Welcome to a Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg
Here is Our Order of Worship
A Palm Sunday Prayer link
On this day of great rejoicing, Lord Jesus Christ,
when we welcome You as our King and Savior,
we also walk in the shadow of Your cross.
Hosanna! we cry. Blessed are You who come in God’s name to save us.
Hosanna! Strengthen our faith on this Palm Sunday
so that when the time comes to carry the cross we might still call out to You with heartfelt praise.
Give us the grace and the courage to follow You this Holy Week from death to resurrection,
from darkness to the fullness of light.We need You, Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Hosanna!
Amen
Prayer for Palm Sunday: Scot McKnight link
Almighty and ever living God,
in your tender love for the human race
you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature,
and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility:
Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering,
and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Scripture Reading: Luke 22:54-62 (NASB Bible Gateway)
Jesus’ Arrest
Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them. And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” A little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
OH LORD by Saint Ambrose of Milan link
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You, a heart to delight in You,
to follow and enjoy You, for Christ’s sake.
Amen
Benediction: Jude 1:24-25
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling
And to present you before his glorious presence without fault
And with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen.
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Hallelujah
All praise to Him who sits on the throne and the Lamb!
God’s favor…the opposite of what the worldly church teaches.
And I will have a new appreciation of a charcoal fire.
Thanks Wade.
We returned home from my mom’s funeral, yesterday. It wasn’t as hard on me as I thought it would be. I know that is because of the prayers of countless family members and friends supporting us.
Harley, I prayed for you when you first asked for prayer. And I continue to pray for you as you walk through this dark valley. Your words are an encouragement to me, that that time which I dread, of the day my Dad leaves this life, might not be all that I fear.
As I listened to Wade speak I thought of the song “How deep the Father’s love for us” and the line “The Father turns His face away”. I think I need to find out more about whether that is true. And I realize my thinking about this passage is based partly on the beautiful paintings which depict the story, like Brugghen’s Denial of Saint Peter. And I’ve always thought that Peter denied Jesus three times in rapid succession, but I’m trying to put together the timeline of what was happening. Was the charcoal fire cooking all night? So the rooster crowed in the morning? And charcoal is wood which goes through a process to make it more useful for cooking. And Peter and we all go through a refining..very interesting thoughts… but the best is “Jesus looked at him..” Jesus, look at me.
Wade, I agree wholeheartedly with Darlene when she told you that you make the words of the gospel come alive. Thank you so much for these words today. I also agree with your thoughts with the elders? during your meeting discussing hymns that focus on Jesus’ focus on us. You mentioned the hymn “Above All” which is one that makes my tears flow like no other.
Thank you, Deb, and Dee for e-church. I am most grateful for this.
Mary Ann
@ Victorious:
Above All is my absolutely favorite! It was the first song we sang in church today, and I will be featuring it in next week’s EChurch.
@ Harley:
Thanks for letting us know. I will continue to pray for you.
Heather wrote:
The assumption that the Father turns his face away is taken from Psalm 22:1. To find out if this is really the case one needs to read through the whole Psalm to get to 22:24. It also comes from taking Habakkuk 1:13 out of context – the prophet was accusing God of being too good for something but doing it anyway, which pretty much undermines the assumption that God has to turn his face away. The good news is God did not abandon Jesus on the cross, and he won’t abandon us either. He is not like that.
Heather wrote:
I had a hard time understanding what he meant by this. One needs to let wood burn down to charcoal before using it for cooking, but that does not take long if one uses smaller sticks rather than logs. It does mean that both the fires he discussed were burning for some time in order to be charcoal, but beyond that I don’t know if one can make any conclusions.
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