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\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_button _id=”32″ ][cs_content_seo]Click for Helpful Resources\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_text _id=”33″ ][cs_content_seo]Lost loved ones to COVID-19?\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_button _id=”34″ ][cs_content_seo]Click for Pastor’s COVID-19 Memorial Message\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”35″ ][cs_element_image _id=”36″ ][cs_element_image _id=”37″ ][cs_element_image _id=”38″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][cs_element_layout_column _id=”39″ ][cs_element_content_area _id=”40″ ][cs_content_seo]Sunday Sermon
May 23rd, 2021
“ IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN RECEIVE
part 38
“Guarding Against Spiritual Pride”
Ephesians 2:12-22
Scripture:
James 4:6; 10
Galatians 6:3
Proverbs 11:2; 16:18
Ezekiel 37:26-28
Romans 8:24-25
For Praise Playlist, click here.
For Worship Playlist, click here.
\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_content_area _id=”41″ ][cs_content_seo]Midweek Message
May 12th, 2021
“ IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN RECEIVE
part 34
“GOD’S HANDIWORK” part 2
Ephesians 2:10
Scripture:
John 15:5
John 16:24
Psalm 50:15
Proverbs 3:5-6
1 Corinthians 15:10
Ephesians 5:20
For Praise Playlist, click here.
For Worship Playlist, click here.
\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”42″ ][cs_element_image _id=”43″ ][cs_element_image _id=”44″ ][cs_element_text _id=”45″ ][cs_content_seo]Click here for more info.
\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”46″ ][cs_element_image _id=”47″ ][cs_element_image _id=”48″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][cs_element_layout_column _id=”49″ ][x_image type=”none” src=”21086:full” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=””][cs_element_headline _id=”51″ ][cs_content_seo]Pastor Robert Stevenson takes his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine 😎\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_content_area _id=”52″ ][cs_content_seo]March 2021 Fasting
Pastor’s Video
As we continue to fast every day for 381 days, not out of convenience but out of commitment for change to happen in our World, State and Communities. We began our fast on Friday, June 12, 2020 and will end on Monday, June 28, 2021. As of Monday, March 1, 2021, we will have completed 262 days of fasting (119 days left). If you know anyone who wants to join us, we welcome them with loving arms. As I promised I will continue to send out our monthly fasting and prayer focus
Fast Focus:
The season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 17th and ends on April 3rd (40 days) the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Lent is a season to observe and commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to reflect on what it means to be a follower of Christ. Christians replicate Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert where He stayed, prayed, and fasted for 40 days. Lent is marked by fasting, prayer, and consecration.
Matthew 4:1-2: Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Because we are in the Lenten season, for the month of March we will be eating NO RED MEAT..
Prayer Focus: Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus Christ each morning
·Pray a prayer of praise to Father God each afternoon
·Pray a scripture from Psalm each evening·
Fasting is a spiritual exercise normally done with prayer. It is a willing abstinence or reduction from certain or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. It can also be abstaining from other things like television, and social media.
Fasting allows more time to be available for prayer and provides an attitude of submission and surrender. It shows a willingness to sacrifice anything to get closer to God.
Matthew 17:21 “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
For the Fasting Theme and more information about fasting, click here.
\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”53″ ][cs_element_headline _id=”54″ ][cs_content_seo]Capital Campaign Debt is Paid OFF!\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”55″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”56″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”57″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”58″ ][cs_element_content_area _id=”59″ ][cs_content_seo]Our Location\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_text _id=”60″ ][cs_content_seo]5628 Washington Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60644\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_map _id=”61″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][cs_element_layout_column _id=”62″ ][cs_element_headline _id=”63″ ][cs_content_seo]Taylor’s Newsletter \n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_text _id=”64″ ][cs_content_seo]Hello, everyone!
I began writing this on Saturday of Holy Week, the day “in between”. Much has been said and written about this year—another Lenten season during the pandemic, so much suffering, injustice, violence, hatred, and so forth. Some time ago, Frederick Buechner wrote: “The worst isn’t the last thing about the world … The last thing is the best. It’s the power from on high that comes down into the world … [and it] wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring.” Without wanting to minimize the pain, losses, and evil, he rather sums up the Easter story, doesn’t he? Hopefully some of the introspection, repentance, reflection and messages of Lent and Easter will cause real change in lives, communities and nations.
I’ve listened to several sermons and talks, read from favorite books, and generally enjoyed some quiet(ish) time. We celebrated Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday morning … aware that many have died in this past year, and so thankful for the promise of resurrection.
A few quotes that sort of jumped off the pages of Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew:
M. Scott Peck: “…the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being…”
Philip Yancey: “Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it.”
Dorothy Sayers: “God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it. He did not stop the crucifixion: He rose from the dead.”
Again, Yancey: “Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heartache over lost friends and loved ones, all these will become memories, like Jesus’ scars. Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth. We will have a new start, an Easter start.” What great news!
It is now Wednesday after Easter. We don’t have classes this week; public schools and most educational institutions traditionally have these two weeks “off”. While I like my classes and generally enjoy interacting with students, it is also nice to have a break. I have a long list of projects for these days, including writing this update. A couple of reports. Review our church’s constitution and make recommendations for changes that better reflect our reality. Prepare for the rest of the semester. Prepare for some upcoming workshops and talks. And then those ‘personal’ tasks which loom large: organize photos (anyone else have a lot of pictures in their phone or laptop, without a good system for arranging them?), purge files and drawers, revise my will, etc. I have at least washed my clothes – no small task as we didn’t have running water for several days. I took a shower yesterday for the first time in a week; ah, simple pleasures.
God is alive and with us. Jesus met his friends on the beach for a fish breakfast. Came alongside a couple walking down the road to Emmaus. Is there in the ‘ordinary’ as well as ‘extraordinary’. And makes all the difference. Next week, we’ll have a faculty meeting and resume Zoom classes. Ordinary stuff, or is it?
May your after-Easter time be revolutionized by love … by grace … by Jesus.
With much appreciation,
Katie
Partners in Community International (PICI); P.O. Box 237; Tempe, AZ 85280
P.S. My hair is growing.
\n\n[/cs_content_seo][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”65″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”66″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”67″ ][cs_element_image _id=”68″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][cs_element_layout_column _id=”69″ ][cs_element_image _id=”70″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”71″ ][cs_element_row _id=”72″ ][cs_element_column _id=”73″ ][cs_element_content_area _id=”74″ ][cs_content_seo]Come For A Visit\n\n[/cs_content_seo][cs_element_image _id=”75″ ][/cs_element_column][/cs_element_row][cs_element_row _id=”76″ ][cs_element_column _id=”77″ ][cs_element_text _id=”78″ ][cs_content_seo]Address:5628 W. Washington Blvd.Chicago, IL 60644\n\n[/cs_content_seo][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”79″ ][cs_element_text _id=”80″ ][cs_content_seo]Services:Sunday Morning Service10:30 AM
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