C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

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Today's Reading

On Depression

My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening to active assistance, is simply bad; and I think that we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to “rejoice” as by anything else. Humility, after the first shock, is a cheerful virtue: it is the high-minded unbeliever desperately trying in the teeth of repeated disillusions to retain his “faith in human nature” who is really sad.

• From The Problem of Pain
• Compiled in Words to Live By

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 28

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Living in the drought-stricken West, whenever we receive rain (and snow in the mountains) we rejoice despite the challenges of recent storms. The reservoirs begin to fill, the aquifers start replenishing, irrigation canals bring precious water to parched fields, and the land turns green with hope of new life ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY NEYLAN: On troughs; on believing as an intellectual assent and as a psychological state; the despair of overcoming chronic temptations; and on how God likes to be asked. Lewis discloses that, at the direction of Father Adams, he has shortened an ever-lengthening list of people for whom he was praying.

20 January 1942

Sorry you’re in a trough. I’m just emerging (at least I hope I am) from a long one myself. As for the difficulty of believing it is a trough, one wants to be careful about the word ‘believing’. We too often mean by it ‘having confidence or assurance as a psychological state’—as we have about the existence of furniture. But that comes and goes and by no means always accompanies intellectual assent, e.g. in learning to swim you believe, and even know intellectually that water will support you long before you feel any real confidence in the fact. I suppose the perfection of faith would make this confidence invariably proportionate to the assent.

In the meantime, as one has learnt to swim only by acting on the assent in the teeth of all instinctive conviction, so we shall proceed to faith only by acting as if we had it. Adapting a passage in the Imitation one can say ‘What would I do now if I had a full assurance that there was only a temporary trough’, and having got the answer, go and do it. I a man, therefore lazy: you a woman, therefore probably a fidget. So it may be good advice to you (though it would be bad to me) not even to try to do in the trough all you can do on the peak.

I have recently been advised by Fr. Adams to abbreviate a prayer for other people which was becoming so long (as my circle widens) as to be irksome. I have done so, but kept the longer one on two days a week. Result, that having ceased to be the rule and become a kind of extra, it ceases to be irksome and is often a delight. There is danger in making Christianity too much into a ‘Law’. Let yourself off something. Relax.

I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience et cetera doesn’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of His presence.

The question about Sarah is why she wants not to have to ask the good one to make her good. Would it be right (I know so little about children) to point out to her that He likes being asked: and that if she could be good on her own, taking no notice of Him, that itself wouldn’t be good. But ten to one the 2 sticks were primarily a game . . .

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 27

Monday of the First Week of Lent

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.
Matthew 25: 35-36

How familiar we are with this Gospel, as it is at the core of our work at Catholic Charities. We have it in our mission statements, headlining our marketing materials and embedded in our orientations. We know of the needs in front of us and the importance of the tasks we are called to- feeding, clothing, visiting and welcoming.

Personally, I will admit that I have seen and prayed over this scripture passage so many times that I can fall into the trap of thinking I know it fully ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Screwtape reveals Nothing:

The Christians describe the Enemy as one ‘without whom Nothing is strong’. And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

• From The Screwtape Letters
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 26

First Sunday of Lent

We who have been “around” for a while know that on the first Sunday of Lent we get the two “big” temptation stories: the Garden of Eden and Jesus tested in the desert. Sometimes we skim over these familiar readings and decide we know what is going to happen anyway.

But how would it go if that was how we approached our ministry? ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Demons

I believe [in the existence of the devil] not in the sense that it is part of my creed, but in the sense that it is one of my opinions. My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false. Till that happens—and proofs of a negative are hard to come by—I shall retain it. It seems to me to explain a good many facts. It agrees with the plain sense of Scripture, the tradition of Christendom, and the beliefs of most men at most times. And it conflicts with nothing that any of the sciences has shown to be true.

• From The Screwtape Letters
• Compiled in Words to Live By

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 25

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

In his message for Lent, Lenten Penance and the Synodal Journey, Pope Francis calls us to “journey together” (synod). He links this journey to the Transfiguration:

“Like the ascent of Jesus and the disciples to Mount Tabor, we can say that our Lenten journey is “synodal,” since we make it together along the same path, as disciples of the one Master. For we know that Jesus is himself the Way.” ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

There must, whether the gods see it or not, be something great in the mortal soul. For suffering, it seems, is infinite, and our capacity without limit.

