Good Friday morning Church Requel!
The picture to the right shows that we all have hidden talents. Here Brandi is demonstrating her pizza making abilities. Tomorrow evening is our church's opportunity to serve a warm hearty meal to our neighborhood. Chris and Brian will be demonstrating their own hidden talents as they take the lead. Let's not leave them alone in this endeavor. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. We are usually finished by 6:30pm.
Usually Mary Kay and I love to help out with this meal too, but we will both be gone ... for good reason. I'm joining all my high school classmates up in Norton, Ohio to celebrate all our 65th birthdays this year. We'll be playing all our 1970s era music while catching up with one another. We are very deliberately NOT naming this a reunion, because no one likes reunions. But everybody LOVES a birthday party - especially at 65 years of age! About 75 of my classmates are coming. How fun!
Our Plans For Sunday Morning. I've really been enjoying our study from the Gospel of John. This Sunday we will wrap up chapter one with a focus on verses 12 and 13. I'm calling Sunday's sermon, "The Divine Paternity Case." Think of all the celebrity paternity cases you have heard. How many of them are about the Dad proving his paternity of his children? Isn't it usually the other way round? Yet in the Gospel of John we learn that our Father God has been chasing after us - the children of God!
I'm particularly excited to talk about our Bill of Divine Rights as children of God. I've come up with seven of them, but these are not an exhaustive list. John 1:12 tells us the that Jesus (the Word) "gave the right to become children of God." What rights can you think of that you possess as a child of God?
Want a preview of this truly good news sermon? You can find it in your Bible app or you can use your browser with this link - http://bible.com/events/48965705.
Here are the songs we plan to sing Sunday: "Might Get Loud" by Elevation Worship; "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews; "I Speak Jesus" by Charity Gayle; "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel; "Who You Say I Am" by Hillsong; and "God Really Loves Us" by Crowder. Thanks Brandi for arranging such a marvelous group of songs for us to sing!
If you can't make it to church in Mansfield Sunday morning, you still have the alternative of streaming it on Facebook or on YouTube. Here is the link for YouTube this Sunday - https://youtu.be/HtnFrOmuoPk.
Thank you for your prayers for Mary Kay. A week ago last Tuesday Mary Kay fell and broke her wrist trying to catch her fall. Unfortunately it was a pretty bad break and required surgery. She now has some pretty impressive hardware holding everything together. She wanted me to tell you all that she is feeling much better now.
With that good news out of the way, it was a pretty tough week for us. We both greatly appreciate all your thoughts and prayers on our behalf. Your calls, cards, and meals were most appreciated. It's times like these that we know we are part of the family of God!
Blessings! Love you much! Hope to see you Sunday morning! Pastor Mark
