Worship Invitations

Welcome to this week’s edition of the weekly Worship Invitation email!   

Each week, during this time when we aren’t meeting together in person, we will be emailing you some ideas about how you can worship this weekend and live out our call to Love God and Love our Neighbors.   These are things you can do with all ages, in solitude or with others. 

Let us worship the Lord together!

The Word: This week, we will be reading together Ezekiel 37:1-14.  Spend some time this weekend in a quiet space reading and reflecting on the passage – and listen for the word of life.

Action: This week, I invite you to keep a gratitude list.  You can keep this list in your personal journal, calendar, or on a piece of scrap paper on your nightstand.  Every morning and evening, write down three things you are grateful for in our world.  (Six things a day, right?)  Throughout the week, notice how a practice of gratitude shapes your view of life and how you experience God’s Spirit at work breathing life in you.  

Something for our Younger Ones:  Here’s a 31 day gratitude journal you can print for your kids: grateful.  Who am I kidding?  We should ALL print one out!   Thanks to www.heartandgratitude.com for the resource!

Service:  Write a thank you card (or heart felt email) to someone who has helped to show you God’s love during your life.   Bonus points if you can honor and thank someone who showed up a time when you felt dry or lifeless, and brought hope when it was most needed.

Song:   Craig and Eric (from Shepherd of the Hill) put together a fun gift for you.   Click here for I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.  Feel free to sing along!

Prayer:  We will be pausing at 6:00pm on Sunday nights, to pray together where we are and know that others are praying as well.  This week, I encourage you to begin with gratitude to God, remember those in need, join in this written prayer, and close with the Lord’s Prayer. 

Gracious God,  God of all compassion and consolation, your breath alone brings life to dry bones and weary souls.  Pour out your Spirit upon us, that we may face despair and death with the hope of resurrectionand faith through Christ, our Lord.  Help us to dance with the spirit, the breath of life, which calls us out of the valley of dry bones and into the Kingdom of God, both a present reality and the grounding of our future hope.
Holy Father, Father of Christ who revealed the way of life, inscribe your law on our hearts that in this life, we may be the body of Christ.  Help our hands to hold the sick and suffering.  Help our feet to walk with the poor. Help our ears to listen to those who live in despair.  May our eyes be affixed upon the suffering of the cross and the hope of the empty tomb so that we may live as resurrection people. (excerpted from this pastoral prayer)

Go in peace and serve the Lord with joy.

Pastor Heather