Enote From Pastor Andy 8-9-19

August 9, 2019

Dear Eastridge Family,

I’ve been reading a book in preparation for an upcoming sermon series…here are a couple items from the book that caught my attention on prayer.

Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of. Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about ‘good things’ that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.” --Dallas Willard

The following is a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer that I liked:

Dear Father always near us,

may your name be treasured and loved,

may your rule be completed in us-

may your will be done here on earth in

just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today,

and forgive us our sins and impositions on you

as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials,

but deliver us from everything bad.

Because you are the one in charge,

and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-

which is just the way we want it!

We should take note…there are no promises to half‑hearted seekers. “He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”  This diligence is something we pastors need.  If we seek him, God will find us.  Remember all of us disciples of Jesus must go into strict training to be transformed and to become like Jesus.

Pastor Eva and I just finished up a Membership class and are considering having another class very soon.  Please let us know if you are interested in discovering what church membership is all about.

We are making plans for a baptism service.  If you would like more information about being baptized join us during Sunday school in the church office this Sunday morning at 9:45am

Pastor Andy

•  Please Pray for our Church Board Meeting on Saturday morning.  We have some difficult decisions to make and need wisdom from God.
• Pray for our Young Adults are attending a retreat in Oklahoma this weekend.
• MNU Offering this Sunday.  We will have two students attending MidAmerica Nazarene University this fall…Lydia Dages and Olga Vargas…let’s support them both financially as well as with our prayers.
• Saturday August 24^th at 11am we will have a training session for our greeters.
• Wednesday August 28^th we will host missionaries Joel and Sara Mullen.
• Saturday August 31^st we are having a Teacher training in Spanish from noon until 5pm
• Saturday September 7^th we will have a teacher training session in English as well as a van driver training session starting at 10am
• Saturday September 28^th we will have a very special outreach event from 11am-3pm for our community.
• Sunday September 29^th we will receive our Alabaster offering