East Heights Prayer Blog

Devotion - Friday, April 29, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Friday, April 29, 2011

 

On Saturday, April 30, thousands of volunteers from Wichita churches will unite in prayer, service and outreach on behalf of our city. As followers of Christ, we will paint, clean and transform our city. We will help the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Devotions this week will focus on this incredible mission and invite you to hold it in your prayers.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.                     - Hebrew 10: 35-36

Do you find yourself unwilling to face some challenges? Do they just seem too time-consuming or beyond the skills that you believe you possess? We all face that self-doubt now and then, but it’s important to remember that we all need endurance to accomplish God’s will. God is always with us. He knows what is in our heart and what we are capable of accomplishing. In light of our upcoming work for LOVE Wichita, some of our tasks seem so difficult and yet enduring and accomplishing our projects will shine God’s light on so many lives. Through your endurance, you will receive His promise.

Prayer: Loving God, We are so very thankful to have to opportunity to serve in LOVE Wichita. What an incredible day of mission that shows your love to our community. Help us remember that you will provide us with the wisdom, confidence and endurance to accomplish your work on this day - and every day! Amen.

Today’s devotion written by:

Deb Hilscher, Eastminster Presbyterian Church
LOVE Wichita City Coordinator
Eastminster.org

Devotion - Thursday, April 28, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Thursday, April 28, 2011

 
On Saturday, April 30, thousands of volunteers from Wichita churches will unite in prayer, service and outreach on behalf of our city. As followers of Christ, we will paint, clean and transform our city. We will help the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Devotions this week will focus on this incredible mission and invite you to hold it in your prayers.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
               

  I can always count on LOVE Wichita to remind me that I need to trust God! Like most things in life, this mission fails to bend to my efforts to be the one in control. I remember last year, a group from East Heights planned to help a homeowner with some painting and landscaping work. About two weeks before the big day, the project was cancelled and a new project was assigned. They only problem - in my view - was that the new project was huge (it involved cutting down and hauling away brush that surrounded a lake) and our group was small (it had 10 people and lacked a chainsaw). I talked with the administrator at the lakeside facility and explained my dilemma and she told me she understood and whatever our group could accomplish would be very much appreciated. I shared this with our small group and they weren’t worried either; they were just ready to get to work and make the area look better.
Of course, God was in control of this project and by the time LOVE Wichita rolled around two other churches had joined in this mission. When I visited the site that morning, I was greeted by the marvelous sight of a sea of blue LOVE Wichita t-shirts and the sound of chainsaws buzzing! God had brought three churches together in Christian love and made the lake area beautiful!           

Prayer: Loving God, Help me to remember to put my trust in you. I don’t have to figure out and fix everything. You are always at work in this world, guiding and connecting us and we are blessed to be able to rely on you. Amen.

Today’s devotion written by:

Kathy Lefler
Director of Lay Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
EH LOVE Wichita Coordinator
Kathy@ehumc.org/316-682-6518

Devotion - Wednesday, April 27, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

On Saturday, April 30, thousands of volunteers from Wichita churches will unite in prayer, service and outreach on behalf of our city. As followers of Christ, we will paint, clean and transform our city. We will help the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Devotions this week will focus on this incredible mission and invite you to hold it in your prayers.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
-Proverbs 22:6

As I look over our church’s LOVE Wichita t-shirt orders for this year, I see we are ordering almost as many children and youth t-shirts as adult shirts. It’s a great reminder that LOVE Wichita truly encourages and welcomes volunteers of all ages! Last year, our church had two child-friendly projects at schools and it was wonderful to see kids helping weed gardens, plant flowers, pick up trash and sweep up sidewalks with their parents. They worked just as hard as any of the adults! As our church prepared for this year we knew we certainly wanted to have projects where kids could help. LOVE Wichita offers us a wonderful way to show and teach children how they can take what they learn in Sunday school and put it into action. It gives life to the songs they sing and the stories they learn! The other day I was in the hall at church when heard a conversation that made me smile. A second-grade boy noticed a LOVE Wichita poster hanging on the wall and asked his Mom when LOVE Wichita was this year and if they’d be helping again. “It’s April 30th,” she answered, “and we’ll be there!”

