March 2021 Devotionals

 Wednesday Devotional 3/3/21

Prayers

First, let us thank the Lord for the warmer weather that we have enjoyed off and on for the last week or so. I know that we have had lots of rain and cool weather in between, but these warm, sunny days remind us that there is a coming Spring. It also reminds us that while we go through hard time, a new spring is always coming for those who believe in the Lord. 

Second, remember those who are still recovering from sickness within our community. Be in prayer for those specifically who have had poor reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine. We are thankful that this vaccine is available, but some we have heard about are having a poor reaction to one or both of the shots. Pray that these will be temporary, and that the vaccine will prove to be effective. 

Announcements

Please remember that this coming Saturday is the VBS Volunteer meeting. We will be meeting in the Fellowship Hall at 10 AM to discuss our upcoming VBS. Look forward to seeing you there!

Devotional

This week, we are finishing up our devotional series from Bible.com titled “You are Loved.” I again urge you to take a moment to look at the devotionals that are on Bible.com, or even find a devotional book that will help you on your journey to come closer to Christ. 

When we talk about love, it is easy to remember that God loves us. He cherishes us in a way that is not difficult to understand, really. But there is another step when we talk about love in the way that Christians love one another, and that is to truly love one another! 

Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40 that we are to “Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” This, of course, is the great commandment. It tells us who exactly we are to love first and foremost: God first, then our neighbors. Who are our neighbors, though?

When Jesus told this story, that was the question that the rich young ruler asked Jesus. He would go on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan, and ask the man who was the neighbor. The rich young ruler replied that it was the Samaritan who showed mercy to the stricken traveller in the story. And Jesus says to go and do likewise. Our neighbors are not limited to those who are literally on our property borders, they are the people we come into contact with on a daily basis. It is anyone we meet that we are able to have an impact upon. 

If we are to truly grasp God’s love and the good news of the Gospel, we aim to share that love with those we encounter. Before we make excuses for why we can’t do this, remember that Jesus went all the way to the cross for our sins because of how much he loved us. Further remember what Romans 12:1 says, that we are to be a living sacrifice for the sake of God! It may not be easy to love people, especially those that are difficult to love. But this is exactly what we are called to do. Pray that you will have a heart that wants to love others, and that God will provide you the opportunity to love others as He loves us. 

Wednesday Devotional - 3/10/21

Prayers

I would appreciate it if you would pray for my oldest brother, BJ. He had an accident on the River Road coming from Cleveland, TN on very late Monday night. Thankfully, he was able to walk away from the wreck even though he went down an embankment towards the Ocoee River. He does have a major ligament injury in his thumb, a broken arm, and many many stitches to close deep wounds. He will be seeing a hand specialist this week, and will be having surgery in the near future. 

Also, Seth Lodge is still in the hospital. He is the grandson of one of our fellow pastors in Union County, Fred Lodge (pastor at First Baptist Blairsville). He is a special needs child, and had surgery last week to help alleviate some of his breathing issues that he has been experiencing. He had an infection set in, and it turned into acute pancreatitis. When I last spoke to Brother Fred, he told me that Seth is still in CHOA’s ICU at Scottish Rite. He is still very touch and go at the moment, and they specifically asked that we pray that the fluid that is surrounding his lungs go away. 

I also wanted to pass along the thanks from Ron Beckey for all who have expressed their condolences to him on the passing of Patty. She was truly a special lady, and we thank her for all she did for the church over the years. She will certainly be missed, but we rejoice that she is Home! 

Announcements

If you haven’t heard already, we are planning on having our Vacation Bible School this year. It is set for June 21st - 25th. We will start with a dinner at 5:30, and we will hopefully be ending at 8:30 outside with the kids learning some of the classic VBS songs like the B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Love Me, and others. Our theme this year is “Cranes and Concrete: Building on the Love of Jesus”.  We will hopefully have kids from going into Pre-K all the way through graduating high school. 

