Guest Devotional - Stacy Heckman

Have you ever gone through a situation in your life when you thought God had forgotten about you? Or maybe you thought that He was just too busy with bigger issues and didn’t have time to deal with the problem you were facing? I think it is an easy thought process for us to fall into when we are going through something very difficult and feel alone.

A dear friend of mine recently gave me a devotional and one of the entries is titled, “God’s Book of Tears.” The excerpt talks about this painful feeling of loneliness and abandonment in the midst of our sorrows. But it reminds us that God is there in every single moment and never leaves us or forgets us. It states, “You probably can’t recall every incident you’ve ever cried over. God not only remembers the event, but He knows exactly how many tears you cried! He knows from moment to moment what you’re thinking and feeling, what you’re craving for dinner, and when your favorite song is going to come on the radio. He is intimately wrapped up in the details of your life as He watches over you.”

Just reading those statements is like wrapping up in the coziest blanket in front of a fire on a cold winter night – it warms me to the core! Sometimes we all need reminding that God is intimately involved in every detail of our life. We’re never alone. We’re never abandoned. We can always rest in the comfort of the one we call Savior.

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” – Psalm 56:8

Guest Devotional - April McCullohs

Melissa kicks my butt. Every Monday (well, can the past two Mondays qualify?), I enter Melissa’s domain and submit to her crazed high-strung workouts. Think Jillian, from The Biggest Loser, except without the cursing. It’s beyond me how someone with only a buck five to claim for a body can drive 20 people to the brink of workout despair. The first time I worked out with her, I gagged and tasted the peanut butter toast I had eaten an hour prior. Yum.


Surprisingly, Melissa’s ethos would have fit right into Paul the apostle’s culture—nearly 2,000 years ago! Remember, Paul wrote some of his letters from Rome, one of the birthplaces of physical training. Listen to what Paul wrote:


Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.

- 1 Timothy 4:8


So, if exercising daily in God is important, how do we do that?


I think there are two ways we can spiritually train. Remember, we’re in this for the long run. No spiritual sprinters, here. When the emotional high of a church service or retreat wears off, we need to know how to sustain our spiritual walk with God—day-to-day.


Jesus told us to “abide in” his words. When we open our Bibles and read scripture, we’re filling our hearts and minds with His truth. And we don’t just read for distance, or to check it off some dutiful Christian list. We read to find God’s truth, receive it, and obey it. Find a devotional, or commit to read through a book of the Bible. Invest in a journal to capture the truths God makes known to you. When we read the Bible regularly, our spiritual appetites grow.


Let’s train by reading the Bible!

Guest Devotional - Lee Preiser

We all want to grow in our prayer lives, right? Especially when it comes to praying for our husbands or family. I’ve recently been challenged, though, in how I pray for my husband.

I am reading a book entitled The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian. My first thought was, “Now I will get the information and help I need so I can pray that God will change my husband.” I was surprised when the author mentioned that I needed to be willing to let God change, renew, chastise, and instruct me in His way too.

I needed to remember that my husband is also a child of God’s and as such it was His job to work and change him. My joy (yes—joy!) was to pray for him in this way: “Lord, fill my husband with Your love and peace today. May there be a calmness, serenity, and sense of well-being established in him because his life is God-controlled (not wife-controlled). Enable him to walk in his house with a clean and perfect heart before You. Shine the light of Your Spirit and fill him with Your love.”

Now that is one very powerful prayer which God can honor. Remember God is not only powerful-- He is power. Pull the plug on your computer and the battery back-up only works for a short period of time. When we unplug the power of Jesus Christ from our lives by neglecting prayer, we’ll only last so long as well.

Need the power of prayer? Tap into the limitless power of God today and you will have a great day.

Details for Let's Cook!

Hey Ladies,

Just wanted to invite you to Let's Cook!, at catb version of Let's Eat, or Dinner Done. Here's the info:

Join us next Wednesday night, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at Cari Caraway's house (15819 Trackside Drive Odessa, FL 33556) to eat, cook and hang out!

While we munch on bruschetta, we'll be preparing a stuffed shells dish that can be frozen for an easy meal later. There are two options: spinach stuffed shells for a vegetarian dish, or stuffed shells with ground beef or sausage for a more hearty dish. We'll have some of the ingredients already prepared.

What to Bring:
- 1 lb. of sausage or ground beef, or a package of frozen spinach
- $7 to cover the rest of the ingredients
- 9 x 13 x 2 dish

You must RSVP for this event, so we know how much to prepare! Please email amccullohs@gmail.com to RSVP by Sunday, October 11th.

Let me know if you're in! :-)

~April McCullohs