Foursquare Gospel Church Igbosere (Chapel of Blessing)

OUR DAILY BREAD April 22, 2018 Sunday GOD IN THE DETAILS James Banks The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.  Psalm 145:9 Matthew 10:29–31 Bible in a year : 2 Samuel 14–15; Luke 17:1–19 When my “chocolate” Labrador retriever puppy was three months old, I took him to the veterinarian’s office for his shots and checkup. As our vet carefully looked him over, she noticed a small white marking in his fur on his left hind paw. She smiled and said to him, “That’s where God held you when He dipped you in chocolate.” I couldn’t help but laugh. But she had unintentionally made a meaningful point about the deep and personal interest God takes in His creation. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:30 that “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” God is so great that He is able to take infinite interest in the most intimate details of our lives. There is nothing so small that it...

OUR DAILY BREAD April 21, 2018 Saturday ANYWHERE Elisa Morgan I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness.  Jeremiah 2:2 Jeremiah 2:1–8; 3:14–15 Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 12–13; Luke 16 As I flipped through a box of my old wedding photographs, my fingers stopped at a picture of my husband and me, newly christened “Mr. and Mrs.” My dedication to him was obvious in my expression. I would go  anywhere  with him. Nearly four decades later, our marriage is tightly threaded with love and a commitment that has carried us through both hard and good times. Year after year, I’ve recommitted my dedication to go  anywhere  with him. In Jeremiah 2:2, God yearns for His beloved but wayward Israel, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me.” The Hebrew word for  devotion  conveys the highest loyalty and commitment possible. At first, Israel expressed this...

OUR DAILY BREAD April 20, 2018 Friday THE ART OF FORGIVENESS David C. McCasland While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  Luke 15:20 Luke 15:11–24 Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 9–11; Luke 15:11–32 One afternoon I spent two hours at an art exhibit— The Father & His Two Sons: The Art of Forgiveness —in which all of the pieces were focused on Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11–31). I found Edward Riojas’s painting  The Prodigal Son  especially powerful. The painting portrays the once wayward son returning home, wearing rags and walking with his head down. With a land of death behind him, he steps onto a pathway where his father is already running toward him. At the bottom of the painting are Jesus’s words, “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion” (v. 20 kjv). I was deeply moved by realizing once ...

OUR DAILY BREAD April 19, 2018 Thursday HURRY NOT Amy Boucher Pye You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.  Isaiah 26:3 Isaiah 26:1–4 Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 6–8; Luke 15:1–10 “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry.” When two friends repeated that adage by the wise Dallas Willard to me, I knew I needed to consider it. Where was I spinning my wheels, wasting time and energy? More important, where was I rushing ahead and not looking to God for guidance and help? In the weeks and months that followed, I remembered those words and reoriented myself back to the Lord and His wisdom. I reminded myself to trust in Him, rather than leaning on my own ways. After all, rushing around frantically seems to be the opposite of the “perfect peace” the prophet Isaiah speaks of. The Lord gives this gift to “those whose minds are steadfast,” because they trust in Him (v. 3). And He is worthy of bein...

OUR DAILY BREAD April 18, 2018 Wednesday JUDGING ORIGINS Tim Gustafson The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah.  Judges 11:29 Judges 11:1–8, 29 Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 3–5; Luke 14:25–35 “Where are you from?” We often use that question to get to know someone better. But for many of us, the answer is complicated. Sometimes we don’t want to share all the details. In the book of Judges, Jephthah might not have wanted to answer that question at all. His half-brothers had chased him out of his hometown of Gilead for his “questionable” origins. “You are the son of another woman,” they declared (Judges 11:2). The text says starkly, “His mother was a prostitute” (v. 1). But Jephthah was a natural leader, and when a hostile tribe picked a fight with Gilead, the people who had sent him packing suddenly wanted him back. “Be our commander,” they said (v. 6). Jephthah asked, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house?” (v. 7). After getting assurances that things wo...

OUR DAILY BREAD  April 17, 2018, Tuesday  LEARNING TO KNOW GOD Karen Wolfe But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”  John 6:20 John 6:16–21 BIBle in a year-round  2 Samuel 1–2; Luke 14:1–24  For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a mother. I dreamed about getting married, getting pregnant, and holding my baby in my arms for the first time. When I finally got married, my husband and I never even considered waiting to expand our family. But with each negative pregnancy test, we realized we were struggling with infertility. Months of doctors’ visits, tests, and tears followed. We were in the middle of a storm. Infertility was a bitter pill to swallow and left me wondering about God’s goodness and faithfulness. When I reflect on our journey, I think about the story of the disciples caught in the storm on the sea in John 6. As they struggled against the waves in the dark of the storm, Jesus unexpectedly came to them walking on the stormy wav...

OUR DAILY BREAD April 16, 2018, Monday  JUST A SECOND Dave Branon How fleeting my life is.  Psalm 39:4 Psalm 39:4–6 Bible in a year: 1 Samuel 30–31; Luke 13:23–35 Scientists are pretty fussy about time. At the end of 2016, the folks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland added an extra second to the year. So if you felt that year dragged on a bit longer than normal, you were right. Why did they do that? Because the rotation of the earth slows down over time, the years get just a tiny bit longer. When scientists track manmade objects launched into space, they must have accuracy down to the millisecond. This is “to make sure our collision avoidance programs are accurate,” according to one scientist. For most of us, a second gained or lost doesn’t make much difference. Yet according to Scripture, our time and how we use it  is important. For instance, Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 7:29 that “time is short.” The time we have to do God’s work is limited, ...