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Next week – Music Sunday
Prelude
Welcome
Call to Worship LEADER: If I look at myself I am nothing.
\\ PEOPLE: But if I look at us all I am hopeful.
\\ LEADER: For I see the unity of love among all my fellow Christians.
\\ PEOPLE: In this unity lies our salvation.
\\ -Julian of Norwich \\ \\
~*Hymn of Praise # 466 God of Grace and God of Glory
Invocation (the Lord’s Prayer) O God, our Father, we stand in awe of the marvelous intricacy, the amazing harmony, the astounding wonders within your creation.
Keep us ever mindful that we too are intertwined, by your providence, within the fascinating fabric of the ecosystem.
Help us to remember, always, your strength in all creation to achieve harmony through allegiance to the lordship of Jesus…
Gloria Patri
Wanda Gilbert – Costa Rica
Our Offering to God Whatever we bring in faith is acceptable to God.
Let us join in our offering now.
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication We pray, O God, that as you receive what we have given, you open our hearts to see your possibilities for the expansion of kindness within our lives.
~*Hymn of Prayer # 225 Standing on the Promises
Pastoral Prayer We lift our voices in prayers of praise, great God, for you have lifted us to new life in Jesus Christ, and your blessings come in generous measure.
\\ Even as with our bodies, so also with our souls, Redeemer, Christ: Sunshine and storm, mist and greyness eddy round our inner lives.
But as we trace the pattern, looking back, we know that both darkness and light have been from you for our own soul's health.
-excerpt from George F. MacLeod, The Whole Earth Shall Cry Glory (Isle of Iona: Wild Goose Publications, 1985),13.
Today we thank you for the privilege of worship and service in this congregation… the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ for us….food and drink to share in the Lord’s name….
our calling to discipleship….
We hold up before you human needs, God of compassion, for your have come to us in Jesus Christ and shared our life so we may share his resurrection.
Because of the power in his name we pray for the healing of those who are sick….
The comfort of the dying….
The renewal of those who despair… The Spirit’s power in the church
~*Hymn of Praise # 453 Faith is the Victory
Scripture Reading /Ephesians 6:10-20/
Message Christian MDRs
*How to keep each individual person in church in prime spiritual shape.
\\ \\ *
As a communal event, worship and praise are the mainstay of a church's health and vigor.
This week the scrippture focuses on the protective armaments that shield and strengthen every individual believer, as a community of faith draws its vitality from the health of each and every soul present.
\\ Today when we read about the "armor of God" we find it hard to envision all those ancient means of military protection, much less actually climbing into all that stuff ourselves.
But it was not the author's intention to make God's protective nature appear foreign or exotic to the community of faith.
The soldier's apparel he describes was something familiar and easily understandable to his audience.~/~/
Perhaps if we translated this illustration into something more familiar and easily comprehendible today, we too could sense the security and power the "whole armor of God" offers to each and every believer.
\\ For years we have been taught about our body's "minimum daily requirements."
Remember the "four food groups?"
Dieticians drilled into us how many servings of meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, bread and grains we should consume every day, that pyramid now has changed.
After several decades what we believed to be our "minimum daily requirements" have turned out to be far more minimal and not even daily.
Depending on who we listen to, we are informed we no longer need all that meat, or all that milk.
Fat is out; fiber is in.
The pasta lovers of the world can rejoice, as the daily demand for carbohydrates climbs and proteins plummets, or carbs are out and proteins are in, milk products will help you loose weight.
Even if we are no longer sure what exactly our "minimum daily requirements" should be, we do recognize that our bodies need certain things everyday to maintain health and strength.
\\ Just as we all have physical "minimum daily requirements," so our own spiritual body must be constantly nourished with a carefully balanced diet of prayer and praise, worship and work.
For too long our spiritual health has been ignored or taken for granted, as though it were an aspect of our lives that would simply take care of itself.
Not true.
Unlike the still new and burgeoning field of nutritional science, Christians have a long tradition of those elements necessary to meet our spiritual MDRs.
The prophets, the saints and Jesus himself demonstrated how a vital life of faith is dependent on the presence of certain spiritual One-A-Days.
\\ MDR#1.
Communal Rituals -- Christians are not found in singles.
Christians grow like grapes -- in clusters.
Participating in a community of faith is not an elective.
Daily communal rituals must be a part of any healthy spiritual regime.
Whether family devotions, prayer breakfasts, study circles, Bible studies, or Just for Kids we need each other to practice love, keep the faith and have hope.
\\ MDR#2.
Spiritual Exercises -- Each person must flex his or her spiritual muscles on a daily basis if he or she is to keep them fit and flexible.
Do you make room in your morning or evening schedule for a time of prayer and devotions?
Do you regularly sing out to the Lord - even if it's in the shower or in the car?
Our faith must find words, and the words of praise and adoration that come out in song and prayer should be a part of our daily spiritual regime.
Prayer is especially crucial to spiritual health.
It keeps us in close personal contact with the One whose love draws us together in the first place.
Prayer is not just an excuse for giving God a long list of requests.
("I'm gonna say my prayers now," a six-year-old yelled from up in his bedroom.
"Anyone want anything?")
Prayer is the act of opening our spirit to a two-way street of communication.
Like breathing, prayer involves both exhaling our needs, our love, our praise, and inhaling God's peace and power and presence.
Think of prayer as a kind of spiritual aerobics, exercise that forces your spirit to breathe deeply and fully oxygenate the soul.
\\ MDR#3.
Mission -- A refreshed and strengthened spirit will naturally flow out and over others.
No matter how "busy" our lives become, our spiritual energy and health will suffer if it is hoarded, not shared in service.
Being ministers of the gospel to others is what it means to be a Christian.
We become ministers through the acts of love, and works of faith, that we offer to the world.
\\ MDR#4.
Intermission -- Keeping spiritually fit doesn't mean having to run a decathlon of events every day until you drop.
A wiped-out spirit leaves us feeling exhausted and wrung out.
Rev.
Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, an ABC pastor, spoke to the Women in Ministry at the biennial – in her book The Sister’s Rules for Ministry she speaks about PS 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.
God is asking us to stay put so that He might speak to us.
Sometimes we are so busy that he doesn’t have a chance to tell us what he needs to tell us or to make contact with us.
If we’re not still enough, God will wake us up from our sleep or maybe we’ll find ourselves on our backs, ill.
So we must make time to be still or as popular lingo puts it, “chill”.
~/~/ ask God “have I completed the assignment that you’ve given me?
Have I done the best that I could with what you’ve placed in my hands?
~/~/ By staying put, the seed- God’s purpose – doesn’t stop growing in you.
It’s God’s time to germinate the seed so that you can grow, and grow in a healthy direction.
Staying put also allows God to weed out what stagnates your growth.
~/~/ Taking "down-time" to rest and regroup is an important part of maintaining spiritual health.
No one can give of themselves to others when their spiritual cupboard is bare.
Take time to be silent -- to read, to meditate, to walk quietly in the world with open eyes and closed mouth.
Only by taking this kind of "intermission" are we equipped for "mission."
\\ MDR#5.
The Word of God -- Thankfully our spiritual strength is not dependent on our own abilities, our own insights, or our own wisdom.
Christians have a record of God's continuing activity in the world, God's words of love and guidance and judgment to all creation.
But do you actually immerse yourself in the Word everyday?
All Christians need a dose of Bible as part of their minimum daily requirements for spiritual health.
Strangely, what seems like such an obvious additive is the one we are most likely to slough off.
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