Psalm 145:2-3 (praising God, freedom)

* Welcome God every morning before work by taking ~5 min to read this Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group devotion (life-devotions.blogspot.com), which has snippets from Living Faith (livingfaith.com).

Every day will I bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:2-3

Living Faith snippets: "If God is all that is perfect and good, then there is no doubt that God deserves all the praise we can muster. When we do praise God...we are the ones who need to be reminded how great God is. Our praise and prayer can put us in touch all over again with how mysterious, infinite and beyond our knowing God really is. I praise you, great God almighty! You alone are God!" by Karla Manternach

Pat nuggets:

* Freedom: I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating God's gift of freedom over the 4th of July weekend. I enjoy singing patriotic hymns in church, especially America the Beautiful which was written on top of Pikes Peak (by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893) : "O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life!" We praise God for our freedom...and pray for our enemies and our soldier heroes (past and present).

* ProLife: A group of 14 LIFE Devotions group members are running the Chicago Marathon (in Oct) for ProLife ministry (raising $/mile): Shane, John, Tracy, Steve, Chad, Bill, Rich, Courtney, Angi, Pat, Scott, Ben, Doug, Kevin. Our team is called LIFER's (Living In Faith Exchange Runners), and our team mission is "God first, ProLife, encouragement, fitness!" Yesterday, seven of us ran a local Colo. Springs race and offered it up (all suffering and glory) for ProLife ministry (group prayer before and after)...several of us wore ProLife wristbands for the race. Please let us know if are willing to sponsor us $/mile for the Chicago Marathon. The money goes to the individual runner's ProLife ministry of choice...Angi and I are giving our raised funds to a new crisis pregnancy center positioned across the street from the local abortion mill (Planned Parenthood). ProLife news at http://www.lifenews.com.

Our Prayers: Abortion, our enemies/our troops, China earthquake, Myanmar cyclone, Midwest floods, depression/despair, prisoners, Vicki Miller (her cancer treatment), Joe Castle (11 yr old Devantae paralyzed), Liz Curry (brother Bob broke hip), Kay Castle (cancer treatment for Ms. Nancy Wheeler)

Faith quote: "Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side." Pope Benedict (Apr visit to USA)

* This reminds me of a bumper sticker I've seen..."If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy!"

Through Christ Our Lord,
Pat

Phil 4:13

* Today's Bible readings at www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml.

* Prayer: Prayer connects us with God's will & His miracles, thereby changing us & helping others. Wayne Watson lyrics, “When God's people pray, there is hope reborn, there is sin forgiven, and miracles you can't explain await!” "If you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn’t, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead & see Him."

* Defend the unborn: 'Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die' (Prov 24:11). 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you' (Jer 1:5). 'It is a great poverty that a child must die that you might live as you wish' Blessed Mother Teresa. Click for Prayer to End Abortion.

* Evangelization: Let's make room for non-believers (be a friend, make a friend, lead friend to Christ) and perpetual re-evangelization of self and those near us, by way of daily prayer (relationship) and following Christ's example of selfless love, mercy, and service.

Let's joyfully live out the Good News and gladly tell others about it (Mark 16:15)!