Welcome
to the August Edition of the 2013 Christ United Methodist Church Women’s
Ministry Daily Devotional. God asked us to share our stories of finding Him
through grateful hearts, which inspired us to put together this “Living a Life
of Gratitude” daily devotional. Since January 1st, we have been
guided to live our lives learning how to find something to be grateful to God for
each day. Some days we have been blessed and inspired by stories from many of
the faithful women in our congregation, other days the entry has simply been a
scripture about being grateful. We have also had days that the devotion was a
creative idea one of our members has shared to help them be thankful or a book
recommendation that has motivated them. Other days the words from well-known
authors and saints as well as hymns have blessed and guided us.
Each
day this month we hope you will begin to look forward to reading the entries as
an addition to your faith journey and that it will inspire you to find endless
ways of seeing just how good the Lord really is and how much He loves each one
of us.
If
you are just beginning this journey of thankfulness and wish you could read
some of the back entries from January, February, March, April, May, June, and July you are in luck. There
are no more printed versions of the devotionals, but you can see all the
entries when you visit our “Living a Life of Gratitude Daily Devotional” blog.
Go
to Gratitudedevotional.blogspot.com. You
then have the capability to “scroll back in time” to read all the entries from
day one. You can also receive these same daily devotions directly to your email
by entering your email address in the designated spot on the blog. After your
initial entry, the devotionals come directly to your email.
If
you would like to submit an entry for next months issue, we would love to
include you as part of this ministry. Your entry needs to begin with a
scripture that has inspired your thoughts, then a paragraph or two in your own
words telling your story of thanksgiving. You can submit your entry by dropping
it by the church office (Attn: Women’s Ministry Devotional) or by emailing it
to cre8dzins@comcast.net. We look forward to reading about how God has
blessed you!
Pass
this information along to your friends who might need or enjoy daily
inspiration from women right here at Christ United Methodist Church.
CUMC Women’s Ministry
For August 1st:
“…Then He poured water into a basin and began
to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped
around Him…” John 13:5
“ I
am blessed.
I
can bless.
…I
am a flame to light other flames.
…If
I close these fingers, try to hold, hoard the river—dam up the grace—won’t the
water grow stagnant?...Grace is alive, living waters. If I dam up the grace,
hold the blessings tight, joy within dies…waters that have no life.
I
turn my hand over, spread my fingers open. I receive grace. And through me,
grace could flow on. Like a cycle of water in continuous movement, grace is
meant to fall, a rain…again, again, again. I could share the grace, multiply
the joy, extend the table of the feast, enlarge the paradise of His presence. I
am blessed. I can bless. A life contemplating the blessings of Christ becomes
a life acting the love of Christ.
…I
am blessed and couldn’t I bless and couldn’t this fullness flow on and on and
this could be happiness?...
…washing
their feet…
This
is full-bodied eucharisteo (thanksgiving), the thanksgiving that touches body
and soul; hands and knees and feet awash with grace.
At
the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life
that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the
blessings that expresses itself by becoming
the blessing.
Eucharisteo is giving thanks for the
grace. But isn’t the breaking and giving of bread, in the washing of feet,
Jesus makes it clear that eucharisteo
is, yes, more: it is giving grace away. Eucharisteo
is the hand that opens to receive grace, then with thanks, breaks the bread;
that moves into the larger circle of life and washed the feet of the world with
that grace. Without the breaking and giving, without the washing of feet, eucharisteo isn’t complete, The
Communion service is only complete in service, Communion, by necessity,
always leads into community.
…Eucharisteo means ‘to give thanks’ and
give is a verb, something that we do. God calls me to do thanks. To give the thanks away. That thanks-giving might literally become thanks-living. That others become the very
blessings we have received.
I
am blessed. I can bless. Imagine! I
could let Him make me the gift!
I
could be the joy!
…
In
an endless cycle of grace, He gives us gifts to serve the world.”
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, 2009
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