You Are Invited

 When we pray for our nation, or an adopted one, do we pray that

 "the King of Glory may come in?"  

Do we invite Him?

Pause now to pray for your nation.  Ask for our King of Glory to come in, He who is the Lord of Hosts.

He is our powerful, Almighty Father and God.  And in and through the name of Jesus, there can and will be overwhelming victory in our hearts and in the heart of our nation, for all the people of the nation.  Pray for our King of Glory to be invited into every single last heart from oldest to youngest.

O Lord God, my King of Glory, come and reign in our hearts.  We invite You to come into this nation we live in and the ones we came from and have lived in.

May Your hand work mightily and strongly.  Bring Your righteousness and salvation to those who seek You and who seek Your face, O Father God Almighty.  May we be a generation who chooses You!

May we have clean hands and pure hearts as we humbly bow to You our great and most high King of Heaven.  Establish Yourself in us.   There's a welcome here for You our Lord and King of Glory.  Amen.

                                        ~  ERC September 2026  ~

Based on Psalm 24:1-10 ESV.

Sing, Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates along with Handell's Messiah.

More Fruitful Multiplying Needed (2 Peter 3:18 and 1 John 2:15-17)

 Do you like fruit?  How about fruit like apples, oranges, peaches, plums or even papaya, mangosteens, and dragon fruit?  These are ones I like.

How about 'people fruit'?  Do you like them?  That is, answering God's command to be fruitful and multiply.

When we can bring others to Christ, we will have "people fruit."  May we garner the humility and live according to the Holy Spirit rather than according to our own flesh and desire.

As we draw closer to the Lord and really get to know Him as Friend as well as Savior, we will be more like Him.   As His presence leads and guides us, we will be able to indeed bring many sons and daughters to Christ and into God's kingdom.

May we continue to be fruitfully multiplying.  It's needed.  This fruit will abide forever.  This is worthwhile.

Father God, help us.  We need You and Your strength.  Give us the courage to choose to live and speak well for You.  May our humility be evident to all.  I ask in Jesus' name.  Amen.

                                                    ~  ERC  September 2026  ~

Based on 2 Peter 3:18 and 1 John 2:15-17 ESV.

Sing, Fishers of Men, along with Kid's worship Song, Follow Jesus.

Lord's Day Devotion - Willingness of Humility

 

If we believe that Jesus came to earth with good intentions towards mankind, and if we have accepted His gift of salvation, is it too much to ask for His help?  Is it too much to humble ourselves and submit to His wisdom and grace?

And when He directs us to His word, and/or His people, is it too much to have the willingness to ask for help from those people?  Conversely, is it too much to be the giver of the help?

When our spirits are covered with The Holy Spirit of humility and navigate life and relationships with others from this standpoint and perspective, wouldn't we honor the one most important relationship; that is, the relationship with our Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord?

Whatever life throws at us, we will be able to endure and persevere and have wisdom and even grace, to see through the fog, fear, helplessness and more, as we willingly humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (see 1 Peter 5:6).

Almighty Heavenly Father, I come to You on bended knees and bowed heart, realizing You are my ultimate Helper.  It's from You I can listen for Your soft and gentle voice of guidance.  Thank You too, for godly men and women, my brothers and sisters-in-Christ, who also willingly listen to You and from whom I can also find help.  If it is our turn to be the giver, give us the willingness of humility to offer the help and follow through with it too.  Grow a humble spirit within me in ever-increasing measure until Jesus comes to call all Your children 'Home' to be with You forever.

Thank You ever so much for sending Jesus with the good intention and good will of saving Your created human beings from their sins.

"Joyful, joyful we adore You, God of glory, Lord of love."*

In Jesus' name we give You our praise as we partake of the broken bread and drink from the cup of wine this Lord's Day, in remembrance of Your willing, humble sacrifice for us, which had been motivated by Your love for us.  Thank You, amen.

                                              ~  ERC  October 2026  ~

Based on 1 Peter 2:13 and Matthew 11:28.

*Sing, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, along with Reawaken Hymns.

More Humility Needed (2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

 

"If My people ... humble themselves and pray ... then I will hear from heaven ..."               (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).

More humility is needed.  'If' is the operative word.  It depends on 'me' - whether I bother to humble myself or not.  Whether I bother to acknowledge my weaknesses, limitations and need of dependance upon my heavenly Father, or not.  If I humble myself, then I will pray.  He will hear us.

As I pray and as others join in, we are participating in the Holy Spirit.  We are then able to move in the spiritual realm through our faith in Jesus.

We followers of Jesus Christ are then showing expressions of humility.  Our varying degrees of pride; arrogance and independance from God and His people will all be distilled into this act of humility:  praying always to God as an individual and praying collectively with members of His church.

