janbeek

~Peace~ειρήνη~

Peace in Greek: ~ειρήνη~

Peace in Hebrew, the Jewish language: Shalom

Peace in any language: LOVE

I pray your Palm Sunday has been a day of ~Peace~ειρήνη~Shalom~Love

Virtual Worship Service

We began our Sunday (after taking a nostalgic virtual stroll through Switzerland here on WP) with a virtual worship service. Many of you who are obeying “STAY at HOME” orders probably did the same. Some churches broadcast their service on You.Tube.com and their members were able to feel like they were together on the screen.

Our Pastor Steve Hundley sent by e-mail (as he did last Sunday) the church bulletin complete with songs linked and the prayers and sermon written out. Let me share a few of his words/prayers and a song with you now.

Opening Prayer:

Loving Father, as we journey with Your Son into this Holy Week of remembrance and hope, help us to understand You and Your love for the world more clearly.  Help us to call to mind these past events in Jesus’ life so that we can sense their significance for our present lives and for the future You are preparing for all creation.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The Palms:                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etrgxd6fSvc

Sharing the Peace:    Call someone who is isolated, discouraged and alone; ask what they might need. Pray with them.  (Perhaps you would like to repeat this action throughout the week.)        

Pastoral Prayer:

Loving God, who has brought us once more to this Holy Week in which we remember the ministry and suffering of our Lord, help us now to submerge our own needs and fears in Him and learn of Him. 

Show us by the resoluteness with which Christ accomplished Your will how we, too, may live gracefully under the pressure in this uncommon time.  As the darkness of these days befalls us, teach us to garner our faith by finding new and creative ways to share our lives in spite of the limitations placed upon us. 

Guide us as disease and death taunt us and life is cruelest, and we encounter our own “Calvaries” of the spirit, to respond with love, patience, and compassion.

Merciful God, whose healing power is so evident in the fearless and tireless work of our health care professionals, strengthen them and give them courage and confidence in everything they do.  Encourage them when their efforts seem futile or when death prevails.  Increase their trust in Your power to overcome the risk of their own health, pain, and even death.

Lord Jesus, as You made Your way into Jerusalem, so make Your way into our individual isolation, into our homes, into our rooms, into our hearts, and into our lives.  Oh Lord, make us aware that this world crisis we find ourselves in only affirms with great intensity our need for Your saving grace. 

Lord, we pray for the most vulnerable among us. Lord, heal those who are already sick, and comfort those who are grieving the unexpected loss of a loved one.  Lord, we lift up each one who has been robbed of their employment, their financial security, their sense of peace, if not their health, during this pandemic.  Give hope and light to hold on to until the light flows back at the end of this dark tunnel.

         

Blessing:

Go Now!

… for you cannot go where God is not.

Go with noble purpose,

and God will give meaning to Your days.

Go in love, for it alone endures.

Go in peace, for it is the gift of God

to those whose hearts and minds

are in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Amen.

May God’s Peace go with you this day and always.
Bee well, my friends.
See ya tomorrow.