Week of Prayer and Fasting--March 29th-April 4th

When I planned the preaching calendar for 2009, I thought that April 5^th was going to be the commitment Sunday for our CLUB (Come Let Us Build) process, and incorporated a week-long fast March 29^th to April 4^th as the culmination of that process. Although that changed to November of this year, and we changed the series for February and March to 40 Days of Commitment, I sensed that God was still calling us to a week of prayer and fasting, so this coming week we WILL fast and pray for God to confirm our deeper commitments in the areas of worship, fellowship, ministry, discipleship and missions--and particularly to reaching out among our neighbors to share the new life of Jesus with them!  Easter is coming in a little more than two weeks.  There's no better time to invite friends, family, co-workers and classmates to worship with us than then.  So, during the week of prayer and fasting think of 5 people (or 1 or 2 or 10!) and pray for them daily.  If you are able to participate in the fast, invest some of the time that you would have spent in eating in praying for them.  Ask God to open a door for you to invite them to worship with us and REMEMBER--on Easter we will have TWO services:  8:45 and 10:15 at the South Butler Primary School.  I'll be posting tips for this week of prayer and fasting each day during the coming week, so make sure you check back daily starting tomorrow night:  that's the first tip:  always start and end a fast with an evening meal.  Eat on Saturday (tomorrow) evening (don't stuff yourselves!) and then fast until this coming Saturday, April 4th and break your fast at dinner that night!  Tomorrow I'll talk more about how you may participate in the week of fasting and prayer, even if you have medical reasons for not fasting from food!