Carwick Wesleyan Church

06/09/2026

June 9, 2026

Isaiah 14:12-15

GOD'S GLORY AND MAJESTY

The ceiling of London’s Banqueting House is magnificent. Painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens between 1629 and 1634, it was commissioned by King Charles I to glorify his family’s reign. In one painting, the goddess Minerva celebrates the achievements of Charles’ father, King James I. In another, James is carried to heaven on the wings of an eagle. Gazing up at the ceiling, banquet guests got a clear message: Kings like Charles and his father were virtually divine.

In the prophet Isaiah’s day, the king of Babylon felt similarly about himself. Here was a king who longed to “ascend to the heavens” and “sit . . . on the mount of assembly,” where the gods were thought to reign (Isaiah 14:13). Instead, Isaiah prophesied that this king would fall (vv. 3-4), being “brought down to the realm of the dead” (v. 15) without even a tomb to be remembered by (vv. 18-19). Charles I met a similar fate. In an ironic twist, he was marched beneath the very ceiling depicting his supposed divinity before being executed outside Banqueting House in 1649.

It’s a sad fact that has repeated through time: Powerful people who claim divine glory for themselves will one day discover how human they are. For there is only one who is worthy of reigning from heaven, and all power, glory, and majesty are His alone (1 Chronicles 29:11). -- Sheridan Voysey

WHY DO YOU THINK RULERS THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE CLAIMED DIVINITY FOR THEMSELVES?
HOW DOES JESUS COMPARE TO THE ATTITUDE OF SUCH RULERS?

Heavenly Father, You are God, and all power and glory are Yours!

06/08/2026

June 8, 2026

Philippians 4:10-19

RECIPROCAL GENEROSITY

When Melanie began having regular headaches, her doctors discovered she had a benign tumor in her pituitary gland. The tumor was about the size of a plum and was surgically removed in 2003 and again in 2006 when it recurred. Then in 2017, when it came back a third time, Melanie underwent radiation treatment instead, which caused her to lose her hair. Her twenty-seven-year-old son, Matt, decided to grow out his own hair to make a wig for her.

Matt’s selfless, loving act illustrates how one person’s abilities and resources can supply the needs of another person or group. Paul highlights the beauty of such reciprocal generosity in his letter to the Philippians. The believers in Philippi had shared in his “troubles” and “sent . . . aid more than once when [he] was in need” (Philippians 4:14, 16). Having received their gifts, Paul recognized that God had provided amply for his needs.

Our willingness to share with one another is often the conduit of God’s provision in our lives. Sometimes we’re in a position to give of our time, talent, or treasure; other times we’re in need ourselves and must rely on the support of another. Through His Spirit working in us, our gifts are “pleasing to God” and a manifestation of our shared life in the body of Christ (v. 18).
By: Kirsten Holmberg

WHEN HAS GOD SUPPLIED YOUR NEEDS THROUGH ANOTHER PERSON?
HOW MIGHT HE PROVIDE FOR SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH YOUR GENEROUS GIVING TODAY?

Father God, thank You for providing for me. Please help me share what You've given me as I seek to cheerfully and generously help others.

06/07/2026

June 7, 2026

Ruth 1:11-18

REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE

A restaurant employee discovered an unconscious man beside a dumpster. He was sunburned, bitten by ants, and showed signs of blunt force trauma. He had no memory of who he was. The man, later self-named “Benjamin Kyle,” lived in limbo for more than a decade. He couldn’t work, collect benefits, or even reclaim his past. His healing began when a community of strangers helped him rediscover his identity through genetic testing and investigation. “I have a history,” he said. “I’m not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air.”

The story of Ruth in the Bible can also be seen as one of rediscovered belonging. After losing her husband and leaving her homeland, she chose to bind herself to her mother-in-law Naomi and her people. She said, “Where you go I will go . . . . Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth connected her identity and destiny to that of Naomi and her people in life and in death. She was “determined to go with her” (v. 18)—prioritizing community over clarity, belonging over certainty. In doing so, she stepped into God’s redemptive story and is remembered forever as part of the lineage of Christ (4:18-22; Matthew 1:3-5).

When we as believers in Jesus forget who we are—or when life’s pain leaves us disoriented—God often uses community to reconnect us with our most authentic identity. In Him we’re beloved, chosen, and known.
By: Marvin Williams

WHO IS GOD USING TO HELP YOU REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE IN HIM?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KNOWN BY HIM?

Dear God, please help me remember who I am in You.

06/06/2026

June 6, 2026

Psalm 23:1-6

GOD'S PROVISION

I was putting my grandson to bed during a sleepover. When his Bible bookmark opened to Psalm 23, he objected, “We already read this one.” After I suggested we might learn something new, he read aloud, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastries.” Green pastries?! I explained that the word was pastures, not pastries. Hours earlier, he’d stood before a bakery shelf, selecting treats. His interpretation came into focus: To him, a bakery conveyed a place of rest and enjoyment.

Psalm 23 may be so familiar to us that we miss its deep offering. David, a king well acquainted with shepherding, describes God’s provision over a lifetime of things both idyllic and challenging. He points out that our good God leads us to places where we can partake of His presence, be rejuvenated, and prepare for what will come. “Green pastures” and “quiet waters” are such dwellings for sheep, and we are God’s sheep.

My grandson’s innocent interpretation opened my eyes to the “green pastures” God provides for me — places of rest and enjoyment in everyday life where He restores me. A gold-hued sunset. A verdant field. A quiet corner. A bakery shelf of green pastries, wafting out delight. I’m so glad we read Psalm 23 again!
By Elisa Morgan

WHAT UNEXPECTED "GREEN PASTURE" MOMENTS HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED?
HOW DOES PSALM 23 INVITE YOU INTO THE PROVISION OF GOD'S PRESENCE?

