Christ Our Hope Lutheran Church

P. O. Box 961690
Riverdale, Georgia 30296
(770) 997-7117                                           (770) 997-3312

Jeffrey M. Halenza, Pastor

July 22, 2020

Dear Members, Visitors, and Friends of the Congregation,

         Attached is the prayer I will pray during our Conference Call tonight, July 22, at 7:00 PM. (Check Pastor Flanigan’s email for the telephone number or link as well as the access code). I should have mentioned before this that some of my previous prayers were what I call “talking prayers”. Tonight’s prayer is yet another one. What I mean by a “talking prayer” is that I am having a talk with God and myself (which is much of what prayer is), rather than praying a formal, traditional prayer. Hence, the best way to understand them is to simply read them and then see what happens – see if they help you have a talk with God and yourself. As you will hear in tonight’s prayer, when I talk with God I often make fun of myself when I get a titch self-righteous or think I’ve really got God figured out on this issue or that. My grandmother Nan always recognized when I was getting a little too big for my britches and she would say to me, “Bet ya think you’re really something, don’t ya mister.” This condition I often suffer from not only causes me to laugh at how absurd I can be but also leads me to my need for forgiveness, as it does tonight’s prayer, and my need to keep learning Christ and obedience to the way of God. And that always leads me to hope – the hope that is Christ and the God of our salvation.

         As announced, we have cancelled worship services until August 9th. We believe this to be the wise thing to do given the daily number of new cases of the coronavirus and the fact that many of our members are in the high-risk category. We are also holding off on resuming Wednesday Evening Communion services and Thursday Bible study classes. We are once again doing videos of abbreviated services, however, and I hope they will be of help. 2

         Please join us on tonight’s call – it’s a good way to stay connected to God and one another!

          May the love of God calm us during these days and grace us with the faith and strength we need,

Pastor Halenza

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