"…to the praise of the glory of His grace…" Ephesians 1:6

An Update and Information for Sunday April 5th

Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,

Grace and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. I hope you have been drinking of Jesus this week and praying that His love has overflowed in your life to others in ways you have seen and in ways you might never know.

I want to invite you to participate in whatever ways you can with the Day to Fast and Pray (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/a-day-to-fast-and-pray/) It seems like a great help in taking our hearts and prayers and hurts and desires to the Lord. Below you will find a list of things you can pray for in our own church family and it would be great if you would contact a couple of people and ask them something you can pray for them about, as well as share with them something they can help pray for you about.

No one knows what tomorrow holds but we do know that our good and loving God is on the throne and even when we can’t see it, He is doing all things well. I want to encourage you out of love to follow the guidelines our mayor has set in place and try and stay home apart from necessary ventures out. We all have different needs, but let’s strive to make our actions reflect our commitment to love the Lord and love our neighbor well.

To that end, we will continue to have live stream only worship services for now. Please find ways to participate with us. The body needs you more than ever. We are not meant to go through this alone or even with just a few of us together. Ask the Lord to help you find ways to reach out and engage with many in the church family. The world needs Jesus and we, as His church, are to put Him on display. May God help us to do that through our love.

Please know that I am praying for you and long to be with you in every way I can. I am thinking of you as I pray and as I prepare to preach and as we sing and as I open up God’s Word each Sunday. Let’s be together in heart and mind – even though we can’t be physically all together.

WE WILL ONLY LIVE STREAM OUR WORSHIP SERVICE TOMORROW AT 10:45 AM. Please go to www.springsofgrace.church and click on the link. There are better preachers out there and tons of options for live streaming worship services – but in what ways we can – I want us to worship together. So, PLEASE DON’T JUST WATCH – PARTICIPATE WITH US AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Stand when we stand, pray when we pray, join us in the responsive reading and COMMUNION (if you have not received bread and juice – then find something you can use and participate with us if you are a baptized follower of Jesus) and then after the service – consider how you might contact someone to stir them up more towards love and good deeds. Some of you might consider hosting a discussion online about the message through one of the social media platforms. We can video talk through zoom or other mediums and I would love to participate with you in that.

I plan to interact after the service with as many of you that can through the you tube chat on our live stream.

We still do not have an option for kids’ bible study for Sunday morning this week but would love for our teachers to find ways to move forward with your classes where you can. Spring Kids will happen again this week and I encourage you to send in short videos that can be included. I loved all those from last week. We continue to work on the best ways to communicate with all of you. We sent out a request for you to update your church directory information and indicate to us what portion of that you would be fine with sharing within the church body. We trust your judgment and want to honor that but need your feedback. If you have ideas, please pass them on.

Hopefully you can join in the Day to Fast and Pray, but I would love you to find some time to pray for these needs as well.
• Please pray for Greg and Lois Lewis and their family in the Philippines. They are in a very difficult situation there under tight quarantine and with a major outbreak of the virus all around them and the quarantine hospital still hasn’t opened up. They are in desperate need of equipment.
• Please pray for those in New York City, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, New Jersey, New Orleans and the United Kingdom who have been most impacted at this time.
• Pray for those who are mourning the loss of loved ones (currently over 60,000 as of this writing according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Pray for our brothers and sisters in Shreveport. Pray for Jahill Richards and the other elders at Springs of Grace, Shreveport as they face these difficult days
• Pray for Steven and Morgan Partain (Jake’s sister and brother-in-law) who minister in New Orleans
• Pray for those who are currently sick from the virus – pray that they might not feel alone
• Pray for the spread of the virus to stop
• Pray for the medical personnel who are treating those who are sick
• Pray for the medical personnel in our church (Dr. Brandon Ganzer, Dr. Grace Yoon, Dr. Johanna McKaskill, Dr. Nathan Smith, Dr. Tim Condie, Dr. Sergii Alekseiev , Dr. Shaun Peters, Dr. Hae-Jean Peters, Dr. Greg Lewis (in the Philippines) and nurses – Carol Benson, Erica Raguse, Lottie Blankenship, Faith Ruffenach, Nate Boone, Noemi Wells, as well as other medical personnel like Krista Burton who as a physical therapist at St. John’s is in the thick of it, Kyra De La Torre, Connie Williams, Hailey Carmen or people in our church who may have increased challenges and opportunities during this pandemic)
• Pray for those who have lost jobs and income
• Pray for our other missionaries – Nick and Renee’ Gathers in the Middle East (they are under strict quarantine and experiencing many challenges in their international community), Carrie Moss and Sveta Gusieva in Ukraine (Agape House is currently closed and they asked that we might pray for the patients who are without much care who otherwise would be treated at Agape), Dorothea Schultz in Thailand
• Pray for hospital administration, the COVID task force, our president, governor, mayor and other government leaders as they make very difficult decisions
• Pray for Christians (and particularly us at Springs of Grace) to model “do not be afraid” and “love your neighbor”
• Pray for those who have greater fears of isolation
• Pray for those experiencing a greater threat of abuse
• Pray for those who have greater risks from this virus
Pray for one another in our church family (consider calling 2-3 people in the church and getting prayer requests directly from them)
• Pray for our live stream worship service Sunday – that God might use it to bless and love, encourage and help and that Jesus might be lifted up in ways that many might see His glory and fall more in love with Him
• Pray for our time of communion – that we might sense our union with the Lord Jesus and with one another in greater reality than ever before
• Pray for the gospel witness from God’s people to go forth in the midst of a heightened awareness of the brevity of this life
• Pray for our church staff and leaders as we try to find creative, God-honoring and helpful ways to serve our church and neighbors

I miss you and look forward to our time Sunday. God’s love is infinite, and nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, let’s love more and more and more.

Pastor Joe

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