Prayers 3 24 2013
*Welcome to Palm Sunday and Believers Baptism! Welcome to our guests and family members of those being baptized today
*Holy Week Services
Maundy Thursday, 7:30, Fellowship Hall; special music from our church and the Congregational church; our new members will be reading Scripture
CCU Bilingual Good Friday Service, 7:30, FCBC with Pastor Visal preaching; other pastors would be here and more special music
CCU Easter Sunrise Service, 7:00 AM; YMCA Easter Breakfast at $10 per person—sign-up with Wendi today; 10:00 Cantonese and 11:20 Joint English in the sanctuary
*Xplorers Easter Egg Hunt, Saturday, 10:00 at GG Park Carousel
*Yosemite, April 20-22; see David Louie to register
Prayer Concerns
*Discipleship of our new members
Prayer of God’s People
Most gracious God, we offer thanks for the gift of your extravagant love given us in your Son. With the crowds of old, let us shout our hosannas and wave our palm branches high, proclaiming Christ the king of our lives. Grant us the courage, O Lord, to follow you even to Jerusalem. As we travel with you, let us be mindful of the times when silence speaks volumes of caring… and when words echo the compassion of Christ’s love. We pray for…
As we walk to Jerusalem, let it be with courage so that we might speak when the easiest way before us is to keep silent. Let our words sustain, nurture, comfort, console, and yes, even stir the complacent as we remember that Jesus came and turned the world upside down and then put everything right. We pray for these new disciples who have publicly professed their faith in you, Lord as their Savior bearing witness of your love for them and in this service, remind all of us that we too have a calling to speak out with courage of all the great things that you have done for us.
At this threshold of Holy Week, we pray for our own journey of faith as we walk toward Jerusalem committing more of ourselves then we were willing to do before. We pray that we would be renewed and empowered to go out into this troubled world and say, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” We offer our prayers in the name of the one whose cross we carry, Jesus the Christ who taught us to pray together, “Our Father…”
Right Hand of Christian Fellowship
Benediction
Lift high the palm branches of our faith,
Waving them in thanksgiving for the steadfastness of a loving God
who is with us always, even as we travel our own roads to Jerusalem.
Go forth in faith through the darkest times,
Sharing in the cross, destined to share as well in glory. Amen.