• From Till We Have Faces

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 24

Friday After Ash Wednesday

American history is replete with examples of bigotry against Catholic immigrants. Whether it was the Know Nothing Party in the 1800s or the Ku Klux Klan in the 1900s, millions of Americans have seen Catholics as a threat to the American way of life.

There were many reasons for this animosity ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY NEYLAN, who had told Lewis she was going to resume the practice of her faith after years of alienation and theological struggle: On acting on the light one has; on the unreliability of religious emotion; on confession of sins to a spiritual director; and on daily spiritual and Bible reading.

4 January 1941

Congratulations . . . on your own decision. I don’t think this decision comes either too late or too soon. One can’t go on thinking it over for ever; and one can begin to try to be a disciple before one is a professed theologian. In fact they tell us, don’t they, that in these matters to act on the light one has is almost the only way to more light. Don’t be worried about feeling that, or about feeling at all. As to what to do, I suppose the normal next step, after self-examination repentance and restitution, is to make your Communion; and then to continue as well as you can, praying as well as you can . . . and fulfilling your daily duties as well as you can. And remember always that religious emotion is only a servant. . . . This, I say, would be the obvious course. If you want anything more e.g. Confession and Absolution which our church enjoins on no-one but leaves free to all—let me know and I’ll find you a directeur. If you choose this way, remember it’s not the psychoanalyst over again: the confessor is the representative of Our Lord and declares His forgiveness—his advice or ‘understanding’ though of real, is of secondary importance.

For daily reading I suggest (in small doses) Thomas à Kempis’ ‘Imitation of Christ’ and the ‘Theologia Germanica’...and of course the Psalms and New Testament. Don’t worry if your heart won’t respond: do the best you can. You are certainly under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, or you wouldn’t have come where you now are: and the love that matters is His for you—yours for Him may at present exist only in the form of obedience. He will see to the rest.

This has been great news for me I need hardly say. You have all my prayers (not that mine are worth much).

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 23

Thursday After Ash Wednesday

Have you washed the ashes off your face yet? Has the dust reminding us of our most important life-journey left your heart as well as your face? What have the ashes left on your countenance? What do you face when you look in the mirror?

Today’s readings urge us to make choices on a daily basis ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Screwtape reveals a powerful tool for distraction:

What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And’. You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.

The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart—an endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage, and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time, and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable. But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme. He gives them in His Church a spiritual year; they change from a fast to a feast, but it is the same feast as before.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

From Catholic Charities USA ... "Lent Daily Reflection" for February 22

Ash Wednesday

“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned,” says the psalmist.

Today we begin the holy season of Lent, the 40 days of preparation for the great feast of Easter, when death is conquered and heaven and earth are reconciled. But wait, says the Lord. Not so fast ...

• Read the rest of today's reflection ...

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The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same. Catholic Charities is a network of charities with headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Conversion

Before I became a Christian I do not think I fully realized that one’s life, after conversion, would inevitably consist in doing most of the same things one had been doing before, one hopes, in a new spirit, but still the same things.

• From The Weight of Glory
• Compiled in Words to Live By

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it—tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest—if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself—you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.’ We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.

• From The Problem of Pain
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO FLORENCE (MICHAL) WILLIAMS, the widow of Charles Williams: A letter of condolence.

22 May 1945

Thank you for your most kind letter. We all knew that your marriage was one in a thousand. I think you will not be offended if I tell you this; that whenever Charles disagreed with anything we had said about women in general, it was a common turn of raillery to reply ‘Oh Charles! —of course he’s in love, so his opinions on that subject are worthless!’

I feel, in my degree, as you do. My friendship is not ended. His death has had the very unexpected effect of making death itself look quite different. I believe in the next life ten times more strongly than I did. At moments it seems almost tangible. Mr. Dyson, on the day of the funeral, summed up what many of us felt, ‘It is not blasphemous’, he said ‘To believe that what was true of Our Lord is, in its less degree, true of all who are in Him. They go away in order to be with us in a new way, even closer than before.’ A month ago I would have called this silly sentiment. Now I know better. He seems, in some indefinable way, to be all around us now. I do not doubt he is doing and will do for us all sorts of things he could not have done while in the body. Of course this expects no answer. God bless you.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. II
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer.

