Month: March 2016

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Answered Prayer

Lepaterique, Honduras

What might God do when we agree in prayer?

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 18:19 English Standard Version

This is Nissy, one of Jeff and Lorrie Faunce’s Compassion sponsor children in Honduras. Nissy is evidence that God answers prayer.

Lepaterique, Honduras
Lepaterique, Honduras

When we first arrived at Lepaterique, Nissy made the rounds of all the people she remembered, giving them hugs and a big smile. On this day Nissy was in heaven as she had our ministry team all to herself. Her parents had left her at the church while they made the journey on motorcycle to a remote village.

I said that Nissy is evidence that God answers prayer. You’re probably thinking that God healed her of some disease, but that is not the prayer God answered.

Since her birth her parents, Jose and Laura, prayed that God would do a mighty work through Nissy, and he already is. This young woman has been given a beautiful singing voice. With her dad playing the keyboard, she sang during the offering at the Tuesday night prayer service and brought most of us to tears.

Many Bible passages remind us that God answers prayer, but in the context of Nissy’s life, this passage from Matthew intrigues me most. Her parents were in agreement about their daughter. They both had the desire that God would do a mighty work through her, and even though they didn’t see an immediate answer to their prayer, they are now watching God’s gift unfold before their eyes.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Gift of Teamwork

Arkansas River, Colorado

Teamwork is essential to our Christian witness.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I have often said to couples on their wedding day that what they are together is greater than what they are apart.

Arkansas River, Colorado
Arkansas River, Colorado

This also holds true for the bride of Christ, his Church. What we are together is greater than what we are when we’re separated from each other. However, the sad reality of the Christian community today is that we’re losing what it means to be community. We don’t know how to do life together.

For too many years we’ve tried to make the church the fulfillment of the American dream. We’ve tried to make it bigger, faster and more productive. We’ve defined success by the size of our budgets and buildings, and by how many butts we cram in our pews.

And we wonder why people are silently leaving the institutional church. Though we might know how to build bigger and better church businesses, have we lost what it means to be community?

Paul describes the essence of community in his letter to his friends in Colossae.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Colossians 3:12-13 English Standard Version

It’s time for the church to stop worrying about preserving the institution and reclaim its place as the community of people who are attempting to follow Jesus.

We are people who have been claimed by Christ’s sacrificial blood so that we might live in fellowship with him. As forgiveness is the key to this fellowship, may it also be the key to our fellowship with each other.

What a force this fellowship will be when we reclaim the gift of godly community.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Rain in the Desert

Colorado Springs, Colorado

God’s refreshing rain of grace falls on the wilderness of our lives.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

At times we feel like we’re living in a desert.

Events occur that suck the life out of us: a child gets tangled up in drugs, a spouse says they no longer love us, a car accident kills a friend. None of us are immune to the tragedies of life that have the power to drain us of vitality.

God’s presence is like rain in the desert.

Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado

“O God, when you led your people out from Egypt,
when you marched through the dry wasteland, the earth trembled,
and the heavens poured down rain before you,
the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.
There your people finally settled, and with a bountiful harvest,
O God, you provided for your needy people.”
Psalm 68:7-10 New Living Translation

God was faithful to his covenant people. He delivered them from slavery, led them through the wilderness and brought them safely to the land flowing with milk and honey. On their journey, the desert stood between slavery and freedom for the Israelites.

Jesus experienced the desert of your sin on his cross and because of his desert, he promises to walk with you through your wilderness, having freed you from slavery to sin and leading you to the promised land of heaven. In the desert he causes his rain of grace to fall on you.

God refreshes you with his rain in the wilderness of your earthly journey.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner