“The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Toward the scorners He is scornful, but to the humble He gives favor ”

Proverbs 3:33-34
My Life in the Word This Week:
Daily Discipleship Guide
Day 1 (p. 117)
Pray and ask The Father to help you, your family and our Grace Family to trust Him in the promises He has already made to you/us in His Word. Also, trusting in what He has already done in your life and the life of our Grace Family — Remembering Proverbs 3:5-7.
Thank Him for His loving patience toward you, your family and our Grace Family.

Day 2 (p. 118)
Read Colossians 3:2 — Earnestly ask God to take your, your family’s and our Grace Family’s heart and mind captive to Christ. To think on “things above” instead of selfish earthly things which lead to pride. Ask The Father to help us “put off” self and to “put on” Christ, in order to humbly bring Him glory this week.

Day 3 (p. 118)
Humbly acknowledge to Jesus your, your family’s and our Grace Family’s need of each other and our dependence upon each other. Ask God to remind you afresh that you/we have been saved into the Church and that we are one body with many members (1 Corinthians 12:12). Ask God to help serve one another in grace and love.

Day 4 (p. 119)
Philippians 2:3 — “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”  Ask God to crucify your, your family’s and our Grace Family’s selfish desires and, instead, to enable us to walk in the “newness of life” of humility and service toward other’s needs this week.

Day 5 (p. 119)
Take a moment and thank God for something He has lovingly removed from you/your family, as good as it may have seemed, yet now you see His love in its removal. (maybe something you desperately asked Him for and He didn’t give it you, maybe it was something you cherished more than Him, maybe it was “good” but it was not His “best” for you). Thank God for loving you enough to care for your good and what is best.
Thank God for looking our for our good as the Grace Family.
My Family in the Word This Week

You are encouraged to use your child’s The Gospel Project’s take home “ Activity Page ”, “ The Big Picture Cards for Families ” or student’s Family Connection this week as part of your family discipleship time. (see the Family Discussion Starters section and/or Big Picture Question to help you get started)

You can also use the Encourage One Another section at the end of this week’s study in your Daily Discipleship Guide.  (p.120)
Together in Prayer for Others This Week
SBC Missions
Clay and Amy Kerisky in Southeast Asia

Today we’re going to pray for two of our missionaries serving in a country in Southeast Asia that we will not name. And we are using made-up names for the missionaries because we don’t want them thrown out of the country or worse because we talked too openly. Missions is dangerous in many places and this is one of those. We’ll call them Clay and Amy.

Have you ever thought about what people believe before they believe in Jesus? In much of Asia, they believe in spirits. They believe spirits are evil and are always trying to hurt people. Where our missionaries serve, that’s the way most people are.

A man we’ll call Ketoot was a welder by trade. He was scared to death of spirits. He made offerings and prayed to the spirits, fearing they would hurt him. When Clay and Amy told this man God loves him, has a plan for his life and sent Jesus to die for him, Ketoot was interested. As a test, he quit giving the spirits offerings — and nothing happened. He became a follower of Jesus Christ. His fear went away. A year later, his wife was saved.

Some of our church’s Cooperative Program dollars find their way to Clay and Amy all the way over in Southeast Asia. So we rejoice with them when we hear victory stories like this. 

Let’s ask God to bless them and their ministry and let’s ask God that thousands and thousands of people will turn from evil spirits to the one true God of love!
Unreached People of our World
The Campalagian people of Indonesia
Local Church for the Week
The Vine Church
GCF Local Mission
Plumb Alley Day (Saturday, May 25)

Scripture prayer for our GCF family ministering at Plumb Alley Day:
Colossians 4:2-6
2  Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving . 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ , on account of which I am in prison— 4  that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak .
5  Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
My Life and My Family in Prep for Next Week
Read the following Scripture passages in preparation for this coming Sunday morning .

Gospel Project: Daily Discipleship Guide pages 121-125; Ruth 1:1-17; 2:1-12; 4:1-17

Sermon Text: Psalm 36:1-12