Editor’s Note: Our overarching theme for devotions during the five months of the liturgical calendar called Ordinary Time is Jesus is sending his church. Using Michael Frost’s B.E.L.L.S. acronym as a framework, the topics will relate to missional living.
In many African cultures, there are various occasions and customs where communities are encouraged to share meals together. Traditionally in Kikuyu culture [Kenya’s largest ethnic tribe and a central Bantu community], after preparing a meal for her family, a woman would take some of the food to a designated place to be eaten by anyone who was traveling through that area. Sadly, this tradition is no longer in place because a few people stopped working their own farms and instead took advantage of the food meant for travelers.
In most communities, there are occasions when people share communal meals. Occasionally, failure to attend can result in being treated as an outcast. In Kenya, we have a wise saying that discourages people from being selfish. Loosely translated it means, he who eats alone dies alone.
We read of a very good practice in the early church.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts… Acts 2:46 NIV
Eating together is one way we demonstrate the love of Christ in us and among us. We are encouraged to open our homes in hospitality and to help provide for others’ needs, like food. Food brings people together, and we get a chance to understand others better when we share a meal with them. Shared life is better than one lived in isolation. Sharing meals is a demonstration of the shared life we are called to.
Prayer:
Our Father, we thank you for the gift of life and the gift of one another. Thank you for teaching us the importance of sharing our blessings with one another, especially food. Amongst us are those who are challenged to have enough food to eat. Help us, Lord, to identify them and share our food with them. Let us experience you as we participate with others in the blessings that you have bestowed on us. Remind us always Lord that you are the great giver, and we only share from the many blessings that you have given us. May what we share with others be a key to open their eyes to see your goodness through us. May all glory be unto you. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
By Anthony Gachanja
Regional Director East Africa
Editor’s Note: Our overarching theme for devotions during the next five months of the liturgical calendar called Ordinary Time is Jesus is sending his church. Using Michael Frost’s B.E.L.L.S. acronym as a framework, the topics will relate to missional living.
Never walk away from someone who deserves help;
your hand is God’s hand for that person.
Don’t tell your neighbor “Maybe some other time”
or “Try me tomorrow”
when the money’s right there in your pocket.
Don’t figure ways of taking advantage of your neighbor
when he’s sitting there trusting and unsuspecting.
Proverbs 3:27 The Message
Whenever you are in a position to help someone in need, or when you have a skill or knowledge that you can impart to help others, don’t put it off. When you make sacrifices to help people’s dreams come to pass, despite our own challenges and troubles, God is giving you his heart toward your neighbour. As you bless others and show them favour, our heavenly Father is also blessing you according to his great purpose for the world.
Let’s learn to be a blessing to people in our communities, churches, schools, and offices. Let us not focus only on ourselves and the challenges we battle with daily (sickness, financial issues, workload, school assignments, the economy, inflation, etc.). Let’s go out of our way to be generous and be a blessing to someone today. Give a word of encouragement, visit a sick friend or church member, pray for someone, assist an elderly person in your neighbourhood, or provide a ride to an elderly church member to church. These are some of the ways we can be a blessing to others. When we help alleviate people’s problems, we are joining Jesus in his redemptive work. Today is another opportunity to be a blessing to someone, so go out there and bless someone!
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thank you for all that you have blessed me with that I can also use to bless other people. I believe you know and see the challenges that come my way. I thank you for my spiritual and physical growth in you. Help me to be a blessing to someone today. As I continue to serve you, I believe you have given me my heart’s desire to serve my neighbour. In Jesus name, amen.
By Leslie Asare-Akoto
Assistant Pastor, Lashibi, Ghana
National Youth Pastor, Ghana
“Wisdom is not gained by knowing what is right. Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails.” — Barbara Taylor Brown
Join us in prayer this month as we ask God for peace and discernment, thanking our creator for continued blessings upon our fellowships and our neighbors. Click the link below to download and print the July Prayer Guide, and check out what’s happening in our churches around the world.
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Editor’s Note: Our overarching theme for devotions during the next five months of the liturgical calendar called Ordinary Time is Jesus is sending his Church. Using Michael Frost’s B.E.L.L.S. acronym as a framework, the topics will relate to missional living.
Numbers 6:23 – 26
Tell Aaron and his sons,
“This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
‘The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”
The crowd lined the road to Jerusalem and shouted, “Peace in heaven” as Jesus rode the donkey colt down from the Mount of Olives. From Palm Sunday a seed was planted for a tradition. As Christians gathered to worship, the worship leader would begin with the blessing “The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” and everybody was invited to respond, “And also with you.” In this act of reciprocal blessing, the historic church was living, growing, and maturing into its role as a royal priesthood. (1 Peter 2:9)
When we picture the priests of the Old Testament, most of us probably have images of men in robes sacrificing animals and making offerings to God on behalf of the people. This was one of their roles but not their only one. Another significant role the priests performed is found at the end of Numbers 6. They were to offer a blessing over the nation of Israel.
With the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on believers young and old, women and men on that special Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, we each participate within the ministry of all believers. With words of blessing, we can encourage, uplift, sustain, and comfort others. As a member of God’s royal priesthood, we are invited and gifted to bring glory to God through words of blessing to others. Begin small, begin big, begin with the phrase “The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Begin by offering a prayer, begin with “God bless you,” but most importantly, begin. Bless someone today.
Loving Father, thank you for giving us the gift of blessing others. Give us the eyes to see and the courage to act on those opportunities where we can sustain the weary and encourage our brothers and sisters through the words of blessing. Amen.
