LET'S PRAY TOGETHER Lord, let our souls rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Father, we pray for Ghana, Netherlands, St. Lucia, Suriname, Jamaica and the church in these countries as well as the lost. Heal the brokenhearted and the sick. Wrap your loving arms around the caregivers and those who serve. Guide the leaders of this world in wisdom and humility. May the peace of the Lord Christ go with us: wherever He may send us; may You guide us through the wilderness: protect us through the storm; may You bring us home rejoicing: at the wonders You have shown us; may You bring us home rejoicing once again into our doors. Amen
MEDITATION Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Mark 3:20-21 NIV What happens when we leave our comfort zone? Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love, not only left mega-church ministry, he has left the US to live in Hong Kong as a missionary in the poorest neighborhood in the city. While travelling he experienced some truly unexpected power when he witnessed “the miraculously healing of several people in a rural village located in Myanmar, including two deaf children." The video of Chan's entire sermon was posted online by the Moody Bible Institute. Chan, the former teaching pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, was preaching at the conference earlier this month when he told a story about visiting a village that had no believers. "At one point, we were in this village that had no believers, like zero. Not a single one," he recalled. "And this lady had built a relationship with the head monk and the village leader and somehow was able to work out that we could go into the village." "My translator told me he had been in that area before and was chased out with knives and stones thrown at him, so he was terrified," Chan continued. "But the entire village showed up, and I had the honor of sharing the Gospel through a translator, to be the first one to lay out the Gospel and explain that they had a Creator and explain that He had a son and explain what He did on the cross and the resurrection." "There's no way I can communicate to you how much peace I felt," the pastor stressed. "I am sharing the Good News with a village of people who have never heard of this before. I can't tell you how right it felt." The Crazy Love author told the audience that he asked God to help him heal the villagers who were suffering. "I'm going, 'God, please, please hear,'" he recalled. "People started coming forward for healing." "Every person I touched was healed," Chan said. "You guys, OK, this is craziness to me," he added. "I have never experienced this in 52 years. I'm talking like a little boy and a little girl who were deaf. We laid hands, she starts crying and smiling. These are not Christians who have even heard about Jesus, and she's freaking out. We lay hands on her little brother, we lay hands on him, and he starts hearing for the first time." Chan also admitted that the experience was out of his "comfort zone," but "Man, it happened. It happened." "I thought I had faith, but my faith was at another level," he noted. "…Chan explained that although he disagreed theologically with some of his team members, he believes God was "honored by this fight for unity, and I believe God was honored by this pursuit of the unreached, and obeying the Great Commission and we saw power." "And I don't know that that means it will happen every time,... but (as) I understand Scripture, He wants me to believe in my unity with Him.”* -nicole *https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2020/february/man-it-happened-francis-chan-says-he-healed-villagers-including-two-deaf-children-in-myanmar
DAILY SCRIPTURE READING Our daily scripture reading comes from the following link… http://listenersbible.com/devotionals/biy/ If you have any insights into our daily readings, please feel free to share them with me. I would encourage you to visit https://bibleproject.com/explore/1-2-chronicles/ for an overview of 2 Chronicles and https://bibleproject.com/explore/2-corinthians/ for an overview of Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. These videos will help with the “big picture” and the main themes. 2 Chronicles 29:1-31:1 The chapters for this morning talk of the reign of king Hezekiah. What kind of a king was Hezekiah? How did he lead and what happened in Judah? 2 Corinthians 1:12-22 Paul continues with his greetings as he talks about his plans. He wraps up with the assurance we find in Christ. What does he say here at the end?
Psalm 103:13-22 In verse 13 and then again in verse 17 we find this message of “those who fear Him!” What does it mean to fear the Lord, and what is the benefit that the psalmist points to?