“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

It is an exciting time at Emmanuel. As we begin a new month we have our Wednesday night    program getting back into full gear. We had a great kickoff with over fifty people enjoying good food, as well as fun times and fellowship. If you have never joined us before, we meet every Wednesday at 6:00 pm for a meal together, and then break into the different classes at 6:30.   Lawson will be leading the adult Wednesday night class through Believe which is a sort of follow up to The Story and the kids will be learning from a series called Deep Blue which looks to be a great adventure through the Bible. If you missed Mark’s announcement during service, the Adult Sunday School class that meets at 9:15 Sunday morning will also be starting a new book in      November. It sounds like the book will be a great jumping off point to take a deeper look at your faith and relationship with Christ. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask Mark or   myself. Our other Sunday School classes have also started back up and it sounds like the youth are cooking something up and I am looking forward to seeing the final result in October. Lots of     exciting things are going on around here!

We closed out the book of James at the end of September and in the final chapter James spoke of the importance of prayer. This has been in my thoughts a great deal since reading that scripture. We speak of prayer often, we lift up the names of those who need prayer weekly during service, all of us are in need of prayer in our life. I want to continue to encourage all of us to be a people of prayer. Prayer is not just us talking to God, but it is also God responding back to us. There is power in prayer and as we move into this new month I would challenge us all to take Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians to heart and to, “Pray without ceasing.”

Blessings,

Pastor Devin