While I was sitting on my front porch one day last week, a blue jay landed by my coffee cup and took a sip. My first ministerial thought (I confess to an earlier thought that was not ministerial.) was surely there is a sermon illustration in this somewhere. Desiring to share my experience and opportunity with others I posted this on Facebook, anticipating creative replies from my Facebook \u201cfriends.\u201d I received a variety of replies, some serious, others humorous. Then came the poem. While I occasionally share a quote from someone else in this Monday Manna, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever shared someone else\u2019s poem. But with the permission of my good friend, Randal Whitt, enjoy:<\/p>\n
I sat down this morning with coffee by my side,
\nOn the quietness of my porch, in my Lord to confide,
\nStartled a bit I turned to see
\nThe eyes of a blue jay staring at me<\/p>\n
He had swooped down from its perch to check things out
\nI wondered\u2026what exactly was this unusual encounter about?<\/p>\n
In an instant I saw him peak
\nThen just as quick he dipped his beak
\nInto my cup and took a small sip
\nThen flew away with a song on his lips<\/p>\n
I did not understand what he had to say
\nBut I do know this: he was now one caffeinated blue jay<\/p>\n
So what did I learn from this visit today?
\nWhat message from God was being conveyed?
\nPerhaps it\u2019s as simple as this little phrase:<\/p>\n
Even on your porch, God can amaze.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s see what things God can amaze us with today as we join in remembering the following global prayer concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for guidance for Kazakhstan pastors and church leaders who are seeking to register their churches according to the new national law.
\n\u2022 Pray for a Sports and English Camp for Russian and Czech-speaking teens, called \u201cOlympicFEST.\u201d
\n\u2022 The food crisis in Africa\u2019s Sahel region is expected to remain critical throughout the summer. Pray for those who are suffering near starvation and for workers who are trying to help them.
\n\u2022 Pray for Lynn and Sandra as they take some much-needed time off from their ministry in Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While I was sitting on my front porch one day last week, a blue jay landed by my coffee cup and took a sip. My first ministerial thought (I confess to an earlier thought that was not ministerial.) was surely there is a sermon illustration in this somewhere. Desiring to share my experience and opportunity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}