Thursday, April 01, 2010

FASTING - Part 4


Thursday night after dinner we started a Day of Prayer and Fasting for our ministry as we move into our big Easter Weekend and the beginning of our FACE YOUR FEARS message series that we have been heavily promoting. As we fast and pray today, below are some specific requests to lift up before God:

Pray for good weather for Easter weekend, April 3-4!

Pray for God to use our FACE YOUR FEARS yard signs and website to see more people attend our Easter services than ever before!

Pray for Pastor Doug (Pastor of Children and Student Ministries); Jill Lutz (Children's Director), Brenda Miller (Early Childhood Coordinator) and all of their workers who will impact the lives of everyone nursery through 4th grade at our Easter services!

Pray for Pastor Steve (Pastor of Connections) and all of our First Impressions volunteers including parking lot attendants, Guest Services attendants, Greeters and Ushers!

Pray for Craig Peters (Facility Manager) and all of our maintenance staff who will be readying our building for what is likely to be the largest weekend attendance in the history of Grace Church!

Pray for Megan Wilkerson (Office Manager) and all of our office staff as they finish all the preparations for Easter weekend!

Pray for Dennis Jordan (Finance Manager) and all of the volunteers that work in the stewardship area of our ministry!

Pray for Pastor Tim (Executive Pastor) as he oversees all of our Church Staff through Easter Weekend here at Grace!

Pray for Rick Bernhardt (Senior Administrator) as he leads MorningStar Childcare and Lititz Christian School in providing complimentary coffee at all four Easter services!

Pray for David Felty (Worship Arts Director) and Frank Protaro (Band Leader) and all of our musicians and vocalists as they prepare to lead us in worship this Easter!
Pray for Pastor Whitie (Care Pastor) as he provides pastoral care during this Easter weekend.

Pray for Tim Reedy (Media Producer) and Nancy Martin (Audio Producer) and all of their volunteers as they handle the lights, sound, staging, video and live webcast angles of our Easter celebrations!

Pray for Pastor Scott (Senior Pastor) as he prepares to preach 4 times Easter Weekend on the topic of FACING THE FEAR OF DEATH from John 11!

Pray for our Good Friday Night of Worship which will be led by Pastor Tim (Executive Pastor) and David Felty (Worship Arts Director)!

Pray for Unbelievers to clearly hear the Good News of the Gospel and for many of them to respond by trusting Jesus as their personal Savior!

Pray for Believers to be encouraged in their walk with Christ!

Remember, nothing of eternal importance happens apart from prayer! May God use this day in the life of our church to result in our meeting and moving many people for Jesus!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No one's really touched on this, so I'll address it. If you decide to fast, even for just 24hrs, one should be very careful to consume lots of liquids. The physical nature of my job makes this imperative for me, but everyone should be careful to make sure they are getting the hydration they need. Mabye even take a once a day vitamin to make sure you dont pass out.. :)

Experience speaking here.

Pastor Scott said...

Very good advice, Anonymous. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I see that you have been praying for a good weekend. And I have been meditating on death very regularly for the last few weeks. Perhaps we are not so different. I think the meditation on death, whether Christian or Buddhist, has this much in common -- the truth that death is certain, the time of death is uncertain and no earthly thing -- only the spiritual paths we have walked, whether in the footsteps of Christ or Buddha -- can help us at the time of our death. I look forward to hearing your sermon and wish you joy in your journey.

Pastor Scott said...

we defintily have some similarities in thought! Glad you are still planning to attend this weekend. I look forward to your feedback!

Anonymous said...

I watched the webcast and appreciated your sermon -- I have always liked the story about Lazarus in John 11 for the dramatic elements at least. I suppose I expected the sermon would be about resurrection rather than death, given that it was Easter Sunday.

From a Buddhist perspective, all of us act and think as though death is something that happens to someone else. I thought your sermon somewhat reinforced that all too common delusion. Christians die too, don't they? Being mindful of death should inform our lives.

The dangers of forgetting about death, according to Buddhist tradition are:

1. We shall easily forget spiritual paths.
2. Even if we remember spiritual paths, we are not likely to put them into practice.
3. Even if we do practice spiritual paths, our practice will not be pure, free from worldly distraction.
4. We shall lack persistent effort in our practice.
5. We shall continue to perform non-virtuous actions.
6. We shall die full of regret for our attachment to the transience of a worldly life.

Hope in the face of death is a good thing. Wisdom in life resulting from a mindfulness of death, however, may be the greater lesson this meditation teaches.