[Membersandfriends] Monday, September 13, 2004

Sun Sep 12 22:02:12 PDT 2004

The Upper Room Daily Devotional -- E-mail Edition
Brought to You by Upper Room Ministries
Monday, September 13, 2004

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GOD IS ABLE
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James 2:14-18 (NRSV)

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

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A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
- Psalm 68:5 (NIV)
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RECENTLY I was preparing to go on a mission trip to Jamaica.  I wanted to take tee shirts to the children at the orphanage there.  Whom could I get to donate 30 tee shirts?  I wondered.  In today's economy this would be a high amount for anybody to donate.

One day, when a woman called the doctor's office where I work to schedule an appointment, she mentioned that she works for a factory that manufactures tee shirts.  She had no reason to share this information with me.  I asked her whom I could contact to solicit a donation for tee shirts for the orphanage.

Three days before leaving for Jamaica, I sat in my living room - packing approximately 100 tee shirts to take to the children there.  I was humbled to tears as the Lord brought to my remembrance the words from Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory."

Prayer:  Thank you, Father, for providing for all of our needs even more than our earthly parents can.  We are grateful that it pleases you to be good to us.  Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
God wants to give us even more than we ask for.

-- Ida L. Miller (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

PRAYER FOCUS: Orphans and their caregivers

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Designed for 6- to 12-year-olds, POCKETS offers wholesome devotional readings that teach about God's love and presence in life. Each page of POCKETS affirms a child's self-worth. Included are fun and exciting puzzles, games, stories, poems, recipes, colorful pictures, and scripture readings.
http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/desc.asp?ep_id=30&item_id=12897

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The scripture quotation is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright (c) 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.