The Trellis Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Today's Passage: Isaiah 63:16 

For you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.

Today's Prayer: Abba, Father – we come to you today so thankful for your nearness. 

We confess we need Father’s love. Set us as a seal upon Your heart and reveal to us how much we are sons and daughters with whom you are well pleased. Where there are places of wounding, we ask for healing. Where there are places we resist Your love, bring a softening that we might know you more as a Good Father.

You know us personally and so we ask that You would speak words that bring hope and strength where hope and strength are needed. Speak words that bring rest and joy where rest and joy are needed. Speak encouragement and life where encouragement and life are needed.

We thank you for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that allows us to cry “Abba, Father” and reminds us of our new identity in Christ.

It is in Your name that we pray, Amen.

For more information about this Advent season, visit our Christmas at Fellowship page. There you can find more resources, as well as information about pursuing Christ and celebrating him this season with our church. 

The many names of God found throughout Scripture are a testament to his power, love, and faithfulness across generations. He is the God who was, who is, and who is to come, and he never stops revealing himself in new ways to his people.

As we spend these 24 days of Advent rejoicing in his birth and longing for the day he will return, we invite you to create space to reflect on these beautiful names. Each day on our Advent Podcast, we will explore one name of God found in Scripture along with a guided time of reflection and prayer. During a season often filled with busyness, our heart for you is that you would begin each day being rooted and established in Christ, and, from there, you would move out in the world, shaped and held fast by the Word.

Daily Reflection:

- How does this name allow me to deepen my trust in and dependence on the Lord?

- Where is this aspect of God’s character at work in my life today?

- Are there places in my life where I need God to retrain my affections to the truth of who he is?

For more information about this Advent season, visit our Christmas at Fellowship page. There you can find more resources, as well as information about pursuing Christ and celebrating him this season with our church. 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 6:1-9

Today's Prayer:

Lord, you are our great Father.

You are our great master. Our Lord. 

Whether in Roman culture or early American culture, we have a tragic past in the handling of Your image bearers, and those who are siblings in Christ, as lesser beings. 

Father forgive us.

As Paul confronts this, He points both slaves and masters to You as our great Lord and master. 

We all answer to you. 

The concept of slavery has changed in our Christian language, as so often it now relates to our bondage to sin.

How ironic it is for us to consider slavery to YOU as freedom, for Paul says to the Romans, “You have been set free from sin and slaves to God.”

It is in submission to you that we find true freedom. 

May you deeply teach us what this means as our independent spirit wrestles against the concept of slavery. 

As a Father, a people-pleaser, a man who has looked at others as less than, and a man who has found himself in bondage, I am convicted in these verses. 

God, how often I want things to look good or do well... for me. 

Yet, you call me to have a sincere heart. 

That I trust in you. 

That I bear the burdens of those in my life. 

That I would love my brother as myself. 

And that I would love you with my whole heart. 

This, I believe is the sincerity of heart. Would you convict us and challenge in this today. 

For the moms and dads, I pray for patience in this space as they wrestle with the souls of their children, like you wrestle with us. 

For the children contemplating what honor means, may you give clarity.

For the fathers seeking your peace, may you provide it.

May we listen to these words with refreshed ears to hear you speak to us again. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 5:22-33

Today's Prayer:
Oh Lord we love you.

We praise you. 

You loved us, your bride, the church, and gave yourself up for us. 

You sanctify us, cleansing us with the washing of the water with the word. 

Because of you, we are holy and without blemish. 

Lord you know the word submission brings out a lot of feelings. 

Submission is the opposite of what the world preaches. 

But Jesus you submitted to your Father – don't let us forget that. 

When we feel too important or grand to submit to you and your will, 

remind us of your prayer in the garden "yet not my will, but yours be done." 

When we feel too important to submit to one another, 

remind us that you are calling us to holiness and humility – because you are holy and humble. 

Thank you that you Lord that have taught us what it means to lay down our lives for another. 

You don't call us to anything you haven't experienced. 

We can trust you. 

You are worthy to be followed and we praise you. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 5:15-21

Today's Prayer:
Oh Lord, we love you.

Fill us with your spirit. 

We want more of you. 

Lord I pray today we are a people marked by thankfulness.  

Make us acutely aware of all that you have done for us. 

Psalm 103 reminds us to forget not all your benefits: 

you forgive all our sins, 

you heal all our diseases, 

you redeem our lives from the pit, 

you crown us with love and compassion, 

you satisfy our desires with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles.

You have given far more than we could ever ask or imagine –  

Let this awareness shape the way we interact with one another and with you. 

Lord shape us; 

make us a people quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry out of reverence for you. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 5:6-14

Today's Prayer:
 Oh Lord, we love you. 

Anything we are is because of you. 

Through you all things were made. 

Without you nothing was made that has been made.

In you is life and that life is the light of all mankind.

That light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 

What a privilege it is to be children of that light. 

Today I ask that you give us aware of the opportunities to be light in our day to day lives. 

Lord I pray you give us opportunities to be kind to people who are not kind, 

I pray you give us opportunities to be gentle to people who are harsh, 

I pray you give us opportunities to share the truth of the Gospel to those who have not heard it.  

I pray you shine your light on places that our dark in our own spirits. 

Call us to holiness. 

You are faithful to do that. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 5:1-5

Today's Prayer:
Oh Lord, we love you. 

We praise you because you are holy and worth imitating. 

Let the truth that you call us beloved children sink in throughout our day. 

We have done nothing to deserve that title, yet you have given it so freely. 

Let our status as beloved children transform our thoughts, words, and deeds. 

Father, you know how easy it is for us to read your word and want to perform. 

It is easy to read these verses and create a list of behaviors to avoid. 

I pray today you begin to shape a new spirit in us. 

Take away the impulse to perform and replace it with a deep desire in us to be light in dark places. 

I ask that today that you fix our eyes on you – 

in all of our moments, big and small. 

You are worthy of our praise. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 4:25-32

Today's Prayer:
Jesus, We love you. You Who there is no falsehood in. Who spoke the truth with your neighbors. You were angry and you never sinned.

You did honest work with your own hands. And you had something to share with anyone in need. No corrupting talk came from your mouth, but only what is good for building up .Your words gave grace to those who hear. There was nothing malicious in your words, in your ways. You were kind, tenderhearted.

Jesus, may we follow you in these ways? May we confess the ways that we have fallen short in these areas. To seek kindness, ask you for a tender heart and to constantly forgive one another as the Father has forgiven us. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 4:17-24

Today's Prayer:
So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.  For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom[b] and forgave our sins.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team 

Today's Passage: Ephesians 4:8-16

Today's Prayer:
Jesus, we love you. 

You who are the head of the body, the church. The firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything you might have supremacy. For all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in you, and through you to reconcile all things to himself, things on earth or in heaven, making peace by your blood, shed on the cross. 

Jesus, may that be the ballast that stabilizes us today. May we mature a little bit more today in to the stature of the fullness of Christ, the unity of faith, the knowledge of the Son of God. 

Let the gifts you have given us express themselves today as you see fit. That we may live a life that is worthy: the good life. 

Amen.

NOTES & LINKS:
21 Days of Reading Ephesians Website

Men's and Women's Summer Studies Info

Reach out to the Adult Ministries Team