Prayers 11 3 2013
*Welcome!
*”Walk in the Light” 2014 Canvass; please make your pledge to the church today
*Thank you for your WMO donations
*Thanksgiving Luncheon, 3 weeks away; purchase your tickets today; Seniors Appreciation—65 and older are free!
Prayer Concerns
*Walter Tom, Tom Wong,
Prayer of God’s People
Living God, we celebrate the activities of your beautiful creation and our part in it. For the season of autumn when even in the Bay Area, we can see some of the spectacular colors of changing leaves and dormancy of life until Spring. Thank you for the life that abounds in the deepest sea, on the slopes of mountains, in valleys, in hot springs, even in the air. And we leap for joy when we can also see new life in the tenderness of a newborn and the new insights of matured years. Thank you, O God for the rhythm of life and the changing of the hours so that we may walk in your light and have the light of life.
We pray for those who are in need of your merciful grace. Bless Walter Tom and Tom Wong as they receive care and the hope of healing and wholeness. Grant encouragement to . Bring hope to the hopeless, resolve those who falter, salvation to those who are lost, and your grand revelation to where you must be found for the blessed assurance of everlasting life.
During this season of thanksgiving and giving, we pray for the ongoing life and vitality of this church. As we give with purpose, we pray that we in harmony with your great purpose may have a hand in bringing to pass your will throughout the universe.
Forgive us when we have strayed away from you and have failed to hear your warnings. Remind us of the great cloud of witnesses, the saints of old and the saints of today who continue to guide our every step. May we seek joy for others, blessings for all, service in the world, and salvation in your name, Jesus, Redeemer, the first-born from the dead and heir of all things whom we pray and who taught us to pray together, “Our Father…”
The Lord’s Supper
In the Fall of every school year, there are parents school nights preparing their children for their lives after school is over. Imagine a father and daughter attending a career day at the daughter’s high school. Several speakers tell the students that if they study hard and go to the right college, then they can get good jobs and make lots of money.
On the way home, the daughter asks, “Do you think I could be rich?” How does a good father explain that he has different dreams? His hopes for his daughter do not center on what she can buy but on what she can give. His hope is not that she will have a big house far away from the poor but that she will work for justice for those who are hungry. His hope is not that she will be seen as a success but that she will live in the Spirit of God.
I think those are the same hopes that God had for his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ gave up his life for us. He taught us to feed the hungry so that they would be full. Jesus Christ lived in the Spirit of his Father and gave his life up so that we may live in the Spirit of God as well.
Benediction
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven.
May the grace of Jesus Christ,
The love of God,
And the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen.