EChurch@Wartburg – 10.16.16

Welcome to a Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=12917&picture=riverRiver at Nightfall

Here is our Order of Worship

Please keep all the victims of Hurricane Matthew in your prayers. 

Prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi link

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love
for it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen

Prayer of Hope by Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1895) link and link

O Lord, in Whom is our hope, remove far from us, we pray Thee,
empty hopes and presumptuous confidence.
Make our hearts so right with Thy most holy and loving heart,
that hoping in Thee we may do good;
until that day when faith and hope shall be abolished by sight and possession,
and love shall be all in all.
Amen

Scripture Reading: Luke 12:54-59 (NASB Bible Gateway)

And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?

“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”

Traditional Gaelic Blessing link

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Comments

EChurch@Wartburg – 10.16.16 — 15 Comments

  1. Wartburgers, would you please pray for the following if you’d be so kind:

    *Hurricane victims in multiple nations. For the people of Haiti, the Bahamas, the Southern United States (Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, etc.) who lost loved ones, family, friends, homes, businesses, or are dealing with damage and destruction…please pray for help for them and healing.

    *Uncle Dad (aka Wayne) who posts here and his family. His niece Valerie was killed in Maine by her husband, who has been arrested and will be prosecuted. Her grieving parents recently had a funeral in South Carolina. Please pray for their devastated family.

    *NM Girl. I have been quite concerned for her for a long time as she posts here, suffers from mental health issues, was worried about her finances, needed a job, has three pets, needed a new roof for her home which she could not afford ($6000 or so) and felt hopeless about life and in particular her own life. Please pray for her spiritually, physically, emotionally and financially.

    *Marquis and her son Billy in Texas. For financial provision for them and for a new job for this single mom. Dee covered their church story and the fact that their church cost her house cleaning jobs after her son was abused by a church member. They are behind in rent and other bills, need car insurance, gasoline, and food. The GoFundMe account is open on the Open Discussion thread as well and is here: https://www.gofundme.com/pxs5dk

    Thank you.

    Please pray for Marquis’ spirits as she feels greatly discouraged in her situation.

    *For Jeannette Altes. She needs prayers for her health (being treated for a tumor), for financial provision as she looks for work, and for money to pay bills. She received several hundred dollars and needs several hundred dollars more.
    https://www.gofundme.com/ljahelp

    *Harley in Texas. Please pray for healing for her foot/bone fusion surgery. She has been in a great deal of pain again lately.

    *Ishy. Praise. Their house is selling and they were closing on a new home. Please keep her in prayer about both houses and moviing. Thank you.

    *Tim Fall’s 92 year old father. Tim posts here and also has a blog. Tim’s father was moved closer to Tim and his wife in California after a bad fall, surgery for it, and being in the hospital. Pray for his recovery and for Tim and his wife, and their other relatives’, emotional stress level.

    *Opiate crisis. There is a national opiate crisis that I’ve been reading about in the news and many deaths from overdoses of bright, talented people who are loved and who got hooked. Please pray for this situation and for it to decrease.

    *Any other prayers needed and not on this list…please post them here and we will pray for your prayer requests.

    Thanks everyone.

  2. Off-topic.

    Would Wartburgers do me the kindness and read the article on TGC by one of my ex-pastor/elders Deryk Brown at Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley, comment on the article, and take a screen shot of it. Ken F. apprised me that one of my ex-pastors/elders’ articles about “unity” among elders was on TGC website. I posted a comment to that article that it wasn’t unity but ‘uniformity’ and Thought Reform techniques. I also posted that GBFSV pastors/elders had excommunicated me on some trumped up charge, as they had done to other critical thinking Christians before me.

    Low and behold…3 comments that I have made to the article have been scrubbed/purged/wiped clean.

    Deb has my story and Wartburg will be publishing it in the near future.

    Thanks, friends.

    ********************************

    Ken F UNITED STATES on Sat Oct 15, 2016 at 01:21 PM said:
    Velour wrote:
    I submitted my story, but I think Deb has it so you could check with her.

    I don’t know if this is applicable for your upcoming post, but TGC posted a link on their front page today from an elder at your former church: https://fromthestudy.com/2016/10/10/7-practices-for-preserving-unity-among-your-elder-team/.

