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- Daily Devotionals
- Day 01: Philippians 1:1-14 & Psalm 66
- Day 02: Philippians 1:15-30 & Psalm 37
- Day 03: Philippians 2:1-14 & Psalm 24
- Day 04: Philippians 2:12-30 & Psalm 99
- Day 05: Philippians 3:1-11 & Psalm 63
- Day 06: Philippians 3:12-21 & Psalm 27
- Day 07: Philippians 4:1-9 & Psalm 121
- Day 08: Philippians 4:10-23 & Psalm 103
- Day 09: 2 Timothy 1:1-18 & Psalm 139
- Day 10: 2 Timothy 2:1-13 & Psalm 62
- Day 11: 2 Timothy 2:14-26 & Psalm 55
- Day 12: 2 Timothy 3:1-9 & Psalm 51
- Day 13: 2 Timothy 3:10-17 & Psalm 40
- Day 14: 2 Timothy 4:1-6 & Psalm 33
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- The “I Heart Mali” Story
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Joyeux Noel!
(이 글을 한국어로 읽으시려면 여기 를 클릭하세요)
Shalom!!
Joyeux Noel! This morning we held a Christmas service for all the local children. It was so GOOD to be worshipping all together, African styles: The djembe’s and all the other percussion instruments + the sweet sound of 900+ children singing and dancing in unison. Yeah, 900. we prepared for 700! Nonetheless, all the kids got Christmas treats and had a good time. Our sister Hye-Rim shared the story of Jesus’ birth and our skit team performed a little something from their comical repertoire. Perhaps we’ll share one of the skits during service in Toronto, hehe.
For the past 2 days we’ve eaten nothing but local food! Amazing! No utensils! Very oily! But still delicious~ Today during lunch with the church members, one lady broke out in spontaneous worship after we finished eating. Then she said to everyone, “Us sharing a meal together symbolizes that we are ONE under Christ. Regardless of how we look like, where we’re from, we’re ONE in Christ.” It’s something we hear fairly often, right? I mean, for the past week, we’ve been sharing that same message to the Malians along the Niger River. But to hear a Malian say that to us? Wow.
The team is in good spirits and health. We’re pumped. I’m sure the next few days will be very tiring on the team, so will you continue to pray over our physical well being? I’m recording some testimonies as well from our teammates so check back over the next few days to see those videos!
God bless you & Merry Christmas!
Africanly yours,
Samuel
(이 글을 한국어로 읽으시려면 여기 를 클릭하세요)
THANK YOU FROM THE TEAM!
Today I showed the team all the videos that were recorded by the audience at missions night! Thank you for the kind messages and for assuring our team that we are in your prayers! It brought great joy to all of us here and it was a wonderful way to start Christmas morning.
In Him,
Samuel
The Delight of Sacrifice
(from: ”My Utmost for His Highest”)
(by: Oswald Chambers)
I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls….– 2 Corinthians 12:15
Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives(Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus(see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spend his life for only one purpose-that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”(1 Corinthians 9::22)
When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could with that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…”(Romans 9:3) Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.
