Good day dear friends.
---------------------------PRAYER REQUESTS------------------------
As we being our day in prayer, please remember Sgt. Kevin Downs at Brooke Army Hospital as he is to have more surgery on Wednesday. He is in a lot of pain. Several church members have shared gifts, cards, and prayers for him and that is deeply appreciated.
Millie Nicholas is undergoing surgery today. Please hold her in prayer. This will be at CTMC.
Doris Connally underwent wrist and hip surgery yesterday at CTMC. I prayed with her early morning and I understand all went well.
From Kay Morton of Illinois we get this request: Please pray for the Northern Illinois Emmaus women's Walk #107 starting this Thursday, at which I'll be a musician. We started with only 2 pilgrims a few short weeks ago, and that number has grown to 28. Many last-minute changes have been made, 3 of them clergy. The other 2 musicians have health problems (1 of them MS), so we need all the prayers we can get.
For Keely Rowe and decisions she has to make; that God would guide her and bless her.
----------------------DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT----------------------------
For today's message, please read this passage from Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
One of the questions a lot of Christians ask, "If we're supposed to be all about love, why are there so many different churches?" That question came up during our Walk this weekend and I shared the joke that tells of the man rescued from a deserted island. The man had lived alone for the entire time on that island and when the rescuers came to the little island, they discovered three huts. "What are these huts?" they asked. He replied that the first was where he lived. "The second one was where I first went to church, then I got mad, and then I started going to this second church."
Even within families we have the answer. Not everyone within a family will completely believe the same. And even within the Twelve Disciples there was never complete agreement, in fact after we answered or attempted to answer the question, one of the musicians said, "Different churches started when the two former blind men met each other. One said, 'Weren't you once blind?' 'Yes, I was,' replied the other. 'Did Jesus heal you?' 'Yes, how did he do it?' 'He spit on the ground, made some mud, applied it to my eyes and I was healed!' 'No! That's not the way I was healed! The right way is to just touch someone and they're healed in that way!' And so the two started different churches based on the way that they were healed.
The truth is there are different Christian churches with different doctrines and beliefs, but the underlying unity is the belief in Jesus Christ as the example of God's awesome love for us. We seek to serve Him and realize that different denominations are not in competition with each other, for the real enemy remains evil and anything that would seek to keep us from the fullness of life. We should pray for each other and seek to ask God to bless each other in the work to which we've been called.
In the same way, in our own churches, we've all been touched by God, perhaps not in the same way, but that does not keep us from being sisters and brothers to each other. Seek to find that which unites us and keeps us moving forward for the good of God's kingdom.
PRAYER: Loving God of one big family, we celebrate Your presence in our lives. Keep us focused on your love. Unite us in that same love. Bless our efforts to serve You. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
PS Tonight at 6:30 pm at Dripping Springs UMC, we're having our Welcome Back for the Fourth Day Pilgrims of Walk 1325. Everyone is invited!