Prayer:  Loving God: We treasure children and the opportunity to teach them about your wonderful love. Help us guide children so that they may serve you and others. Amen.

Today’s devotion written by:

Kathy Lefler
Director of Lay Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
EH LOVE Wichita Coordinator
Kathy@ehumc.org/316-682-6518

Devotion - Tuesday, April 26, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Tuesday, April 26, 2011

 
On Saturday, April 30, thousands of volunteers from Wichita churches will unite in prayer, service and outreach on behalf of our city. As followers of Christ, we will paint, clean and transform our city. We will help the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Devotions this week will focus on this incredible mission and invite you to hold it in your prayers.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  ~1 Peter 4:10
  
 This is our third year for Northridge Evangelical Friends to be involved in LOVE Wichita.  Last year one of our big projects was at Pleasant Valley Middle School - a school close to our church. Our eyes were opened to the need in our neighborhood school - teachers and students - and we began to check out ways to be involved in this school. After receiving special training, we have volunteers from our church who are involved in mentoring, tutoring, helping in classrooms, after-school programs, and helping with and attending special school activities. Over Spring Break, our church youth were in ministry with PVMS, playing soccer with kids at a local park, and working on a house in the neighborhood. For LOVE Wichita this year, you will find us again at PVMS, alongside some staff and students there, as one of our projects. We thank God for this opportunity to love and serve in our neighborhood, and pray that we can be His hands and feet to those He has brought into our lives.

Prayer: Loving God: You have blessed each of us with so many gifts! Help us to discover and use these gifts to serve others and glorify you. Amen.

Today’s devotion written by:

Donnetta Carpenter
Northridge Friends Church LOVE Wichita Coordinator        
Northridgefriends.org

Devotion - Monday, April 25, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Monday, April 25, 2011

      
On Saturday, April 30, thousands of volunteers from Wichita churches will unite in prayer, service and outreach on behalf of our city. As followers of Christ, we will paint, clean and transform our city. We will help the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Devotions this week will focus on this incredible mission and invite you to hold it in your prayers.

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.    ~Jeremiah 29:7

      This verse from Jeremiah tells me that there is a deep connection between my city and me. It tells me that I can have an impact on my city’s future. When I think about this, in light of LOVE Wichita, it gives life to what I - and thousands of others - will be doing on April 30. That’s because LOVE Wichita takes us to neighborhoods we might not have been to before. Streets become more than random names. We meet new people and make new friends as we serve.
      Last year, our church had the opportunity to serve at the Downtown Day Care Center, a quality center serving low-income, working families. One of our hard-working painters was Courtney, a high school student. While Courtney’s connection to the center began at last year’s LOVE Wichita, it did not end there - it continues today. Over the summer, she and I continued to paint murals at the center. She has even invited her friends to help and has ideas for more things we can do to make the center more fun for the children. While a year ago, Courtney might have driven by the day care center and not even known what it was, she now knows the director, the teachers and many of the children. 

Prayer: Loving God, We are thankful for our city. We ask for your guidance as we serve you and others through LOVE Wichita. Let our faith come alive in our works, bringing about a connection with others in our community and creating change. Amen.

Today’s devotion written by:
Kathy Lefler
Director of Lay Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
EH LOVE Wichita Coordinator
Kathy@ehumc.org /316-682-6518
www.ehumc.org

Devotion - Friday, April 22, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Friday, April 22, 2011

Have you ever wondered why we call it “good” Friday? Doesn’t it seem strange that a day so filled with pain and death should be thought of as good? This has always been a bit troublesome for me. I want to share with you some powerful words from hymn writer Carl P. Daw, Jr.

