Jesus declared that those who seek peace shall be called children of God. This morning we shall contemplate what that means in a personal sense. We gather in praise of a God who moves within us to make peace with everyone around us, and who inspires us in the difficult task of what peacemaking means in everyday life. Let us therefore worship the God who turns peace disrupters into peacemakers.
Pastoral Prayer
We bow before Thee in gratitude, Lord God of the universe, for all the blessings Thou dost pour out upon us in a never-ending stream. We praise Thee for blessings seen and unseen, for those immediately recognized and for those which are so constant we take them for granted, without ever realizing it is Thou alone who hast given them to us. Teach us the virtue of gratitude for all Thou hast given us, Lord God of never-failing grace.
We pray for people who sense few if any divine blessings: for the homeless, who lack a permanent shelter they can call their own; for the forgotten, who once lived in a loving relationship with many people, and now live completely by and for themselves; for the physically ill, whose troubles are so great they can no longer feel Thy presence in their lives; for those who are engulfed in problems so persistent and so all-encompassing that they have forgotten what it means to experience Thy presence and Thy love. O Thou who art the fountain and source of all health and strength, enter into the existence of everyone who knows there is a great void in their lives but who have not yet discovered that Thou alone art the one who can overcome every void.
We thank Thee for having drawn us into Thy presence through our presence with one another in this congregation of seekers. Bless The Chapel Without Walls as we prepare for another move and another chapter in our pilgrimage together. We thank Thee for everyone who has been a part of our fellowship in the past, and for all those who shall join with us in the future. Help us to go forward in faith into the new experience and the new home which awaits us. We pray everything in the name of Jesus, our Messiah and our earthly Lord. Now we pray together as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father….