Saved to Serve

Message, Mission, Ministry Parts 2 & 3

 

Sorry for the delay. Here are the final two parts of Linda's sermon "Message, Mission, Ministry."

 

 

 

 

 



Due to the snowy conditions, the First Friday dinner and service is cancelled this evening. 

Hope to see you next month.

Message, Mission, and Ministry

Matthew 7:1-29

Your obligation to God does not stay within the church building on Sunday, 

but starts as you walk out the door. Go and serve the Lord.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The first year of this blog is a success. We have had a few glitches, some human error,  some technical error, and a couple of delays. The weekly Sunday Service has gone out to those of our congregation that were unable to attend, for whatever reason, and also to many that found us from around the world. We were also able to keep you updated on area activities of interest, and cancellations due to nasty weather. In the next year, we hope to give you music cut out of the service. We have many talented musicians in our congregation, and a joyful noise is a wonderful way to celebrate our Lord. Suggestions are welcome, and we appreciate your interest in this blog, and your return visits. Blessings in the new year. 

Merry Christmas

Linus Christmas Monologue

This Sunday, December 22, 2013, we had our traditional two services. Sylvia Thomas and Becky Henry gave us the signs of Christmas, including the call to worship from Luke 2:8-14. 

Then we enjoyed our evening Candlelight Service with the message from Linda Lambert. She had a lot of help with several readings, a youth skit, and all the music. 

The true meaning of Christmas is the love of Jesus Christ. 

Services are Canceled Today

Due to a RED ALERT weather forcast in our region, the worship services at Thurmont Church of the Brethren have been canceled for today.

Have a safe and blessed day.

Believers Baptism, Baby Dedication Part 2

Laying on of Hands

 

     Pastor Linda continues her series of sermons about the ordinances of the Church of the Brethren.

     The priesthood of all believers is the Church of the Brethren. Clergy and laity are not separated. The HOLY WORD is our creed. Communion is what is in your heart. Baptism is an outward sign of what is in your heart. But what about babies? Children are under special grace. They are conceived of sin, but innocent of sin. Child dedication is a time for parents to recommit their own baptismal vows. Baptism and communion guarantees you nothing. It is in what is in your heart that brings you salvation.

      The laying on of hands is about the praying that Gods gift, or will be done. It is to remind you of Gods calling of your life. Jesus Christ is the only way to receive the Holy Spirit, as long as you ask for it. You do not receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, but affirming that the gift is already given.


      Through scripture Jesus calls us to live as courageous disciples in word and action.

 

Belivers Baptism, Children's Dedication

The Brethren movement began in early August 1708 when eight brave souls went to the Eder River where one of them baptized Alexander Mack, who then baptized the others. This beginning occurred at Schwarzenau because Count Henrich Albrecht was tolerant of Pietists and permitted them to gather there to read the Bible and discern for themselves how a follower of Jesus should live and what the nature of a Christian church should be. As Brethren gathered in 2008 to celebrate 300 years of Brethren experience, they also celebrated the tolerance by Count Albrecht which enabled the Brethren movement to begin in the Eder River with adult baptism, an illegal act at that time. *

The Church of the Brethren is a community of faith where the HOLY WORD is our creed. Our ordinance is the teachings and examples that Jesus Christ set. Our CHURCH is not a building, but the brothers and sisters that form the church COMMUNITY. We are members due to the faith in our hearts, and baptism is an outward sign of what is already formed and shaped in our hearts. We are a priesthood of believers who minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ, every where we go, and not just when we are in our church building. We use our gifts and character to carry out our mission to make Christ known, loved, and obeyed, as God equips and empowers us.


I am blessed to have the gifts and knowledge to be able to affirm the word of Christ from Pastor Linda's lips, to the CD that Garrett Lowe creates by recording the Sunday Service, which I download onto my computer, and then use to create this blog. It truly takes a community to spread the Word.


* taken from http://www.brethrenencyclopedia.org/pages/300th-anniversary

What's in Your Heart

We commit ourselves to follow Jesus Christ,
     through whom God has made friends with the world and in whose name we share the     work of reconciliation.
We commit ourselves to the way of the cross,
     living a life of simplicity, self-denial, and prayer.
We commit ourselves to love each other,
     serving the church, and sharing our time, talents, and possessions.
We commit ourselves to care for the world,
     bringing good news to the poor, setting free the oppressed, and proclaiming Jesus as Liberator and Lord.
In this commitment we find joy, peace, and new life.


Linda preaches about the history of World Wide Communion Day and how it affected the Church of the Brethren. What is the difference between an ordnance and a sacrament? What is sacramentalism? What is the power and meaning of the bread and the cup? It is not magic, but we give meaning to what is in our heart. We are to remember His death and sacrifice, through the symbol of the bread and the cup. The bread and cup symbolizes our commitment to our Lord. Live worthy, and by what is in your heart. 

My Faith Looks Up To Thee

 

Pastor Linda finished her series with Titus 3

Saved in Order to Do Good

3 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law,because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

Final Remarks

12 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13 Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. 14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.

