Welcome to Our Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg
Here is our Order of Worship
A Prayer for the Fall link
Gracious God, As the season changes, we are reminded that you are an unchanging God,
but it is your desire to continue to change us–to mold and shape us,
to teach us to have faith like a child. Lord, be our teacher!
Lord, teach us to praise. We praise you for awe, wonder,
and excitement as new programs and plans are introduced in our denomination and individual churches this fall.
Lord, teach us to confess. At this time of year, we are inundated with busyness.
Forgive us, Lord, when our busyness overshadows you. Lord, teach us to be thankful.
We are thankful that in teaching us, you change us. Teach us, Lord, to trust in you for guidance and direction.
Lord, help us realize the magnitude of your grace and then to teach others what it means to live with that grace.
As we seek to further your kingdom, fill us with the same exuberance, wonder,
and awe that we see in children at the beginning of a new school year.
Amen
A Prayer for Stress link
God help me to work through the stress that is in my life today,
So that I need not be anxious for tomorrow.
I know that you have given me life that is to be developed and enjoyed.
I know in my heart that you provide all that I need for health for
Happiness, and for eternal life.
Please help me to remove those elements in my life that stand in the
way of my enjoying your bounty to the fullest extent.
Teach me to manage what seems to be unmanageable and to use the
stress in my life for renewal and growth.
Lord I pray that you will be with people who have been
victimized and traumatized by the acts of foolish, uncaring people,
who think that terrorism and killing and domination are the only way to resolve their problems.
May those who perpetrate such actions come to see
that the way to peace is through loving acts of kindness and not through
violence and pain.
Amen
Scripture Reading: Luke 13:1-5 (NASB Bible Gateway)
Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Benediction link
As you leave this place
may the Living Lord go with you;
May he go behind you, to encourage you,
beside you, to befriend you,
above you, to watch over you,
beneath you, to lift you from your sorrows,
within you, to give you the gifts of faith, hope, and love,
and always before you, to show you the way.
Amen
My wife grew up with Norine on the mission field as a fellow missionary kid. Her family is very close with Norine’s family. Please pray for Norine and her husband Andrew (still imprisoned). Here is a recent update: https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/10/4680155//. The couple has been in Turkey for more than 20 years leading a church. My wife is doing what she can to raise visibility within the US. Thanks.
I have posted an update in the open discussion thread. Thank you.
http://thewartburgwatch.com/open-discussion-page/comment-page-10/#comment-290282
@ Ken F:
Praying for the Brunsons, their family, friends, church community, other persecuted Christians, and of course the leadership in Turkey.
@ Jeannette Altes:
Praying.
Have you applied for the Second Harvest Food Bank? They have high quality food, not junk. It is a nation-wide effort to keep people who face food shortages in their homes/pantries/families stocked with nutritional food.
I encourage you to apply.
A peaceful autumn reflection by Keats (once you skip the ad):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr1qiKoMyQ8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr1qiKoMyQ8
@ Velour:
Thanks. I checked and the nearest one to me is about 200 miles.
Jeannette Altes wrote:
Bummer.
Thank you Wade for this sermon. I have so often thought and lived the things you preached today. There is a popular tv evangelist, who I think you referenced, who’s favorite saying is, “We have to find favor with God”. He preaches about this all the time. I have never thought that was true. Just didn’t sit right with me. With all the many surgeries and health problems I have been thru, I always strive to be content. It’s just the way it is. Sure, I would love to be able to fully walk again, and to have my life back the way it was 8 years or more ago. But that’s probably not going to happen. I have realized that I am in a different part of my life. Yes, I mourned what I once was, but I never thought that God didn’t love me, or that he was punishing me. My testimony of God’s love for me and all he has done for me still goes on. It’s not dependent on whether I walk again. I see life from a different perspective being in a wheelchair.
Years ago, a fine Christian man at the church I was attending, had kidney problems. This was in the days before kidney transplants, back in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I can remember the pastor sharing with us on the Sunday morning of his death, that this man asked the pastor what he was doing wrong? Was it some sin in his life that he hadn’t repented of that was the cause of his illness. The pastor told him that just wasn’t it. Some people are healed on earth, and some in Heaven. God had better things in store for this man on the other side than on earth.
So yes, I am content. I don’t complain all the time why I can’t walk. I don’t go “Healing Services”. I know that yes God can heal me, but if he chooses not to, then that’s ok. Someday I will walk, run and jump for joy on streets made of finest gold.
Thanks to all involved for EChurch. Wonderful sermon, Pastor Burleson.
I’ve prayed for all here on TWW and everyone mentioned who need prayer and will continue. May our Lord meet every need and strengthen everyone’s faith.
Harley, I enjoyed your comments. Being content is so important in daily life.
