There is a lot going on over the next two weekends: This weekend, on Saturday, we're having a work day to get some parts of the church cleaned up. We'll be there from 7:30 am until early afternoon. Please come as you are able. Next weekend (July 1st) we're having a BBQ and potluck.
Continue to life one another in prayer. Bonnie battling Leukemia, Rachel and Ransom with a new baby, and many other needs (jobs, housing, legal stuff, moves, various health issues, many celebrations, national issues, etc.).
Last Sunday we began a new sermon series based on a book by Old Testament scholar Brad Kelle of Point Loma Nazarene University called Telling the Old Testament Story. We'll spend the next few months looking at the story we are a part of as told in the Old Testament.
May the grace, mercy, and peace of God be with you all!
Matt
Some prayers for healing:
God of mercy and health, who gives life and makes all things new: grant to Name a knowledge of your healing and saving presence, that she/he/I might find strength, wholeness, and courage to face the days ahead; through the loving embrace of the triune God. Amen.
Name, I pray for you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, asking our Lord Jesus Christ to sustain you with his presence, to drive away all sickness of body and spirit, and to give you that victory of life and peace, even if through suffering, that will enable you to serve God now and forevermore. May God grant you the inward anointing of the Holy Spirit. Of God’s great mercy, may God forgive you of your sins, release you from suffering, and restore you to wholeness and strength. May God deliver you from all evil, preserve you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the Care of Children:
Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the
joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient
wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love
whatever is just and true and good, following the example of
our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
A prayer for the oppressed:
Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this world who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us and our communities would work together for the well-being of all humanity; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Meals for Rachel and Ransom and their new baby Robin
We can help support this new family by bringing them food. Details can be found HERE.
NEWS, UPDATES, and UPCOMING EVENTS
June 23 - WORK DAY We are in need of a deep clean at the church. So, gather at the church in the morning at 7:30 AM and we'll clean and sanitize everything. Pizza will be provided for lunch and we'll have some donuts and coffee for breakfast.
July 1 - Potluck! We'll gather to share a meal together after church on July 1. Louie is smoking some meat so we'll enjoy some real BBQ! Bring whatever you like. (This will also be Pastor Matt's 7th anniversary as our pastor.)
Wednesday Nights
Reminder: No Wednesday night dinner or other activities for now. We will resume in August with various Bible studies along with dinner.
Camp Meeting
Some of you will want details about Camp Meeting. This is an old tradition in our denomination. In many ways it is like a summer camp for the whole family. It is a whole district event, with several hundred people from various Nazarene churches around Arizona attending. Scott Daniels will be speaking some at some of the gatherings. He is a great speaker, wise, and has some connections to our church.
July 10, 2018 - July 15, 2018 Pinerock Camp and Retreat Center
1400 Pine Dr Prescott AZ 86303
Family day is Saturday, July 14, and will include FREE: Lunch, Games, Climbing Wall, Sling Shot Paintball, Zipline, Leap of Faith, Crate Stack, Archery, and Swimming
Contact Pinerock for Room Reservations and Meal Tickets: 1.928.445.8357
Why We Do What We Do in Worship
When we worship God, when we pray, when we rehearse the story we are a part of (see the sermon below from last week) we SHOULD BE becoming different people, who love different things. Our world view, our beliefs about God and others, our way being in the world, and more - all of it should be formed more into the likeness of the God who is love, the good God of a good creation.
I hope and pray that as we worship and pray together, as we tell and enact the story of God, that we do in fact become formed into God's likeness.
Part of that formation is deconstruction. That is, sometimes our old ways and patterns and loves and preferences need to be changed or removed entirely.
Part of that formation is construction. New ways and patterns and loves and preferences that God places in us.
Here are two quotes from Brad Kelle's book, Telling the Old Testament Story, that summarize the whole story, a story that is ours, that should begin to shape our identity.
“The OT is the story of God’s mission to restore creation, and the calling, creation, and formation of God’s people to be the instrument to participate in that mission.” 21
“[The Old Testament] tell[s] a story in which God’s good creation of right relationships became distorted because of human sin, a distortion that resulted in estrangement among God, humans, and the created world. In response, God called a group of people, the manifold descendants of Abraham and Sarah, and created them to be a particular and peculiar people. God then undertook the long process of trying to teach, form and mature them so that they could, as God’s covenant partner, be the instrument for God to use to heal and restore creation back to the right-relationships intended for it.” 22
The sermon from last week - the first in our Telling the Old Testament series.
Join us for worship - Sunday mornings at 10:30
2340 N. Hayden Rd.
480-949-9494
Online giving is available at cash.me/$snaz
