As a church, we begin every year with a Month of Prayer and the Word. These two foundational disciplines are essential in the life of a believer to keep us grounded in Biblical truth and in touch with our great God. Below are some Bible Reading Plans that you can use as a guide to keep you in the Word every day. I want to encourage you to start your year with the disciplines of some committed times of prayer and time with God in His Word. I believe you will be blessed greatly. - Pastor Byron
Month of Prayer and the Word schedule 2024
Jan. 10 (Wed.) – Fellowship Meal – 5:00 - 6:15 pm
-- Night of Worship, Prayer, and the Lord’s Supper - 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Click Here to sign up for the fellowship meal.
January 13 (Sat.) – Men’s Prayer Breakfast – 7:30 – 9:00 am
Click Here to sign up for the Men's Prayer Breakfast.
January 14 (Sun.) – Community Prayer Walk – 12:30 – 3:00 pm
Click Here to sign up for the Community Prayer Walk.
Jan. 17 (Wed.) – Night of Prayer – 6:00 pm
January 21 (Sun.) – Prayer in Homes – 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Click Here to sign up for Prayer in Homes.
Jan. 24 (Wed.) – Night of Prayer – 6:00 pm
Jan. 31 (Wed.) – Night of Prayer, Worship, and Lord’s Supper – 6:00 pm
Month of Prayer & The Word Devotional
Lord I Need You
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
Week 3 Devotional - January 14
Worship Minister - Andrew Pohlmann
Lord, I need you. Lord, I want you. Lord, I need you every hour, every minute. Lord, I want to know you more. A question I pondered for myself was, when was the last time I genuinely said these things to the Lord? When was the last time you genuinely said these things to the Lord? And not just when we were in a tough and difficult situation, or in the midst of frustration, or just feeling sad. But genuinely acknowledging that we desperately need Him in everything. It’s a tough question. A humbling question. But a question we must ask ourselves.
As the worship minister, I very much enjoy music. I thoroughly enjoy hearing our church sing to the Lord. It encourages me greatly. As I was thinking about what to write for this devotion the Lord kept putting two songs on my heart. And I believe that these two songs are a couple of the church’s favorites as we all seem to sing loudly and be free in worship. Those two songs are “Lord I Need You” and “ I Want to Know You”. Both of these songs find their roots not only out of scripture but also a couple of hymns. “Lord I Need You” is a modern take on “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “I Want to Know You” is based on the hymn, “In Jesus”. All four of these songs have a beautiful backstory to them and they serve as a reminder to us of our need for the Lord, what He has done, and how we should long to know him.
So, back to the question and statements I made earlier, “Lord, I need you.” Church, we desperately need the Lord in everything that we do. In the good times, hard times, bad times, sad times, high and low moments, everything. In John 15:5, Jesus talks about how He is the vine and we are the branches and apart from Him we can do nothing. We need Him. Like a branch gets its life directly from the vine, we need Him. Jesus invites us in Matthew 11:28 to come to Him and He will give us rest. We need Him. He offers to give us rest from our burdens and worries by simply coming to Him. We need Him. Then, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” We need Him. If we give of ourselves, we will eventually run dry, weary, or even angry, but God’s goodness and generosity never runs dry. Oh how we need Him.
When we look at a couple of these verses from the songs “Lord I Need You” and “I Need Thee Every Hour”, we see that these songs just echo the truth of God’s word.
Verse 1 of “Lord I Need You”
Lord I come I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
And without You I fall apart
You're the one that guides my heart
Verse 3 of “I Need Thee Every Hour”
I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain
Come quickly and abide or life is vain.
Church, we need Him in everything. So, as you begin each day, cry out to the Lord, “I need you today in everything that I do, say, think, and how I act.”
