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 the rise in COVID-19 positivity rates, Grace Community Christian Church will only share in worship online. The building will not be open for in person worship. We will only offer virtual worship in the coming weeks, and look forward to gathering again in person when it is safe to do so.
Merry Christmas
Today we light the candle of Christ. Advent hope moves us; Advent love leads us; Advent joy stirs us; Advent peace stills us, that we might affirm our King Jesus. It is time we set flame to this Advent affirmation by lighting the Christ Candle. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judea. He was the long-awaited Messiah whose coming was prophesied. The same Jesus lives today in our hearts. He deserves our highest loyalty and total commitment. In Jesus Christ our hope is fulfilled; our love is made perfect; our joy is complete; and our peace is sealed. Rejoice, a Savior is born. A savior is born, indeed. Joy to the world!
|
|
 |
"Christmas According
to Kids" (video)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Welcome to our World"
(inspiring song)
|
|
|
|
"Meeting the
Christ Child"
(Children's worship)
|
|
|
|
"Mary Did You Know"
Jessica Sund on violin
|
|
|
|
|
"Disciples of Christ"
(Video about identity and community)
|
|
|
|
"The Promise of Christmas:
The Witness of Simeon and Anna"
Rev. Yvonne Gilmore
(Communion and sermon)
|
|
|
|
"The world of the generous gets larger and larger"
--- Proverbs 11:24 (The Message)
Thank you in advance for sharing your gifts, tithes, and offerings with Grace Community Christian Church. You may give online below, mail in a check, or drop off your offering to the church.
Today's special offering supports the work of regional ministries this Christmas, including the vital ministry of the Christian Church in Illinois and Wisconsin. Click here to learn more. To make a gift to the special offering, over and above your tithe or offering today, please include a note on your check or on Paypal.
Offering prayer
O Lord, with gratitude for the holy child and the privilege of being a part of your holy family, we offer you our gifts. We ask you to accept them, as a good parent accepts even the most simple of gifts from her child. Allow this congregation to use this offering well, and to put this money and each of us to use to do the work of making you known, that we might know ourselves to be fully redeemed in Jesus Christ. Amen.
|
|
Click here to give online give using Paypal or your credit card
|
|
Opening Prayer
The Spirit called. Simeon and Anna came forth. Call us, too, O Spirit.
Let us recognize Christ, our brother, now born among us. Help us find him in all people, in all of creation, in our midst here and now.
Teach us above all else, how to love
as you and the Father and the Son love.
Make each and every one part of your Holy Family, that we might claim our inheritance in Jesus. Amen.
Blessing the work of Christmas
God of mystery and love, help us move from the sweet experience of the birth of the Christ Child into the reality of the powerful witness of Jesus who will be Messiah for us all. Remind us again that this season is not about bows and boxes, feasts and family; it is about your ministry of hope and peace for this aching and angry world. Empower us to be people of great faith, placing our trust in you, believing that peace is not only possible, it truly can happen if we will work with you and with one another.
Christmas is a lasting hope, and an enduring promise with an ancient summons of peace on earth, good will to all people, everywhere. No one can stop your holy light from coming. It will show up anyway, shining the light of a midnight star into the darkest places of our lives. Help us not to underestimate the power of the manger, and the hope it holds. Bless each one of us in your service in the coming days. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
|
|
22-24 Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.
25-32 In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel. 33-35 Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother, This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted— the pain of a sword-thrust through you— But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are. 36-38 Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem. 39-40 When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.
|
|
|
Grace Community Christian Church
2770 Montgomery Road
Aurora, IL 60504
www.graceccc.org
630.898.7990
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