Dear God, please open my eyes to the green pasture moments You provide. Help me to enter Your presence each day.

06/05/2026

Release Time is in need of a teacher and a helper for the next school year.

06/05/2026

June 5, 2026

Jonah 2:1-10

RUNNING TO GOD IN PRAYER

One moment Adrian Simancas was kayaking in the Strait of Magellan in Chile with his father. The next, the twenty-four-year-old was engulfed in the mouth of a humpback whale. "I thought I was dead," Adrian told a news outlet. After a few seconds, the whale released Adrian into the frigid waters. His life vest caused him to float to the water's surface, and his father helped him to safety.

The Old Testament prophet Jonah also had an encounter with a large sea creature. Jonah refused to follow God's directive to preach a message of repentance to the Israelite's enemies, the Ninevites, so he boarded a ship in the opposite direction of Ninevah. When the ship got caught in a storm, Jonah convinced the crew to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:11-12, 15). "Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (v. 17). Jonah went from fleeing from God to crying out to Him: "From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God" (2:1).

God heard Jonah and rescued him (v. 10). Then Jonah preached to the Ninevites, and they repented (3:8-10).

If God could hear Jonah's plea from inside a big fish, He can hear us and rescue us from wherever we are. Instead of running from God, let's run to Him in prayer, knowing that He will answer us when we cry out to Him. -- Nancy Gavilanes

WHY DO YOU SOMETIMES RUN FROM GOD?
HOW CAN YOU RUN TO HIM TODAY?

Dear God, thank You for the rescue You alone provide.

06/04/2026

June 4, 2026

1 John 1:5-9, 2:7-10

FREEDOM IN GOD'S LOVE

If you've ever heard the expression "albatross around my neck" - a phrase referring to a tiresome burden - you've heard an illusion to English poet Samuel Coleridge's famous poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In the poem, a sailor shoots and kills a harmless, friendly albatross. The crew believes the mariner's cruel deed curses their voyage and forces him to wear the dead bird around his neck as punishment.

Are there regrets in your life that feel like a heavy weight around your neck? All of us have moments we'd do anything to take back. It can feel like we're cursed to carry the weight of our guilt and regret forever.

Yet God's grace can free our hearts from even the most painful regret. We all have sin (1 John 1:8, 10), but when we honestly confess our burdens to God, we're promised he "will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (v. 9). As His grace rushes in, His light and love can flow through us (2:10), freeing us to love those around us (3:14).

In Coleridge's poem, the tormented mariner also eventually experiences this grace. When love for God's creation rushes into his heart and compels him to pray, the albatross falls off his neck, vanishing forever "like lead into the sea." -- Monica La Rose

WHAT CAN FEEL LIKE AND "ALBATROSS" AROUND YOUR NECK?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU TO ACCEPT GOD'S GRACE FOR YOUR GUILT?

Dear God, thank You that the guilt I carry doesn't exclude me from experiencing Your beauty and grace. Please help me find freedom in Your love today.

06/03/2026

June 3, 2026

1 Samuel 16:14-23

THE POWER OF MUSIC

On November 21, 1915, the hope of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his twenty-seven crew members sank, along with their ship Endurance, into the darkness below the Antarctic ice. They were stranded thousands of miles from home. Later, the crew shared several things that aided their survival, including a banjo. Embarking on their brutal trek, Leonard Hussey (the expedition's meteorologist) was the only person allowed more than two pounds of personal gear. He was allowed to bring his twelve-pound Windsor banjo. "It's vital mental medicine," Shackleton told Hussey, "and we shall need it." The crew's journals explained the power of Hussey's music. "The banjo does ... supply brain food," wrote one sailor. Another reflected on "Hussey's indispensable banjo."

The Bible presents music as one of God's immense gifts, a way His healing and comfort enter the human heart. In the tragic story of King Saul, we hear how (due to his disobedience) he was oppressed by an "evil spirit" (1 Samuel 16:14). And what did Saul's attendants believe the king needed to provide relief? Music. So they found young David with his harp: "David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him" (v. 23).

Music offers more than mere entertainment. It can bring joy, renew hope, and comfort weary souls. It's truly one of God's powerful gifts. -- Winn Collier

WHAT ENCOURAGEMENT HAS MUSIC OFFERED YOU?
HOW HAS IT DEEPENED YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?

Dear God, thank You for the gift of music!

06/02/2026

June 2, 2026

Philippians 2:12-13, 3:12-16

OUR PART, GOD'S PART

In Singapore, the government encourages people to support good causes by donation-matching. It "tops up" donations to specific charities by contributing an equal amount or more. By effectively multiplying people's contributions, it hopes to encourage them to become more involved in charitable giving.

This two-pronged approach reminds me of how believers in Jesus are called to God's standards of holiness in our discipleship journey. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul urges them "to work out [their] salvation" (2:12) and "press on" (3:12, 14). At the same time, he stresses that "it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (2. 13).

Believers in Jesus aren't made right with God by good works or performance. But there is an idea of partnership in our spiritual growth. It requires heart and effort on our part, yet we do not do it by human strength. Having saved us by grace, God calls us to be holy - set apart for Him - and we respond in sincerity and gratitude. As we seek to obey and please Him, He enables and helps us to do so. He shows us when we go wrong (Philippians 3:15), gives us strength to resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), and empowers us to do what's right in His eyes (Ephesians 2:10). -- Leslie Koh

WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN SEEKING TO BE FAITHFUL AND PLEASING TO GOD?
HOW CAN YOU RELY MORE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT'S STRENGTH?

Holy God, please help me to be holy and faithful in my journey, for I know that You desire me to be like Your Son Jesus.

06/02/2026