How shallow former shadows seem beside this great reverse,
As darkness swallows up the light of all the universe.
Creation shivers at the shock, the temple rends its veil.
A pallid stillness stifles time and nature’s motions fail.

This is no midday fantasy, no flight of fevered brain.
With vengeance awful, grim, and real, chaos is come again.
The hands that formed us from the soil are nailed upon the cross.
The Word that gave us life and breath expires in utter loss.

Yet deep within this darkness lives a Love so fierce and free,
That arcs all voids and risk supreme! embraces agony.
Its perfect testament is etched in iron, blood, and wood.
With awe we glimpse its true import and dare to call it good.

Today, consider these words. Attend the Tenebrae Service of Darkness at 7:30 tonight. Confront Christ’s death face to face.

Devotions this week are written by:

Rev Brenda Heard
Pastor of Music and Worship Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
Brenda@ehumc.org / 682-6518
www.ehumc.org

 

Devotion - Thursday, April 21, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Thursday, April 21, 2011

One of Jesus’ final acts on earth involves two things basic to the life of the disciples: bread and wine. Everyone ate bread, and everyone drank wine. Jesus makes this simple everyday occurrence of sharing a meal into something holy by instructing the disciples to “do it in remembrance of me.” Jesus says, in my kingdom you don’t have to have fine food or a fancy building or lots of material possessions. You have the basics, and whenever you partake, you do it with me in mind. You give every moment of your day to me. You find the holy in the simplest fare.

Today, look around you and see how God might be inviting you to make something ordinary into something holy. Attend the Holy Thursday service tonight at 7:30 and partake of the Last Supper.

Devotions this week are written by:

Rev Brenda Heard
Pastor of Music and Worship Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
Brenda@ehumc.org / 682-6518
www.ehumc.org

 

Devotion - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The gospels don’t give us a clear timeline of Jesus’ last week. One of the resources I have read, however, says that on Wednesday of that week, Jesus rested. He knew what was coming. He knew the pain and humiliation that awaited him. He knew that the end of his earthly ministry was near. And yet, he rested. Rather than spend his last days scurrying around trying to accomplish as much as he could, he took time to be alone, to gather his thoughts, to pray.
 

Today, rest.

Devotions this week are written by:

Rev Brenda Heard
Pastor of Music and Worship Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
Brenda@ehumc.org / 682-6518
www.ehumc.org

 

Devotion - Tuesday, April 19, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

One event that occurs following Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem for the last time in the Gospel of Luke is the cleansing of the temple. Jesus found corruption, and acted on it. One of his most powerful acts of humanity—erupting in anger and driving out the corrupt businesspersons—becomes for us a powerful act of social justice.

Read the newspaper. Look for people advocating social justice issues. Look for places where, if he were here, Jesus would erupt in anger. Meditate on these situations and listen for God to speak to you.

Devotions this week are written by:

Rev Brenda Heard
Pastor of Music and Worship Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
Brenda@ehumc.org / 682-6518
www.ehumc.org

 

Devotion - Monday, April 18, 2011

East Heights Daily Devotional
Monday, April 18, 2011

Yesterday, we left the scene of Jesus’ last week on earth with the crowds shouting “hosanna” and waving their branches and covering the roadway with their cloaks. But we also witnessed the Pharisees telling Jesus to stop creating a disruption, and then Jesus answers with one of my favorite phrases: “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Every part of creation sings of God’s goodness and of Jesus’ capacity as Savior!

Take this day as a day of praise. Try reading Psalm 95 or Psalm 100. Reread the passage from Luke 19:29-40 that was used in worship yesterday. Put yourself in the place of the crowd, and shout your praises to God!

Devotions this week are written by:

Rev Brenda Heard
Pastor of Music and Worship Ministries, East Heights United Methodist Church
Brenda@ehumc.org / 682-6518
www.ehumc.org