Natalie's Grace Notes

  Service of Worship Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church June 27, 2021 Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor   Let us pray: O Lord, you are indeed the healer of all our ills. We bring to you, Lord, our bodies, minds and spirits hurting and broken by the violence, ills, trauma and cares of a world separated from you. Come to us now with your healing powers. O God, we ask that you heal us. Give us the strength, health, wisdom and knowledge found only through you. Send your life-giving Spirit so that we may live our lives with courage in the profound peace of your love. Come to us now with your healing powers . Breathe on me, O God, and make me whole. O God, we ask that you sustain those who seek to alleviate the pain and suffering of this world. Give strength, courage, wisdom and knowledge to all doctors and orderlies, nurses and clerks, psychiatrists, researchers, and all other medical care givers, volunteers and professionals. Send your life-giving Spirit so that...

  Service of Worship Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church June 20, 2021 Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor   Let us pray: Lord God of all Creation we come to you from our storm-tossed lives to seek your peace; we come to you with our questions and uncertainties, our worries and anxieties, we come to you from our joy and our happiness – each emotion a kaleidoscope of our feeling in life’s changing patterns. More than all of that we come to you because of what you have done for us in the love of Christ who bought our freedom by his sacrifice on the Cross and showed us new life in his resurrection life. We bless you for the love which has no dimension of length, breadth or height, coming as it does from the perfection of your being. We come to you knowing that sometimes we have received your grace in vain. We have not relied on your word or wisdom; we have not shown any concern or compassion when we should have; we have not loved our neighbor as we love ourselves. W...

  Service of Worship Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church June 13, 2021 Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor   Let us pray: Holy One: you anoint us with living water, so we may go to serve the world in these troubled days. You open our eyes so we will see everyone as our sisters and brothers. Seed Planter: you place faith deep within us, so we can bear witness to your just and loving kingdom. Your love regulates our hearts, so we can welcome all in your name. Gentle Spirit: when we cannot see the way, you take us by the hand so we can step forward, in faith, into the kingdom. You fill us with hope, so we can sing God's joy all of our days. God in Community, Holy in One, hear us as we pray as Jesus has taught us, Our Mother, Father, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who tre...

  Service of Worship Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church June 6, 2021 Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor   Let us pray: Creator God, you call us like a good parent to you to guide and protect us, to nourish and lead us. Jesus our Savior, you call us like a caring elder brother to serve us and help us, to cheer us and invite us. Healing Spirit, you call us and move us ever closer into fellowship with you and each other. Yet like unruly children we strain at your guidance, we try to break away and do it ourselves. As we mature and grow up we desire knowledge, but then don’t know what to do with it; we want independence but then fatigue at the weight of the responsibility that brings; we desire the knowledge of good and evil, but then need to make very hard choices. Before we know it we are in the grip of other powers, leading us away from your loving ways into the grip of selfish greed, adoring idols of materialism and power. Lord, forgive us and free us. Open...