If you are interested in working, serving, or even just sending out letters of invitation to kids in our community, we will be having another volunteer meeting on March 27th at 10 AM in the Fellowship Hall. Please come join the team, and let’s have a great VBS that reaches kids for Jesus Christ! 

Devotional

Since we have finished up our last series, I decided to look for something a little different that I feel would be applicable to our lives. This week we start a series titled “Conversations in a Cave” by T.D. Jakes. This is found on Bible.com, which is a great resource if you have not tried it yet!

We open our study with 1 Kings 17:1-6. Elijah the Prophet had been told by God to go to Ahab, the great evil king, and tell him that there would be no rain for the next few years until God told him that there would be. He experiences a great many things, but at one point in 1 Kings 19:9-16, he finds himself in a cave. It is in this cave that the voice of the Lord comes to him and asks “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

Elijah had performed his share of miracles. He was bold, had strong convictions, and was a man of power. He had torn down idols and challenged the prophets of Baal. He had seen God’s hand over his life and he knew that he belonged to God. He also had experienced the low times in his life, like he was when he was in this cave. And much like Elijah, we have high and low times in our lives. 

Sometimes, God gives us the endurance to run beyond human capability because God has anointed you to get things done. That’s why when you find yourself in a difficult situation, it is troubling. You are used to going in that superhuman speed, but now you are shut up in your own personal ‘cave’ and you don’t know what to do. It bears the question, then, why are you here? Why is it that God has allowed you to go through this season of life?

We sometimes get so busy with life that we don’t leave enough time to talk to God about that life we are living. Could it be that we have gotten that busy that we neglect our relationship with God? Or maybe God is recalibrating your life in another direction? It all comes back to the question: why are you here? 

Like Elijah, we find ourselves in our own cave from time to time. God has not designed us to be disconnected from one another, but sometimes being in that solitude allows us to eliminate distractions and intrusions and allows God to minister to us. We see in that last passage that God tells Elijah to leave the cave and “stand in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” We see that the wind tears apart the mountain, there is a great earthquake, a great fire. But God is not in it. But then suddenly, after the fire, there is a gentle whisper. The voice asks “What are you going here, Elijah?” When we slow down and we don’t allow the distractions to get in the way, we hear that gentle whisper ask us what we are doing, and then tells us where to go. 

Wednesday Devotional - 3/17/21

Prayers

This last Sunday, it was mentioned that we have a lot of prayer requests on our bulletin. I am reminded of James 5:16, which in part reads “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” We shou;d take great pleasure in praying for our fellow brethren that are in need of prayer. We see the greatness of God through those answered prayers. 

Thank you so much for praying for my brother. He is still recovering from his surgery this last Friday, but is doing much better! Also, Tommy and Susan White want to pass along their thanks for praying for her about her surgery last week. Things went very well. 

Announcements

Please remember that we have a VBS Volunteer meeting on March 27th at 10 AM. We are continuing to plan for the upcoming VBS on June 21-25. The theme is Concrete and Cranes, and we think that it is going to be a blast. Be praying that we are able to reach our community, and that this VBS will have a great impact upon the lives of all who come and participate! 

Devotional 

This week we continue on our journey with the devotional from T.D. Jakes called “Conversations in a Cave” found on Bible.com. 

This week, we are talking about isolation. We have experienced this in much abundance this previous year with the global pandemic hitting. Many of us have either been in quarantine, or else we have been disconnected from others, from our church, or from even family due to this pandemic. This is not to say that this is done in a way that is intentional: in stark contrast to most times where we have been isolated in our lives, this is done out of an abundance of precaution and safety, and especially thinking of the well-being of others! 

That said, we are not designed to be alone. When God was creating everything, the only thing that he did not pronounce as good was that man was alone. Even before the pandemic hit, there was a larger sense of loneliness in our world, partially due to the nature of social media, but also just in the societal shifts. Loneliness is at an all-time high. But this does not mean that we cannot learn something from it. When you look at the Bible, you will see that God deals with his people most often in the solitude of isolation. As we are getting closer to Easter, we remember that even Jesus, before being betrayed and suffering for our sake, took time to be alone with God and to talk to the Father. 

