Devotionals

We are a forgetful people. The other day someone asked me how old I was and I told them the wrong age. I had a three second moment of panic in which I couldn’t remember, and I blurted out the first number that came to mind. Monday is perhaps the most forgetful day of the week. We live much of our lives with this escapist drive toward the weekend, thinking those two days will fulfill all of our needs and dreams. More sleep. More time to work on those assignments. A chance to have clean clothes again. Time with people I like. Time with God. Then Monday rolls around. “How was your weekend?” someone asks. My mind goes blank. We prepare our hearts in anticipation of Easter. We reflect on the cross and its significance. We feel the long, heavy pause between Good Friday and Easter Sunday — waiting for

What the Coronavirus Pandemic is Teaching Us Pastor Chunhai Li (Translated by Rev. Amos Lee)   For the Lord will not reject us forever.  Even if He causes suffering, He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love.  For He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.                                                                                                                                         Lamentations 3:31-33 In these latter days, everyone is preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic.  I would describe it as a huge wave that has come ashore bringing destruction in its wake. Even so, different people cope with it in their own way, depending on their life experiences.  According to some psychologists, those who have a relatively easy childhood growing up, will make light of the pain associated with the pandemic and live through it. Some become ostriches when dealing with the crisis by burying their heads in the sand, putting up defenses to protect themselves and letting it pass. Some others who had experienced difficult

Dear Grace Community Family, I hope you are all doing well, and are thinking and praying for all of you.  We would like to update you on the coming weeks seeing as the coronavirus continues to spread. With the California and Los Angeles County orders to stay at home likely to be extended beyond April, as well as the national measures by the President and his medical experts extending to the end of April, we will not be resuming our normal services on Easter weekend as originally planned.  This is a unique opportunity for our church and it certainly will be different, but we are already making plans to have our Good Friday and Easter service online.  We just wanted to give you a heads up as soon as we could, so stay tuned as we continue to release more details regarding those services.  We will continue our Sunday services online until

Food for Thought: Meaningful Worship in a Pandemic Rev. Johnny Wang When something big like the Coronavirus (COVID 19) Pandemic of 2019 hits, it catches our attention. Are church people, both leaders and members, ready for the unannounced and sudden arrival of the disruptions of such magnitude? Worship services, undoubtedly are one of most important activities in Christian church ministry that can be disrupted by any of the following: wars, natural disasters like storm and flood, human mistakes in forest fire, political and religious persecutions and in the destruction of church and temple buildings, in denial of freedom in assembly and practices, and health pandemics as seen in history and at our doorsteps. The signs of success in 21st century in world business are big, more, and eye-catching; Church “business” is not exempted from such in opinion polls. When church attendance is affected, take worship for example, what are our

An encouragement video from Pastor Nick