Prayers 3 3 2013
*Welcome!
*AFC Offering in March—home missions
*ABC Biennial Mission Summit planning meeting, 12:30; Don’s office; anyone interested?
*Women’s Retreat next weekend
*Men’s Fellowship Bible study at Don Lam’s, Saturday, March 9, 9:00 AM
*Day Light Saving Time, on Saturday, turn your clocks one hour forward or you would be late for church next Sunday!
Prayer Concerns
Prayer of God’s People
God of grace, we come to this house of worship and place of prayer with thanksgiving. We come into your presence with gratitude, O God, that you hear our prayers.
Help us when we struggle to carry the cross of Christ faithfully this Lenten season. For those who tread on ground that is rocky with instability in their homes or jobs, we ask for your calming presence. For those who cannot find their way in the quagmire of grief and loss, we ask for the light of the Lord to guide them on the journey. For those who are ill or providing care for them, we ask for the peaceful serenity of the Holy Spirit. For those who feel abandoned because they have taken a stand for what is right, we ask for the reassurance of your love.
We know that to carry the cross is a commitment to a way of life; we try to carry the cross proudly. But sometimes we falter. Help us in our travels today and the coming days that we might walk steadfast and sure to Jerusalem—and beyond.
We lift up, O Lord for your mercies, these loved ones whom we care about…
As the women of our church gather for their annual retreat, we pray for a great weekend to deepen their faith and to discover that they are daughters of God made beautiful in God’s divine image.
For all these prayers both spoken and perhaps unspoken but buried deep in our hearts, we pray how Jesus taught us, saying, “Our Father…”
The Lord’s Supper
As the group prepares for our journey to Germany next month to visit the Lands of Martin Luther, I thought about how Luther was an expert in Greek and Hebrew so when he decided to translate the Bible into German, he didn’t use high-blown church language but instead he visited people where they worked and lived and discovered the real way that ordinary people talked. The language he used in his translation was what people spoke for daily use. That’s why his translation was understood by everybody who spoke German.
God’s love for the world was translated to us in the Word of Jesus Christ so that we may understand. Jesus was like us so that we may understand God’s grace and love through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. And when we accept God’s love for us, we would see blessings and the abundance of a humble and faithful life. Here at the table of our Lord, we have ample bread, symbolizing the ample portion of the Body of Christ in the world. We can afford to eat less, but when it comes to the Lord’s Table we should be sharing in a feast, not replicating a famine.
On the night that our lord was betrayed, he took the bread and the cup…
Benediction
Strive to be healthier for the Lord.
And with God as your coach,
Thirst for living water
Eat the Body of Christ
And be filled with joy as we look toward Easter!