Devotional Guide
Daily Bible Readings:
Monday, May 17. Read Acts 2:43-47. 1) What happened to the Pentecost crowd after they hear Peter’s message? 2) What practices did they keep, after their conversions? 3) What do you think we can learn from this today?
Tuesday, May 18. Read Acts 2:1-13. 1) What happened on the Day of Pentecost? 2) What do you learn about the possibility of the spread of the gospel?
Wednesday, May 19. Read Acts 1:12-14. 1) What did the disciples do after the resurrection? 2) What were their meetings together like?
Thursday, May 20. Read John 21:4-14. 1) When did Jesus appear to the disciples in this text? 2) What did they talk about? 3) How do you think they might have related this experience to the Lord’s Supper in John 13?
Friday, May 21. Read Luke 24:33-53. 1) How did Cleopas and his friend (24:13-32) react to their visit with the risen Jesus? 2) What do you think their lives were like after that experience?
Saturday, May 22. Read Acts 1:1-8; 2:5-13. This is Sunday’s sermon text.
Prayer for the Week:
God of diversity, making sure that your Good News is sent all over the world. One becomes two, becomes four, and so on until Jesus is commonly known. Help us to embrace this mission given to Jesus, then to the Disciples, and now to us. May be we light and salt in this dark world joyfully showing what it looks like when people turn their lives and their objectives over to you. In Jesus’ name I pray this. Amen.
Hymn of the Week:
God Moves in a Mysterious Way
by William Cowper, 1774
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
You fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev’ry hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain.
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
Devotional Article of the Week:
In the Hands of the Potter
God is the potter. He created us, taking us from an idea to what He imagined we could be, then shaping us into something beautiful.
by Tom Norvell
Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand (Isaiah 64:8).
I remember hearing those words when I was a child sitting in a church pew. I envisioned a man sitting at his pottery wheel, shaping something from a glob of clay. It took me decades to understand what these words really meant.
God is the potter. He created us, taking us from an idea to what He imagined we could be, then shaping us into something beautiful.
We are the clay. We aren’t in control of how we are “shaped” or how long it will take for God to complete His creation. We are at His mercy, but His mercies are beautiful.
We are all the work of His hand, and we are all in his hands. Even when the work He does is painful and lasts longer than we want, the end result is always beautiful.
Some days I recognize that He is still shaping me, even in my sixth decade, and I wonder why? What else needs to be changed?
On those days, I have to remind myself that I won’t always understand what He is doing or why. But what I do know is this: He is the potter, shaping me into the image of His Son.
And that is a beautiful thing.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).