GO LIGHT THE WORLD!

SCRIPTURE

Colossians 4:2-18 (NRSV)
Declaring the mystery of Christ

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me; he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts; he is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions - if he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus who is called Justus greets you. These are the only ones of the circumcision among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills. For I testify for him that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, "See that you complete the task that you have received in the Lord."

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

DEVOTION

Today we are reminded of the importance of bathing our GOOD NEWS efforts in prayer! So often when people approach the work of evangelism (e.g., sharing the GOOD NEWS) they have good intentions, but no prayer to back them up!

Prayer is how we access the power of God! As we pray in agreement with God’s heart--and will—for the people of the Earth, God opens up the windows of Heaven, supernaturally equipping us with all that we need to successfully communicate the Gospel to others!

Do you have family, friends, co-workers, or neighbors who need to experience the GOOD NEWS in their lives? Do you have a heart for a specific ethnic or cultural group in your community? Do you have a desire to reach children, youth, men, women, veterans, the disabled, or any other social group within society?

If so, I believe that God has given you this desire with the expectation that you will act upon it! But, before you get to work, take a moment to pray, asking God how you can be most effective in your witness!

I love Paul’s admonishment to “devout yourselves to prayer and keep alert in it with thanksgiving [in your heart].” Anything that we seek to do for God needs God’s stamp of approval!

Spirit is so wise! When we pray the Holy Spirit will give us the wisdom, understanding, discernment, and love necessary to bring GOOD NEWS to those in need! Spirit will give us the energy, creativity, and resources to get the job done! Spirit will give us the patience, endurance, and fortitude to never give up or become discouraged when the going gets tough! Spirit will set us aflame as a light unto the world!

We just can’t share GOOD NEWS without the power of the Holy Spirit backing us up! Spirit gives us the ability to communicate that God loves the world so much that God gave Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins and gift us with eternal life!

If Spirit does not anoint our words they will fall on deaf ears or hardened hearts! Paul states, “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.”

Wow! This is great advice! It is my prayer that each of us will heed it in such as way that all of our neighbors will come running asking us, “What must we do to be saved?!”



ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you would like to put all of your hope in Jesus today, please visit my blog entitled, “Putting All Your Hope In Jesus” located at
http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/putting-all-your-hope-in-jesus.html

If you have additional questions about how to become a friend and follower of Jesus, please see the devotion entitled, "Come to Jesus"
http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/come-to-jesus.html

Pastor Yolanda is now publishing another blog entitled, “A Spoken WORD” in celebration of Holy Hip Hop, Gospel/Christian Rap and Spoken Word. Please check it out @ http://aspokenword.blogspot.com/

You are invited to follow Pastor Yolanda on Twitter www.twitter.com/PastorYolanda

Good News has now added a Prayer Ministry. http://www.kindlejoy.com/groups/goodnews

You are invited to leave comments or questions regarding today’s devotional. These comments are public.

EACH ONE--REACH ONE! To share GOOD NEWS with a friend please click the "Share With Friends" button to the right!

Thanks for reading and please come again. Pastor Yolanda extends a very special welcome to all of our friends reading outside of the United States of America! We are honored that you are sharing with us today.

From Pastor Yolanda's blog http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com

I'M NOT FEELING SO GLAMOROUS TODAY...

SCRIPTURE

Ash Wednesday
Psalm 51:1-17 (NRSV)

Plea for mercy

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

DEVOTIONAL

Today is the first day of Lent. Christians observe Lent as a season of fasting, prayer, and repentance that lasts from now until the Saturday before Easter. During this forty days (plus Sundays), we enter into a time of consecration where we examine our hearts before God, confessing our sin, and seeking God’s forgiveness.

For some, Lent has lost its true meaning and has become the time of year when you can’t eat candy, fast food, meat, and/or watch TV. Many think that if they just “give up something” during the Lenten Season they are observing this holiest of times adequately.

Not so my friends! Whilst Lent is a time of fasting it is also a time of prayer.

In the psalm for today the writer states, “For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Whilst fasting and prayer are good disciplines which I wholeheartedly support, today’s psalmist says that what really touches the heart of God is a person who possesses a broken and contrite heart regarding his or her sinfulness.

Wow! That’s not too glamorous is it? In our culture we are taught to always gratify the flesh, to do what feels good, to promote ourselves and to look out for Number 1. But, today we enter into a season where we stop saying, “Look at me!” and instead we declare, “Look at God!”

This is the time in the Christian calendar when we take on the mantle of humility and get real with ourselves and with God. We allow God to uncover our sin by laying ourselves bare before The One who made us, knows us, and forgives us. As we do so, God issues us the gentle reminder that we have failed to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and we have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.

My friends, Lent is a time of repentance and tears. It is a journey with Jesus from the mountain top of transfiguration into the “valley of the shadow of death” located on Golgotha’s hill. Lent is the time of year when we get to walk with Jesus as he carries the cross to Calvary where he willingly lays down his life, becoming atonement for our sin and reconciling us to our God.

