Foursquare Gospel Church Igbosere (Chapel of Blessing)

OUR DAILY BREAD March 8, Sunday PURE WORSHIP Mike Wittmer My house will be called a house of prayer.  Mark 11:17 Mark 11:15–18 Deuteronomy 5–7; Mark 11:1–18 Jose pastored a church known for its programs and theatrical productions. They were well done, yet he worried the church’s busyness had slipped into a business. Was the church growing for the right reasons or because of its activities? Jose wanted to find out, so he canceled all extra church events for one year. His congregation would focus on being a living temple where people worshiped God. Jose’s decision seems extreme, until you notice what Jesus did when He entered the temple’s outer courts. The holy space that should have been full of simple prayers had become a flurry of worship business. “Get your doves here! Lily white, as God requires!” Jesus overturned the merchant’s tables and stopped those who bought their merchandise. Furious at what they were doing,...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 7, Saturday MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE John Blase Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  1 Corinthians 12:27 1 Corinthians 12:20–27 Deuteronomy 3–4; Mark 10:32–52 Attend any rodeo with riding and roping competition and you’ll see them—competitors with four fingers on one hand and a nub where their thumb should be. It’s a common injury in the sport—a thumb gets caught between a rope on one end and a decent-sized steer pulling on the other, and the thumb is usually the loser. It’s not a career-ending injury, but the absence of a thumb changes things. Without using your thumb, try to brush your teeth or button a shirt or comb your hair or tie your shoes or even eat. That little overlooked member of your body plays a significant role. The apostle Paul indicates a similar scenario in the church. Those often less visible and frequently less vocal members sometimes experience an ...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 6, Friday TWO ARE BETTER Xochitl Dixon Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.  Ecclesiastes 4:9 Ecclesiastes 4:9–11 Deuteronomy 1–2; Mark 10:1–31 In the 1997 Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, two women fought to stay on their feet as they hobbled toward the finish line. Exhausted, the runners persevered on wobbly legs, until Sian Welch bumped into Wendy Ingraham. They both dropped to the ground. Struggling to stand, they stumbled forward, only to fall again about twenty meters from the finish line. When Ingraham began to crawl, the crowd applauded. When her competitor followed suit, they cheered louder. Ingraham crossed the finish line in fourth place, and she slumped into the outstretched arms of her supporters. Then she turned and reached out to her fallen sister. Welch lunged her body forward, stretching her weary arm toward Ingraham’s hand and across the finish line. As she completed the race ...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 5, Thursday PLANS DISRUPTED Leslie Koh Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.  Proverbs 19:21 Acts 16:6–10 Numbers 34–36; Mark 9:30–50 Jane’s plans to become a speech therapist ended when an internship revealed the job was too emotionally challenging for her. Then she was given the opportunity to write for a magazine. She’d never seen herself as an author, but years later she found herself advocating for needy families through her writing. “Looking back, I can see why God changed my plans,” she says. “He had a bigger plan for me.” The Bible has many stories of disrupted plans. On his second missionary journey, Paul had sought to bring the gospel into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus stopped him (Acts 16:6–7). This must have seemed mystifying: Why was Jesus disrupting plans that were in line with a God-given mission? The answer came in...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 4, Wednesday LIVE WIRE Tim Gustafson We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  2 Peter 1:16 Mark 9:2–10 Numbers 31–33; Mark 9:1–29 “I felt like I had touched a live wire,” said Professor Holly Ordway, describing her reaction to John Donne’s majestic poem “Holy Sonnet 14.”  There’s something happening in this poetry,  she thought.  I wonder what it is.  Ordway recalls it as the moment her previously atheistic worldview allowed for the possibility of the supernatural. Eventually she would believe in the transforming reality of the resurrected Christ. Touching a live wire—that must have been how Peter, James, and John felt on the day Jesus took them to a mountaintop, where they witnessed a dramatic transformation. Christ’s “clothes became dazzling white” (Mark 9:3) and Elijah and Moses appeared—an event we know today as the transfiguration. Descending fr...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 3, Tuesday FULLY KNOWN James Banks Before I formed you . . . I knew you.  Jeremiah 1:5 Jeremiah 1:1–8 Numbers 28–30; Mark 8:22–38 “You shouldn’t be here right now. Someone up there was looking out for you,” the tow truck driver told my mother after he had pulled her car from the edge of a steep mountain ravine and studied the tire tracks leading up to the wreck. Mom was pregnant with me at the time. As I grew, she often recounted the story of how God saved  both  our lives that day, and she assured me that God valued me even before I was born. None of us escape our omniscient (all-knowing) Creator’s notice. More than 2,500 years ago He told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God knows us more intimately than any person ever could and is able to give our lives purpose and meaning unlike any other. He not only formed us through His...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 2, Monday A CALL TO LEAVE Elisa Morgan At once they left their nets and followed him.  Matthew 4:20 Matthew 4:18–22 Numbers 26–27; Mark 8:1–21 As a young woman, I imagined myself married to my high school sweetheart—until we broke up. My future yawned emptily before me and I struggled with what to do with my life. At last I sensed God leading me to serve Him by serving others and enrolled in seminary. Then the reality crashed through that I’d be moving away from my roots, friends, and family. In order to respond to God’s call, I had to leave. Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee when He saw Peter and his brother Andrew casting nets into the sea, fishing for a living. He invited them to “Come, follow me . . . and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19). Then Jesus saw two other fishermen, James and his brother John, and offered them a similar invitation (v. 21). When these disciple...