Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,

I wanted to remind you of the special opportunities to pray and fast or pray and watch the next few days. As we talked about Sunday, we are asking God to use us in the mission He has given us and asking Him to provide the resources to do what is on His heart for us as church family.

We believe that Springs of Grace exists to glorify Jesus Christ by making much of Him in everything; by doing what He has sent us to do and by loving the people He has given us to love. We are committed to demonstrating love and declaring the truth of the One Hope of Jesus Christ. We believe that life is short; heaven and hell are real; the cross of Jesus demonstrates how serious God is about His glory and the mission He has given us. One of the ways we talk about the mission God has called us to is: we are seeking to use practical demonstrations of love as the means to open the door for the gospel so that the city of Tulsa might be transformed for Christ in a way that brings only God the glory. It’s not about us but we are the body of Christ called to put on display collectively the perfections of Jesus to all those God gives us to love. And like Paul to the Thessalonians, we want to give them “not only the Word of God but our own lives as well.”

Because the leadership team is convinced that this mission is really important and because we only want what is the will of God – we are asking you to join us in prayer and fasting and watching this week. We are asking God to provide the grace and opportunities and resources for this mission.

We have a significant need financially for the One Hope Academy for the coming school year and the summer has been tight financially as far as our general budget is concerned. We simply want to do everything God has called us to. We have no interest in God relieving the financial pressures unless it would help us accomplish His mission. The financial pressures might be exactly what we need in order for God to use the gospel in a way that the city of Tulsa is transformed for Christ in a way that only God gets the glory. God can provide through gifts from heaven as He amazingly has in the past or He can provide through His people or He can give us the grace to do without what we think we need. We are trusting Him and have no backup plan.

Because He is our hope, we are asking all of our church family to take this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday – and consider giving up at least one meal and that time to fast and pray and/or consider giving up two or three hours of sleep in order to pray for God to move in the life of this church family and this city.

Not everyone should give – you ought only to give if God gives you a joyful heart and the ability to give and trust Him… BUT all of us can pray. Let’s ask Him to incline His ear to us and hear and open His eyes and see and let His mercy flow! and let’s obey all that He shows us as lovers of Jesus.

Thankful to be a part of this family,

Pastor Joe