Prayers 2 1 2015
*Welcome!
*Church Annual Meeting today, 1:00; plan to attend this important meeting of the year so that we would have a quorum—dedication of church leaders, year-end financials, state of the church report, and remembering loved ones; pork buns and tea for your snack
*Next Sunday, Feb. 8th, I’ll be in Durham, NC preaching at Watts Street Baptist Church for their America For Christ offering; Pastor Visal will be bringing the message next Sunday
*Joint Adult Class, 10:00, YMCA; Dr. David Louie will be talking about “Health Problems: Obesity, Cancer and other Maladies;” please make it a point to attend!
*Men’s Fellowship, Feb. 21 with Matt Chin sharing his photos from an African safari; Nelson Wong’s, 9:00
*Reception Ministry today after the church annual meeting; come and meet our neighbors!
Prayer Concerns
Prayer of God’s People
God of power and love, we pray for ourselves that we be set free from any demonic forces that press upon us from within and without. May the security we feel in your sanctuary be symbolic of the strength that we receive from you to persevere and remain faithful in your Word.
We pray for leaders both inside the church as well as those in the world who profess to know your truth and own your authority. Instill upon them the courage to bear testimony to your grace and mercy. We pray that our public leaders have the faith to bring peace, justice and reconciliation in the world filled with hate and violence. When we realize that we who are in Christ have your power in proclaiming and building up Christ’s realm, grant us the ability to do so.
We also pray for others for your deliverance of those held in bondage by their mental, emotional, spiritual, addictive and even physical conditions. We pray for freedom for those who are imprisoned by both spiritual and physical boundaries so that they would enjoy the blessings of the Good News in Christ.
Lord, we pray for our church annual meeting today that we reflect your Body of Christ on earth. Lead us to envision and trust our future in your hands. And we pray for all our loved ones both near and far who now have returned to you, our Creator who is at the beginning and at the end for all breath give you praise.
We pray that our worship this morning will praise you, O God whose supreme authority, love, and power are made known in Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to pray together, “Our Father…”
The Lord’s Supper
In 1907, John Muir in The Mountains of California wrote:
Long, blue, spiky shadows crept across the snowfields, while a rosy glow, at first scarcely discernible, gradually deepened and suffused every mountaintop, flushing the glaciers and the harsh crags above them. This was the alpenglow, to me the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God. At the touch of this divine light, the mountains seemed to kindle to a rapt, religious consciousness, and stood hushed like devout worshipers.
We, too can be shaped by God when we can see God’s beautiful creation at worship like how the mountains in California seem to worship God. As Christians, we have more than the mountains to remind us of God’s grace and power. We have Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who made himself known to the world and walked among us. No mountains in California would ever be able to compete with the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross so that we may have life and have it abundantly.
Benediction
Choose to be shaped by God’s truth.
Now may the blessing of God
who reigns and rules, supreme forever,
surrounds us with the light of Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.