Prayers 11 24 2013
*Welcome!
*Thanksgiving Luncheon and Seniors Appreciation today; you can still purchase tickets at the door, 12:30
*Operation Christmas Child/Shoeboxes are due today; they will be delivered to a drop-off location this week
*Thank you for your OGHS offering for the Philippines typhoon disaster relief: raised over $2000
*Walk in the Light canvass; please turn in your pledge cards soon and before Dec. 8th; it’s not how much but always that you make a commitment
*200th Anniversary of Judsons in Burma/Myanmar—beginning of American Baptists foreign missions work; Joy and I will be traveling to Burma beginning this Friday and returning on Dec. 12th. Pray for us. Pastor Visal will be preaching at 11:20 for the next 2 Sundays
*Christmas Workshops, next Sunday, crafts, fundraisers, and Lanna Coffee for Christmas gifts
*Membership Meeting, Dec. 8th, two weeks from today; testimonies from candidates for Baptism and church membership, election of 2014 officers and board and committee members, and adoption of the 2014 church budget; plan to attend
*Baptism Sunday, Dec. 15; Joint English Worship at 11:20 followed by Sidewalk Reception for our new members
*Tommy Lim—CCDC special event announcement
Prayer Concerns
*Philippines and the Midwest in the US
Prayer of God’s People
We come to this place of prayer, loving God, grateful for the celebrations of life. For the gathering of our church families and for the joy of welcoming new members to our worshiping family, we give you thanks. For the gift of water, especially as it comes to us bringing the gift of life in you, we offer our prayers of thanksgiving. We thank you for our children, who cause us to dig deep for patience and fill is with joy overflowing. We thank you for our youth, who stand firm in their faith and also question our beliefs in an attempt to make their beliefs their own. And we are thankful for the many adults and seniors in our midst who bless us with wisdom, experience and active leadership to remain faithful to Christ as our Lord.
Keep us mindful, we pray, of the gift of your presence when we travel through difficult days and treacherous paths and when the way before us is unclear. Help us to remember that there is no tragedy beyond the reach of your love, which never lets us go, as evidenced by the life of your son our Lord.
We pray for relief and restoration back to daily life for the victims of the Philippines typhoon disaster and the tornadoes that hit the Midwest. We lift up those loved ones in our community who are in need for your mercy and divine healing. Be with…
The days are surely coming, says our God, when our Savior shall reign over us, dealing wisely, executing justice and righteousness, that we may all be saved and live in safety. We pray in the name of Christ who is coming to reveal Good News for all people and who taught us to pray together, “our Father…”
Benediction
Let us go and drill deeply in God’s plan for us.
Bear the image of the eternal God.
Share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Give thanks for all that the Lord has done for the world.
Dare to live the peace of the one who reigns, Jesus Christ and be God’s people.
Amen.
Dedication of CBC Choir and New Robes
Before the CBC Choir sings, there’s been a tremendous amount of effort and work that has gone into the anthem. The director sorted through and chose an anthem. The pianist practiced with the choir. The men and women have separate practices to make sure their parts are in tune. They come together to sing in unison and in parts and if you come early to enjoy breakfast at church, you get the chance to hear the anthem before they even sing it in worship. You are blessed twice!
There’s a familiar passage in Colossians that is particularly apropos in dedicating the choir today. From Colossians 3:12-17:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and if anyone, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The choir is God’s chosen who bear up with each other when anyone is out of tune. They are kind to help out and are patient until everyone gets it right. They forgive one another because the peace of Christ rules in their hearts. And because Christ dwells in them that they come up here on Sundays to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Today, they are wearing for the first time their new choir robes. Just like business executives wear suits or law enforcement officers wear uniforms, choir members wear robes. In the Old Testament, Levitical priests wore robes to assist in worship. We think that these robes are beautiful and they look very fine! The real purpose of choir robes is to eliminate human distinction and lead you to focus on worship. Rather than to be distracted by seeing everyone in the choir wearing different street clothes, you are led to focus on what comes out of their voices. They help me to accomplish the purpose of worship which is to praise the Lord.
The blue signifies sky and heaven and God’s truth as we begin the season of Advent next Sunday and celebrate the truth that God loves the world to send his Son Jesus Christ as an infant to save the world. The white means purity and holiness as the choir sets the tone of worship to pray to the Holy God. And the gray symbolizes ash, our repentance during Lent.
In worship, the choir literally clothes themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience as they lead us in holy worship. The choir clothes themselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony when they sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And in their presence symbolizing for you and for me, they are inviting us to be God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. And we do everything, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Let us pray. Lord God, today we dedicated the members of the choir who give of their time, energy, and their talents of singing to praise you and glorify you in worship. We lift up the directors as they humbly serve to lead and teach and the accompanists who complement these voices with the sounds of music. May we all receive the blessings of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in our worship to know your grace and mercy upon us. May we always give you the glory! Amen.