The second song I was led to is, “I Want to Know You”. This song talks about wanting to know the Lord more deeply today than I did yesterday. As we see our need for Him and acknowledge that need, it should also push us to want to see Him in every area of life and want to know Him more. The psalmist painted us a great picture when he wrote, “As the deer pants for the flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God.” (Psalm 42:1) How often do we try to find satisfaction and fulfillment in things or people or accomplishments instead of turning to the Lord? The first verse in this song says,
“I've tried in vain a thousand ways
My fears to quell my hopes to raise
But what I need your word has said
Is ever only Jesus”
Church, we only need Jesus. He is the only one who can provide and give us hope and peace. Philippians 3:10-14
So, as this new year begins, many will say things like “this year is going to be better!”, “This year things will be different.”, or “I want to implement this change”. While things may start off going well, typically it doesn’t last very long because we are trying to make it happen in our own power. So, this year may we proclaim to the Lord with genuine hearts, Lord, I NEED You, in EVERYTHING. Lord, I want you, in EVERYTHING. Lord, I WANT to know you more. May it be our heart’s cry to the Lord as we truly seek Him and abide in Him.
May the chorus of this song be our prayer not only for this month or year, but for our lives.
“I want to know you Jesus my Lord
King of the Heavens king of my soul
I trade my treasure and all my rewards
Jesus to know you then know you more”
People of the Word
2 Timothy 3:16
Week 2 Devotional Jan 7
Pastor John Jamison
I’m generally not a fan of devotionals. As I write that I also realize that I am currently writing one - the irony is not lost upon me. Now, before my email inbox is flooded with examples of your favorite devotional accompanied with a gracious “Nu-uh”, let me first admit that there are a few beautiful examples of men and women who wrote devotionals for us that we might marvel in the glory, the goodness, and the steadfast love of the Lord. But those are still not HIS WORDS. To me, devotionals have always seemed like a cheaper or lesser experience, like watching a travel show about Scotland instead of actually walking along the rugged coast and experiencing salt spray in my face.
I didn’t sit down to write an anti-devotional-devotional (say that 5 times fast). I am writing to call us into a deeper connection and longing for the Word of God. I long for us not to settle for easy, cheap, or quick. I long for us to spend time cultivating our relationships with the King, meditating on His Word, and allowing our lives to be shaped & changed by it. Let us not settle for a trite January resolution to “read more”, but strive for lives lived with the Lamp (Ps. 119:105). Let us refuse to take a step without it; let us actually live out Proverbs 3:5-6 in which we really do acknowledge God, not just in some of our ways, but in ALL of them.
This will be a short challenge. One I pray, you’ll truly consider for more than the time it takes to read it. I want to ask some questions from a familiar passage about God’s Word.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…”
2 Timothy 3:16
- Can you point to the last time scripture alone taught you? Not a sermon, not a podcast, not a book about a book written by a super smart & holy guy - God’s Word alone. When is the last time it instructed you? More than that, when is the last time you meditated (Ps 119:97) upon the instruction and obeyed & honored the King as a result?
- When is the last time you were reproved by Scripture? (That word, by the way, means rebuke. See Proverbs 6:23, 15:10, 31) When is the last time God’s word rebuked you and you responded in repentance and obedience? When is the last time you read something and were cut to the heart because you realized you stand guilty and stained before a Holy and Majestic King? Do you move through your quiet time so quickly so as not to feel the implications of God’s Word rebuking and challenging you? If you haven’t felt the sting of Scripture rebuking you I would suggest that you aren’t really reading it.
- How about correction? When is the last time God’s Word brought correction to you? Maybe it was a sinful habit or pattern that Scripture called out, perhaps your doctrine was off a bit and Scripture had something to say about it. But can you point to a time that you were corrected by the Word alone?
- How is the Word training you? The thing about all training is that it takes time. An athlete, a soldier, a student, all of those things take time. How are you embracing the training of Scripture? Do you spend time in God’s Word? Do you long for it? Do you miss it when life steals you from it? Are you being trained? Does your time in the Word yield long-term results and change? Are you still battling the same old sin patterns because you are not submitting to the training plan of God’s Word?
