Prayers 5 4 2014
*Welcome
*Reception Ministry today—come and see how you can welcome visitors to our church
*Ablaze: Igniting Our Gifts for Service, Saturday, May 10, Shell Ridge Church, Walnut Creek; register today
*Next Sunday, Mother’s Day—hope you would attend worship
Prayer Concerns and Celebrations
*Pastor Visal and Lindsay Sok gave birth to Talitha Mehsah Sok on Wednesday, May 30, 5:03 PM, 6 lbs, 7 oz, and 19 in.
Prayer of God’s People
How grateful we are, O God, that, no matter where we are on our journey with you, we can turn to you in prayer. We offer our thankfulness that you are with us as we travel, and we ask that your Spirit will fall upon each of us as we come together in this place of prayer.
Some of us are struggling with meaningless as we travel on the road of life; others struggle with issues of health and caregiving. Some struggle with relationships, while others struggle with loneliness. Some are desperate as they search for a job, while others complain about the job they have. Some struggle with resentment, while others speak before they think, and act without a thought for how others feel. We struggle with the issues of war and brutality, and strive to make sense of death and loss.
Whatever it is we struggle with, prayer is the safe place to surrender and let go of the struggle. Grant us the courage to let go of the struggle. Grant us the courage to let go of the outcome, and release our burdens to you, O God, that we might walk the road of life with a lighter step as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus the Christ who walks with us, and who taught us to say when we pray…”Our Father…”
The Lord’s Supper
There’s a story of Viktor E. Frankl when he was in a Nazi concentration camp. He was at the end of his rope from the deprivation. At this point, when he had lost every possession and had every value destroyed, someone gave him a piece of bread. Frankl wrote, “I remember how a foreman secretly gave me a piece of bread which I knew he must have saved from his breakfast ration. It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved me to tears at the time. It was the human “something” this man also gave me—the word and the look which accompanied the gift.”
Keep on looking out for that “human something” the next time you break bread with another person. Their words may offer more nutrients than the bread in your hand. Their look may open the eyes of your heart. It might all be a small taste of the first Emmaus.