A lot had to happen in our hearts to get to that point - not as a route ritual or duty, but in sincerity and truth - really praying.

More of this type of humilty is needed.

Bye for now ...

                                            ~  ERC  September 2026  ~

Based on 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV and Philippians 2:1 & 2 ESV/NIV.

Sing If My People Pray, along with Jimmy Owens and Tallowood Baptist Church.

Book Review - Scarlet Shadows - By Jo Szewczyk - Publication Date: 15 October 2026

Serious issues in this adult crime thriller, particularly those dealing with organ transplant donations to sick children, and a person dealing with blindness, pleased me.  In my opinion, it put substance into the narrative.

There was some humor and a great deal of kicking, punching and attacking in line with Taekwondo.  People who know this martial art should be able to relate well, I'm assuming.

However, I felt the story direction swung like an out-of-control pendulum and often I could not connect the characters, nor their actions.  I found it confusing rather than sparking my curiosity regarding the mystery.

The book is tagged as an "adult crime thriller" but wonder if it would appeal more to high school students.  If this were the case, then more of the to-in and fro-ing action may have been better understood as being relating to that niche of audience.

                                               ~  Eunice C.,  Reviewer/Blogger  ~

                                                            October 2026

Disclaimer:  This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent to me by NetGalley and the publisher.

Read review on Goodreads.

More Scripture Reading Needed (Galatians 5:25 and Matthew 11:29 ESV/KJV)

Here's a quote-of-the-day from NECF Malaysia's Adult Day 38 devotional from 2026.  It reads,

"NBNB (No Bible, No Breakfast) and NSNS (No Scipture, No Sleep)." 

It's a good motto to live by as, no doubt, one can never have too much study and meditation upon Scripture.  In fact, a continual daily diet of Scripture is needed to sustain our souls and spirits and to garner a closer relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As we read, we build the relationship.  That is, reading and putting it into action in our lives.  We can learn from Jesus.  We can learn His gentleness and lowliness of heart (see Matthew 11:29).

The indwelling Holy Spirit will aid and abet us in this discipline, helping us to also keep in step with Him.  By God's grace, we can ...

Let's let God's Word be our anchor, our guide and guard against pride as we live out His truth.

Yoking with Jesus is not a chore.  Let's team up with Him as He says, 

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light ..."

and because of this we will ...

"find rest unto [our] souls" (Matthew 11:29 KJV).

Let's humbly read His Word everyday.  They are wonderful words of life.  We definitely need them!

                                             ~  ERC  September 2026  ~

Based on Galatians 5:25 and Matthew 11:29 ESV/KJV.

Sing, Wonderful Words of Life, along with Joslin Grove Choral Society.

Ai generated illustration of oxen in yoke.

Lord's Day Devotion - All Things (Romans 8:28 ESV)

 Can loosing your eyesight be good?  It's actually creates a lot of panicky emotions.  It turns your world insideout and upsidedown and ya gotta learn a new way of operating life.  'A new norm,' they call it.

How about loosing your life for other people's benefit?  Is that good?

I leave the question hanging.

And then we arrive at the verse ...

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28 ESV).

This is a verse that guts us, even as believers in Jesus Christ.  What possible good could come from loosing ones eyesight, or a house or a myriad of other things!

About losing ones life ... how about that?

Well, I'll tell you that Jesus Christ lost His life for mankind in order to rescue them from the consequences of sin.  Losing eyesight and more are consequences of sin, in general.  When Adam and Eve sinned, it brought upon all creation, the deterioration and devastation of every part of creation.

Of course, we have our own sin we choose to commit, so can't blame Adam and Eve entirely.  But God's rescue plan was inititated by Him and He gave the ultimate "all things."  His one and only Son lost His life to save us from our sin consequences.

This was according to God's purpose and plan.  In the plans of our lives, salvation is the ultimate good.

How we navigate life with the loss of our body's functions is tough.  I mean, really tough.  It's a huge struggle.

But in the struggles, we can find good.  We can find God's grace and loving care as we put our trust in Him.  The song, "Leaning on Jesus" comes to mind.

"All of these things" is not what we want or ask for.  However, as we submit to our heavenly Father, we learn they can and do work together for our good.

As we ponder on this information, which may seem callous and heartless to some, know that the level to which we trust the Lord through it all, is the level equal to the good and best purpose for our lives that can be revealed in and through us.

This is what happened when Jesus lost His life for us.  We rejoice in our salvation and that He's alive for our good.

This Lord's Day, let's remember this aspect of His death and resurrection.

Praise Him as you reach for, and partake of, the broken bread and drink of the cup of wine in remembrance of Him and all He has done for us, for you.  We can do this often until He comes.

                                                   ~  ERC  October 2026  ~

Based on Romans 8:28 ESV.

Sing, Leaning On the Everlasting Arms, along with Reawaken.