Welcome to Our Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg
Here is our order of worship
We Gather Together Hymn (link)
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
A Psalm for Thanksgiving
Psalm 100 (link)
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
If you are new to EChurch, please click on this link for an explanation
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:32-34 (NASB Bible Gateway)
And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Psalm 95:1-6 (link)
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.
Please feel free to leave a comment or question. We also have contact information should you wish to discuss thoughts about anything privately.
We are so glad you took time to be with us!
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I’m here spending a little time with a woman who is wheelchair bound in her home, and together we enjoyed eChurch. The videos that accompanied the songs were very well done, and helped focus our attention on the greatness of God. Excellent preparation for the heart in readiness for Thanksgiving Day!
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Evie,
What an encouraging comment! I loved those videos, too! I have watched them several times. Wade’s sermon is inspirational, as always.
My heart is rejoicing because I can feel God’s love. My prayer is that those who participate in EChurch will understand how deeply they are loved by their creator and sustainer. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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Thank you Deb! Happy Thanksgiving to you, and to everyone!
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Thank you all for another beautiful service!
I’m still learning about faith, but am noticing how the majority of examples in Hebrews 11 are/were negative/adverse situations. Perhaps those times provide a “spike” in faith? I suppose dire situations could cause the opposite as well.
At any rate, I thank you, Wade, for the excellent sermon on this topic!
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Victorious,
Good thoughts! I agree that dire circumstances could cause an opposite reaction of faith in a person as well. Would be interesting to investigate the difference. Maybe the prayer “Lord help me in my unbelief” would be appropriate in situations where faith is not present. As I see Scripture, grace always precedes faith anyway.
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I think faith is easy so long as we only reflect on Biblical heroes & heroines in well contained passages. Easy, because faith is just an abstract idea we can all agree upon at that point. It’s much harder when real life bad times come along and hammer us personally.
PBS just aired Ken Burns’ “The Dust Bowl” and I couldn’t help but be moved to tears by the intimate stories of the folks who lived through what Timothy Egan called the worst hard time. Burns’ film made me stop and thank the Almighty for what I have, knowing full well that it can be cruelly stripped away at any time.
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Muff Potter, I’ve seen that documentary a couple times and it even shocked me just watching. Horrible. What those people experienced would, if I were to be honest, test my faith big time.
I remember Corrie Ten Boom’s question to her father about dying. He replied this way:
“When we go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?”
Corrie considered this well before answering. “Just before we get on the train.”
Still holding his steady gaze, he said to her: “When the time comes, your Heavenly Father will give you all the strength you need.”
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I found this thought provoking, I hope you will also…battered women’s syndrome and the Church
http://bit.ly/XWMOMM
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Fendrel,
I watched that video, and my initial reaction is that’s not at all how I perceive my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, although I’m sure that some do for various reasons.
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Fendrel and Deb,
I see both perspectives. Deb, I think you have a healthy view of the Anointed One. I think Fendrel’s video illustrates that some women are conflicted about Jesus Christ. I spoke with one today via phone. She feels Jesus loves her from a distance because of her imperfections. When He draws close, it is to “cleanse” her. She is wretched and unworthy, and because she can’t overcome her imperfections, Jesus punishes her to purify her.
I tried to help her see that Jesus loves the wretched. He draws close and is intimate with the imperfect. He embraces the sinner. His friendship with sinners is irreconcilable to the religious. Too many religious people have no undestanding of the rich grace and deep mercy of the Anointed One, as does Deb.
The Christmas series I am teaching for the five weeks of December is entitled “Strength through Knowing God” and my task is to reveal God as Scripture reveals God – with both masculine and feminine attributes. He is spirit, so He carries no gender. His image is only completely and fully seen in BOTH the male and the female. I hope to show that God is as much like a loving Mother as He is a powerful and strong Father.
Until the church sees the rich mercy and deep compassion of God as revealed in Scripture (Old and New Testaments), there will always be battered syndrome Christians.
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Muff Potter and Victorious,
Two thought provoking comments! Thanks for them both.
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Wade, is that 5-wk. teaching series for the Sunday sermons…I hope, I hope?
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Victorious,
It is for Sunday morning, December 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30th. 🙂
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Wade,
Thanks for your heartfelt comment to Fendrel. It is so upsetting to me that the Gospel can be presented in such an unhealthy manner.
Looking forward to featuring your December series here! Thank you for taking a break from Hebrews to bring these important messages.
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The great fallacy in the video is that it portrays Christ’s relationship to His Church in a way that is inimical to the truth.
Rather, “it is delightful here to trace the perfect equality of love towards the Church as of perfect identity of interest in the Church….He that hath seen the melting, overpowering expressions of the Redeemer’s love, – he that has seen Him pouring out His deep compassion over the miseries of a suffering world; he that has seen His affectionate gentleness towards His disciples; he that has seen Him weep at the grave of Lazarus;he that has followed Him to the garden of Gethsemane, to the judgment hall of Pilate,and from thence to the cross of Calvary,has seen in every step which He trod, and in every act which He performed, a type of the deep, deep love which the Father bears towards His people. He that hath thus seen the Son’s love hath seen the Father’s love. Oh, sweet to think,the love that travailed,-the love that toiled,-the love that wept,- the love that bled,-the love that died, is the SAME love, in its nature and intensity, which is deep-welled in the heart of the Tribune God, and is pledged to secure the everlasting salvation of the Church”(The Glory of the Redeemer in His People, Octavius Winslow)
Never doubt that your Father loves you.
Regards
Gavin
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Wade,
I think the point of the video is not that some women are conflicted, but rather that the message itself is conflicted and requires a person adopting the sentiments of being unworthy, sinful and that god loves us, but also punishes us, etc…
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Fendrel,
Good point.
Here are my thoughts: We are unworthy of love, we are sinful, and we are really screwed up people.
But God loves us as we are, gives His Son for us, and embraces us in rich grace, immeasurable mercy, and unfathomable kindness while we are yet sinners.
So, from God’s perspective we are UNBELIEVABLE WORTHY, but from our perspective, having never been loved by anyone without performing, it is difficult for us to comprehend being loved by God without performing but simply trusting His grace through His Son Jesus Christ.