Happy Monday, Family!👭
This week, we praise God for:
💟 Alex and the Edmonds Family thank the Lighthouse Family for all of their prayers. They are also grateful for the grace and mercy of God that guided them to Georgia safely. They want us to know they plan to STAY a part of the Lighthouse Family, even from across the miles! ♥️
💟 Doris us grateful for the Lighthouse Family as well, for helping her to pray for her family. She testified that God has kept her through her little obstacles and helps her to fight her battles! He is also answering those prayers: Her grandson, Dorian is graduating 8th grade this week. Her daughter, Jackie, got a promotion at work and is very happy about it! Skylar made honor roll. Doris is very proud of them and also grateful for the great gift of her grandchildren, who help her to smile and laugh even when she's having a hard day. Please continue to pray for her family. Doris also had the pleasure of joining the Bible study at 10:00 am and was blessed by her time studying and fellowshipping with her church family. She encourages everyone to join for Bible study each Sabbath, at 10 am.
💟 Pat is thankful that John only has one more day of radiation therapy. She thinks God for bringing him through it so far and asks that healing power to pump through Him. She is also very grateful for her blessings of life, even through adversity.
💟 Jackie is extremely grateful for the fact that God has opened her eyes so that she can clearly see all of the blessings around her! She thanked God for the promotion she received at work, without even expecting it. She knows that God is Walking with her and will continue to do so. She just wants to praise God for his goodness and faithfulness towards her!
💟 Angy is grateful that the Lord has protected Alejandro and his ship, The Eisenhower, while they are at sea protecting us. May God keep them from being delayed from their return scheduled for July. 🌊
💟 She is also grateful for the Bible Study Squad that meets faithfully each week and is willing to study God's Word and to learn.
💟 All of the young people,every Sabbath at the Lighthouse. Their willingness to help, to serve and to lead are an inspiration to everyone. We are so veryy BLESSED to have each of them! 🤗
We are also praying for:
🛐 Joel, Carole's husband. The drs have informed him that he still has Covid pneumonia in his lungs. Carole is so grateful that God has protected and watched over her husband. Continue to pray that God will touch his lungs and give him the strength and the good health to fight this disease once and for all!!! May He also give Carole the strength and peace she needs to help him through this!
🛐 Vasthi asked that we keep our church leadership in our prayers.
🛐 All of the fathers at the Lighthouse!💙
🛐 Seth’s upcoming eye surgery, scheduled for August. May the same Jesus who gave sight to the blind touch Seth's eyes with healing and improved sight.
🛐 Micharen's uncle, Ismael. He was able to travel to Florida and has found an experimental treatment for his cancer. Charen is grateful that he has been able to eat and hold down his food since starting the treatment. Please continue to pray for healing.
🛐 Nancy, Sue's sister-in-law, as she continues her three week radiation treatment for cancer. May God give her strength and healing.
🛐 Vasthi asks the church to pray for her nephew, Mikey, for Cedric and for all of our young people.
🛐 Zully, Sue's other sister-in-law, who is having a biopsy. Let's pray for positive results.
🛐 Nelly's grandson, Jordan, as he faces a very difficult time in his life. May anything God allows in his life bring Jordan closer to Him!
🛐 Pat asks her church family to pray that God will help her on her journey towards good health.
🛐 Our brother, John Vega, will begin radiation treatment on Tuesday. Pray for God’s protection and healing.
🛐 Nelly, and for answers to her health questions. May God grant her team of doctors the wisdom they need to figure out this mystery.
🛐 Bianca, Vishal and Sebastian Suri. May the Lord shower their beautiful family with blessings from above.
🛐 Rosa and her daughters, their husbands and their children.
🛐 Angelica, as she continues to walk through the doors God is opening for her.
🛐 Doris, and her daughters, Jackie, Amanda and their children, Skylar, Heaven Lee, Dorian, Zaire and Amir. May God keep working miracles in their lives.
knowing that God has always come through.
🛐 Anna Ortiz as she continues to battle cancer, and for her family as they support her.