Please remember me and my family in prayer as well. God bless all.
Talmidah wrote:
Prayed for you and I will continue to do so this week.
Hugs,
Velour in California
@ Harley:
Thanks for your wonderful attitude despite the physical challenges you face.
This morning in my Sunday School class one of the members shared that his 23 year old grandson may have to have one of his feet amputated. There is a 10% chance that it is an infection; however, the doctors are fairly sure it is cancer. This young man is having an MRI in a couple days to be certain of the diagnosis.
I would appreciate prayer throughout the TWW community for Brandon. Thanks!
Yes, Deb, Harley’s comment was wonderful and insightful.
I will be praying for Brandon and his family this week.
Give him and his family my love and prayers from California (Silicon Valley).
Harley,
Your testimony was an encouragement to me. Thanks for the transparency and authenticity – true Christianity.
Talmidah, I will remember you and your family in prayer this week.
Velour – along with you, and the two D’s, the ministry of Wartburg on weekends is very impactful. Thanks for the compassion you exhibit and the work you undertake.
@ Deb:
Yes. Will pray for this young man. Please keep us informed. Thanks for letting us know of his need.
Velour, thanks so much – hugs and love from NC. Keep on keepin’ on, Sister.
Deb, may Brandon have a great and mighty refuah shleimah (speedy recovery or quick healing). I’ll keep this young man in my prayers. May the Lord also comfort his family and friends and give them strength, and guide the hands of those who give him care.
Pastor Burleson, thanks so much for your prayers. We’ve never corresponded, but I found your blog several years ago and have visited daily ever since. I’m always blessed by your posts and sermons and have learned so much. May God richly bless you and yours.
To all others, know that I’m thinking of you, lifting you in prayer and hope this coming week is filled with His best.
For several days this verse has been constantly on my mind. I feel I must repeat it here:
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. – Psalm 84:11 – KJV
Much love to everyone in Yeshua our Lord.
Thank you, Pastor Wade, for your kind words.
Thanks to this ministry on Wartburg Watch, the insights and experiences of other believers, your blog articles, books on spiritual abuse, I did not grow bitter from being excommunicated and shunned from a NeoCalvinist church on some trumped up charge (like all of the other Bereans at that church before me who were also kicked out). It’s been two years since my excommunication/shunning and the loss of my friends of 8+ years.
I am now in a better place, a place to give back. As I told Dee the other day on the phone, that I have always cared about people and I had this type of ministry at my ex-church. Nothing formal. Just doing what the Lord has gifted me to do. But I realized that He has used me here on Wartburg, to help people here on Wartburg, and I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing here if I was still a member at my (former) church.
A shout out to all of the dear saints there in Enid, OK, at your church.
Velour in California
Please pray for work for Marquis in Texas.
Please pray for her son Billy, who started high school.
The GoFundMe campaign is open for them on the Open Discussion thread. Marquis says they need help with utilities and other basics.
Please pray for Jeannette Altes in Colorado. She has been having a health problem (tumor), lost her job, and is looking for work. She needs assistance with food and gasoline right now.
And her November rent is due on November 1st. $565 needed. Plus a little extra, the fees that GoFundMe deducts. The Go Fund Me campaign is open on the Open Discussion thread.
Thank you.
Wade, I think I might have mentioned before, that my family and I went thru Hurricane Ike in Galveston, 8 years ago. We lost all our furniture in our home, etc. But God gave us so much back in return. He gave us our dream home that we had hoped to retire to. He gave us friends that we treasure so much. Did we prosper because we found God’s favor. Absolutely not. I always cling to the verse that says he will give back to you the years the locusts stole away. We always were a giving family. Constantly helping others out. Our blessings were returned to us. Not that I expected it. But I always thank God for what he has seen us thru and what he will continue to see us thru.
Prayers for Brandon. Foot injuries are not fun.
Harley wrote:
This.
Me too, Harley. Me too.
@ Deb:
You got it Deb.
I just wished to thank Wade for the online role he played in 2012 after Tom White killed himself on his ministry’s fenced compound. It was not God that “blessed” Tom with a big house, big salary and a big ministry. I have seen that the true blessings are of a much less material kind. Knowing God intimately is its own reward regardless of the trials and tribulations that we have to go through to prepare us for the next life.
Thanks, Mr. Jesperson…
There’s a compelling back story to the Tom White csse – the story of the child abuse victim and her family – that I hope will one day be shared. It’s not my place to do so, but I am grateful that the family contacted me and shared the story. I’m amazed at their strength and courage.
@ Harley:
you already live in ‘the way of grace’, Harley 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z28Mi6mUyKo
Harley wrote:
This is just what I needed! Thank you!