Devotion 1

GOD IS PREPARING PEOPLE TO RECEIVE

YOUR TESTIMONY

OF RESTORED TRUTH. HE REQUIRES YOUR

FAITH

AND THEN YOUR

ACTION

TO SHARE FEARLESSLY WHAT HAS BECOME SO PRECIOUS TO YOU AND

THOSE YOU LOVE.

Whom shall I send?

02 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps

Scripture Reading:

Isaiah’s Commission - Isaiah 6Isaiah’s Vision of the LordIsa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.Isa 6:2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.Isa 6:3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”Isa 6:4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.Isa 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.Isa 6:7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

Isaiah’s Commission from the LordIsa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”Isa 6:9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’Isa 6:10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”Isa 6:11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,Isa 6:12 The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.Isa 6:13 But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

Observations: Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

then I said, “Here am I Lord, send me”.

Isaiah is in the great throne room of God. He is seeing things that no man has ever seen. He is overcome by his own sin and unrighteousness before a Holy God. God loves Isaiah so much, that He sends an angel to cleanse Isaiah with coal from the altar of God. Then, after being cleansed, Isaiah hears God’s question: “who will go for us?”. The Trinity is asking itself who will serve and Isaiah simply says, “here I am Lord, send me.”

I can’t imagine how Isaiah felt being ushered into the great throne room of the Holy One. The account is vivid in Isaiah 6 and is well worth our time to read it closing our eyes and imaging what Isaiah saw trying to think, how he must have felt, unworthy to be there and more so , unworthy to serve. But, Isaiah loved the Lord. And, even in the midst of a people that had strayed away from the love of God, he was willing to serve these people because he loved God and Isaiah’s way of showing that love for God was to be obedient and serve. Our response to God’s love offered to us is the same call to serve. Our act of serving is our obedience in action. You could call it our “exhaling” of the love of God to others. We “inhale” His love and we are called to be obedient and to “exhale” God’s love into the lives of those we meet - our family, friends even the world.

In our lives, we have witnessed what happens when there is a void of God’s love in our world and even in us individually. Evil flourishes where God’s love is void. That is why it is so very important for us to be obedient to God’s call in our lives to “exhale” His love shared with us. We do this in many ways but service is the great act of worship that touches and changes our lives. God did this for us when He loved us so much that He sent His Only Son to die for us that we might live (John 3:16). God’s love always turns into service for others. God was obedient to Himself. We must likewise do the same. If we really “Love God by Loving Each Other” then we must be obedient and “Serve God by Serving Others” and in this way, By His Grace & For His Glory alone God gets what is His and His alone - our worship and praise.

03 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps

Lord, wherever we are sent, may we have the grace and ability to sense the spiritual strongholds, and may we have the perseverance

to approach every moment of ministry in the power of the Holy

Spirit. Use us to confront the powers of

darkness, and bring a great victory for your children in that place.

Thanks for giving our enemies into our hands, and we give You all the

praise! In Jesus Name, Amen.

Before You Go (book) - Jack Hempfling

Observations:

What are your reasons for going?

We should all praise God that He has given us the blessing of serving Him again in this great ministry called.

How has God drawn you to participate in this trip? What are your reasons for going on this mission?

If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard - “the voice of the Lord.” Ask God to reveal his nearness, holiness and love to you in a fresh way. You are about to embark on an adventure that could change the direction of your life.

The number 40 is significant. It is a common number in the Bible, especially related to wandering, preparation, or temptation.

God wants to do something significant in your life, too. Not only does He long to draw you into closer fellowship with Him - He also wants to minister to others through you. And as you spend this time with God, He will prepare you for a renewed life which requires you to get up out of your old, flea-bitten ways in exchange for something new. So what’s new about a renewed life? According to Romans 12:2 a transformation occurs with:

• A renewed mindset– a new way of seeing things

• A renewed hope – a new perspective on the future

• A renewed focus - a new view on God’s will

Why forty days? Both Hebrew and Christian Scripture intuit “forty” as a sacred period of time. The Significance of the Number “Forty” in the BibleThe number “forty” in Scripture is frequently used in context of testing, chastening, and probation; thus many scholars understand it to be the number of “probation” or “trial.”

This doesn’t mean that forty is entirely symbolic (it still has a literal meaning in Scripture)…but it does seem that God has chosen this number to help emphasize times of trouble and hardship. Here are some examples of the Bible’s use of the number forty that stress the themes of testing and judgment —

• When God destroyed the earth with water, He caused it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights (Gen 7:12).

• Moses spent forty years in Midian being prepared to lead Israel from Egypt to Canaan (Acts 7:30).

• Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights when he received the Law (Ex 24:18).

• After Israel’s golden calf sin, Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf for 40 days and nights (Deut 9:18, 25).

• The Law specified a maximum of 40 lashes that a man could receive for a crime (Deut 25:3).

• It took the Israelite spies 40 days to spy out the Land of Canaan (Num 13:25).

• The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before entering the Promised Land (Deut 8:2-5).

• The nation of Israel served the Philistines for 40 years before Samson’s deliverance (Jud 13:1).

• Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days before David arrived to slay him (1 Sam 17:16).

• After Elijah fled from Jezebel, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights to Mt. Horeb (1 Kg 19:8).

• Jonah’s message to the Ninevites was that God was giving them just 40 days to repent (Jon 3:4).

• Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness before His encounter with Satan (Mt 4:1-11).

• Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance lasted for 40 days; and then came His ascension (Acts 1:3, 9).

• The period from the crucifixion of Christ

The 40 days of outreach campaign.

to the destruction of Jerusalem totaled 40 years.

To help maintain focus on the Lord and stay in tune with His guidance, we will prepare and distribute a series of devotionals — one for each of the 40 days of the outreach campaign.