As we cry out to God for forgiveness and as we “survey the old rugged cross,” we know that God forgives us all our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

In response to God’s great loving kindness and tender mercy toward us, the psalmist says, “I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you…Open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise…”

Oh yes! This is always the appropriate response to God’s love toward us revealed through the life and death of Jesus Christ—we must share GOOD NEWS by declaring God’s praise!

Isn’t it amazing that God loves us so much that God gave Jesus upon the cross that we might be saved? Isn’t it wonderful that God daily washes us, teaches us wisdom, gives us a clean heart, fills us up with the Holy Spirit, and bequeaths to us the continual joy of God’s salvation!

Oh my friends, this GOOD NEWS must be shared with others!

As we walk through this day, let us not be ashamed to tell people why we have an ashen cross upon our foreheads. Be bold as you declare, “I am a sinner, saved by God’s grace. God loves me and God loves you too!”

I look forward to walking with you during this Lenten Season.

Is there somebody who is weighed down by their past mistakes with whom you can share GOOD NEWS today?

Loving and Forgiving God, have mercy upon me. For I have surely sinned and fallen short of your glory. I have failed to love you as I ought and I certainly haven’t loved my neighbors as much as I love myself. I am not proud of my behavior and I seek your pardon. I thank you that as soon as I opened my mouth to pray this prayer, you heard the cry of my heart and forgave me. Now, please empower and equip me to go into my spheres of influence and declare your praise! In Jesus Name, Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Martha Munizzi’s “Renew Me” and Donnie McClurkin's "Create in Me" can be purchased by clicking the link to the right!

If you would like to purchase the song, "Glory to Glory" by Fred Hammond it is now in the Good News Living Store under "Pastor Yolanda's Favorite Music."

Would you please be kind enough to answer the one question survey to the right?

I have added a new function to the blog that allows EVERYONE to leave comments or questions! These comments are public. To leave a comment, please click “comments” at the bottom of the blog. I would be tickled to receive your feedback; I invite you to respond as you are led!

EACH ONE--REACH ONE! To share GOOD NEWS with a friend please click the "Share With Friends" button to the right! Thanks for reading and please come again.

Pastor Yolanda extends a very special welcome to our friends reading outside of the United States of America! We are honored that you are sharing with us today.

from Pastor Yolanda's blog http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com

God's an on-time God! Yes God Is!

*If you would like to read this blog in another language, please use the "Google Translate" button to the right!

Psalm 6 (NRSV)

Prayer for healing

Today is my birthday! As such, it is a day of great reflection and remembrance. On this day, I look back at how very far the Lord has brought me in just a few short decades…

As I read today’s prayer for healing, I can think of many-a-times I have prayed like that. Have you ever prayed until your bones felt like jello, your moans bounced off of the ceiling, and the tears streamed down your face in rivers?

If you haven’t, you really should try it! It is truly cathartic. (smile)

When we pour out our very hearts before God, we can be assured that God hears us and extends to us arms of love and a heart of compassion.

See, when we are in pain, sorrow, or grief it can seem like nobody understands us. Sometimes, even people who love us very much do not know what to say or how to help us. It is at times like these that we need to shut ourselves up in our “prayer closets” and pray out of the depths of our hearts to the God who made us, and thus knows every fiber of our being.

Now, the Bible says that the “prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) Isn’t this GOOD NEWS?! When we exercise our faith in Christ, we are made righteous by the blood of the Lamb. This means that when we pray we can be assured that our prayers are both powerful and effective!

Does this mean that God will always do what we ask God to do? By no means! God usually says, “yes, no, or wait.” What good parent gives their children everything that they ask for? My child sometimes asks for three servings of chocolate cake for breakfast! She wants it, but it is not good for her. It is the same for us.

But, let me tell you something. In the African American church tradition we have an expression. We say, “God may not come when you want Him, but He’s always right on time!” God is an on- time-God my friends! And God has promised that God has a good plan for our lives, not to harm us, but to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). Furthermore, we are also assured that, “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:28)!

Wow! GOOD NEWS abounds! Like David we can say as we get off of our knees after prayer, “The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord accepts my prayer.” This ought to give us a blessed assurance that allows us to live in confidence, with our heads held high, no matter what the day may bring! God loves us and is blessing us—RIGHT NOW!

What sorrow or grief do you need to share with God in prayer today?

God who sees my tears and wipes them from my face, I turn to you in my despair. Help and heal me today. I know that you are a loving and compassionate God. I know that you are helping me even as I pray. I look forward to sharing my testimony with others when I come through this trial. Every day, is a GOOD NEWS day because of Jesus! I trust you and I love you too. Amen.

*Pastor Yolanda would be honored if you would share today’s blog with a friend in honor of her birthday!

*The entire scripture reading for today can be found by clicking the ELCA Daily Bible Reading Tab to the right.

*from Pastor Yolanda's blog http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/

*EACH ONE--REACH ONE! To share GOOD NEWS with a friend please click the "Share With Friends" button to the right! Thanks for reading and please come again.

*Pastor Yolanda extends a very special welcome to our friends reading outside of the United States of America! We are honored that you are sharing with us today.