These are challenging questions. But consider this, if the Scriptures provide all these benefits for the believer, then we must arrive at the conclusion that, conversely, a life that isn’t rooted in the breathed out Word of God leaves a believer unchecked, untrained, and wandering about working for their own glory! This is not exactly the life Jesus describes and calls His followers to.
My hope is that you will take up God’s Word and read it, consume it, feast upon it, love it, crave it, because you are certain that it is able to make you wise for salvation in Christ Jesus, and that without it you would be an untaught, untrained disciple who is unprepared for life in Christ Jesus.(2 Tim 3:15-17)
Let us be people of the Word.
Are you hungry for God?
John 6:35; Matthew 5:6
Week 1 Devotional – Dec. 31
By Pastor Byron
Hunger is a natural element that every person experiences. Babies cry when they want milk, and kids ask their parents, “What’s for dinner?” as soon as hunger hits. And some people open the pantry and begin to look for what they can eat as soon as their hunger begins to rise. All of us though have eaten things that fill us but don’t truly satisfy our hunger. There are enough junk food items that you could eat to fill you, but it won’t satisfy you and give you the nutrients that you need for your body’s health and growth.
This same principle is true as it applies to our spiritual lives. We were created by God as spiritual beings, . . . and we are hungry. Before we give our lives to Jesus and they are transformed by the Holy Spirit, we try to fill our spiritual hunger with things from this world or various spiritual pursuits that will not satisfy. For example, a person who pursues a certain financial status can work his or her whole life to reach that point only to find out that it doesn’t satisfy. Another person can aim to achieve the best physical appearance they hope for and realize that it can all be taken away in a split second, and it doesn’t satisfy. Another person can seek spiritual fulfillment in one of the various religions of the world or seek to just be “spiritual,” but in the end they are constantly longing for satisfaction.
However, Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.” So, Jesus promises that He alone can meet and fill our spiritual hunger and thirst! This will happen at the moment when a person repents of sin, believes in Jesus as Savior and God, and follows Him. He will satisfy!
However, if we don’t maintain a faithful and consistent walk with the Lord, it is amazing how easily we can be drawn away once again by the things of this world by Satan’s lure and lies that will not satisfy. Additionally, we try to “satisfy” our relationship with God at times with a once-a-week attempt to read the Bible or go to church.
I want more for each of us and for our church. I want us to drink deeply from the Lord this year. So, if we want to be deeply satisfied in our relationship with God in 2024, then I want to challenge us with Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:6. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Satisfied!!!
Jesus wrote those words to His disciples who were already followers. The righteousness that Jesus referred to here was not the initial righteousness that we received when we were saved. Jesus was referring to our righteous living that only comes from reading His Word, spending time in prayer, and living out the truths of His Word – that is the righteousness that satisfies. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means that we must discipline ourselves to say no to things of this world that we know will not satisfy and yes to what will.
What will truly satisfy you this year?
Will reading or listening to every news channel satisfy you each day?
Is pursuing the most “likes” or “follows” on social media going to satisfy you?
What will bring you fulfillment after you have suffered a year of great loss, unfulfilled expectations, or have been hurt deeply?
Jesus promises an inner satisfaction that is far greater than news outlets, social media pursuits, deep hurt, or unfulfilled expectations when we are truly hungry and thirsty for Him on a consistent daily basis.
This year as we begin 2024, I want you to consider your pursuit of God.
How hungry are you for Him?
What will you do differently this year so that you can be satisfied more fully in Him?
What do you need to say “no” to so that you can say “yes” to Him?
Maybe you need to confess your wrong pursuits, misaligned priorities, and express your deep hurts to Him. He will hear you, forgive you, and meet you right where you are.
He is waiting for us to hunger and thirst for Him.
I will give you this promise because it is Jesus’ words – If you hunger and thirst after Jesus, you will be satisfied!
Are you hungry for Him?