As we go on our mission, we go into spiritual warfare. Satan does not want us to be successful in sharing the good news of Jesus with those who are lost to a life of sin. Our armor is the Word of God. Jesus used God’s word to defeat Satan during those 40 days of temptation and so must we.

In order for us to be prepared for spiritual battle, we must put on the full armor of God. We do that daily by reading and studying His Word and talking about it (sharing it) at all times.

Deuteronomy 6: 6-9: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Paul has a word to say about it too:

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

40 days’ intentions for:

• Protection from evil and strengthen us to resist temptation

• Reparation for our sins and the poor souls in purgatory

• Deliverance from political, material or spiritual calamities

Philippians 4:13: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’

Many of us consider ourselves to be mission minded. We give to missions which is great but all too often, that is as far as we go. To be MISSIONAL we not only Give to missions but we also Pray for missions and we Go on mission

Matthew 28:19-20: is the Great Commission - ““Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20. teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Acts 1:8: are Jesus’ last words before departing earth for Heaven. As His parting words, we have to realize that He was placing much emphasis on them and His expectation for us to be obedient to them.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

05 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps04 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps

06 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps

Why God takes the long way...

07 Pure Faith Walking in HIS footsteps

Closing Prayer

Father, grant me to feel the touch from your altar of the cleansing coal on my lips and in my heart, as you used it with Isaiah, that I should be like the prophet, fit, eager and available to go. Use us as your vessels, Lord, to bring the light of Your Truth to our nation once again. Father, I acknowledge that You are the One who will care for me on this mission where much will be unfamiliar. You have placed qualities within this new culture which I go to embrace. Make me a pure and humble channel of Your truth and love. Give me eyes to see the treasure You have put in the host culture, that I might honor the people You send me to. By Your grace I will humble myself and look out for their needs rather than focus on my own. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Serving GOD by Serving Others.

We hope you were blessed by this devotion

Sometimes God takes you the long way. And honestly? It’s tough to hang on when the direct route makes so much more sense. We’re all about efficiency. But God has a different destination in mind.

Strange, but this seems to be the Lord’s standard procedure. Take the exodus, for starters.

The nation of Israel began their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land by promptly turning away from it.Rather than take the shorter, coastal route to Canaan, God directed Israel southeast toward the Red Sea. The direct route led through the land of the Philistines, and while God could have simply destroyed the enemy (as He would at the Red Sea), His concern lay more with the unprepared and fearful hearts of His people (Exod. 13:17-18).

So God took them the long way. And it seemed pointless. But was it?

God’s deliverance by parting the Red Sea paved the way for Israel to meet God face to face at Sinai—and to receive the Law by which they could live in the Promised Land.If the goal was simply a destination, God seemed a lousy travel agent. A journey of three weeks would ultimately take 40 years! But God purposely to give His people something far more than a parcel of land; He offered them a changed heart.In the end, the land, the journey to it, and even God’s Word along the way came as but the means by which they would learn to know and trust Him.

The Long Way Sometimes is the Shortest Way

Later, instead of entering the Promised Land from the south where the people now stood, God led them east around Edom.God took them the long way. And it seemed pointless.

As a result, the people “became impatient because of the journey” (Num. 21:1-5).

Why take the long way around?

But as the passage unfolds, we read how God gave Israel victories all up and down the King’s Highway so that they ultimately gained control of the majority of Transjordan. This allowed them to prepare to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land at Jericho—a location far more strategic than from the south.

The long way ended up the best way after all.

Why God Takes You the Long Way

Often, it seems as if God needlessly extends our journey:• For years we pray for a loved one’s health,

a friend’s salvation, or for a missionary to receive funds.

• We plug away endlessly at a miserable job with no promotion.

• We wait and wait . . . and wait.

The long way seems the wrong way and, like the Hebrews, we become impatient because of the journey.

Yet when we look back in hindsight, we actually come to appreciate how God used the journey—and all the victories and failures along the way—to prepare us for something we felt ready for much earlier.

Two Views of the Long Way

On the long journey, there are two views:

1. What we see—While we strain to see over the next horizon, God sees the map from above—and so knows the best way to proceed. So the Lord often leads us according to the needs of our heart, not always according to its desires.

2. What God sees—The Father sees the fear buried in our hearts that the quick and easy way would bring out. In our lives, we must realize that God’s goal for us—the best He could possibly give us—isn’t found in simply taking us from here to there. It isn’t even found in a new biblical insight. These come as but the means of His real goal—to know Him.

Time and again God’s mysterious leading proves wiser than our impatient pleas for progress. Would He not receive more glory from our lives if we trusted Him along the path of the unknown than if we saw His purposes from the start?

What long journey are you on right now?

God spoke to Jacob in a dream, telling him four truths:

• I am God. (Genesis 46:3)• Do not be afraid to go where I am leading

you.• My purposes for you are there, not here.• I will go there with you. (Genesis 46:4)

In our own lives, we need to hear these principles as well. Consider where God is leading you right now.

Partner Prayer

Jesus said, “…if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

There is great power in united prayer. There is also encouragement and spiritual strength found in Christian fellowship. Because of these truths it is suggested that the we find a prayer partner to fellowship with and pray together with either on the phone or in person every day during our journey and study.

Israel Tour 2019Every journey starts with a plan and that plan

often has it’s trials. Much like Moses leading the

Israelites out of Egypt, a trial that took 40 years.

So will we face a trial, that will test our faith. Only,

this time we will face 40 months. grain of sand

on a beach in compirson to what Moses endured.

come and join us on this journey...

Pure Faith

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Shalomשלום

(Peace, Hello, Goodbye..)a mighty blessing on many levels

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