Image from biblia.com
Listen to today's devotional right here: https://bit.ly/3vyKmPv
25 Here in this great gathering for worship I have discovered this praise-life. And I'll do what I promised right here in front of the God-worshipers. 26 Down-and-outers sit at God's table and eat their fill. Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising him. "Live it up, from head to toe. Don't ever quit!" 27 From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God. Long-lost families are falling on their faces before him. 28 God has taken charge; from now on he has the last word. 29 All the power-mongers are before him - worshiping! All the poor and powerless, too - worshiping! Along with those who never got it together - worshiping! 30 Our children and their children will get in on this As the word is passed along from parent to child. 31 Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news - that God does what he says. (Psalm 22:25-31 The Message Bible)
Happy Thursday, ConCafe Family! I praise God for you and your faithfulness! I pray this day be a special, wonderful day in every regard; may the healing you have been needing, and the peace you have been seeking, be completely and totally yours; in the name of Jesus I pray, amen! Please be in prayer for Mr. Jim Dorff, former bishop of our conference, who is in hospice care in Dallas. Prayers for his wife, Barbara and their family. May God share peace and comfort to all should be our prayer. And in a word of personal privilege, Nellie and I give God praise for the blessing He shared with us in the birth of our fifth grandchild, Adabelle Grace Garcia. She has blessed our lives and brought us much joy! And I'm happy that she's very much a Grandpa's girl! Happy Birthday, Ada! God bless you with many more! Also I ask that you please continue to pray for those who weigh heavily on your heart; for those on your church's prayer list, and for you and your needs.
When did you realize that you truly enjoyed worship? My realization came on that Sunday morning when I invited Jesus to come into my heart to become Lord and Savior of my life. I was 8 or 9 years old, and the sermon and invitation shared with us by our pastor made sense and I wanted what God was offering. No longer did I have to trudge along with the family; now I was excited that I could attend church and be a part of a larger faith community. I felt bad when we would study or hear about parts of the world where people could not freely worship, having to hide their religious services from government authorities, risking death by just being a believer. I heard about those same countries where unannounced visitors would be part of a government raid. I remember hearing from and later becoming friends with a man from one of those countries who was arrested and jailed in a federal prison in that country because he was a believer in Jesus Christ. For many days the soldiers would take this man out to the firing squad area, blindfold him, give him a last cigarette and then they would loudly assemble the firing squad where the commander would give the usual, "Ready! Aim! Fire!" shooting blanks in his direction. They did this repeatedly and then allowed him his freedom and granted him a trip to the USA. I cannot imagine having to undergo what that man did; but it made my faith stronger as it did for this man who became a United Methodist pastor as a result of this new, strong faith.
The psalmist had a heart for worship; where he loved to be in the presence of God and other like-minded worshipers, and sing, pray, listen, sing some more, and rejoice that they had been able to worship God. Their celebration also allowed for various expressions of spiritual nourishment to take place so that he was able to write, "Down-and-outers sit at God's table and eat their fill. Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising Him. 'Live it up, from head to toe. Don't ever quit.'" Many have been the times I have gathered to worship as spiritually hungry as I could be, feeling like he said as a down-and-out-er; and then being filled with God's nourishment and me eating my fill of that delicious word and leaving full and renewed and recharged. The psalmist adds a prophetic word of hope; that people from the four corners of the world would come back to God. Long-lost families would rejoin and fall on their faces before the Lord in gratitude for new life and peace. This coming new day, he writes, "God has taken charge; from now on He has the last word." And an amen to that; that applies to every aspect of our lives; when the doctors have said one thing, we rejoice that God may have another word. My dad had a first cousin that three times had been checked out of hospice care! When the world had written him off, God has the last word. When the bank said you don't qualify for this type of vehicle, God has a different opinion, and off you drive in a better car.
This coming new day, and again, God knows when it will be; we do not; but even "power-mongers are before Him - worshiping!" And others, far socially and economically from others such as power mongers; they too will be there, worshiping! "Our children and their children, will get in on this," and even those not even yet conceived will hear the good news - that God does what He says." Amen.
Dear one, I pray that whatever uncertainties have plagued your peace recently find this these words that which brings hope and comfort for you. God does what He says; not just in the past or from the pages of the Old Testament; even from the pages of the New Testament to the pages from our lives, God writes a new story for us; a better story, where God has authored a narrative that brings blessings to what we thought was already written in a terrible or tragic way.
PRAYER: Amazing God, Father and Comforter of us all; speak life in our lives especially in those areas where we thought the story had already ended, and give us new life, new hope, and a new peace. And may we receive it with the attitude that allows us to not only receive, but share with others. We know that You do what You say; and we praise You and love You, and we pray in faith, and in the name of Jesus our Savior, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Make this a day of hope with all you say, think, and do with all people.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
