CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Most Loving and Patient Creator, we enter this sanctuary and in spite of siren sounds and the roar of airplane engines we are attentive to the merging of our spirits here. We place ourselves in your hands consciously and intentionally. We are seekers, longing to comprehend the part we are to play in your great plan. When marvelously uplifting ideas and inspired moments to minister in your name enter our thoughts, let us not doubt that you are at work in us. Teach us to be alert to each and every opportunity we are given to be salt and light in your world. Let us be the living witnesses of the one in whom and through whom your word has always been, “YES”! We give you thanks and praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.
PREPARING FOR THE OFFERING
Did you know there are sites on the internet that will — for a price — send a box of revenge, anonymously, on your behalf to someone who has “done you wrong.” One site boasts how much better you will feel, because with payback all that anger and resentment just flows out of you. In truth payback haunts us more than the feelings that triggered the desire for revenge, because we will spend the rest of our lives justifying that act. Deciding to give gifts to people who are in need promises to purge the remnants of anger, or resentment, redirecting our energy, purifying our hearts and our actions. The church is a most appropriate place for redirecting our energy.
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