Welcome to a Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg
Here Is Our Order of Worship
If you are new to E Church, please click on this link for an explanation
A Prayer by John Wesley link
Most great and glorious Lord God,
accept my imperfect repentance,
and send your Spirit of adoption into my heart,
that I may again be owned by you, call you Father,
and share in the blessings of your children.
O Lord, take full possession of my heart,
raise there your throne,
and command there as you do in heaven.
Being created by you, let me live for you;
being created for you, let me always act for your glory;
being redeemed by you, let me give to you what is yours;
and let my spirit cling to you alone, for your name's sake.
Deliver me, Lord God, from a slothful mind,
from all lukewarmness,
and all dejection of spirit.
I know these cannot but deaden my love for you;
mercifully free my heart from them,
and give me a lively, zealous, active and cheerful spirit;
that I may vigorously perform whatever you command,
thankfully suffer whatever you choose for me,
and always be ardent to obey in all things your holy love.
O Lord, let us not live to be useless, for Christ's sake.
You are never tired, O Lord, of doing us good;
let us never be weary of doing you service.
But as you have pleasure in the well being of your servants,
let us take pleasure in the service of our Lord,
and abound in your work and in your love and praise evermore.
Forgive them all, O Lord:
our sins of omission and our sins of commission;
the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;
the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;
our secret and our more open sins;
our sins of ignorance and surprise,
and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins;
the sins we have done to please ourselves,
and the sins we have done to please others;
the sins we know and remember,
and the sins we have forgotten;
the sins we have striven to hide from others
and the sins by which we have offended others;
forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake,
who died for our sins and rose for our justification,
and now stands at your right hand to make intercession for us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
A Prayer of Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) link
Shall I despair of your mercy, O God? Far be that from me.
I am your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
Give me grace, therefore, to await your leisure, and patiently to bear what you require.
Most assuredly I know that you will deliver me when it pleases you, for I do not doubt or mistrust you.
You know what is good for me better than I do.
Hear me, O merciful Father! for the sake of your son, whom you willed to be a sacrifice for my sins;
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory.
Amen
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:7-8 (NASB Bible Gateway)
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
A Prayer by Peter Marshall link
Forbid it, Lord, that our roots become too firmly attached to this earth, that we should fall in love with things. Help us to understand that the pilgrimage of this life is but an introduction, a preface, a training school for what is to come.
Then shall we see all of life in its true perspective. Then shall we not fall in love with the things of time, but come to love the things that endure. Then shall we be saved from the tyranny of possessions which we have no leisure to enjoy, of property whose care becomes a burden. Give us, we pray, the courage to simplify our lives.
So may we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited.
So help us, O God, to live and not merely to exist, that we may have joy in our work. In your name, who alone can give us moderation and balance and zest for living, we pray. Amen.
Benediction – 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (NIV)
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
Amen
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Wade, I like that you likened discipline to discipling. That changed the whole context of the verse for me.
I recently had to endure ill treatment from a close family member for nearly a year. She literally shut me out of her life for reasons I considered unfair and unjust. An attitude of self-righteousness and self-pity surfaced in me that I wouldn’t have believed was there. Who knew?
When our relationship resumed, it was much “softer” and less confrontational as I recognized that perhaps she saw those attitudes in me that I was totally unaware existed. Looking back, I understand that that situation put me in the classroom of discipleship and the Lord orchestrated good from it.
I’m not at a place where I can pray (as you did following your sermon), “Lord keep the afflictions coming….,” I will be more sensitive to the process of learning when they come my way.
Thanks all for the e-church!
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Victorious,
Interestingly, my wife Rachelle told me at lunch the same thing. She said I have helped “forever change her perception” of discpline from God that of punishment to that of a classroom of instruction. Continued blessings to you Victorious in your journey of faith.
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Add me to the list of those who have read that passage much differently when you described the word discipline. What timing!!!
I just told God this weekend that I quit. I'm tired. I'm not running one more step in this race. I've had it.
And then I come here and see what your sermon is about. Wow, do ya think God was talking to me??!!!! yes, I will get back up and try to endure, with God's help.
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I would encourage readers to listen to this sermon of Wade’s: http://is.gd/iZfKcR (Your Year of Jubilee)
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My thinking of enduring is ONLY for the faith in Jesus Christ and NOT for afflictions that do not test this faith. For all those afflictions, I say, fight and resist.
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“The absence of a father willingly and responsibly teaching his child is a sign of reprobation.”
This created a little bit of a heartache in thinking about the complete absence of my earthly father(alcoholic and abusive). To think that he is my dad, but in a way, I am “illegitimate”.
I know my Heavenly Father is absolutely not this way. I just get a little “tripped up” understanding discipline as being harsh or punishment vs. teaching because He loves me(I’m not illegitimate). Wade, I believe this helped my understanding of this in my head more, but I think my heart is still resistent. Sometimes my endurance is not so great.
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Tammy,
“Sometimes my endurance is not so great.”
Sometimes mine is not so great, either! We’ll see in Hebrews 12:12-13 that when we have fainting spells, (the writer calls them “weak hands and feeble knees” moments), a healthy church and/or family will come around the struggling person and offer words of encouragement – never shame, or judgment or rejection – but always encouragement. This is one of the reasons TWW is a great site. It offers encouragement for those who are not enduring so great.
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Scooter’s Mom and Thy Peace,
As always, your comments are encouraging to me personally. Thanks for being true Internet friends.