A CHRISTIAN’S SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
HEAVENLY FATHER, I bow before You this Lord’s Day morning through the Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Holy Spirit. Thank You, Father, for Your amazing grace and wondrous mercy. I thank You, Father, for electing me unto salvation and giving me as a love gift to Your Son, Jesus Christ, so that He would redeem me by His perfect law-abiding life and sin-atoning death. I thank You, heavenly Father, that in Your own purpose and pleasure You chose to adopt me into Your family. I know this was not because of anything in me, but solely according to Your good purpose and pleasure. For I am not worthy of the least of Your benefits or truth as I have broken all Your commandments! As David declared in Psalm 8:4, "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?" Thank You, Father, for loving me and redeeming me by Your blessed Son, Jesus Christ. For, as Jacob declared, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant" (Genesis 32:10). And in the words of the prodigal son, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:21). Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned against You. Wash me and cleanse me for Christ's sake. As You have promised in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
LORD JESUS, I praise You for laying down Your life for me, and for all Your sheep. When You found us, we were miserable, blind, rebellious, wretched sinners. Not only did you lay down Your life for us, but You also lived that perfect life in our place. As the Scripture declares, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Lord Jesus, You alone fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law of God and have clothed Your people with Your perfect righteousness in order that we may come boldly into the throne of grace being justified by Your work which You accomplished in Your life, death, resurrection, ascension, and session. I thank You, Lord Jesus, that You imputed Your righteousness to me and to all Your people in exchange for our sins being imputed to You. Thank You that on the cross You dealt with all our sins, past, present and future, once for all time and therefore we bear our sins no more! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! What A Savior! Help me, Lord Jesus! For I am so insufficient and inadequate to serve You. Strengthen me by Your power. Guide me, guard me, lead me on, Good Shepherd, lest I go astray and wander as all Your sheep are prone to do!
HOLY SPIRIT, thank You that while I was spiritually dead in my trespasses and sins, You made me spiritually alive and created faith in my soul that I might believe the Gospel, love You, love the Father, love the Lord Jesus Christ, and love Your Church. Thank You for creating faith in my heart so that I could believe the Gospel and trust fully in Jesus for my salvation, which He obtained for me by His sin-atoning death and law-fulfilling life. Thank You for making me a new creation in Christ! Thank You for enabling me to serve Christ by serving His Church, which Jesus purchased with His own blood. Fill me, Holy Spirit, with Your presence and power, dominate my life, control my every thought, word, and action, and cause me to be obedient to that which You command of me in Your Word. Cause me to realize that when I am obedient to Your will, I am only an unprofitable servant who has only done that which You have commanded. Do not let me grieve You, Holy Spirit. Correct me when I go astray, make me humble when I obey. Holy Spirit, I ask that You open my understanding more and more in order that I might rightly understand Your Scriptures since You alone give understanding of Your Word. Fill me with Your holy presence and power and grant me courage to live completely and comprehensively for Jesus my Lord and Savior. Open my eyes that I might see the wondrous things in Your Word. Show me Jesus in Your Word. As the hymn writer declared, "More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in His Word, Holding communion with my Lord; Hearing His voice in ev'ry line, Making each faithful saying mine!"
O GOD: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for blessing me with all the blessings in the heavenly places in Christ for I know that I am unworthy of the least of Your blessings and truth. I know that all I have merited is damnation, an eternity under Your wrath because of my lawlessness! All Your blessings come not by my obedience but by Your sovereign grace. My obedience is always less than perfect and defiled with sin and is only acceptable to You because of the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who always lives to make intercession for the saints. O my Father, hear my prayer for the sake of your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name and authority I pray. Amen!
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TEACHERS WANTED!
Sutton Christian School is a K-8 Christian School in South Central Nebraska looking for teachers for the elementary and middle school grades for the 2025-26 school year. We are committed to covenant Christian education and adhere to God's inspired Word as interpreted in the historic Reformed Creeds: The Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession of Faith, The Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Confession of Faith. We are seeking committed Christian teachers who embrace the same Reformed Creeds as their doctrinal standards.
