The Next Step

It’s that time of year when you ask teachers, school workers, and students how long until Summer break and they can tell you the number of days! Which reminds me that we’ll be honoring graduates during the fellowship time on May 19th. There will be a cake and punch reception and a basket for cards. If you know any graduates from our congregation who need to be included, please let us know this week.

This Thursday, May 9th, will be the God’s Little Acre Preschool graduation at 6pm at the church building.

Next Sunday we’ll be looking at the story of Hagar and Sarah from Genesis 16. This is another example of Abraham and Sarah trying to force a way when it is unclear the way that God was going to fulfill his promise to them. At the conference we attended last week I had a conversation with a pastor from Arkansas who made the observation that the Bible is unique in that it tells all the stories about people of the faith. Both the good and the bad. There is no glossing over when even a person of great faith like Abraham takes a misstep. That should give us great encouragement in our stories when they don’t look at “pretty” as we’d like or when the path of our journey isn’t all that straight. We take heart in the fact that God has used and continues to use imperfect people to accomplish his purpose.

I appreciate the prayers for all of those who are in need. I appreciate your joining with me and praying for Paul Del Valley even though you don’t know him. I’ve included a picture of Paul, his wife Kayla, and their four children. Sometimes it helps us in our prayers to have a visual for who we are praying for, especially if we don’t know them. I would encourage you to continue to pray for healing for Paul.

I encourage you to continue to pray for and invite others to attend our worship service with you. I believe we are in a time when many are searching. It would be great to extend a friendly hand to someone you know.

Hope to see you Sunday!

God bless,

Brian 

Scripture readings for next Sunday

Genesis 16—Why do you think Abraham and Sarah continue to try to take things into their own hands?

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12—What does this passage teach us about living in a way pleasing to God?

Psalm 42—Do you ever experience the emotion expressed particularly in verses 9-11? How does that feel?

Luke 12:13-34—How can we apply Jesus’ teaching here to our lives?