15 Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

It Is A Process

Pastor Linda teaches us from Titus 2, that we are to teach from one generation to another the basics of sound doctrine. We are to have respect for humanity, self-control to do what is correct, integrity, kindness, endurance, love, trust, faith, purity, kindness, temperate, and be upright and godly. 

Now I apologize for posting this a week late. I was not able to attend church service last week, and I was not able to listen to it until this weekend. Within that time, a high school classmate of mine was on headline news. His vacant home was broken into by several teens, and used as a party house, and was damaged extensively. He has reached out to the offenders, since they posted their own offences on Twitter, hoping the teens would make things right. Only 5 teens have approached him to apologize. Of the remaining teens, some of their parents want to sue the homeowner for re-posting their childrens shame online. 

I brought this subject up because as I listened to Linda's sermon from Titus, I was reminded of this incident. How could 300 teens, from the same geographic area, not have been taught the basic teachings of sound doctrine, as described in Titus, and many other books of the Bible? How could the parents of these teens not be dragging their children by the ear, to the same home, and be begging for forgiveness from the homeowner?  Who are teaching these teens how to respect and be upstanding citizens? It takes a village to raise a child. How are the children of these teens going to be taught respect, responsibility, integrity, and self-control if the village let's them down? 

I pray that these teens, and their parents, can learn a reverence for God, and a respect for all people, and also responsibility to God, others, and self. I also pray for my high school classmate, that he may continue to lead by example, and continue to be forgiving to those that have harmed his property. He has such a Christian heart. They do not see that he is attempting not to punish them, but save them from themselves.

God's Servants

Titus 1

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ² in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, ³ and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

⁴ To Titus, my true son in our common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Appointing Elders Who Love What Is Good

⁵ The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint^[a] elders in every town, as I directed you. ⁶ An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe^[b] and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. ⁷ Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. ⁸ Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. ⁹ He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good

¹⁰ For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. ¹¹ They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹² One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”^{[c] 13} This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith ¹⁴ and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. ¹⁶ They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

The Appeal of Love

Pastor Linda finished her series of sermons about Colossians and the tiny book of Philemon.

The apostle Paul had a dream long before Martin Luther King. Paul's dream was to value every human being as God created them. Deeper than human rights is the value of love. Master = slave. We are all worth the same, because we are set free from the slavery of sin through the life blood of Christ. As you do your job, remember you are not working for man, but for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are saved by Grace, through Faith, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, through the scripture.

A Live Demonstration



 

 



Linda continues her series with Colossians 3.
Homework for next week is to read Colossians 4 and the tiny book of Philemon.

Welcome to all of our visitors. We were blessed to have a full sanctuary, and being that it was the first Sunday of the month, when we have special music, today we were blessed to have original music by the people who wrote the music. That music you may view below.

 

Be Still ~ Bill Caputo

 

 

Eternal Love ~ Mariah Neff

 

 

Breakdown Hideaway ~ Debbie Barnes

 

 

Anniversary Song ~ Nancy Wiles Nicely

 

 

Growing in Grace

 

 

 

Colossians 2:1-23...

 

...is Paul's letter telling us how to grow in grace.

We grow in grace when Christ circumcises our sinful nature.

Falling from grace is loosing our position in Christ.

We are under the shelter of Gods wing, as a bird in a nest.

Growing in grace is learning to fly, in the shadow of Gods wing.

 

We are sanctified by scripture, rooted in Christ, and the fruit satisfies our soul,

 and others can be nurtured by our fruit.

 

Grace growers are like gnats up your nose,

the person who rakes you the wrong way, or the prickles in your socks.

How do you respond?

 

 

Sorry for the delay.

 

 

 

The weekly Blog post of the Sunday Service will be delayed

until Monday evening, Eastern Daylight Time.

Read Colossians 2:1-23 to be prepared for pastor Linda's sermon. 

Our Brother, Don Barnes....

...was given wonderful Memorial Day celebrating his life and legacy (1941-2010), as former Frederick County Sheriff, and more, at the Law Enforcement Center, Saturday, 27 July 2013, 10:00 AM.

 

 

 

 

 

* See more photographs here.*

Christ's Preeminence

Colossians 1 (NIV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of the Son of God

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul’s Labor for the Church

²⁴ Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

New Creation

 

Pastor Linda finished her series on Galatians.

 

The new Creation;

Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

When we accept Jesus as the Christ, we receive Spiritual Birth.

 We will then understand the Spiritual truths.

God is the Father of those who accept Jesus as Savior.

 

The Law of Christ;

Is Love. We are not superior, we are Spiritual.

The Spiritual must attempt to restore gently and lovingly.

Carry one another's burdens.

We have been set free from sin and death.

Jesus laid down his life for us.

 

The Cross of Christ;

Jesus Christ died for us on the Cross.

We are saved by Grace, accessed by Faith in Jesus Christ. 

Without a Spiritual birth, we are condemned to die.

Take up your cross, and follow Christ.

Die to yourself, and follow love.

 

Let the truth set you free.

Thank you Jessica Snyder...

... for contributing your beautiful voice to our Sunday worship. 

Prince of Peace

How Deep the Father's Love

Nothings Too Hard For God