We offer competitive pay and small classroom size. We are offering a signing bonus of $5,000: $2,500 for the first year and $2,500 for the second year. Visit our website at Suttonchristianschool.org to find out more about our school. To apply, contact Dave Kauk at suttonchristianschool9@gmail.com or call the school at (402) 773-4845.
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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
—2 Corinthians 5:17
"GENUINE SALVATION is always transformative. It radically changes the whole man! He was once at enmity with God, and hated Him. Now he is a friend of God, and loves Him. His condition before God, his moral tone, his nature, his state of mind, are made radically different from what they were before salvation.
*Genuine salvation changes the PRINCIPLE UPON WHICH HE LIVES. He once lived for self, he now lives to please God.
*His OBJECTS IN LIFE are changed. He once lived for money, or the flesh, or the world. Now he lives for the glory of God.
*His COMFORTS are changed. The pleasures of the world and sin are now nothing to him. He finds comfort in the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit.
*His DESIRES are changed. That which he once panted and pined for, he is now content to do without. That which he once despised, he now longs after as the deer pants after the water brooks.
*His FEARS are different. He fears man no more, but fears his God.
*His HOPES are also altered. His expectations fly beyond the stars.
He now confidently looks forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God! The saved man has begun a new life! A convert once said, "Either the world is altered or else I am!" The saved man feels that the things which are seen are shadows, and the things which he hears are but voices out of dreamland. He now knows that unseen spiritual realities are substantial. He lives by faith, not by sight."
—Charles H. Spurgeon
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THE SPIRIT-FILLED CHURCH
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
—Acts 2:42
OUR TEXT reveals that a Spirit-filled church is one devoted to fellowship. The word fellowship could also be translated “communion” because the basic idea of fellowship or communion is unity. In other words, there is something held in common that brings people together, and believers have something in common –their fellowship in Jesus Christ. The early church devoted itself to fellowship. They were united in true brotherly love, and they demonstrated this by taking care of one another. Those who had more gave of their wealth to those who had less. There were no needy people among them. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack” (2 Corinthians 8:15).
IT’S BECAUSE of this fellowship we have in Christ that we call one another brothers and sisters in the Lord. Whether we are from Central America, Africa, Asia, Canada, or the U.S.A., every believer has been adopted into the family of God. And just as those in a family need to take care of each other and have fellowship with one another, so the members of the church need to take care of one another and have fellowship with each other. We call this "the communion of the saints." We use the gifts Christ has given us for the benefit and well-being of the other members of the body. Too many people think that flesh and blood is a stronger bond than the spiritual bond believers have with each other in Christ, but the spiritual bond is eternal, whereas the flesh and blood bond is temporal. Many believers will have countless flesh and blood relatives in hell.
THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, Q&A 55: “What do you understand by the "communion of saints"? First, that believers, one and all, as members of the Lord Jesus Christ, are partakers with Him in all His treasures and gifts; second, that each one must feel himself bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the advantage and welfare of other members.”
DO YOU DESIRE fellowship with other members of Christ’s Church, or do you try to avoid contact with other believers? Do you go out of your way to serve and care for other believers, or do you try to avoid those who are in need? Do you long for Sunday so you can fellowship with other Christians and use your gifts to minister to them? The portrait of the Spirit-filled church is one where members have great concern for each other and a desire to fellowship as often as possible. The believers in the early church didn’t merely worship together on the Lord’s Day and then go their separate ways. Rather, they shared meals in each other’s homes and would go out of their way to help one another in the congregation –whatever the cost may be. A Spirit-filled church is a fellowshipping church where the communion of saints is alive and well. It’s a church where the members are actively, zealously, and faithfully participating in this fellowship. Does this describe your church?
Friday Devotional: May 16, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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