By Alaric Kurzawa
Pastor of Seaford, Australia
Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. John 13:23 KJV
Have you, like me, read this and felt a twinge of jealousy? The disciple John was so close to Jesus as to hear his heartbeat. Don’t we long to look up into Jesus’ face and ask him, “What is the next right thing to do?”
Now we turn our attention to Trinity Sunday, where we recently heard John 16 preached. In our Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) passage, we heard Jesus say, “I’m going to tell you everything you will need to know with certainty.”
No, he didn’t say that. Instead, he promised the guidance of Holy Spirit.
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you. (John 16:12-15 NIV)
Jesus invited us into the sacred mystery of being taught by Holy Spirit. Even to his first-century disciples who were physically with him, Jesus declared that there was more. Even they needed the promise that there is more to come.
Jesus has called us into a relationship of trust with his Spirit of truth. Holy
Spirit will guide us into all truth. Do you believe it?
In this season after Pentecost, how are you attuning to Holy Spirit? How are you intentionally practicing being present to Spirit and listening for guidance?
Prayer
Loving God, we bow our hearts to embrace humility and curiosity to your leading. We open our palms to let go of grasping for certainty and reliance on our own reasoning. We are grateful that you’ve revealed yourself as triune God. We desire to believe that Jesus is the perfect representation of Father, and Spirit only testifies to Son. Help our unbelief. May we be so attuned to Spirit’s leading that we hear the heartbeat of Jesus. Speak, Lord; we’re listening! We love you. Amen.
Elizabeth Mullins
Media Publications Assistant, Update Editor
“Praying is letting one’s own heart become the place where the tears of God’s children merge and become tears of hope.”—Henri Nouwen
Join us in prayer this month as we thank God for community and ask for continued healing and unity. Click the link below to download and print the June Prayer Guide, and check out what’s happening in our fellowships around the world. #weareGCI
In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Several days later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit dwelt among the believers, and they began to speak in different languages.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” (Acts 2:5-8 NASB)
Some witnesses to the event ridiculed the disciples. But many were amazed and perplexed by this unprecedented occurrence, and they asked this very important question, “What does this mean?” (2:12).
What does this mean? That miracles are signs pointing to Jesus. The miracle at Pentecost pointed to Jesus Christ and his redemptive work for humanity. The passage says that as the disciples spoke in different languages, they proclaimed the mighty works of God (2:11).
What does this mean? That God is faithful to fulfill his promise to bless the nations through Abraham’s seed. The spread of the gospel across the known world is attributed to this event by many scholars. Visiting Jews who became believers at Pentecost would later travel home, even to regions outside Jewish territory. The gospel message would begin to reach the Gentiles.
What does this mean? That salvation is not limited to a specific race but is for all humanity. The love of God crosses geographical, racial, generational, and cultural borders. In GCI, we see a glimpse of that—we are one family across different countries, with different languages and cultures, but we are partakers of the same salvation through Jesus. In this, we see the heart of God for all people.
Prayer
Thank you, God, for including all humanity in your work of salvation. Give us the clarity and empowerment so that we can participate in Jesus’ ministry, in and through the church, for the proclamation of the gospel. Amen.
Aron Tolentino
Pastor, GCI Manilla, Philippines
Acts 1:8-11 NIV
8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After [Jesus] said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
For forty days after his resurrection, Jesus had been with his disciples. When it came time for Jesus to go to his Father and no longer be physically present with his disciples, he ascended bodily in a cloud into heaven as they watched.
So, why didn’t Jesus just disappear? He had appeared to them behind locked doors and then disappeared from their sight before. And, why the cloud?
In both the Old and New Testaments, a cloud is the symbol for God’s presence and God’s glory. In Isaiah 19:1 we are told that God rides on a cloud—it’s his “vehicle.” It is biblical imagery that helps our human minds picture and grasp things that are—on their own—beyond human comprehension.
The cloud imagery in Acts 1 tells us that Jesus is God. It also tells us that he is the Son of Man (the special heavenly human of Daniel 7:13). Acts 1 tells us that Jesus, who is bodily resurrected, bodily ascends to heaven thus opening a place in a side of the created world that otherwise would be bodily inaccessible to humans, a place in the life of God for humanity.
The apostles were eyewitnesses to this bodily ascension of Jesus. He was no longer in their physical presence but, through the Spirit, he would still be present with them. As Jesus assumed his kingship and high priestly role in heaven, his prophetic role would continue through the Spirit in the lives of his disciples, the Church. They were to go into all the world, preach the gospel, seek and save the lost, make disciples and in so doing participate in the ongoing ministry of Jesus on the earth.
At God’s appointed time, Jesus will return bodily in the same manner in which he left. He will come again in a cloud and every eye will see him. But, until that day, his ministry continues on the earth through the Spirit in the work of the Church. There is much left to do.
Therefore, we should not stand around gazing up to heaven wondering “how can I figure out when Jesus is coming again?” We have work to do. Just as the apostles did, we continue to participate in the ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ.
Be assured, Jesus will come again, and he will park his cloud on the Mount of Olives and all creation will rejoice. Until that day, let each of us actively continue to participate in the ongoing ministry of Jesus. Let us seek and save the lost and make disciples by living and sharing the gospel.
Prayer: Father, thank you for sending Jesus. We very much look forward to the day when you will send him to us again. Jesus, thank you for coming and for sending us the Spirit. Spirit, thank you for coming and making Jesus present to us. Bless us as we continue to be about the Father’s business and participate actively in the ongoing ministry and mission of Jesus until he comes again. In Christ’s name, Amen.
By Dan Rogers
Pastor, GC Las Vegas, Nevada and Regional Support Team – West, U.S.
