Go! (Matthew 28:19)
Dear Members of the Our Savior Lutheran Church Email Prayer Chain,

Go!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” –Matthew 28:19

Our Master commands us to go. We need permission to stay! The gospel is the account of Jesus’ leaving His Father’s right hand to go to Calvary. Jesus instructed those who wanted to be His disciples to leave their homes and their comforts and follow Him. Some insisted that they could not go yet because they still had to care for elderly parents (Luke 9:59-60). Others wanted to make sure everything was in order first (Luke 9:61-62). Still others expressed willingness to follow but wanted to know the details of what they would be doing (Luke 9:57-58). Jesus never excused those who struggled to follow Him. He made clear that to follow Him meant that He set the direction and they were to follow. 

We can convince ourselves that Jesus does not really want us to adjust our lives, pointing to the success we are enjoying right where we are. Yet Jesus often told His disciples to go elsewhere in spite of the success they were experiencing. Peter had just pulled the greatest catch of fish of his entire career when Jesus invited him to leave everything (Luke 5:1-11). Philip was enjoying astounding success as an evangelist when the Holy Spirit instructed him to go to the desert (Acts 8:25-40). Success where we are can be our greatest hindrance to going where Jesus wants us to be. 

If you become too comfortable where you are, you may resist Christ’s invitation to go elsewhere. Don’t assume that God does not want you to go in service to Him. He may lead you across the street to share the gospel with your neighbor or to the other side of the world. Where He leads, be prepared to go. 

REFLECTIONS

In what ways is God calling you to personally fulfill the Great Commission in the context of your family? Your neighborhood? Your work? Your community?
How can your local church better equip you to carry out the Great Commission?

PRAYER REQUESTS -- Week of June 8, 2008

FOR OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL

We are in danger of canceling Summer Sunday School for lack of volunteers. We need someone to step forward, talk to me (Paul Nickel) and begin coordinating and recruiting Summer Sunday School leaders. This should be an easy task because our sign up sheet should be full of people anxious to volunteer. But it is not! As of this writing only two people have volunteered. We only need three people each week to lead the three classes: preschool/kindergarten; 1st – 3rd; 4th – 6th. Please pray with me that the Lord will lift up the volunteers we need for Summer Sunday School.  

Related is the need for our regular program year Sunday School Superintendent (s). We have been praying and asking for more than two years now. Please pray that the Lord of the church would raise up one or two people to take charge of this important ministry of the church.

FOR THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE LORD FOR HEALING

Ruth Mathus              [Friend of the Deuth’s] recovering from surgery to remove a pelvic cancerous mass  
Luella Puckett             [Charles Puckett’s  mom) She is having a total hip replacement on Monday, June 9th.
Betty Wilson               [Friend of Marsha Pucket}  just diagnosed with thyroid cancer

FOR THOSE WHO SUFFER FROM CANCER OR CHRONIC ILLNESS

Joan Beck                     [Mother of Karen Young, a friend of Caron Fausel] diagnosed with a serious brain tumor
Dave McCutcheon         [Friend of Luther Oberhaus] brain cancer has returned and is not responding to treatment, prognosis poor.  Please keep is family, wife Rachel; Paul and Carole, his parents, and his sister Bekah.

FOR THOSE CELEBRATING NEW LIFE

Congratulations to Mike and Carol Chinberg who welcomed their first granddaughter, Audrey was born to Erika and her husband Ty, this week.  All are doing well.  

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. --Colossians 1:10-12 

In Christ,
Paul Nickel
Director of Christian Education
Our Savior Lutheran Church
 

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