As we look back at Elijah again at the mouth of the cave, he is alone. He had called down the fire to kill the prophets of Baal. He had threatened Jezebel, which had caused him to run. He ran so hard and for so long that he questioned his sanity after he had stopped running. And this last year has been like that hard run. We sit here, hoping and praying that we are coming out of the long run that we have been on, hoping that our sanity is intact. We have overcome so many obstacles, so many deaths within our community, that we feel like we are almost spent. But we are coming out of it, and we are running the race with endurance because we are relying on God more than anything. Remember what Psalms 62:8 says: “Trust in him at all times, you people. Tell him all your troubles. God is our place of safety.” When we take the time to be isolated in HIS presence, we truly are not alone. We are in that place of safety. And we need to take advantage of the time we get to be alone with God. That is when we learn the most from Him. 

Wednesday Devotional 3/24/21

Prayers 

First, let us pray that we have our hearts prepared for the upcoming Holy Week. This is the time of year where people will be asking us why we believe. It is a great opportunity for those of us who believe in a risen Savior to tell others about Him and what HE had done for us. Pray that God will continually use you to reach others, and that God will put the people that He wants to be talked to in your way. 

We also heard this past weekend about Sylvia Moose in the Suches community. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently this was not caught early. Be praying for her and Jack as they make hard decisions in the upcoming weeks. Pray for her doctors that they use their knowledge to help Sylvia get better. And pray that her cancer will be cured! 

Finally, as we have been focusing on isolation in this series of devotions, do pray for those who are suffering from the poor effects of isolation. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness are very real, and are hard to face when you are are alone. Pray that God will see the people who are suffering from these issues through them, and that He will remind those people that they are never truly alone if they have God on their side. 

Announcements

Please remember that we will be having our second VBS volunteer meeting on March 27th at 10 AM. We will be continuing to discuss what we are planning for our VBS this year. It’s going to be great, and if you can, you will want to be a part of it!

Also, besides our regular Easter service at 11 AM, we will be having an Easter Sunrise service at the Woody Gap Trailhead. We will be observing social distancing, and masks are highly encouraged. This will start at 7 AM, and we will likely be done around 7:30. Please come and celebrate the Risen Savior! 

Devotional

This week concludes T.D. Jakes’ series titled “Conversations in a Cave” which is found on Bible.com. We will be having a special set of short devotions next week as we celebrate Holy Week, so be on the lookout for those! 

Sometimes we realize as Christians that we are under attack. Elijah could certainly say that as a follower of God. He had been hounded nearly his entire life from those who opposed God, even to the point where he was in this cave completely alone! He recounts to God all of the opposition that he had faced to this point, and realized that nearly his entire life had been under siege. 

Some of us feel that way as well. We realize that, after we have looked back, that our lives were under siege most of the time. Now, these threats may not have been as dire as the ones that Elijah was facing, considering that there were those who were wanting to put him to death for this faith. But it must have been an uncomfortable place for him, and for many of us, when we have been backed into a corner that we feel like we cannot escape. 

Jakes points out that many psychologists show that isolation itself is not nearly as damaging as the perception of isolation. Perception of isolation is thought to be twice as damaging as the actual isolation. When we think of that, the real question becomes “who are you when you are are alone?” But here is an amazing truth that we can remember when we are alone: Jesus wants to know who you are when you are there in that spot. When all of the fences are gone, when there is no one around, and when no one is looking. He wants to deal with your insecurities, your vulnerabilities, and your uncertainties. 

When you have those moments of isolation, look for ways that God is working with you. You might be in a figurative cave at a moment in your life, but it may be the place that God is wanting you to be so you can hear the power in that still, small voice that speaks to you. God will always be there with you as a believer. Remember what Psalms 145:20 says: “The Lord watches over all those who love him.” And then remember what Jesus said to us in Matthew 28:20: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The true miracle of isolation for those that are Christians is that we are never truly alone.