in Ghana, I heard the voice more clearly than I ever have before.  I went on this trip to discover what international missions looks like for me, and God gave me that answer.  I know that this is the life that I am called to and I know that it is at CORM in Ghana.  I’ve never felt more called or more useful to the Lord’s work in my life.  The biggest need that I saw while at CORM was the psychological rehabilitation of these kids, and that is something I could help with after I graduate with my Psychology and Sociology degrees.  I feel as though the Lord took every desire of my heart and put it in that one place.  CORM is my new home, and I long to go back there, living out the Lord’s plan for my life and serving those kids.
You can help support this ministry by going to http://www.cityofrefugeoutreach.org/

~ Ellie Mullins

Focus on Study – Psalm 1

How do you navigate through life?  Where do you go to find guidance through this corrupt world we live in?  Where do you find wisdom and direction?  Where do you go to find peace in the storm?  We all have difficulties and trials we have to face every day.  Each day is filled with decisions, some easy, others more difficult, some are critical.  All can be life changing as they will set a direction for the future.  Where you go for help with those decisions can make all the difference in the world to the outcome of those decisions.  For clear guidance and truth, you must go to the Scriptures.  God has given us His Word as our guide through life and life’s decisions.  It is there we can find His will and His plan for our lives.  It is there that we can distinguish between God’s values and the world’s values.  It is there that we grow and strengthen our faith and relationship with Him.  Failure to read and study His Word and to receive the Spiritual nourishment we need to grow our faith is equal to failing to eat food that provides the physical nourishment our bodies need to live.  It is Spiritual starvation.

The psalmist puts it best, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”  Psalm 1:1-3

“Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies.”  Psalm 119:98

“Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  Psalm 119:105

Get into His Word, study it’s truths, live a life filled with God’s wisdom and find peace in knowing His will for your life.
~ Danny Branham, Elder

Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

John 6:40

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

John 11:24

Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Daily Prayer Guide

Our Resurrection

2 Timothy 2:11

It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

Sermon Outline, October 15, 2017, “Focus on Serving”

                                                            Focus on Serving

John 13:1-20

THINK LIKE CHRIST

             Develop Christ-like compassion.

~John 13:1     Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

 

Jesus was motivated by:

His compassion for others.

 

His confidence in His mission.

 

 ACT LIKE CHRIST

Develop Christ-like humility.

 

BECOME LIKE CHRIST

 

            We must embrace a Christ-like mindset.

 

            Serving is spiritually life-giving.

 

Serving points directly back to Jesus.