Foursquare Gospel Church Igbosere (Chapel of Blessing)

OUR DAILY BREAD March 28, Sunday WATCH ME! Bible in a Year: Judges 4–6   Luke 4:31–44 From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise. Matthew 21:16 Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 21:12–17 “Watch my fairy princess dance, Grandma!” my three-year-old granddaughter gleefully called as she raced around the yard of our cabin, a big grin on her face. Her “dancing” brought a smile; and her big brother’s glum, “She’s not dancing, just running,” didn’t squelch her joy at being on vacation with family. The first Palm Sunday was a day of highs and lows. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds enthusiastically shouted, “Hosanna! . . . Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” ( Matthew 21:9 ). Yet many in the crowd were expecting a Messiah to free them from Rome, not a Savior who would die for their sins that same week. Later that day, despite the anger of the chief priests who questioned Jesus’ authority, children in the temple e...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 27, Saturday HOSTING ROYALTY Bible in a Year: Judges 1–3   Luke 4:1–30 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. Galatians 3:26 Today's Scripture & Insight: Galatians 3:26–29 After meeting the Queen of England at a ball in Scotland, Sylvia and her husband received a message that the royal family would like to visit them for tea. Sylvia started cleaning and prepping, nervous about hosting the royal guests. Before they were due to arrive, she went outside to pick some flowers for the table, her heart racing. Then she sensed God reminding her that He’s the King of kings and that He’s with her every day. Immediately she felt peaceful and thought, “After all, it’s only the Queen!” Sylvia is right. As the apostle Paul noted, God is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” ( 1 Timothy 6:15 ) and those who follow Him are “children of God” ( Galatians 3:26 ). When we belong to Christ, we’re heirs of Abraham (v. 29). We no longer are bound by divisi...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 26, Friday SLUM SONGS Bible in a Year: Joshua 22–24   Luke 3 They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Isaiah 35:10 Today's Scripture & Insight: Isaiah 35 Cateura is a small slum in Paraguay, South America. Desperately poor, its villagers survive by recycling items from its rubbish dump. But from these unpromising conditions something beautiful has emerged—an orchestra. With a violin costing more than a house in Cateura, the orchestra had to get creative, crafting its own instruments from their garbage supply. Violins are made from oil cans with bent forks as tailpieces. Saxophones have come from drainpipes with bottle tops for keys. Cellos are made from tin drums with gnocchi rollers for tuning pegs. Hearing Mozart played on these contraptions is a beautiful thing. The orchestra has gone on tour in many countries, lifting the sights of its young members. Violins from landfills. Music from slums. That’s symbolic of wha...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 25, Thursday KNOW HIS VOICE Bible in a Year: Joshua 19–21   Luke 2:25–52 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. John 10:14 Today's Scripture & Insight: John 10:1–10 One year for vacation Bible school, Ken’s church decided to bring in live animals to illustrate the Scripture. When he arrived to help, Ken was asked to bring a sheep inside. He had to practically drag the wooly animal by a rope into the church gymnasium. But as the week went on, it became less reluctant to follow him. By the end of the week, Ken didn’t have to hold the rope anymore; he just called the sheep and it followed, knowing it could trust him. In the New Testament, Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd, stating that His people, the sheep, will follow Him because they know His voice ( John 10:4 ). But those same sheep will run from a stranger or thief (v. 5). Like sheep, we (God’s children) get to know the voice of our Shepherd through our relationship with Him. An...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 24, Wednesday SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER Bible in a Year: Joshua 16–18   Luke 2:1–24 We are co-workers in God’s service. 1 Corinthians 3:9 Today's Scripture & Insight: 1 Corinthians 3:5–9 More than two hundred volunteers assisted October Books, a bookstore in Southampton, England, move its inventory to an address down the street. Helpers lined the sidewalk and passed books down a “human conveyor belt.” Having witnessed the volunteers in action, a store employee said, “It was . . . a really moving experience to see people [helping]. . . . They wanted to be part of something bigger.” We can also be part of something much bigger than ourselves. God uses us to reach the world with the message of His love. Because someone shared the message with us, we can turn to another person and pass it on. Paul compared this—the building of God’s kingdom—to growing a garden. Some of us plant seeds while some of us water the seeds. We are, as Paul said, “co-workers in God’s serv...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 23 THE REASON TO REST Bible in a Year: Joshua 13–15   Luke 1:57–80 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? Ecclesiastes 2:22 Today's Scripture & Insight: Ecclesiastes 2:17–26 If you want to live longer, take a vacation! Forty years after a study of middle-aged, male executives who each had a risk of heart disease, researchers in Helsinki, Finland, followed up with their study participants. The scientists discovered something they hadn’t been looking for in their original findings: the death rate was lower among those who had taken time off for vacations. Work is a necessary part of life—a part God appointed to us even before our relationship with Him was fractured in  Genesis 3 . Solomon wrote of the seeming meaninglessness of work experienced by those not working for God’s honor—recognizing its “anxious striving” and “grief and pain” ( Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 ). Even when they’re not actively working...

OUR DAILY BREAD March 22, Monday SWEETER THAN HONEY Bible in a Year: Joshua 10–12   Luke 1:39–56 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103 Today's Scripture & Insight: Psalm 119:97–105 On Chicago Day in October 1893, the city’s theaters shut down because the owners figured everyone would be attending the World’s Fair. Over seven hundred thousand people went, but Dwight Moody (1837–1899) wanted to fill a music hall at the other end of Chicago with preaching and teaching. His friend R. A. Torrey (1856–1928) was skeptical that Moody could draw a crowd on the same day as the fair. But by God’s grace, he did. As Torrey later concluded, the crowds came because Moody knew “the one Book that this old world most longs to know—the Bible.” Torrey longed for others to love the Bible as Moody did, reading it regularly with dedication and passion. God through His Spirit brought people back to Himself at the end of the nineteenth century in Chica...