style="font-size:15px;"> An ‘ordinary’ person: Janet Butler
May
____ Week 18 Blessings
____ Week 19 Children
____ Week 20 No room to maneuver
____ Week 21 Evangelism 101
____ Week 22 Burdens
June
____ Week 23 Timing is everything!
____ Week 24 Parenting
An ‘ordinary’ person: Rev. Perry Dalton
____ Week 25 Church of the open door
____ Week 26 Finding a fellowship to call ‘home’
July
____ Week 27 4th of July
____ Week 28 Our nation and leaders
____ Week 29 Prayer
____ Week 30 Sharing
August
____ Week 31 Boasting of weaknesses
____ Week 32 a series: 1 of 4
____ Week 33 2 of 4
____ Week 34 3 of 4
____ Week 35 4 of 4
September
____ Week 36 Whose opinion means the most to me?
An ‘ordinary’ person: Laney Beard
____ Week 37 Repentance
____ Week 38 Grace
____ Week 39 Tests
October
____ Week 40 Prayer chains
____ Week 41 God, do you hear me?
____ Week 42 Rest and restoration
An ‘ordinary’ person: My mom, Marybelle Grossheider
____ Week 43 Faith and healing
____ Week 44
November
____ Week 45 Election, our nation
____ Week 46 Priorities
____ Week 47 God’s timely words
____ Week 48 Amazing things
December
____ Week 49 John Wesley’s quadrilateral
____ Week 50 Faith … just faith
____ Week 51 Christmas
____ Week 52 End of the year
Week 1 January 1
A new year with possibilities and opportunities has now begun. It seems like just a week ago that I was looking at the year through the same day!
Each and every day, I have a choice: Choose God or choose the world’s way of living my life. I sat on the fence for a long time, most of my life actually. I thought I could love God and do pretty much what I wanted the other six days of the week.
Then came that night in July when I knew that Jesus did it all for me, for my sins! All of a sudden the whole ‘salvation’ concept wasn’t just a theory. It was personal. It was about a relationship. If I was to have a relationship with Jesus, then it was going to be more than a once a week conversation! A marriage wouldn’t work if the husband and wife only spoke one day a week! Neither, would my relationship with Jesus grow and become the relationship that would finally fill that emptiness that I had always had.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” John 15:5-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7
I will start today with God and put my feet in HIS footsteps. There will be no worldly New Year’s resolutions. I am just going to open my heart to Jesus and watch what happens!
Questions:
What ‘resolutions’ have I made in the past? Were they a ‘success’?
Is my daily time with God where HE wants it to be? What changes would He like me to make?
Week 2
When the man heard this, he was sad, because he was very rich.
Jesus saw how sad the man was. SO he said, “It’s terribly hard for rich people to get into God’s kingdom! In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom.”
When the crowd heard this, they asked, “How can anyone ever be saved?”
Jesus replied, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.” Luke 18:23-27(CEV)
There was a very popular worship song a few years ago “All Things Are Possible” (Darlene Zschech. 1997). It was based on this 27th verse from Luke. I sang this song sometimes with tears of hope born of desperation in the circumstances I was in. God heard my voice and I could feel His very presence as He would pick me up off the floor and assure me that He was already walking before me and had all those ‘pesky little problems’, that seem so HUGE to me, well under control!
And then, as I saw God work in my life and in the lives of those I loved, I would sing the song with joyful abandon! I would put it in my CD player and just dance around the house! I confess to you that someone also gave me a ‘bootlegged’ copy of the videotape and I so loved watching adults and children alike sing this song. I could see by the expressions on their face that they KNEW that ALL things were possible with God!!
I know what it is to be poor or to have plenty, and I have lived under all kinds of conditions. I know what it means to be full or to be hungry, to have too much or too little. Christ gives me the strength to face anything. Philippians 4:12-13 (CEV)
Another translation says: I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned
