EChurch@Wartburg – 2.26.17

Welcome to a Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=100139&picture=snowcapped-mountains-in-wyomingSnowcapped Mountains in Wyoming

Here Is Our Order of Worship

A Prayer of Ambrose (c 339-97) link

O Lord, who hast mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of thy Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore thee,
a heart to delight in thee,
to follow and to enjoy thee,
for Christ’s sake.
In Jesus name,
Amen

The Lord's Prayer

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

(Matthew 6:9-13 KJV)

Scripture Reading:  Luke 14:25-33 (NASB Bible Gateway)

Discipleship Tested

Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

A Prayer of Benedict link

Gracious and Holy Father,
Please give me:
intellect to understand you,
reason to discern you,
diligence to seek you,
wisdom to find you,
a spirit to know you,
a heart to meditate upon you,
ears to hear you,
eyes to to see you,
a tongue to proclaim you,
a way of life pleasing to you,
patience to wait for you
and perseverance to look for you.

Grant me a perfect end,
your holy presence,
a blessed resurrection
and life everlasting.
Amen.

Prayer of St Richard link

Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which you have given us,
for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us.
Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day.
Amen

Comments

EChurch@Wartburg – 2.26.17 — 11 Comments

  1. And here are Shauna and her son Billy’s needs from the Open Discussion thread.

    Shauna on Sun Feb 26, 2017 at 09:33 AM said:
    Update: please pray for rent 654.10 left , phone is shut. off need 142.68 so billy and i can communicate(he stays after school everyday to get help from teachers), utilities 176.96, food and gas are always up in the air i just manage day to day with that basically its whatever funds are left it always seems to work out. Prayer for these things and extra work my manager hired two people and now im back to 20 hours. Its very upsetting but what can i do? Im trying to stick it out and pick up extra hours so far no luck. All but three people have dropped me from cleaning. The other 3 just all of a sudden dropped me without saying anything. These were people who are former members of the church who contacted me when they read our story. I have my sense of the intrest in us and hiring me but i will let you all decide. All i can say is this isn’t coincidental. Im going to keep moving forward and although it stings God is always consistent in providing and sheilding us from harm. Please pray for my heart as it doesn’t feel to good to feel like you were used . i hope im wrong but my prior dealings with anyone connected there have revealed agendas. Kicking myself as i should have known better. Anyways lesson learned i just dropped billy off at work and i go into work soon. We have no way of communicating so please pray i can somehow get work without a phone talk about a challenge. Im using open wifi where my son works right now.
    http://www.gofundme.com/pxs5dk
    Please pray as im sick with a very vicious cold. Im taking everything to fight it i just hope i haven’t taken to many didferent cold medicines.

  2. Prayer requests:

    *Headless Unicorn Guy’s (H.U.G.) health.

    *Daisy. Going through some personal difficulties that she would rather not share with others.

    *Nick in Scotland. We miss him commenting here and we hope everything is ok for him and his wife Lesley, and their children. Deb emailed him recently to see if he’s ok.

    *Jeannette Altes’ health and finances.

    *Shauna and Billy’s healing and finances.

  3. @ Velour:
    Thank you, VELOUR. yes, I will pray …. and I will include you also …. feel better soon …. try to keep hydrated and get some sleep

  4. Christiane wrote:

    @ Velour:
    Thank you, VELOUR. yes, I will pray …. and I will include you also …. feel better soon …. try to keep hydrated and get some sleep

    Thank you for your prayers. I posted Shauna’s comment. She’s sick. She’s Billy’s mom.

    Shauna, if you read this follow Christiane’s excellent advice: keep hydrated and sleep!

  5. The Deebs have their work cut out for them:

    http://abc11.com/religion/broken-faith-years-of-ungodly-abuse-at-western-nc-church/1771463/

    I think there should be an article on here about how to fight back legally against spiritual abuse. I think it’s a good idea to remind everyone that the foundation of the American view of religious freedom is John Locke’s insistence that membership in a church be _voluntary_. Neither Jane Whaley nor anyone else has a right to force someone to participate in church activities or punish them for not doing so. Religious freedom is an _individual_ right, it most definitely is not a free pass for institutions to abuse their members.

    Also, “voluntary” activities (religious or not) done under threat or duress are not voluntary. There are a lot of parallels with sexual consent and many of the same legal principles apply.

  6. MidwesternEasterner wrote:

    The Deebs have their work cut out for them:

    http://abc11.com/religion/broken-faith-years-of-ungodly-abuse-at-western-nc-church/1771463/

    oh my goodness ….. here’s a quote from the link:
    “According to court records, a church leader was convicted in 1995 of molesting a 13-year-old girl placed in his home. Of that victim, Whaley said on the 2012 recording, “She was 13, but she looked 20.”

    Whaley recounted telling the local district attorney that the girl was partially responsible for the abuse because she previously had been sexually assaulted by a family member and others.”

    so wrong ….

  7. Indeed. The fact that my conservative Christian friends on Facebook are still griping about the Barronelle Stutzman gay-flowers incident, but don’t seem to care at all about Whaley’s victims, has me livid. Hypocrites all. The religious right does nothing but tilt at gay windmills, while children are being abused on American soil in the name of God. Methinks the latter is the REAL threat to religious freedom in America.

    Franklin Graham, Bryan Fischer et al., are ignorant at best; complicit at worst.

  8. Slight off-topic announcement.

    Jeannette Altes’ rent is covered for March thanks to a kind donor. She does need $50 more for the fees.

    http://www.gofundme.com/ljahelp

    Thank you.

    P.S. Please keep her situation in prayer — health, job, finances, a new sofa to sleep on.