2022 Christmas Retreat Day 3_1

Gratia Concludes Christmas Retreat with Overflowing Grace

Gratia concluded its three-day joint retreat near Lake Tahoe, California. Like the previous day, it was a full day of Bible Studies and fellowship, and also included an overflowing grace-filled Sunday Service with baptism and communion.

The Sunday worship service was delivered by Pastor Walker explaining the historic and universal meaning of the Word, or logos, becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. The Sunday service also featured the baptism and had a communion ceremony, where attendees took the bread and wine together in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ and his continual sustaining of our lives of faith.

The evening concluded with a final prayer meeting filled with grace and the Holy Spirit. God led many retreat attendees to pray for ministers, just as many ministers had prayed for students in previous prayer meetings. Many members had the prayer topic of holding onto the grace they received during the retreat.

Through three days of the Christmas retreat, God filled all attendees to be filled with grace and united them in the love of Jesus Christ. Please pray that God may carry all retreat attendees to fulfill His glory and Kingdom.

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Mark 7 Ephphatha! Be Opened

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained the meaning of the deaf and mute man as it relates to us. In the sinful world, we live in confined, unclear situations in our life. We don’t listen to God, nor do we speak to Him. Also living in this world, we want to be heard, but we can’t because we are in the confined situations we are.

The Lord healed the deaf and mute man by first taking him away from the crowd. Then, the Lord got up close and personal, touching his ear and tongue. Then he woke the man up by shouting “Ephphatha! Be Opened!”. We too, need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and be up close and personal with him. We must hear the words of the Lord that are waking us up from our confined situation and unclear life. God created us out of love, to have a two-way communication with him. Faith is not just God talking to us or us talking to God, but it is a relationship of love.

Finally, the Lord told the crowds not to speak about what happened, which seems hypocritical in this miracle. But the reason why is that many followed just the miracle and weren’t sharing the true good news of God’s love. If we do have lips to speak, we shouldn’t speak of worldly things, but we must speak by the Holy Spirit as it has loosened our tongue. It is about testifying the good news of salvation of Jesus Christ.

May our ears be opened to hear the truth and our tongues be loosened to share the name of Jesus Christ to the world.

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Gratia Young Members Practice for Sunday Worship

Gratia’s young members gather on December 2 to practice praise songs for the Sunday service. Brother Larry, Moses, and sister Dany are going to lead the praise for this Sunday service and they are thankful for this opportunity to learn to serve and get involved in the service preparation. We pray that they can give glory to God and may abundant grace be poured down in the service.

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Harvest Is plentiful But Workers Are Few

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the important moment in time now to evangelize and bring in many souls. The 3-fold ministry of Jesus which was teaching, preaching, and healing and this is a ministry we must all emulate. The Lord called his 12 disciples to follow in this ministry, so we must be those disciples. Disciples are the ones who bring others to the Lord.

In sending out his disciples, he gave a long teaching to them. He told them to go to the lost sheep of Israel, continuing on the history of God. He told them to preach about God’s Kingdom as we must do as well. He also told them to live relying on God, which speaks to us to not live money-centered. The work of evangelism is blessing others, we are giving the gift of eternal life. If some don’t accept that gift, the Lord comforted us saying that the peace and blessing returns back to us.

The Lord further comforted us by explaining how many will persecute and go against God’s work. However, all sin and evil will be revealed and judged. There is a final judgment that the Lord spoke to us about. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ, can take comfort in God’s sovereignty which protects and cares for all. Therefore, even though many may oppose us, even our families, we should continue forth to gain rewards in heaven. The greatest rewards are for those who evangelize and save lost souls.

May the members of Gratia Church be the ones to bring in many lost souls of the harvest to faith in Jesus Christ and the glory of God’s Kingdom.

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