A Mid-Summer Round Up

““Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1)

Typically I have a short, specific post on Saturday mornings. Today, I have a round up of various and sundry items, so browse through and find a few things to dig into!

If you’re not familiar with the concept of theological triage, it’s recognizing that not all doctrines share the same level of weightiness in the life of the Christian and/or the church. Most of us intuitively realize that what you believe about Jesus’ resurrection and what you believe about how often we should take Communion aren’t of equal importance (though they’re both important!).

In this video, Gavin Ortlund applies this concept of triage to eschatology, the study of last things. In light of our current study in Mark 13, this is important!

We gather for a week of prayer at the start of every year. This July, we’re adding something new: a week of prayer at the midpoint of summer, as a reminder that we are totally dependent on our sovereign God!

Beginning this Sunday, we’ll meet at Clover Hill from 6:30-7:30pm every evening from Sunday, (7/19) through Thursday, (7/23), with one exception: On Monday, both churches will pray together at Clover Hill, and on Thursday, both churches will pray together at River Oaks (1220 Brown School Rd., Maryville).

Our theme will be praying into the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. To help whet your appetite, here’s an extended version of those petitions from Trevin Wax, because the Lord’s Prayer is meant to be an outline that will we fill in with our own needs and requests.

Our Father in heaven
Everlasting Father of the fatherless,
Heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool.
The heavens declare Your glory,
and the sky above proclaims Your handiwork.
O Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
may Your Name be praised and be great among the nations!
Let Your glory be over all the earth!
Let heaven and earth praise You,
the seas and everything that moves in them.
Your Kingdom come
May all the ends of the earth remember and turn to You,
and all the families of the nations worship before You.
For kingship belongs to You;
You rule over the nations.
You are the strength of Your people –
the saving refuge of Your anointed!
Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage!
Be our Shepherd and carry us forever!
You are our King, O God!
You are the King of all the earth!
Your throne is forever and ever.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Make us to know Your ways, O Lord.
Teach us Your paths.
Teach us to do Your will!
Let your good Spirit lead us on level ground!
Not our will, but Yours be done!
Give us this day our daily bread.
You, our God, will supply every need of ours
according to Your riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Give us neither poverty nor riches;
feed us with the food that is needful for us,
lest we be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest we be poor and steal and profane the name of our God.
Satisfy us with righteousness.
Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.
We confess our iniquity; we are sorry for our sin.
Have mercy on us, O God.
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity,
and cleanse us from our sin!
For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon our guilt for it is great.
Lead us not into temptation…but Deliver us from Evil
We do not ask that you take us out of the world,
but that you keep us from the evil one.
Restore us; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.
For the glory of Your name, deliver us and atone for our sins,
for Your name’s sake!
You are our steadfast love and our fortress,
our stronghold and our deliverer!
For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever.

You may be aware that our church is part of a wider community of church known as the Evangelical Free Church in America (the EFCA). You may not be aware that the origins of the EFCA go back to the evangelical movements within the Scandinavian Lutheran churches of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

So, this excellent 6 minute documentary on how Christianity transformed the Vikings might be more relevant for us than we think!

“When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.”” (Luke 11:2)

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