Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)
Sounds like wise advice. Do your homework. Understanding the Lord’s will involves continuing education from the study of the Scriptures.
Father, thank you for blessing us with peace that is not understood by the world. May we be comforted by it. Amen.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
1 John 2:9-11 (NIV)
Worth thinking about, don’t you think?
Psalm 29:11 (NIV)
The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62 (NIV)
In addition to the blessings, there are costs and expectations to following Jesus. May you be able and up to the task. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
To us, waiting is wasting. To God, waiting is working. – Louie Giglio
Today’s Passage: 2 Kings 2:1-2 and 6-14
Opening Prayer: Father God, may we heed the call You have placed on our lives. May we learn from those who have gone before us. May we share the Truth of the gospel with those You have placed on the path we are walking. May we be effective witnesses to the Truth in our words, our deeds, our behavior and our attitudes. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Opening Song: Lecrae – Messengers ft. for KING & COUNTRY (@Lecrae @ReachRecords)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqH7azFRUYU
Message [used with permission from A Sermon for Every Sunday]: Fasten Your Seatbelts – The Third Sunday after Pentecost, by Joanna Adams, retired pastor in the Presbyterian Church and co-founder of Higher Ground.
“Today we have an especially exciting fasten your seatbelt kind of story from the Old Testament…Clearly something extremely important is going on and the writer doesn’t want any of us to nod off while he tells the story of this major prophetic shift in the history of the Hebrew people,” begins Joanna Adams. This story from 2 Kings 2:1-2 and 6-14, tells of Elijah passing his “mantle” to Elisha. What can we learn from this odd, otherworldly story? Listen as Adams explains how we can be sure that God will be revealed to us today and how we should react to God’s will.
Closing Song: Dan Bremnes – “Wherever I Go” (Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S15mk_5nTdY
Closing Prayer: Father God, may we come alive to the call You have given to us. May we say, here I am, send me. May we know that you will always be with us as we travel this journey and are faithful followers of Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His name, I pray. Amen.
Epilogue: We Are Messengers – Everything Comes Alive (Official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ga5wTxF6Tc
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (NIV)
Father, give us the strength to bear our affliction with patience for your glory not our happiness. Amen.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Luke 9:23-26 (NIV)
Faithfully Yours Forever 