Photo courtesy of Susan DeGeorge

Today in the Mission Yearbook: February 19, 2023

TRANSGENDER MINISTRIES ARE TRANSFORMING CHURCHES - “Welcoming all in the name of Christ” might be easy to write into a church’s mission statement, but the challenge comes when faced with living it out and extending a hand to those in the transgender community. An inclusive, loving welcome is possible, though, with education and courage to open up those sanctuary doors ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Comfort

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.

• From A Grief Observed
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer.

Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Homes & Services

Today in the Mission Yearbook: February 18, 2023

FOUR LADIES IN THEIR EIGHTIES - DIt was standing room only in mid-November at Orchard Path, a Presbyterian Homes & Services senior living community located in Apple Valley, Minnesota. On that fall afternoon, the community gathered to hear a piano concert entitled “Four Ladies in their Eighties.” The concert was performed by Orchard Path resident Vicki Hall and her sisters Jan Goris, Val Duininck and Carol Hall ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

In the News ... "St. Michaels prepares for annual sausage lovers festivalr"

SMCC Photo

• Festival has evolved from a church festival to a community event

Special Contribution
• Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

LEVELLAND, TEXAS - Parishioners of St. Michael Catholic Church in Levelland are making preparations for the 38th Annual Sausage Lovers Festival Sunday, Feb. 26 in the parish hall at 318 E. Washington St.

The festival features a parish-prepared meal featuring homemade German-style sausage and all the trimmings, including dessert and a drink for $15 per plate. The meal will be served as dine-in or carry-out from 10 am to 3 pm

...

 • Read the rest of this LAJ report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

It is monstrously simple-minded to read the cursings in the Psalms with no feeling except one of horror at the uncharity of the poets. They are indeed devilish. But we must also think of those who made them so. Their hatreds are the reaction to something. Such hatreds are the kind of thing that cruelty and injustice, by a sort of natural law, produce. This, among other things, is what wrong-doing means. Take from man his freedom or his goods and you may have taken his innocence, almost his humanity, as well. Not all the victims go and hang themselves like Mr Pilgrim; they may live and hate.

• From Reflections on the Psalms

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer.

Photo courtesy of Pamela Atkinson

Today in the Mission Yearbook: February 17, 2023

THE MOTHER THERESA OF UTAH - By extending an invitation to love everyone no matter what, as Jesus did, Pamela Atkinson, who grew up in the slums of London, has helped shape the life of First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. It has even earned her the nickname “the Mother Teresa of Utah” ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

In the News ... Photo Album "Mission: Permian Basin"

OA Photos by Michael Bauer

• "God's ministry where the people help the community"

Michael Bauer, Reporter/Photographer
• Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - The Permian Basin Mission Center ad the honor of welcoming Congressman August Pfluger for a 45 minute visit with our staff and board of directors ...

• Enjoy the rest of this OA photo album ...

In the News ... "Mackey Chapel marks 85th anniversary"

• Historic Methodist church an Odessa landmark since 1937

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
• Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - Way back in 1937, when the cars looked a whole lot different and were much slower and Odessa’s population was under 9,500, Mackey Chapel United Methodist Church was just getting started.

The venerable church at 306 W. Clements St. celebrated its 85th anniversary Nov. 13 with the Rev. Charles E. Sims, pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, as guest speaker. Pastor Adrianne Coleman says it was a memorable day with a packed house, a choir from St. James Missionary Baptist Church and other participants who greatly enjoyed the ambience in the church whose founding pastor was the Rev. J.D. Mackey.

“It was a spectacular observance of history attended by the South Side Missionary Alliance and the sister congregations of Shiloh and St. James,” said the Rev. Coleman. “Having been the pastor since July 1, my experience has been of a loving, well-established congregation that has a heart for the community.

“They have been very supportive of me as their new pastor.”

Citing Exodus 15:11-16, the program said it was a celebration that “Through the grace of God, we made it through.”

The scripture asks, “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretch out your right hand and the earth swallows your enemies. In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone until your people pass by, Lord, until the people you bought pass by.”

In order, Mackey Chapel’s other pastors have been ...

• read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by “the veil of familiarity”. The child enjoys his gold meat (otherwise dull to him) by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savoury for having been dipped in a story; you might say that only then is it the real meat. If you are tired of the real landscape, look at it in a mirror. By putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves.

• From On Stories

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer.

