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25.04.20 - The Wood Between the Worlds | The End of Death
25.04.20 - The Wood Between the Worlds | The End of Death

Apr 19, 2025

Online Service
Received: 2025-04-29 12:00:51

First of all I want to thank everyone who has prayed for my daughter Eva (thyroid cancer) in previous requests. I am requesting an updated prayer request. My daughter has gone through 30 rounds of radiation, it helped a bit, but with this rare cancer that is usually terminal I am asking for nothing less than a miracle. This cancer goes from lung, to bones to brain and at present the doctors see a mass in the lung. I live alone with my daughter and am the only caregiver she has, it is extremely hard, Next is chemotherapy and hopefully we are not too late for that. I am praying for a miracle that our God and Father would have mercy on Eva and completely cleanse her body of this horrible, rare and debilatating cancer. I thank each and every person that prays with me. God bless you.

Prayer Wall

Locations:

St. Catharines Location

St. Catharines

 Vineland Location

Vineland

 Welland Location

Welland
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“Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” I love that translation of this verse. Much like how we talked this morning about tuning our hearts to A440 of God’s grace, Jesus is also inviting us to consider the rhythm or pace of our lives.

If you’re like me, there are times when I race ahead of God’s steady tempo. Lately, I ’ve been sprinting busily through my day, feeling rushed and hectic. And I have felt the unforced rhythm of grace inviting me to slow down, to breathe and to remember that God is never in a hurry, that this frenetic pace of life is disconnecting me from being present to God.

At other times, I can be guilty of being spiritually sluggish or idle, prone to drift - I can lose awareness and fall behind in my Christ-following. In these seasons, the rhythm of grace is almost like the steady pounding of a steam engine or marching drum, inviting me to sync up and keep pace with God’s activity in my life.

Musicians use a metronome, like this, to help keep time. Spiritually, things like participating in a church service or a Life Group, or carving out daily quiet time with God, act like spiritual metronomes, inviting us to live in sync with the rhythm of God’s grace.

For the next few moments, I want to invite you to try an experiment with me, to use the rhythm of this metronome to guide us into a prayerful experience of God’s grace. I want you to try to align your breathing with this beat. We’re going to add some more percussion instruments, and you can feel free to join in by tapping your feet, clapping your hands or simply breathing in time with the beat. This may feel a little awkward at first, but we want this experience to help us embody a very simple prayer, inviting God to align our lives with the rhythm of grace. As we do this, you may notice that your tendency is to speed ahead of the beat, or maybe lag behind. Whatever happens, invite God to speak to you about how this may relate to your spiritual life these days. Is God inviting you to slow down, or pick up the pace?

So let’s start; simply breathe in and out along with the rhythm of the beat.

Contemplations
resources:   
Rhythms of Grace
Inspiration

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Reflection
resources:   
Generosity

The Bible reminds us that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1) and that we are merely stewards of the things currently under our care. 

Inspiration
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Breath Prayer
resources:   
Jesus Wept | Breath Prayer

 

Inspiration
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Bible Study
resources:   
Journaling the Bible | Micah 6:6-8

What we’re wanting to do here is to shake up both over-familiarity (for those who have been reading the Bible for a long time) that can sometimes cause the Bible to feel stale, as well as to think more deeply about what some of the ancient words and metaphors really mean, and what they might look and sound like in our present day context. 

Inspiration
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