Today’s Devotional was shared by Frances, who’s very excited to open up her special folder once again in order to share something uplifting with all of us! 🤍 Thank you, Frances, for your bravery…and for thinking of us!💞
I was at the dentist office a long time ago and read this article in an old magazine. It touched my heart so much. But I asked the girl at the desk if I could pull it out of the magazine. It's been in my folder for years and I found it not long ago and I just knew I had to share it with all of you. 😇
By Shelley Gare
Friendships have been very important to me in my life. I'm sure for most of you they are important too. And I love most of all that she talks about friendship with Jesus. That part is new to me, but I'm so happy about it. God bless you all.
It was Thomas Aquinas a long time ago who said, “There is nothing on earth to be prized than true friendship”. Everyone needs special people to laugh, share secrets and celebrate life with, but friendships aren’t just about enjoying good times together. Maintaining true friendships is important for physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing—we all need a good friend who will journey through the ups and downs of life. It’s easy to be friends when life is easy, but a real friend never allows someone they care about to go through difficulties alone. Whatever hardships the world has in store, true friends stick together and get through them together. I hope you’ve had an experience like that.
Many of us have friends—but do we have close friends? I think there is a difference. Great friendships must share deeply. For some this sharing is emotional and for others it is primarily mental. Friendship listens, speaks, understands, and accepts because there is a bond. When you look for a friend, look for that bond of commonality. A truly great friend is not easy to find.
Friendship means a close or deep, loving, trusting relationship between two people. But just because you spent a lot of time with somebody, that does not mean that person is a best friend. For example, you can work with somebody side-by-side for thirty years, and that person may not be your best friend. There is not a close bond there, even though you know a lot about your work colleague.
A good friend has many qualities—someone you can be close to and honest with. Someone you share your ups and downs with. Someone with whom you talk with, listen to, and rely on. Someone you share the greatest intimacies of life. You don’t share those intimacies with anyone, but only with a good friend, a special friend. A good friendship is always a two way street: talking and listening, giving and receiving, loving and being loved. A good friend brings joy to life. Friendships are often bonded in pain. Sometimes, you go through some really tough times together, and those friendships share a common painful moment that very few are truly part of.
The Bible has quite a lot to say about friendship. Abraham was called a friend of God. He is the only person in the whole Old Testament who is given that high honour. The Old Testament says, “You are descendants of Abraham, my friend.” To be a called a friend of God is an incredibly high honour.
Jesus was with his closest group of friends, the twelve disciples. It was their last meal together, their last supper. Jesus knew he was going to die the next day, and his disciples sensed it as well. During the past three years, Jesus and his disciples had become very good friends, walking together, talking together, fishing together, sailing together, hanging out together. Jesus was not only their Master, Lord and King, but Jesus had become their good friend, someone they could trust, someone they could count on, someone who would not put them down.
During this last meal together with his very best friends, Jesus then spoke these words to his very best friends:
No greater love has a person than this: than they are willing to lay down their life for their friends. Now, you are my friends, if you do what I command you, to love one another. You didn’t chose me, but I chose you. I chose you to be my disciples and friends. I don’t call you servants because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing, but I call you friends because you know what the master is thinking and doing. You know the inside of the master’s head and heart. You are my friends. (John 15:12-17)
Maybe if you went to church you recall the great old hymn “What a friend we have in Jesus”. Jesus is our greatest friend. To think of Jesus as a friend is to allow God to come down to our size, so we can understand who God is. But a good friend not only listens; a good friend also talks back. A good friend does not only go, Hmm, like some professional and silent counsellor. No, after all that listening, a good friend talks with you. They share with you what they think and feel. They tell you their perspective, and this is good, a sign of a true friendship. Good friendship means that a friend is willing to honestly share their thoughts and feelings with you.
God also has a way of speaking to us in our needs. Christ, our good friend, always talks with us. The other thing about good friends is that they know you really well, and they still like you. They do understand and accept you warts and all. And so it is with God, our best friend. God knows you and me inside out, the darkest sides of our personalities, and God still likes and loves us.
In the Bible, it often says that Jesus was the friend of sinners, and I take comfort in that. God is a friend of imperfect people. God knows our shadow side and still likes and loves us. That is a good friend.
I pray that you ask Jesus to be you're best friend today.