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  Ezra 8:24-30- Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, namely, Sherebiah, Hashabiah and ten of their brothers, and I weighed out to them the offering of silver and gold and the articles that the king, his advisers, his officials and all Israel present there had donated for the house of our God. I weighed out to them 650 talents[ c ] of silver, silver articles weighing 100 talents, 100 talents of gold, 27 20 bowls of gold valued at 1,000 darics, and two fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold. I said to them, “You as well as these articles are consecrated to the Lord. The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in the chambers of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem before the leading priests and the Levites and the family heads of Israel.” Then the priests and Levites received the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the ...

  Lenten Daily Devotional (via Daily SOAP) • March 23, 2025 Decisions Precede Our Consecration written by Jamie Westlake, Senior Pastor This past Tuesday I had the privilege of leading a morning devotion for a group of young people who were working at the Orlando Eagles, a UC partner in ministry, soccer camp. As I walked into the Epicenter, there were around 20 young people spending time in God's Word and reflecting on His goodness as they prepared for the day with kids. It was inspiring to see, and I thought any words I had to share would pale in comparison to the words from God's Word they were already devouring. It made me remember Jeremiah 15:16: "When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies."    A decision precedes our consecration- really a series of decisions. For instance, people "consecrate" themselves to things all the time. Great athl...

Lenten Daily Devotional (via Daily SOAP) • March 16, 2025 The ABCs of Hearing from God and Sharing a Word from God with Others written by Jamie Westlake, Senior Pastor In his book titled, "How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People," Pete Grieg talks about the ABCs of learning how to practice listening to and being guided by the Holy Spirit. We were led through a process similar to what he talks about recently at the Spirit and Truth Conference hosted by UC where each person was paired up with someone else and invited to pray with and for another person and then listen for a word or a picture from God. Then we were to share that word or picture- no matter how odd or strange it may have seemed to us with the other person. Grieg says of such exercises "Yes, sometimes people will say you're. I'm okay with that." He encourages people to share the word or picture regardless of how ridiculous it may seem to us. The truth is it's fin...

Lenten Daily Devotional (via Daily SOAP) • March 10, 2025 The Way of Jesus written by Jamie Westlake, our Senior Pastor John 14:5-7- "Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.'"    Eugene Peterson, who wrote "The Message" version of the Bible, said, “Jesus as the truth gets far more attention than Jesus as the way. Jesus as the way is the most frequently evaded metaphor among the Christians with whom I have worked for fifty years as a North American pastor. We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get the truth of Jesus as he is worshiped and proclaimed. The way of Jesus is the way that we practice and come to understand the truth of Jesus, living Jesus in our homes and wor...

  Read Exodus 9 Exodus 9 NIV - The Plague on Livestock - Then the LORD - Bible Gateway   Exodus 9:27-30-  Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.” Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.”   Even though Pharaoh saw with his own eyes the devastation and destruction from the Lord for his refusal to let the Hebrew people go, his heart of stone remained intact. While the Egyptians were in the middle of receiving consequences of their disobedience, Pharaoh confessed his sins and agreed to let them go, but once they ...