A few months ago we did a sermon on the Lord's Prayer. It was a rather brief overview of what Jesus calls us to do in that prayer. After it was over, I was surprised by the number of people who said they had never heard a sermon on the Lord's Prayer. As I thought about it, I realized that I had also never heard a sermon on the Lord's Prayer. So, because of this we are going to have a whole series this next month on the Lord's Prayer.

As you know, we recently had a sermon series on discipleship. Disciples at our church are those who SIT, STUDY, and SERVE. You'll notice that prayer is missing from that list (and not just because it doesn't start with "S"!). What we need to realize is that every aspect of our lives as disciples needs to be saturated in prayer. Our worship services are times in which we pray throughout the morning. We cannot study our Bibles rightly without praying for the Holy Spirit's guidance. And, we must be on our knees seeking opportunities to serve and praying for strength to serve properly.

So what is prayer? How do we do it? What do we say? These are the questions we will deal with for our next series as we take an in depth look at the Lord's Prayer and say with the disciples, "Lord, teach us to pray!"

Also, this month is Thanksgiving. We are going to be offering a special opportunity for you to SIT and worship on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We will be holding a special Thanksgiving Eve (November 21st) worship service at 7:30pm here at the church. This will be a time to offer up thanks to God who provides for all our needs. Also, we have many opportunities to SERVE this month. Please remember to pick up food for the Thanksgiving baskets and take a name from the giving tree all to help some less fortunate families during the holiday season.

As I write this, the fires in the area are finally dying down and things are beginning to become more manageable. But this does not mean that things are going "back to normal" for a tremendously large number of families. At times like this, we who have been blessed with so much need to reach out to our neighbors in need and offer a helping hand. If you can offer any financial support for those families who have been affected by the fires, please let me know and I will be able to direct that money to an organization that is supporting them. Please continue to pray that the lives of these people would be put in order.

Pastor Bob