Culpeper United Methodist Church, 6/18-22, 9:00 a.m. – noon, 3-12 years old, 825-0764, Theme: SonRise National Parks, Registration available on website: www.culpeperumc.org

Family Community Church, 6/24-28, 6:30-8:30 p.m., 3-12 years old, 825-6420

Hazel River Assembly of God, 6/25-29, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., 4-11 years old, 937-6041, free registration at www.hazelriver.org.

Jeffersonton Baptist Church, 7/16-21 (evening), 937-5446

Lael Baptist Church (joint VBS with Oakland Baptist, Ebeneezer Baptist, and Hopewell UMC in Lignum) 6/25-29, 423-1133

Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, 6/11-15, 9:00 a.m. – noon, 5 years old to rising 7^th graders, using Lifeway’s “Amazing Wonders Aviation” curriculum, register at www.mtlebanonbaptistchurch.com, 987-8354

New Harvest Christian Fellowship, 7/9-13, 6-8 pm, 2-12 years old, 937-2668

Novum Baptist Church, July 22-27, 6:30 – 8:30 PM, “Mission Possible” theme, 547-3357

Open Door Baptist Church: 6/18-22, 6:30-9 p.m., Kindergarten age to rising 6^th graders, 825-1549

Providence Bible Church, 7/23-27, 6-8:30 p.m., 825-4715, Register at www.providencebible.org, 3 yrs – rising 5^th graders

Providence Bible Church Sports Camp, 6/25-29, 4:30-8:15 p.m., $25, 4-12 years old, 825-4715

Reformation Lutheran Church, July 16-20, 5:30 – 8:30 PM, 825-1376, Pre-school through high school.

Stevensburg Baptist Church, June 24-29, 6:00 or 6:30 PM start, 399-1066

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, July 29-Aug 2, evenings, meal provided, Theme: “God’s Amazing Desert Journey”, 825-8358

This ruling has the potential to impact National Day of Prayer proclamations across our nation.

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On Thursday, May 10, 2012, just one week after a record turnout for the National Day of Prayer across the country, when millions gathered from coast to coast to unite in prayer, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the governor’s proclamation for a state Day of Prayer violates the Constitutions’ provisions for religious liberty. The Colorado Court of Appeals also requested that a trial court decide if a governor should be prohibited from making such proclamations in the future, as well as a permanent ban on state prayer events. The judges did not weigh the National Day of Prayer proclamations, which federal courts have ruled are constitutional.

This case began in 2008 against former Governor Bill Ritter by a small group of atheists headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Judge Mullins of the District Court in Denver, Colorado, initially dismissed the case on October 28, 2010, declaring “…there is nothing controversial about a restatement of a right protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution…the proclamation [does] not have the force and effect of law, and even if [it] did, the language does not support the foundation for a state religion, but only an acknowledgment of the rights of the citizenry as recognized as far back as the Declaration of Independence.”

If Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers do not appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court, it is likely there will be national impact as a direct result.

To read the rest of the article and to sign a petition encouraging Colorado Governor Hickenlooper and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to prepare a vigorous defense against the decision by the Colorado Court of Appeals, please click here.

The Culpeper Prayer Room invites everyone to join them on May 27th for a Global Day of Prayer/Pentecost event at Yowell Meadow Park, Pavilion A, from Sunrise to Sunset.

Activities include a worship service at 9 AM and prayer & worship sessions throughout the day. Bring blankets or lawn chairs, as well as a picnic lunch, and enjoy a day of fellowship, while seeking the Lord.

There will also be a night-watch prayer and worship gathering at the Culpeper Prayer Room, beginning at sunset on Saturday, May 26th. The Culpeper Prayer Room is located at 128 West Culpeper St., Suite 102.

For more information, please visit www.culpeperprayerroom.org.

Women from all denominations and walks of life are invited to come together to meet, fellowship, worship, and learn what it means to be a woman who is flourishing in the design and dream of God’s heart for her.

Time:
Friday, May 18th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Saturday, May 19th, 9:00 – 4:00 pm

Location:
13715 Berry Hill Road
Elkwood, VA 22718
(formerly Elkwood Crossing Nursery & Garden Center)

Pack a lunch. Bring a friend and a blanket for bleacher-style seating and join others… in the Garden.

For more information, please call Tabitha at (540) 522-9350 or e-mail her at tabathaslaugh333@yahoo.com.

Family and friends of the graduates are invited to attend. Class members should arrive by 1:30 p.m. in their caps and gowns.

For more information, please contact Pastor Erick Kalenga at (540) 729-7330 or by e-mail at erick@hisvillage.org.

If you, or someone you know, would like to attend, please contact Darla Hedlund darladhedlund@msn.com or Pastor Kate Costa pastorkatecosta@gmail.com, (540) 825-8358.

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church is located at 1200 Old Rixeyville Rd., Culpeper, VA 22701.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

Virginia Morton read Jeremiah 17:5-8:

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.’

‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.’”

Pastor Adam Meisberger delivering the sermon.

The sermon: “God’s Transformational Blessing for Our Nation Starts with You” was delivered by Adam Meisberger, Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church. Pastor Meisberger said that there are only two types of people in this world and throughout eternity. There is only one thing that divides all of humanity. Is the person’s trust and confidence and assurance and faith in the Lord?

