Welcome to Gratia Community Church
Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Galatians 3:15-22
Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
Luke 15:11-31
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
Gratia church held first Sunday service of the year 2020 with gratitude. Pastor Tzeng preached the message with the title “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” from Matthew 11:28-30. The message comforted members who were weary and burdened in all expectations and demands from the world, and let them turn their attention to Jesus Christ who can give true peace in his love.
“Here Jesus said that come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. People like to hear the invitation of Jesus. But here we need to understand what Jesus is speaking about. Jesus spoke to men who are desperately trying to find God and trying to be good, and who were finding the tasks impossible and who were driven to weariness and to despair. His invitation is to those who are exhausted with the search for the truth.
“It is Jesus’ claim that the weary search for God ends in himself. The way to know God is not by mental search, but by giving attention to Jesus Christ, for in him we see what God is like. He says, “ come to me all you who are weighted down under your burdens.”
“I wish that all members received abundant grace through the service and fellowship and live the new year with grace and love of God.” said pastor Tzeng.
Gratia ministers had graceful mission trip to Nevada at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas(UNLV) on Jan 2, 2020 with prayer and evangelism. Ministered gathered at the UNLV campus in the morning and prayed before the evangelism. This mission trip aims to set up fellowship members in Las Vegas. The evangelism was very fruitful despite the winter break that only a few students seen on the campus. A bible study was scheduled right next morning out of many surprise.
“Out of my surprise, the students here are very nice and humble. Many students want to study the bible. There are countless casinos downtown but at the other corner of the city, people are waiting for the goodnews.” commented a minister.
We pray for the revival of the churches around the Las Vegas and more people can know Jesus Christ to receive salvation.
Acts 12:1-16
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
Mark 6:30-44
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Philippians 3:12-16
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Luke 19:1-9
“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”
Ephesians 2:11-22
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands) remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”