Good morning, Friends!
I humbly offer an invitation with an explanation as to why I've been very irregular in sending out "Day of Praise" devotions for months now. On February 29th of this year before COVID hit, I went to one of our congregation's inter-denominational Immersion Events. 39 people from 14 congregations from 9 Christian traditions showed up. The keynote speaker was a member of our congregation, godly husband and father, author, former Marine, and now Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Master/Teacher, George Wehby. God worked through George to call 6 of us to commit to a mutually accountable 40-Day group that we agreed in the Spirit was to be called a "SIP" Group, which stands for "Scripture, Invitation, and Prayer".
In a 4-6 person SIP Group, everyone makes a commitment for 40 days to take one day a week and send a scripture-based prayer by text and/or email to the group at the start of your assigned day, every week. Everyone was also encouraged, but not required, to send in scriptures or prayers as much as they wanted. Holy Spirit blessed it in a wonderful way! The first 40-Day semester that started March 1 went so well, meaning that everyone testified to growing in Christ and being so energized by the daily mutual encouragement of prayer, scripture, and invitation, that the 6 people in one group grew to 13 people in 3 groups for the second semester that started May 1. And then that 40-Day semester grew into 53 people in 10 groups that started on July 1st where the 53 people are from 11 different congregations and multiple states because the groups "meet" daily by text. Wonderfully, God raised up 9 more leaders for the additional groups.
In sum, overseeing and participating in this ministry has created a whole new request on my time, as has the whole new way that all ministry has had to be shared during COVID.
BUT HERE'S THE GREAT THING, WE'D LOVE FOR YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN A SIP GROUP, and you can initially participate with 3-5 others that you know in your family or from your own congregation or however you may know someone with whom you want to be in a group. THE NEXT 40-DAY SIP GROUP SEMESTER STARTS SEPTEMBER 1. Each group is men grouped with men or women with women or parents and children with parents and children as young as 9 years old. PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY AUGUST 24 if you'd like to take a step in your personal relationship with God through Christ by participating in a 40-Day SIP Group. It's but one of many ways to walk and grow with others in Christ, but God has shown that it is certainly a very good way.
I look forward to hearing from you! All you need to do is reply to this email. But it would help me tremendously if you'd text me directly at 205-401-2553 if you'd like to participate in a 40-Day SIP Group!
As a final note, as you might guess, 😀 sometimes my daily offering to my group has some length, but sometimes mine are only 2 sentences with one scripture sentence and one prayer sentence. The following is what I sent out this morning to the groups I'm in. I pray it encourages you to "Praise God!" —
Ephesians 5:14-17 - "Therefore He says:
'Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.' (15) See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, (16) redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (17) Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
Here's what I hear God saying through Paul — The encouraging reason Paul gives to wake up and carefully mind how we live is "Christ will give you light." This is an outright promise that God will give us the help to do what we must do. Backed by God's promise, we're to use the time to do God's good even in the face of evil, especially "because the days are evil."
This passage shows how the early church regarded time as it applies to a Christian; in sum, all days are evil. So every period in which God's people live their lives must be lived by their God-given understanding, in other words by a constantly-learning faith, which is what a disciple of Jesus does: trusts, learns, obeys. God's truth has always run counter to the course of this world since we brought sin into the world by disobeying God's clear word. So, our believing and living the truth in the strength of Christ and the lead of Holy Spirit adds a unique stress and difficulty to life for Disciples/Disciplemakers of Christ regardless of when we live. Additionally, each "called-out individual" (which is literally what Jesus calls the Church in the Bible) has only this life to lay hold on eternal life through faith and must overcome difficulties through faith in Christ, which leads to growth, maturity, and fruit in Christ during that time. Therefore, we must trust God to help us make use of every experience, like COVID, social justice issues, family difficulties, and whatever else may happen each day.
An offering of prayer:
Mighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank you for faithfully working in steadfast love both to wake us up in every way each day and also to call us to carefully mind how we live, rejoicing in your promise: "Christ will give you light." Help us to do what we must do, backed by your promise, using the time you give us to do your good "because the days are evil." As we live differently from and often counter to the course of this world, be our strength to face the peculiar and stressful difficulties that certainly await us, but that also give us opportunity to see the power, peace, and victory of the eternal life that you eagerly offer all people through faith in Christ and the joy and growth and fruit that you're eager to reveal and multiply in every experience. All glory to you, Lord! In Jesus's name, Amen 🙏
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