Our only concern should be: Where is our confidence? If our confidence is not in the Lord, we will not be blessed by Him. Where is our nation’s confidence? Christians cannot point their fingers of blame at our government, at our media, or at anyone else. Christians also are to blame for our nation’s direction. We must take the plank out of our own eyes before we can take the speck out of someone else’s eye.

A Christian must ask this very serious question: Is his/her sole confidence in his/her life the Lord God Almighty?

If you lost your house tomorrow, would you still have confidence in Him? If your bank accounts were suddenly gone, would you still have confidence in Him? If you had no health insurance, would you still have confidence in Him?

For revival to spread throughout our country, so that our country can once again be a “Nation under God,” Christians must be entirely sold out to Christ. Our sole confidence must be in the Lord God Almighty!

To hear Pastor Meisberger’s message in its entirety, click here.

The evening concluded with prayers for our Government, Military, Education, Families, Businesses, Media and Church by Marsha Fishbaugh, Pastor Ludwell Brown, Laura Burt, Art Fellows, Mike Garrett, Jithendra Manne and Ed Lyons, respectively.

Thank you to all who showed up at our noon National Day of Prayer event on the Culpeper Courthouse lawn today, May 3rd. Approximately 125 people were in attendance. It was good to see so many who serve our community in areas of government, police, fire and rescue, education, military, business and worship.

A portion of those who attended the noon NDOP event on the Culpeper Courthouse lawn.

Special thanks to Maddie Wheeler, George Bowles, Doug & Anne Farmer, Darlene Neff, Troy Smith, Steve Buchanan, and Tim Smith who led us in prayer for our country’s education, church, family, government, military, media and businesses, respectively.

Dave Wheatley led us in songs of worship, and Pastor Baker Rigg of Church on the Rise encouraged us to truly know God more intimately. Baker said the U.S. is at a critical juncture. To truly remain a nation under God, we will need a full-scale revival. To have that, we must be obedient to Jesus’ teaching to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love others as ourselves. 

Pastor Baker Rigg of Church on the Rise

Wouldn’t it be great if a revival broke out in Culpeper that spread across this nation?

Yes, Pastor Rigg, we agree that it would indeed!

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

The National Day of Prayer is a vital part of our heritage. Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through history, including President Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1962, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Ronald Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May.

As we seek to remain a nation under God, let us call out to Him with a unified voice. There are a number of events planned in the Culpeper area.

Noon to 1 PM at the Culpeper Courthouse Lawn, located off of West Davis Street, across from the Culpeper Fire Department. Rain location: Culpeper Presbyterian Church on Main Street next to the US Post Office. Contact Ed Lyons at (540) 829-5353 for more details.

7:00 – 8:30 PM at the Culpeper United Methodist Church in their sanctuary. Contact Fran Kimball (540) 937-7298 for more details.

Wednesday, May 2nd – Culpeper County Public School’s Rize-Up Club is hosting a National Day of Prayer event in the Culpeper Middle School forum from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. This is a student-led prayer event. Contact Jon Morton at (540) 498-3333.

 
Throughout the Bible, God asked people, “What is in your hand?” to show them that he uses the ordinary to do supernatural things.

Do you want God to do extraordinary things through you?

What ordinary things do you have in your hand today that He can use?

 
At the monthly Culpeper County Minsterial Association meeting on Tuesday November 15, Rev. Liz Danielsen shared a powerful devotional titled “What is in your hand?”

My spirit was stirred so much by that message that I asked Chaplain Liz to record her message later in the week to be able to create a video to share with the world. You are now a beneficiary of that obedience.

Rev. Liz Danielsen is a nationally endorsed healthcare chaplain. I knew Chaplain Liz when she was the former chaplain of Culpeper Regional Hospital in Virginia where I used to work.

She is the Founder and Director of Spiritual Care Support Ministries (SCSM), which provides support and education to those who are sick, grieving, experiencing personal losses, and those who journey with them. The ministry of SCSM is expanding.

In her devotional, Chaplain Liz shares a short, but important message about how God uses ordinary things and people to accomplish His extraordinary purpose.

Throughout the Bible, God asked people, “What is in your hand?” to show them that he uses the ordinary to do supernatural things.

Do you want God to do extraordinary things through you?

What ordinary things do you have in your hand today that He can use?

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Exodus 4:1-17 (NIV)

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous; it had become as white as snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

But Moses said, “Oh, Lord. Please send someone else to do.” Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.

You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth and I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.

“But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

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God took Moses’ staff and with it led the Israelites through the Red Sea and the wilderness?

Throughout the Bible, God asked people, “What is in your hand?” to show them that he uses the ordinary to do supernatural things.

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1 Kings 17:10-12 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” So she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

1 Kings 17:13-15 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. “For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’” So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days.

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1 Samuel 17:48-49 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

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Do you want God to do extraordinary things through you?
What ordinary things do you have in your hand today that He can use?

Blessings to release what is in your hand?

Joseph

Joseph Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
THE CONNECTOR and The Journal Guy
Breakthrough Life Coach
Creative Marketing and Communication Specialist