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I apologize for not posting EChurch. I have been under a bit of pressure but something very good is happening. I am now done with my part of this mysterious coming reveal. Many victims have been helped. I am hoping things die down for a month or two before this becomes public. It will be a positive event for many. I am NOT leaving the blog. 🙂  In the Lutheran church, Lent is very important. EChurch will focus on Lent until Easter. This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday.
A Prayer from Deitrich Bonhoeffer:Â I Cannot Do This Alone link
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you;
I cannot do this alone.
In me there is darkness, but with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me….
Restore me to liberty, and enable me to live now hat I may answer before you and before men.
Lord whatever this day may bring, Your name be praised.
Amen.
OH LORD by Saint Ambrose of Milan link  Â
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
Blest Are You, Jesus link
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child
one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanity
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as carpenter
and yet in whose creative hands a world was fashioned
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as fisherman
and yet pointed to a harvest that was yet to come
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as teacher
and opened eyes to truths that only
the poor could understand
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as healer
and opened hearts to the reality of wholeness
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as prophet, priest and king
and yet humbled himself
to take our place upon the cross
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as servant
and revealed to us the extent of his Father’s love
for human kind
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus, who rose
from the ignominy of a sinner’s death
to the triumph of a Saviour’s resurrection
For God so loved the world
ALL:Â That all might have eternal life
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
for the sake of me
and you
and other sinners too
God so loved the world
Blest are you Lord Jesus, our Saviour and Redeemer
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer-Traditional
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 trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
Forever and ever.
Amen.
Benediction:Â Go and serve! link
You are the God who calls us to be
a chosen people, a living sacrifice, a holy nation.
You are the God who calls us to be
a light in this world, a faithful people, a people of praise.
You are the God who forgives and restores us,
You are the God we serve.
Amen
Thank you, Dee. It’s always a pleasure to hear Prof. McKnight.
Somehow much of the Church, in America at least, has lost sight of “what is good and what does YHWH require? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with YHWH your god.”
I think that in recent decades American christianity has become a kind of “genetic algorithm” for selecting forms of organization and modes of church function that appeal to consumers. “Subversives for Tov” face strong head-winds. I hope they thrive.
Samuel Conner(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Everything about this EChurch was Tov – from the prayers to the songs to the talk by Scot McKnight. Thank you for sharing it with us all, Dee.
FreshGrace(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
I figure the Gospel of Personal Salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation is a major factor.
That Gospel (near-universal among Real True Christians(TM)) is at heart a Selfish Gospel.
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Jonathan Edwards takes a lot of flack in this forum (perhaps not helped by the ways that John Piper has popularized him for JP’s audience), but I think he (JE) is right at many points (as if I am qualified to hold an opinion; I’m not and yet I do). I especially like his conception of “virtue” as being fundamentally about “public-spiritedness”, commitment to the good of something that is larger than oneself. I agree with you that the pre-occupation with individual eschatology can “misfire”; I think it can eclipse the strong “love of neighbor” emphasis that runs through OT and NT; when that happens, I think it is “not good”.
Samuel Conner(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
I think “individual soteriology” (Personal Fire Insurance policy) would be more accurate.
“Individual eschatology” is the complementary Rapture boarding pass that accompanies the fire insurance.
Over-Spiritualzation; something too may Christians are prone to.
Another reason American Christianity needs an infusion of Judaism, with its “under the sun” earthiness and emphasis on the here and now. The Gospel of Personal Salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation is all Vertical, no Horizontal.
Even the spammer makes a point against all-vertical, no-horizontal Over-Spiritualization — all this goes directly against “It’s All Gonna Burn”. In my experience, there is no phrase of Christianese leading to passive despair. “It’s All Gonna Burn”, so Why Bother?
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
I agree, it’s one dimensional, much like Islam.
Spammer? Last time I complained about a spammer, my comment never saw the light of day.
Muff Potter(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
FreshGrace,
Thank you. I have been thinking a lot recently about the peace of Christ. I wish that for you.
dee(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
At which point, such a one-dimentional Christianity will resemble Islam and will bear similar fruits. Church history already records all-vertical one-dimensional movements in many of the various Gnostic cults.
And YRR Calvinism already resembles Islam in two major points: Predestination and God’s Omnipotent Sovereign Will, both of which have borne similar fruit and had similar effects. And the Five/Six/Seven-point fight resemble the Wahabi/Talibani infighting to prove I More Than Thou.
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)