September 22

People Who Need People
Bible in a Year:
Ecclesiastes 10–12
Galatians 1
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.

Today's Scripture & Insight:

Romans 16:3–16
In his hall-of-fame career as a sportswriter, Dave Kindred covered hundreds of major sporting events and championships and wrote a biography of Muhammad Ali. Growing bored in retirement, he started attending girls’ basketball games at a local school. Soon he began writing stories about each game and posting them online. And when Dave’s mother and grandson died and his wife suffered a debilitating stroke, he realized the team he’d been covering provided him with a sense of community and purpose. He needed them as much as they needed him. Kindred said, “This team saved me. My life had turned dark . . . [and] they were light.”

How does a legendary journalist come to depend on a community of teenagers? The same way a legendary apostle leaned on the fellowship of those he met on his missionary journeys. Did you notice all the people Paul greeted as he closed his letter? (Romans 16:3–15). “Greet Andronicus and Junia,” he wrote, “my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me” (v. 7). “Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord” (v. 8). He mentions more than twenty-five people in all, most of whom are not mentioned in Scripture again. But Paul needed them.

Who’s in your community? The best place to begin is with your local church. Anyone there whose life has turned dark? As God leads, you can be a light that points them to Jesus. Someday they may return the favor.

By: Mike Wittmer

Father, what a friend I have in Jesus! May I be that kind of friend to others. Amen.

September 21

Living Water
Bible in a Year:
Ecclesiastes 7–9
2 Corinthians 13
Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

Today's Scripture & Insight:

John 7:37–39
The cut flowers came from Ecuador. By the time they arrived at my house, they were droopy and road-weary. Instructions said revive them with a cool drink of refreshing water. Before that, however, the flower stems had to be trimmed so they could drink the water more easily. But would they survive?

The next morning, I discovered my answer. The Ecuadorian bouquet was a glorious sight, featuring flowers I’d never seen before. Fresh water made all the difference—a reminder of what Jesus said about water and what it means to believers.

When Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water—implying He’d drink from what she fetched from the well—He changed her life. She was surprised by His request. Jews looked down on Samaritans. But Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). Later, in the temple, He cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” (7:37). Among those who believed in Him, “rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (vv. 38–39).

God’s refreshing Spirit revives us today when we’re life-weary. He’s the Living Water, dwelling in our souls with holy refreshment. May we drink deeply today.

By: Patricia Raybon

Loving God, when life leaves me road-weary and thirsty, thank You for the gift of Your Spirit, the living water, who dwells in every believer. Amen.

Worship That Changes
SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Philippians 3:7

Recommended Reading: Acts 9:1-9
Before meeting Christ, Paul could best be described as a “hit man” for the Pharisees. From Jerusalem, he traveled around the area arresting Jews who had become followers of Christ, taking them to jail (or worse—Acts 22:3-5). But all that changed when he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.

As Paul and his associates traveled, a bright light from heaven caused Paul to fall to the ground (Acts 9:4). Falling to the ground is a posture in Scripture for worship (Revelation 1:17; 4:10; 5:8; 7:11; 19:10; 22:8). But Paul likely wasn’t worshiping; he was likely just shocked and scared. However, it became an image of what he would be doing for the rest of his life: bowing his knee to the Lord Jesus Christ in worship. He fell to the ground in literal fear, but he lived the rest of his life in reverential fear—that is, in worship. When he discovered the true object of worship, it changed his life.

The more we worship our Triune God, the more our life will change. If it is not your practice already, worship on your knees and see how it changes your heart.

What or whom we worship determines our behavior.
John Murray

https://i.imgur.com/Ej713T4.jpg

Anti
Defamation
League

...only look after their own.
Or, at least, consider themselves above all others.
This admits that Jews are a race and NOT [just] a religion...

(on Page 119)
https://www.israellobby.org/ADL/1199215-000---100-HQ-530---Section2.PDF

Everyone knows the Dems are full of Jew haters. Some have even been elected to Congress. So Jonathan Chait(D) smears the GOP as Jew Haters.

#DemocRATS HATE Jews and always have...
https://twitter.com/CBedfordDC/status/1569897044650622976