Psalm 87:7 (my home is within you)

Let's 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. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Col. 3:17

And all shall sing, in their festive dance: "My home is within you." Psalm 87:7

Living Faith snippets: "It is one thing for me to say I feel at home in the Father. It is quite another to realize that the Father finds a home in me! Living the implications of that statement will get me through anything today. And should something loom its ugly head at me, making me feel out of sorts or less of a person than I am, may I remember that I am home for God." by Sr. Charleen Hug, S.N.D.

Rich's comments: Today's Living Faith devotion reminded me of the feeling that I had after attending confession for the first time after 20 years. After confessing my sins to Christ alive in the priest, Jesus absolved my sins, and spoke through the priest, "welcome home!" The floodgates of grace were opened in my heart, my soul was filled with a deep peace, and I experienced an inexplicable lightness and sense of liberation. I was at home. I felt that I could finally be myself to Jesus and let Him reside in my heart without feeling guilty that I needed to hide a part of myself from Him. Even if you do not believe in confessing your sins to a priest or anyone else, but God directly, I understand. I felt the same way for 20 years, and only confessed my sins directly to God in prayer. I believe that we do not experience God's forgiving grace in our hearts until we truly feel sorry for our sins, and this feeling is easily expressed when sharing our sins with others. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." James 5:16

Faith Challenge: Let's challenge each other to joyfully live out the Good News.

* If Christ was visiting our house today, would He feel at home? Or would you have to tell Him to please wait a moment at the door as you hid the things in your life that were not of God. Let's do some housecleaning and make Jesus feel at home in our hearts.

Counter-Culture News: LifeSiteNews, American Family Association, Priests for Life

* Let's never forget the horrific reality of abortion (images)...#1 cause of death in America. Let's courageously share ProLife Truth (John 14:6) to create social tension for exposing abortion's unjust peace...rebuilding a Culture of Life (Matt 5:16) and setting the unborn free!

Our Prayers: Those who pray together stay together. Fasting ideas below.

* Prayer to end abortion, abused children, chastity, peace, our enemies, our troops, depression/ despair, prisoners, ProLife politicians, illnesses/injuries, jobs, natural disasters, addictions, Kay Castle (struggling with flu)

Faith Quote: "A great freedom is born by bringing our darkness into the light. Our faults and failings have a tendency of eating away at us inside. But when we bring them into the light they lose their power over us." by Matthew Kelly

Through Christ our Lord,

Rich

Romans 12:12

* Prayer: Prayer connects us with God's will & His miracles, changing us & helping others. 'If you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn’t, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead.'
* Fasting: Let's fast from things that take our eyes off Jesus (selfishness, bitterness, being so critical, impatience, gossip, excessive video games, etc) and take on things that fix our eyes on Jesus (selflessness, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding, caring, helping, listening).
* 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).
* Evangelization: Let's make room for unbelievers (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 invite others to join our LIFE Group...Rich or Pat will gladly add them to the devotions distribution list (Mark 16:15)!