Foursquare Gospel Church Igbosere (Chapel of Blessing)

OUR DAILY BREAD August 26, 2018 Sunday UNFROZEN Tim Gustafson When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face.  Galatians 2:11 Galatians 2:11–16 Psalm 119:89–176; 1 Corinthians 8 At a roundtable discussion about reconciliation, one participant wisely said, “Don’t freeze people in time.” He observed how we tend to remember mistakes people make and never grant them the opportunity to change. There are so many moments in Peter’s life when God could have “frozen” him in time. But He never did. Peter—the impulsive disciple—“corrected” Jesus, earning a sharp rebuke from the Lord (Matthew 16:21–23). He famously denied Christ (John 18:15–27), only to be restored later (21:15–19). And he once contributed to racial divisions within the church. The issue arose when Peter (also called Cephas) had separated himself from the Gentiles (Galatians 2:11–12). Only recently he associated freely with them. But some Jews arrived who insisted that circumcision was required for believers ...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 25, 2018 Saturday GENEROUS GIVERS Xochitl Dixon Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.  1 Chronicles 29:14 1 Chronicles 29:1–14 Psalm 119:1–88; 1 Corinthians 7:20–40 After reviewing all God had already done throughout our church’s history, leaders presented the congregation with a proposal for a new gym to help us better serve our community. The leadership team announced they’d be the first to sign pledge notes to fund the construction. I initially prayed with a heart soured by selfishness, not wanting to offer more money than we had already committed to give. Still, my husband and I agreed to pray for the ongoing project. While considering all God continued providing for us, we eventually decided on a monthly offering. The combined gifts of our church family paid for the entire building. Grateful for the many ways God’s used that gym for community events since we celebrated opening its doors for ministry, I’...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 24, 2018 Friday WE WOULD SEE JESUS Amy Boucher Pye They came to Philip . . . with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”  John 12:21 John 12:20–26 Psalms 116–118; 1 Corinthians 7:1–19 As I looked down at the pulpit where I was sharing prayers at a funeral, I glimpsed a brass plaque bearing words from John 12:21: “Sir, we would see Jesus” (kjv). Yes, I thought, how fitting to consider how we saw Jesus in the woman we were celebrating with tears and smiles. Although she faced challenges and disappointments in her life, she never gave up her faith in Christ. And because God’s Spirit lived in her, we could see Jesus. John’s gospel recounts how after Jesus rode into Jerusalem (see John 12:12–16), some Greeks approached Philip, one of the disciples, asking, “Sir, . . . we would like to see Jesus” (v. 21). They were probably curious about Jesus’s healings and miracles, but as they weren’t Jewish, they weren’t allowed into the inner court...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 23, 2018 Thursday AN ENDURING HAPPINESS David H. Roper Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days . . . . Turn from evil and do good.  Psalm 34:12,14 Psalm 34:1–14 Psalms 113–115; 1 Corinthians 6 Often we hear that happiness comes from doing things our own way. That, however, is not true. That philosophy leads only to emptiness, anxiety, and heartache. Poet W. H. Auden observed people as they attempted to find an escape in pleasures. He wrote of such people: “Lost in a haunted wood, / Children afraid of the night / Who have never been happy or good.” The psalmist David sings of the remedy for our fears and unhappiness. “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). Happiness is doing things God’s way, a fact that can be verified every day. “Those who look to him are radiant,” writes David (v. 5). Just try it and you’ll see. That’s what he means when he says, “Taste and see that the...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 22, 2018 Wednesday GOD’S CARE FOR US Alyson Kieda The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  Genesis 3:21 Genesis 3:1–13 Psalms 110–112; 1 Corinthians 5 My young grandsons enjoy dressing themselves. Sometimes they pull their shirts on backwards and often the younger one puts his shoes on the wrong feet. I usually don’t have the heart to tell them; besides, I find their innocence endearing. I love seeing the world through their eyes. To them, everything is an adventure, whether walking the length of a fallen tree, spying a turtle sunning itself on a log, or excitedly watching a fire truck roar by. But I know that even my little grandsons are not truly innocent. They can make up a dozen excuses about why they can’t stay in their beds at night and are quick to yank a wanted toy from the other. Yet I love them dearly. I picture Adam and Eve, God’s first people, as being in some ways like my grandchildren. Every...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 21, 2018 Tuesday A PRAYER TO POINT US HOME James Banks Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12 Luke 23:44–48 Psalms 107–109; 1 Corinthians 4 One of the first prayers I learned as a little boy was “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep . . .” It was a prayer I learned from my parents, and I taught it to my son and daughter when they were little. As a child, I found great comfort in placing myself in God’s hands with those words before I fell asleep. There’s a similar prayer neatly tucked away in the “prayer book” of the Bible, the Psalms. Some biblical scholars suggest that the phrase “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5) was a “bedtime” prayer taught to children in Jesus’s day. You may recognize that prayer as Jesus’s final cry from the cross. But Jesus added one more word to it:  Father  (Luke 23:46). By praying that word i...

OUR DAILY BREAD August 20, 2018 Monday IN PROGRESS OR COMPLETED? Adam Holz For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.  Hebrews 10:14 Hebrews 10:5–14 Psalms 105–106; 1 Corinthians 3 It’s satisfying to finish a job. Each month, for instance, one of my job responsibilities gets moved from one category to another, from “In Progress” to “Completed.” I  love  clicking that “Completed” button. But last month when I clicked it, I thought,  If only I could overcome rough spots in my faith so easily! It can seem like the Christian life is always in progress, never completed. Then I remembered Hebrews 10:14. It describes how Christ’s sacrifice redeems us totally. So in one important sense, that “completed button”  has  been pressed for us. Jesus’s death did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves: He made us acceptable in God’s eyes when we place our faith in Him. It is finished, as Jesus Himself said (John 19:30). P...

Dcn Abraham Demeh Theme of the year: New Heights (Lev 26:13, Phil 3:13,14) Theme of the Month: Family Life and Kingdom Expansion (Joshua 24:16) Topic: Overcoming Obstacles to Evangelism (Part 2) Evangelism is a means of reducing hell bound souls and making them heaven bound saints. The devil wants every soul to end up in his kingdom and that is why he is doing everything possible to hinder the spread and acceptance of the gospel. Last week we considered that lack of gospel knowledge and apathy to gospel are obstacles to evangelism. Another major obstacle to spread of the gospel is fear. What will others think of me? What if they don’t like me or my family? Some are paralyzed by the thought of being disliked, marginalized, laughed at, or openly mocked. We are afraid we will lose business or lose opportunity to get promotion. What if talking about Christ makes seeing my neighbours awkward? Whatever reason you may want to give, fear must be overcome to effectively sha...