Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,
Grace and peace. I hope you are planning on joining us in one of three ways tomorrow. We are taking these steps week by week and trying to love well. A small few of us will gather at the church building for worship (only if you signed up by Friday), a few of you may be gathering with another family or group that allows you to gather with 10 or less and most of you will be joining us by live stream again. The important thing is that we will still be together in some fashion worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The service will begin at 10:45 AM. We will be looking at “Jesus: Our Good Shepherd” from John 10. The Scripture reading on shepherding is amazing. I have been so challenged and blessed by what Scripture teaches us through this metaphor of God as our Shepherd. In John 10 Jesus blows open this description as the reality that all shepherding points towards.
Please join us at 10:35 for the welcome time and we would still love for you to send in a photo if you will be joining us through any of the options tomorrow. You can upload them here:
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=uCQDAWBfuiE
Please be in prayer for our time together tomorrow. Pray for the technology to work. Pray for our hearts to be tender and our minds to be undistracted. Invite others to join us and pray that God multiplies His blessings on our gathering. Don’t be a spectator – but be a worshiper! 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 sharing verses about our shepherd and I will be asking you to participate with us in the reading of John 10. There are some great verses in John 10 that I would encourage you to memorize if you haven’t already. John 10:10-11; John 10:14-15; John 10:17-18; John 10:27-30. I would love it if someone would memorize and share these verses with the church family!!!
You might consider wearing a mask for part of the service tomorrow as a way of preparing and working with your children for the future gatherings in the weeks or months ahead. The current options are a blessing and a reflection of our desire to love well all of the church family and our community, but long term it is our desire and need to be back together physically as well. Keep praying for that as we give thanks for these ways of gathering now. After the message tomorrow – 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. Last week, we froze up as I was just getting to the good stuff!!!
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, Lord willing! We need some more videos for this week!!!! Thanks to Annie and Amy for continuing to lead out on this.
TAKE SOME TIME TONIGHT TO PRAY!!!!
• Please continue to pray for our missionaries in the Philippines, Ukraine, Thailand, and the Middle East
• Please continue to pray for those in New York City, Spain, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Chicago, Italy, Iran, France, Washington D.C., 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 245,000 as of this writing according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Pray for those who are pregnant during these days
• Pray for Anacostia Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., as they minister to their church family in these difficult 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 the spread of the virus to stop
• Pray for those who are currently sick from the virus – pray that they might not feel alone
• Pray that the “opening back up” of our community will not result in a new spike of infections and deaths
• 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 PHYSICALLY TOGETHER
• 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 and the gathering of a few this 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 as our Good Shepherd and to be encouraged by the love of Jesus in others – in ways that might help us to live it out.
• Pray that the Word of God would not be snatched away from us during or after the service and pray that we would remember well the lessons God is teaching 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 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 Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.
Pastor Joe