Welcome to Grace at Home. Below are worship resources to sustain and strengthen our faith. Click on the pictures below to access the video content. Scriptures and prayers are located below the links. Due to COVID-19 positivity rates, Grace Community Christian Church will continue to share in worship online.
The building is open for in person worship this morning. As guidelines change and vaccine is made available, we look forward to gathering safely again in person with COVID mitigation measures in place.
Additional opportunities for connection and reflection
We will gather to study Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words by Brian D. McLaren
on ZOOM on Sunday, April 11, after church at 11:15am in person (for persons that are comfortable with being present, masked, and appropriately distanced).
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"Believe: Thomas"
Inspiring video
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"Come, Now is the Time to Worship"
(Opening song - sing along)
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"Jesus Is Risen: He Appears"
Children's moment
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"He Knows My Name"
(Song of reflection)
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"Disciples of Christ"
(Video about identity and community)
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"Jesus Behind Closed Doors"
Rev. Yvonne Gilmore
(sermon)
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You may give gifts, tithes, and offerings online below or mail in a check to Grace Community Christian Church. Thank you in advance.
(Click the image on the left to watch the video)
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Have you heard this description of joy from Katharine Hepburn, adapted from her own words?
“Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. There was one other family between us and the ticket counter, with eight children, all probably under the age of 12. The ticket lady asked the man how many tickets he wanted? He proudly responded, “I’d like eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.” The ticket lady stated the price. The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man’s lip began to quiver. The man didn’t have enough money. Seeing what was going on, my dad reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and dropped it. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) Then, he bent down, picked up the $20 bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.” The man understood what was going on. He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand, squeezed the $20 bill, and replied; “Thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.” The $20 my dad gave away is what we were going to buy our own tickets with. Although we didn’t get to see the circus that night, we both felt a joy inside us that was far greater than seeing the circus could ever provide.
Followers of the risen Christ know a deep joy which comes from reaching out with acts of compassionate care for others. Today, with our offering, we have opportunity to tap into that joy. Your gift may be precisely what gives others the opportunity to experience more abundant resurrection life!
Offering prayer
Holy One, we do not doubt that Jesus, the Messiah, lives again. Yet, only one short week from Easter, we must overcome fear, doubt, and distraction. Help us focus on the abundance of divine transformation and the joy of Easter, so that we may recognize all that we have received and be led to give cheerfully. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Click here to give online give using Paypal or your credit card
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Opening Prayer
Living, loving God, today we come to give you thanks for your presence among us, both in the energetic “high” of Easter day, and in the quieter reality of resurrection life beyond the first appearance of Christ. Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead. Thank you for the promise we claim, that you are raising us up, as well.
Encourage us in this hour to receive the peace Jesus offered his disciples long ago. Help us live in that peace today and through this week which lies before us.
Hear us, for we know we’re like the one who declared: “I believe; help my unbelief!” Amen
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Prayer in the
midst of doubt
Lord Jesus Christ, the light of your love shines on, illuminating the places where you are present. As the bewildered disciples pondered the stories of your appearance, you penetrated the darkness of their fear and doubt with your word of peace. You showed them the appalling marks of evil pierced on your hands and feet. You opened their minds to understand why you had to die to defeat such evil and death. Increase our understanding, we pray, and open our minds and hearts to receive you, Lord.
Speak your word of peace to us and let your love shine on any dark areas in our lives. You specialize in impossibilities;
you walked on water, you heal the nations, you forgive sins, you set us free from our captivities.
This morning we pray for people here who are filled with doubts,
who wonder whether you exist and whether you are listening to our prayers. Even when we have that sinking feeling, give us the wisdom to turn to you. Lord we want to believe, help our unbelief!
Give us faith, small as a mustard seed,
so that we can be your faithful people,
believing in your power to save,
believing that we can share this good news with everyone we meet.
We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah,[c] the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
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Grace Community Christian Church
2770 Montgomery Road
Aurora, IL 60504
www.graceccc.org
630.898.7990
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