Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,
Grace and peace. We will be live stream only worship again tomorrow at 10:45 AM. I look forward to worshiping with you tomorrow! It looks like we will have different options next Sunday! We will be looking at John 9 and the title of the message is “Amazing Grace!”. What a great chapter!
Please join us at 10:35 for the welcome time and instead of emailing in a photo you can now just upload it tomorrow morning prior to 10:30 AM: https://photos.app.goo.gl/djZxYhkzjNV8uCmQ8
Or if you are more comfortable with email (malachi.blankenship@gmail.com) or text (918.510.5567), that works too. We want to see you.
Here’s the link again for tomorrow’s YouTube live stream of our service:
Preview YouTube video Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace
Invite others to join us and make sure you pray for our time together. We need the Lord’s help to cause us to benefit more greatly than normal from His Word. May the Lord help us all to participate and not just be a spectator of the service. Sing with us. Make a joyful noise or a beautiful one – but SING out loud! Pray with us. Pray for others who are a part of the service. You can join a prayer time before the service by contacting Brandon Ganzer or Gabe Graham or Fred Sabatini. We will have a special Scripture reading time from several members of the church family again this week and I will be asking you to participate with us in the reading of John 9.
Don’t fall into bad habits and settle for watching, but ask the Lord to help us take these opportunities to grow together in different ways than normal. After the message – consider how you might respond to what God says to you and then share that with someone. Tell them what God has done. Then think of ways that you might stir others towards love and good deeds. If you are a part of a community group – then contact someone and consider setting up a time to talk about how you might live out what God is teaching. If you aren’t a part of a community group – call someone and make the effort to walk through these days together. Be sure and share on our you tube chat and send in pictures if you can.
I plan to interact after the service with as many of you that can through the you tube chat on our live stream.
Here is a link to some encouragement on dealing with anxiety from the Gathers in the Middle East –
Spring Kids will happen again this week, Lord willing! We need some more videos for this week!!!! Thanks to Annie and Amy for taking a lead on this.
TAKE SOME TIME TONIGHT TO PRAY!!!!
• Please continue to pray for Greg and Lois Lewis and their family in the Philippines.
• Please continue to pray for those in New York City, Spain, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Chicago, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, Detroit, New Jersey, Philadelphia, 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 203,000 as of this writing according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Pray for those who are pregnant during these days
• 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 Noemi Wells as she goes to Chicago to serve as a nurse with the outbreak of COVID-19 there for the next two weeks
• 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 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 CHURCH LEADERSHIP AS WE MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THE BEST WAYS TO RETURN TO WORSHIPING TOGETHER
• Pray for our 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 about when and how to reopen different parts of the economy
• 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
• Pray for our live stream worship service Sunday – that God might use it to cause us to marvel at the grace of God, to treasure the gospel more, to be amazed at Jesus and to be encouraged by the love of Jesus in others – in ways that might help us to live it out.
• Pray for us not to lose quickly the lessons God has taught us through this pandemic
• Pray for our church staff and leaders as we try to find creative, God-honoring, and helpful ways to serve our church and neighbors
• Pray for continued grace for Cody as he recovers from some sickness last week and the struggles of isolation
• Pray for friendships to stay strong and others to blossom and grow during this season of our church
I miss you and look forward to our time Sunday – another Lord’s Day to celebrate our risen Savior – and the AMAZING GRACE He brings.
Pastor Joe