Y Pray for continued courage on Dwight
SERMON NOTES: PRAYER REQUESTS
JANUARY 16, 2011
Y Jacob Mielke a 19 year old man who is
struggling with cancer. He is getting
chemo at the Mayo Clinic.
Y Peter Ralston, Faith Ralston’s son who is
struggling with addiction.
Y For Steven Muhia’s family, sick wife, and
children’s & family commitments, and for
their struggle with finances.
Y Jared Loughner, his poor disturbed soul.
Y Dave Nyberg as he recovers at home
from his knee surgery.
Y Gina Irlbeck’s recovery as she had gall
bladder and hernia surgery.
Y Christina Glasgow as she goes through
her final month of pregnancy.
Y Nikki Gilman, family and new born son.
Amy & Paul Moore’s daughter-in-law had
her baby boy early Tuesday morning.
Y For Gina Irlbeck’s co-worker, Rachel, who
will be undergoing surgery.
Y Donna Mc Cullen, Ken Mc Cullen's wife as
she goes through more intense
chemotherapy treatment.
Y The Pastor Nominating Committee of
Community Presbyterian Church in
Plainview as they discern who God is
calling to be their new pastor.
Y Gary Wassam as he looks for a job.
Y Pray for understanding, peace,
acceptance and love for the Tse family.
Y Bill Fink as he looks for a job.
Zvorak’s recovery from alcoholism.
DEVOTION
Dear Friends,
As part of my Core Values series last
August I preached a sermon on Joyful
Love. In preparing for the sermon on
this Sunday, I reviewed the devotion. I
like it so much that I decided to use it
again—with a few additions and
subtractions. If you have any thoughts
about this, do not hesitate to E-mail me
at pastor@colpres.org.
Joyful love can be a challenging value to
live out for us stoic Minnesotans. Many
of us grew up being taught that joy was
an emotion to avoid. We didn’t want to
get too full of ourselves or too
emotional.
Joy is more than a strong expression of
enthusiasm. It is this, and it is more
than this. Joy starts because of our
connection with God. We can
experience exuberant joy, quiet joy,
connective joy, and other types of joy
The Scriptures offer all sorts of
teachings about joy. The word “joy” is
used 211 times in the Bible. The
following five Scriptures are a small
sample of what the Scriptures teach
about joy. Enjoy!!
Monday, January 24
Read Psalm 16
Joy is a profoundly spiritual quality that
takes place because of our connection
to God. Joy is like happiness, but it goes
beyond happiness. Happiness often
depends on our external situation.
We’re happy because we’re doing well
2 3
with our family, work, health, or
finances.
Joy is deeper—life can be going terrible
and we can still experience joy. This
happens because of our realization of
what God has done for us.
Take a moment to reflect deeply on
verse 11. Read it over and over. If you
have time, take time to memorize the
verse. In God’ presence there is fullness
of joy. Take a moment to reflect on how
you’ve experienced God’s presence in
the past 24 hours. Most likely joy
accompanied this experience.
Today, as you pray, pray for a deepened
sense of God’s presence. When this
happens we will experience joy!
Tuesday, January 25
Read Exodus 15:1-21
The Song of Moses—the first 19 verses—
and the Song of Miriam—the final two
verses—are recognized as the oldest
and one of the most important poems in
the Old Testament. If you’ve ever
wondered about the basics of the Old
Testament, study these poems.
Both Moses and Miriam expressed a
sense of release. The Israelites were
released from death when God opened
the Red Sea to them.
At Chain of Lakes when we explained
the Core Value of Joyful Love, we started
out with this idea of release. We said
that “we are released to love each other
with joy …”
To experience joy we must understand
this concept of release. Through God,
through Christ’s death on the cross and
the resurrection we have been released
from death—we are offered the gift of
salvation. Death does not have final
power over us. Because of this release
we can love each other with joy.
As you pray today, give thanks for this
sense of release. God has released us
so that we may love—what a gift of joy!!
Wednesday, January 26
Read Luke 2:1-14
The message of the angel to the
shepherds was one of joy. Look at verse
10, “I am bringing you good news of
great joy for all the people.” Jesus’
entrance into the world was a message
of great joy for all people.
Soon after this message the whole
multitude of the heavenly host praised
God. What a sight this must have
been!!
One way to experience joy is to
constantly praise God. Praise is an act
of bestowing favor onto God for a
quality of God. We can praise God for
steadfast love, forgiveness, peace and
many other qualities.
The more we praise God the more our
hearts are open to receiving joy. Today
as you pray, take time to praise God for
qualities of God that are important to
you. As you go through your day, focus
your thoughts on this praise of God. As
you praise, you will be open to receiving
joy!! What a gift!
Thursday, January 27
Read Philippians 1:12-26
The letter that Paul wrote to the people
in the town of Philippi is often known as
the letter of joy. Joy is the principle
theme of the letter. The word “joy”
occurs five times and the verbs “rejoice”
and “be glad” occur eleven times. If
you have some time today, read this
4
letter—it would only take about 20
minutes.
That Paul experience joy is remarkable
as he was sitting in jail not knowing if he
was going to live or die when he wrote
this letter. Despite being under a death
sentence, he wrote of joy.
How can this happen? Paul was able to
look beyond his own self and see how
God was working and alive in the
circumstances in which he found
himself. Paul saw that his own
imprisonment was helping spread the
gospel. Paul was willing to suffer so that
people would receive Christ. This gave
him joy.
Today as you pray, pray that you can
look beyond your own self. Pay special
attention to how God is working and is
alive in the circumstances in which you
find yourself. In moving beyond self,
you can experience joy!!
Friday, January 28
Read John 15:1-11
This passage is part of Jesus’ “High
Priestly” prayer. The prayer covers
chapters 14-17 in John. Jesus closed
these eleven verses by praying that his
joy may be made complete.
Jesus’ joy was made complete when his
followers abided in God. God is the vine
and we are the branches. The more we
abide in God the more God’s joy is
complete in us. Remember—joy is a
profoundly spiritual quality. It starts
with God.
Our joy as a congregation depends on
how deeply we abide with God. When
we are connected spiritually in a deep
2 3 4
way into the vine, others will see and
experience our joy. Today as you pray,
pray that we at Chain of Lakes will be
known as a joyful people. Pray that our
joy will take place because of our
connection into the vine.

Saturday, January 29
Read 2 Samuel 6:1-5
In his sermon this past Sunday Paul
shared that one time we experience joy
is in once-in-a lifetime events. Events
like the birth of a baby, or meeting our
spouse, our marriage, or getting the job
we always wanted.

David experienced this type of event in

this story. He had been successful in
taking the ark from the Philistines. He
and his followers danced before the Lord
with all of their might.

When are some instances when you

experienced this intensity of joy? As you
pray today, give thanks for these times.