Daily Bible Readings
Daily Bible Readings for Week of May 23, 2022
Monday, May 23rd - 1 Kings 3:1-5
Tuesday, May 24th - James 1:22-27
Wednesday, May 25th - Matthew 7:7-12
Thursday, May 26th - Psalm 110
Friday, May 27th - 2 Kings 2:9-15
Saturday, May 28th - Revelation 19:11-16
Prayer of the Week
Almighty God, Your only Son was taken up into heaven, hidden from His disciples’ sight, and in power He intercedes with you for us. May we also come to Your presence and live forever in Your glory; through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Memory Verses for May, 2022
May 1: Hosea 6:3
3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
May 8: Matthew 13:23
23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
May 15: James 5:7
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.
May 22: Ecclesiastes 3:1
3 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
May 29: Ephesians 3:20
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
Book of the Month: Ecclesiastes
Journey to Hope
"We need to accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope" Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A Declaration of Blessing
“Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4) It seems a strange thing to say that those who suffer are blessed. Every instinct within our human selves rises in disbelief and confusion. It seems illogical and contradictory. How can anyone who has lost something or someone much loved be blessed? Is that not a misfortune or a curse? Yet, God declares that people who believe God are privileged in the midst of every sad and painful circumstance. How can that be?
Navigating Change
Change Is not something most of us eagerly anticipate, especially if it is not our plan. Grief brings about abrupt change. What was comfortable and familiar yesterday becomes horrifying and different today. Life can be re-categorized—there is BC (before change) and AD (after death or loss).
What the Parable of the Sower Tells Us About Grief
When we grieve the loss of something dear to us our faith is often tested. We are told in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) of four areas where seeds fell and subsequently grew. Three areas could not sustain the plants that sprung up—only one could. Going through grief can reveal our spiritual soil type. God made soil to be a natural medium for the growth of plants and we are the God-designed medium through which faith is cultivated.
Letting Go
We might not think that grieving would be an appropriate word to use for the Israelites after they left Egypt. They had been in the land for many years and it had been welcoming and a prosperous time. But under a new Pharaoh life changed drastically. The bible tells us that the Egyptian masters worked the Israelites “ruthlessly” (Exod. 1:13, 14) and made their lives “bitter” (Exod. 1:14) with “hard/cruel” (Exod. 1:14; 6:9) service. As a result, Israel languished in “misery” and “suffering” (Exod. 3:7).