25 Mar Luke 1:29 The Annunciation of the Lord
Welcome God every morning before your work by taking ~5 min to read this Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group devotion (life-devotions.blogspot.com), which has snippets from Living Faith. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Col. 3:17
[Mary] was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Luke 1:29
Living Faith snippets: “Humility characterizes this entire exchange. In order to become human — God asks the help of a human being. For her part, Mary seems surprised at first to be involved at all, but then is wholly willing to accept her role in the drama that God is unfolding.”
Rich’s comments: Do not be surprised if you are called upon by God to do His will. God has a plan for all of us and He has blessed us with the appropriate spiritual gifts to serve Him. God is all powerful and can do anything, but He has humbled Himself by asking for our help in His plan. Lord, may we be open to serve You when You call our name. Amen.
Faith Challenge: Let’s challenge each other to joyfully live out the Good News. Suggestions?
* NEW: When praying, ask God how you may serve Him to do His will.
Culture of Life (News): LifeSiteNews, American Family Association, Priests for Life
* Let’s never forget the horrific reality of abortion (images)…#1 cause of death in America. Let’s share ProLife Truth (John 14:6)…rebuilding a Culture of Life (Matt 5:16)!
* NOW (25 Feb-5 Apr): Support the 40 Days for Life campaign by praying by an abortion mill for one hour (Matt 26:40)…let’s defend the voiceless unborn!
Pro-Life Conference tidbits: Glen Flores from Pro-Life Alliance at the University of Florida spoke at the Florida Students for Life Conference. He published and presented a booklet at the conference entitled “Ending Abortion Discrimination & the Personalism Movement”. I would like to share some highlights from this booklet.
“The tolerance of abortion is a form of discrimination that results in the unjustifiable death of an innocent human being. There are 5 manners in which abortion supporters discriminate against preborns: 1. they feel intrinsically superior to preborns (e.g. SLED = Size, Level of development, Environment, Degree of dependency), 2. their feelings of superiority lead to neglect (e.g. my body, my choice), 3. they may have ulterior motives (e.g. how can you be pro-life and for war?), 4. they despair (e.g. how will we feed all of these children?), and 5. they confuse priorities (e.g. don’t legislate morality!).”
Our Prayers: Those who pray together stay together. Fasting ideas below.
* Prayer to end abortion, abused children, chastity, peace, our enemies, our troops, depression/ despair, prisoners, ProLife politicians, lack of faith, illnesses/injuries, jobs, Paul Cote (sister Christine with cancer), Sharmane Calvin (Dr. Earl passed away/his family), Kathy Castle (16 cars pulled into Planned Parenthood with young girls), Carla Neal (Katelyn, Mollie, Pam Bert, Edna, Maureen, Cathy, Robin and their families)
Faith Quote: “Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.” by Mother Teresa
Through Christ Our Lord,
Rich
Romans 12:12
* Prayer: Prayer connects us with God’s will & His miracles, changing us & helping others. ‘If you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn’t, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead.’
* Fasting: Let’s fast from things that take our eyes off Jesus (selfishness, bitterness, being so critical, impatience, gossip, excessive video games, etc) and take on things that fix our eyes on Jesus (selflessness, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding, caring, helping, listening).
* Defend the unborn: ‘Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die’ (Prov 24:11). ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’ (Jer 1:5). ‘It is a great poverty that a child must die that you might live as you wish’ (Blessed Mother Teresa).
* Evangelization: Let’s make room for unbelievers (be a friend, make a friend, lead friend to Christ) and perpetual re-evangelization of self and those near us, by way of daily prayer (relationship) and following Christ’s example of selfless love, mercy, and service.
Let’s joyfully invite others to join our LIFE Group…Rich or Pat will gladly add them to the devotions distribution list (Mark 16:15)!