Grace is Evident Everywhere, an illustration by Grace Ellen Schiel - click on image to enlarge.

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:4-9, The Message)

From the Pulpit

The opening words of this issue come from the scripture text for this week’s upcoming sermon entitled “Joy Unspeakable or …” to be delivered by Les Williams. On the cover of the bulletin this week you’ll find the same scripture text from a different translation, the English Standard Version, but we felt for this, our sixth Knowing Him Today entry we’d treat you to a more conversational rendering from the Message. You can go HERE to see the actual text from the ESV as you’ll read it on Sunday.

You’ve probably already noticed that Les Williams is preaching this week while Pastor Dan and Grace Ellen are taking a well-deserved break to a campground in West Texas.  I’m sure you’ll agree with us in our prayer that this will be a blessed and restful time for them as they re-charge their personal and spiritual batteries. They are scheduled to return the middle of next week and Pastor Dan plans to be back in the pulpit on April 25.

Childrens’ Church Makeover

The east wall mural in Children's Church

The vacant white walls of the Children’s Church are being transformed. Over the past few weeks a few dedicated volunteers from our congregation have been diligently working to bring life and energy to the place where our younger saints learn about Jesus, and the word of God. Bright colors, engaging characters and bible basics are steadily making their appearance in the previously barren space.

We say thanks to those involved in the effort and kudos to what you’ve already accomplished  — with more to come!

Continued Prayer Needs

In many cases with our church family this week we’ve had praise reports and several in our church family have been discharged  from the hospital. But we’ve had some new prayer requests about family members of our congregation. As always, we encourage you to stay attentive to the prayer needs for our congregation through regular conversation and via the email prayer updates.

Our sermon text for this week contains encouragement in matters requiring prayer. From Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV) we hear:

Ladies Bible Study Continues

The Beth Moore bible study continues this Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship hall for the seventh of nine lessons.