    Ken F UNITED STATES on Sat Oct 15, 2016 at 01:35 PM said:
    Velour wrote:
    I read it and thought, “Oh it’s Thought Reform” — even of elders. It’s NOT “unity” it’s “uniformity”.

    I found it creepy. If one is to have an elder-led church, there should be diversity of thought among the elders so that there are appropriate checks and balances. The type of unity this article describes is destructive and is more akin to totalitarianism than to Christianity.

  3. Thank you to Deb, Dee, Pastor Burleson and everyone else involved for providing eChurch. It is a real blessing!

    Thank you, Velour, for reminding us regarding the prayer needs. I’ve been keeping those you listed in prayer (and you too) for quite some time and will continue.

    I also have a need: our well is going to be repaired tomorrow morning – I hope. We (2 families) have been without reliable water for about 6 weeks and totally without for 10 days. The drilling/well repair people think they can fix it but it’s old and there could be additional problems. Please pray that God gives us favor and guides the repair people.

    Thanks again and great blessings to all!

  4. Talmidah wrote:

    Thank you, Velour, for reminding us regarding the prayer needs. I’ve been keeping those you listed in prayer (and you too) for quite some time and will continue.
    I also have a need: our well is going to be repaired tomorrow morning – I hope. We (2 families) have been without reliable water for about 6 weeks and totally without for 10 days. The drilling/well repair people think they can fix it but it’s old and there could be additional problems. Please pray that God gives us favor and guides the repair people.
    Thanks again and great blessings to all!

    Thank you, Talmidah, for praying for prayer requests among us and for me! You are so kind.

    I will be keeping your family and the other family in prayer regarding the well situation and reliable water.

  5. Thank you, VELOUR, for keeping us mindful of those who need our prayers. May the Good Lord have mercy on us all and keep us close to His heart.

  6. Bless you Velour, Christiane and all others who have a burden to pray – may our Lord strengthen you to do His will. Amein v’amein.

  7. Deb wrote:

    @ Talmidah:
    Praying for the repair of your well. Hope it’s an easy fix and that the water will be flowing abundantly soon!

    Thanks a ton, Deb – I am so worn out with the whole mess. At least all the people are able to come out here to try to fix it several days sooner than they first said. Hopefully by tomorrow night it’ll all be fine!

  8. Yay! We have water again, and the well is much deeper and basically all new! Everything was done just before 3 this afternoon. The pump guys were able to come out as soon as the drilling folks left. They were set to come tomorrow. The sad thing is, the reason they came early is because they were working on another well not far from here and those people just ran out of water – poof. Nothing else they could do. It breaks my heart. Those poor people. Please pray that they’ll find another water source soon. A good, clean water supply is a real luxury.

    Thanks to all for the prayers – God is so good!

  9. @ Talmidah:

    Yeah! I started praying yesterday for your well water and for your neighbors.

    I will be praying for the other family too who needs a source of clean water.

  10. Velour wrote:

    @ Talmidah:

    Yeah! I started praying yesterday for your well water and for your neighbors.

    I will be praying for the other family too who needs a source of clean water.

    Thank you! The other family on our well is actually my daughter, her significant other and our 2 grandsons. It’s good that we live close together and were able to help one another. She just had surgery and we both have nasty health issues.

    Bless you, Velour, and I’m keeping you and yours in prayer, as well as the others in need here.

  11. @ Talmidah:

    Thanks for the update. I will be praying for you and your daughter and family.

    Thank you, friend, for praying for me as well. I need it!

  12. Velour wrote:

    @ Talmidah:

    Thanks for the update. I will be praying for you and your daughter and family.

    Thank you, friend, for praying for me as well. I need it!

    Your thoughts and prayers mean so much – and if I can pray for you specifically, please let me know. I’ve been an intercessor/prayer warrior for about 35 years. I understand that not everyone thinks someone like me necessary, but I’ve seen so many great answers I just keep on keepin’ on!

    By the way, your blog is wonderful. You’ve put in a lot of hard work and it shows. As I catch up on laundry and cleaning, I’ll read there as often as I can. 🙂

  13. Praise from Ishy.

    ishy wrote:
    Finally in the new house and got internet back. And we found the coffee maker this morning! I thank everyone for all the prayers.
    Congratulations!