Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread. My name is Sochiel Dixon. I'm sharing a personal

testimony in today's reading, wherever we worship. Intense pain and a debilitating headache

prevented me from attending services with my local church family.

Again, grieving the loss of community worship, I watched an online sermon.

At first, complaints soured my experience.

The poor sound quality and video quality distracted me.

But then, a voice on the video warbled a familiar

hymn. Tears flowed as I sang these words, be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

not be all else to me, save that art thou my best thought by day or by night waking or sleeping thy presence my light focusing on the gift of god's constant presence I worshipped him while sitting in my living room.

While Scripture affirms the vital, essential nature of corporate worship, God's not bound

within the walls of a church building. During Jesus' chat with a Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four,

he defied all expectations of the Messiah. Instead of condemnation, Jesus spoke truth and loved her

as she stood next to that well. He revealed his intimate and sovereign knowledge of his children. Proclaiming his

deity, Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit evoked true worship from the hearts of God's people,

not from a specific physical location. When we focus on who God is, what he's done, and all he's promised,

we can rejoice in his constant presence as we worship him with other believers

in our living rooms and everywhere.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from John chapter 4,

verses 7 to 24.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink?

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him,

You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

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