A Word From Pastor John~

As we march through the season of Lent, we are reminded of the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. His first temptation was to give himself food, even though God had called him to a 40-day fast for the purpose of spiritual growth.

The enemy spoke to Jesus and said, you can do anything you want. You might as well turn these stones into bread. To which Jesus replied that man cannot live on bread alone.

We are constantly tempted to place our physical needs over our spiritual needs. When we do this, the enemy has successfully tricked us into thinking the temporary is more important than the eternal.

Allow the Holy Spirit to shape you this week.

Pray For One Another

Our pastors and their families

Talma's godson, Carlos and his wife, Jessica

Alisha

Lillian Brock

Kara & Frank Mathey's daughter

The Mobleys and LeAnn's sister, Hope

Talma's son KC

Jimmy

LoveWorks clients

Talma's niece and her husband

Sheila

The many unspoken requests

Bible Reading Plan: Week 11

This year, we are reading through the Bible chronologically using The Bible Recap Plan in YouVersion.

Take a bookmark from the front lobby if you'd like to keep track that way and go through at your own pace. Bookmark three is now available!

Use bible.com OR the YouVersion ap p

Day 64: Deuteronomy 3-4

Day 65: Deuteronomy 5-7

Day 66: Deuteronomy 8-10

Day 67: Deuteronomy 11-13

Day 68: Deuteronomy 14-16

Day 69: Deuteronomy 17-20

Day 70: Deuteronomy 21-23

Before you read God’s Word today, seek His help with these 5 prayers:

1. God, give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. 2. God, let any knowledge I gain serve to help me love You and others more, and not puff me up. 3. God, help me see something new about You I've never seen before. 4. God, correct any lies I believe about You or anything I misunderstand. 5. God, direct my steps according to Your Word.

Mission Minute

From one of the speakers at the VOM conference:

"Every heart without Christ is a mission field. Every heart with Christ is a missionary."

Matthew 28:18-20: "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Blessings!

Talma Harmon

Missions Advisory Leader

Opportunities to Give and Serve

Help us get Bibles to the Navajo speaking

people who are in prison here in Arizona:

We are always looking for people to join our 20% team!

How would you like to serve?

Holiness Today Article

Trust in Him

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” —Proverbs 3:5

I remember the first time I jumped out of an airplane. Weeks of training in the US Army had led to that moment; I endured the physical difficulties of training and had put up with the elements just to have this opportunity! We trained, we rehearsed, we practiced, for one reason alone…to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. As the day approached, I was excited and ready to portray how prepared I was. I put on my gear, donned my parachute, and walked out to the plane. “Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door, jump right out, and count to four!” had been our cadence. I was 18 years old at the time and ready for adventure—or so I thought.

There were many soldiers around me, each of us doing this for the first time, and each of us portraying our excitement instead of our fear. As the plane took off, I remember thinking, “What have I gotten myself into? Why did I choose to do this?” There was no turning back—if you were on this airplane, you were jumping out of it. As the doors opened and I stood up, I thought about how I had to completely trust the equipment. I had practiced many times, but that day I had to really put my trust in something other than myself. I couldn’t lean on my own understanding—trust was all I had left.

I hooked up my static line, shuffled to the door, got in position, and jumped. No one knew how scared I was on that first jump. All in all, I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane 18 times. Each time, I was scared, but each time became a little easier than the last.

I don’t know what your circumstances are today, but this I do know: You can trust God! You can trust Him with your whole heart! Don’t lean on your own understanding. It gets easier every time to trust Him. You have a relationship with our Almighty God—you have access to His power and have been trained by His wisdom! Whatever the leap of faith you need to take may be, trust in Him!

Prayer for the week: Father, help me today to trust in You! Make the connection between my heart and my mind that I can live in faith, that Your way is better than mine. I trust You alone and want to live today by Your understanding of my life and not my own. Amen.

Wendell Brown is district superintendent of the North Central Ohio District Church of the Nazarene. He is also the founder of Tragedy Into Triumph, a nationwide simulcast reaching hundreds of thousands of people over the last 12 years for the gospel of Christ. He is passionate about discipleship and finding new ways to tell the story of God’s love!

Written for Coffee Break.

https://www.holinesstoday.org/trust-in-him

Congregation Corner

Wow! What a privilege it was to attend the Voice of the Martyrs conference in Tucson, and what an eye opening experience. Matthew 5:10 says "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." After seeing and hearing stories of the persecution of believers in other parts of the world I'm beginning to understand what blessed really means.

The Amplified Bible defines blessed as,

"Happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous–with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions". How many of us only feel blessed when things go our way? Would we feel blessed if we were in solitary confinement and were beaten every time we were caught praying? Would we continue to pray and for our captors?

My prayer is that at some time the mission council will show the DVD, Share Their Voice! Every Christian who lives in United States should see it.

This is one of the videos that had a great impact on me:

https://www.persecution.com/bibles/

Submitted by Brenda Hathaway

If you would like to write something for this section, let me know! Anything God may be showing you this week, a favorite scripture, or even a devotional page or song you really enjoyed, just email me: mosaicnazarene@gmail.com