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

UPDATE FOR PRAYER AND INFORMATION FOR TOMORROW’S WORSHIP SERVICE

Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,
I am looking forward to worshiping with you tomorrow! John chapter 8 is such a rich and important passage of Scripture. The title of the message tomorrow is “Loyalty to the I Am”. I was talking with a longtime friend yesterday and his words reminded me of what another pastor said to me last week. He said something like this, “the longer I live the more it matters who sticks. Who can I trust? Who can I depend on?” Then he said, “I want to get through this (speaking of life) having been loyal to the right people for the long haul.”
Jesus in John 8 would agree. Hope you can join us.


WE WILL ONLY LIVE STREAM OUR WORSHIP SERVICE TOMORROW AT 10:45 AM. 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 (much easier): 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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7HSHAnlF2s

Feel free to send it out to others who might not know the Lord or who might not have a church family to worship with tomorrow. Comfortable is great but participate – don’t just be a spectator. 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 and we will have another Scripture reading time for all of us to participate in.
After the message – consider how you might respond to what God says to us and then share that with someone or think of ways that you might stir others towards love and good deeds. Let’s be doers and provers of the Word and not hearers only. Some of you might consider hosting a discussion online about the message through one of the social media platforms. I’ve been told that google hangouts are great for this. You can announce that in our you tube service chat if you’d like or text Malachi or Daniel and they will announce it for you. 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.
Spring Kids will happen again this week! The videos have been great. 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, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, Detroit, 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 160,000 as of this writing according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Continue to pray for Nina and Sergii and their family in the passing of Nina’s dad
• Continue to pray for Philip Scanlan in the passing of his dad
• Pray for Ben and Jessica Beaver and their baby which is to be born in about a month. Jessica has been fighting some sickness.
• 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 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 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 (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 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
• Pray for Cody who has had some sickness this past 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 – the great I Am!
Pastor Joe

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