Gateway Church of the Nazarene
Gateway Church Family, Date: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Over the past few weeks we have been working through a sermon series on prayer. On Sunday, we discussed the importance of never giving up when we pray! Another great example of this concept of never giving up is found in Luke 18. Jesus says this in verses 1 – 8…
Luke 18: 1 – 8 - Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
As you read this devotional this week, I just want to encourage you to keep crying out to God in prayer! I love verse 7 where Jesus says, “and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night”. I have a list of things that I constantly cry out to God about. I am sure you might have a list as well. Or maybe you just have one or two things that you cry out to God about. Whatever the case, please do not give up on prayer. We can trust God! He is faithful! "He loves us and hears us when we pray." Keep praying and don’t give up.
I love that we can fully believe Jesus when He speaks. Today in our Scripture, He reminds us to keep praying. Let’s believe this Scripture as fact and keep praying! God is fully trustworthy!
Remember that when you pray, God hears your prayers. We serve a mighty God and I am so thankful that He gives us this amazing privilege to call on His name.
I hope you have a great week!
God bless!
Pastor Kevin
Special Report from The Gateway Church of the Nazarene in Murrieta, California, United States for Wednesday 30 May 2018
Gateway Church of the Nazholy
Gateway Church Family, Date: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Robbery this Weekend
On Sunday a robbery took place at Gateway Nazarene. After review of the church video footage during our services, the robbery took place on Sunday morning during our 8:30 am service. Here are the details of the event….
About 8:45am – A man came into the sanctuary wearing a blue suit. He stood at the back of the room. In fact, I stood next to him when he came in. He looked like he was just visiting.
About 8:50 am our video footage shows him going down the hall. He hides in the youth room for a few moments as people walk past to drop their kids off in the children’s room or people just stopping to have a conversation.
About 9;00 am, he walks down the hall to my office or to the men’s bathroom by my office. He hides while the ushers bring the offering down the hall. At one point he starts to come out but at that moment, Pastor Rick walks down the hall and the man goes back into hiding.
At 9:10 am, the man walks into the office side of the front office area and proceeds to go through Pastor Wally’s desk (he took Wally’s change) and tries to go through Kim’s desk but everything was locked. After checking out the other offices he attempts to open the “safe” room but it is now locked. Next, he goes to Pastor Chipo’s desk and takes her wallet from her desk. He then hides the wallet and casually walks out.
Over the next few hours, we had no idea that Pastor Chipo’s wallet was taken until after second service. At this point when we found out, she called her bank. The man used her debit card and the church’s credit card. He went to Walmart, Home Depot, Target, etc.
A few things – We have filed a police report already and the police said this same guy has been hitting other churches in town. Up to this point, no other church has security footage and we are the first church that did. The police are excited to now have a clear picture of the guy and even his car and probably the license plate. Looking back, I am so glad that we installed these new cameras. Our security camera pictures might be able to catch the guy and prevent future events.
I have already spoken with Gene (who was out of town this weekend) and we will be meeting to discuss security in greater detail. As you know we have already added additional cameras and we have certain people doing security in case of a major incident. My biggest fear is that the man had direct access to our kid’s rooms and our nursery. The footage is very scary and heart stopping to watch. Please pray as we move forward and do our best to navigate through this. More information will be sent soon. I also want to thank Gene for pushing so hard to get these cameras, adding the security we currently have and helping to figure out additional areas that we need to secure.
People, please protect your valuables and don’t leave them unattended. Also, “see something, say something.” This was probably a wake-up-call.
God bless you today! I just wanted to keep you up to date.
Pastor Kevin
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