Photo by Jack Cohen via Unsplash

Today in the Mission Yearbook: February 16, 2023

"NEW CHURCH, NEW WAY" PODCAST - Dr. “Are you in deep relationship? Do you notice the multitude of relationships that are happening right beneath our feet, and how they are interacting and cooperating in this complex web of life?” These are the questions that the Rev. Chantilly Mers asks of herself and others looking to reconnect to the land in Brooklyn, New York ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

FBR Report: "Join Us on 12 March for the Global Day of Prayer for Burma"

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma (Myanmar) and the Middle East. Groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need.

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Join Us on 12 March for the Global Day of Prayer for Burma

8 February, 2023,
Burma

Dear friends,

The situation in Burma now is worse than we’ve ever seen it, and there is the heaviest fighting since World War II. The Burma military comes with a speed and a force that I’ve never seen before. At the same time, there is a new unity in Burma, against the dictatorship, that cuts across all social, economic, racial, tribal, ideological, and religious lines. This unity is based on people from all over Burma banding together to stand against the oppressive dictatorship. This gives us all hope ...

• CLICK HERE to read the rest of this FBR Report ...

• CLICK HERE to download a full copy of the "Burma 2023" report ...

Thank you and God bless you,

Dave, family, and team

• CLICK HERE to learn how YOU can get involved in FBR and its mission ...

“LOVE EACH OTHER.
UNITE AND WORK FOR FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND PEACE.
FORGIVE AND DON’T HATE EACH OTHER.
PRAY WITH FAITH, ACT WITH COURAGE, NEVER SURRENDER.”

In the News ... “2023 Permian Basin Prayer Breakfast set for February 16 - TOMORROW"

• 7:00 - 8:15 am at the Bush Convention Center

MIDLAND, TEXAS - The 2023 edition of the Permian Basin Prayer Breakfast will be held this year at the Bush Convention Center on Thursday, February 16 from 7:00 - 8:15 am. Food service will begin at 6:45 am.

This year we will have guided prayer lead by Roy Smith ...

• CLICK HERE for more information ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Screwtape clarifies the Enemy's intent:

Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever. Hence, while He is delighted to see them sacrificing even their innocent wills to His, He hates to see them drifting away from their own nature for any other reason. And we should always encourage them to do so.

• From The Screwtape Letters
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer.

Contributed Photo

Today in the Mission Yearbook: February 15, 2023

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF MT. PLEASANT, IOWA - The First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa — believing where there’s God’s will, there is always a way — envisioned a way to care for God’s beloved creatures.

Prior to the pandemic, the church began a new ministry called All God’s Creatures. Its mission was to connect the hands and paws of the community, says Kate Ridinger, an AGC board member, noting that the “need has only grown” ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

In the News ... “Lawmakers seek to expand religious freedom in Texas"

AAS Photo by Jay Janner

• Here's what they're proposing

Nikki Griswold, Reporter
• Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN, TEXAS - Freshman Democratic Rep. Salman Bhojani, one of the state's first Muslim legislators, on Tuesday unveiled three bills he has filed that aim to improve the ability of Texans of all faiths to practice their religions

The bills, which have bipartisan support in the Texas House, would expand the state’s list of optional holidays to include additional religious holy days, prevent STAAR tests and end-of-course exams from being held on religious holidays, and clarify that religious leaders of all faiths are authorized to perform marriages ...

 • Read the rest of this AAS report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Comfort

God is the only comfort. He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. . . . Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in Words to Live By

In the News ... "Grant funding available for non-profits providers to help vulnerable population"

KFOX14/CBS4 Photo

• Applications and proposals are due by 5 p.m. on February 21

By Erika Esquivel, Reporter
• KFOX TV

EL PASO, TEXAS - The City of El Paso released a Notice of Availability for nonprofit agencies, non-municipal government entities, and city departments to address homelessness, provide social service programs, propose public facility improvements and housing rehabilitation that benefit low-to-moderate income residents in our community ...

• Read the rest of this KFOX TV report ...

In the News ... "Meals on Wheels 'Mudbug' fundraiser set for April"

• 23rd annual event at the Ector County Coliseum

Staff Report
• Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - Meals On Wheels has scheduled the 23rd annual Mudbug from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. April 11 at the Ector County Coliseum, 4201 Andrews Highway.

There will be all-you-can-eat fried catfish, peel and eat shrimp, hush puppies, and crawfish.

Tickets start at $50 per person.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit facebook.com/mealsonwheelsodessa/.