the Holy Spirit is out in front of everyone involved

Beloved of God,


    We have a unique moment in the life of the church coming up on Sunday, May 16. For the first time (ever ?) our children will be leading us in worship as we sing, pray, and read Scripture together. I hope you will be praying for them as they do for a few reasons:

1. If it is truly worship, and not merely entertaining, a moment like this may give a child a much deeper sense of who God is. The moment may impress upon them a deep desire to follow Christ in baptism and to begin living a life of discipleship to Him.
2. It is often in serving in worship like this that a child may begin to develop a sense of call or claim on their life. A call to preaching, mission, chaplaincy, or children’s ministry may very well go to seed in a moment of authentic service like this.
3. Even if this opportunity doesn’t lead to a sense of call to vocational ministry, a child might begin to recognize their own gifts, and perhaps concurrently recognize what those gifts are for.

Be praying that these kids will come to know something new about God as they prepare to serve the congregation in leading worship. I expect those of us who they will be leading may learn something as well. 

This Sunday our Scripture reading will be from the last part of Acts 10, but the verses before that, (Acts 10:1-34) have been jumping out at me lately. We get a picture of a perfectly obedient gentile, who does exactly as he’s commanded. We find Peter, having a series of visions that don’t make sense to him until he himself has also been obedient. We have Peter arriving at a home only to ask what they want with him, and the people he is meeting expecting that he will have something to say.
This is a passage where the Holy Spirit is out in front of everyone involved, preparing the moment for the gospel to be shared if only Peter and Cornelius and others will be obedient. The Holy Spirit does this sort of thing. It is wild, and unpredictable. And yet the Spirit is also faithful, and for us. As we’re called to be God’s people in this place, I hope we will learn to look for the places the Holy Spirit is going ahead of us, because those places are where our ministry to our community and to each other will lie, and nowhere else. 

Please join me this week in praying for:
An end to this pandemic.

• In praise for the ways God has preserved and defended this nation, and in hope that we would be a people whose civic life is marked by justice, peace, and security.
• In praise for the women who have taught us, cared for us, defended us, and loved us through the holy work of mothering.
• Those among us in the midst of a big transition.
• Those among us who are hurt or ill in mind, body, or spirit.
• Guidance for our congregation as opportunities to gather together become more available.
• All those who the Holy Spirit is working even now to place in our path.
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
• Doctors, nurses, paramedics, PA’s and others working hard to keep us all well.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer ministry).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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