LOG CHURCH BULLETIN - JULY 6

July 5, 2020 

Opening Song #18 – Shout to the Lord 

Call to Worship

This weekend we are celebrating the blessings and the freedoms that are ours by the simple virtue of living in this country. God has so greatly blessed us that our nation is the envy of the world. It is true that our generations of the past and present have fought to gain and retain these freedoms, but it is even more true that we have been the undeserving recipients of the blessings of God.

We are grateful for the blessings and the freedoms that we have in living in this nation, but we give praise to God for the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ. It is those blessings that motivate us to come to worship this morning.

Instead of fireworks, we have the fire of the Holy Spirit. Instead of burgers and brats frying on the grill, we have the manna from heaven.

Invocation Prayer

Our Father in heaven, we honor your name. We give this hour to you. Enable us to put aside the events of our lives long enough to concentrate on what you have to say to us. We are a needy people, but not in the ways that we necessarily first think. We need your life within us to replace our own feelings of self-importance. Our only importance come from you—what you have done in our lives. For this we worship you today.

Selected Reading – 1 Peter 2:9-10

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

Prayer of Confession

Dear Father, our trust is in you. We are thankful for the privilege that we have had as people to be born and raised in this land where we have been able to live with many individual freedoms. But despite this, you tell us that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. We realize that true freedom is more than being free politically, but it must be freedom of the soul. Help each of us to keep seeking those things from above. Help each of us to keep seeking your freedom. Amen

Words of Assurance

People have lose their sense of meaning and of freedom because they have lost their way in their relationship with God. By your presence here this morning, you demonstrate that you are serious about re-establishing and growing in that relationship. Be assured this morning that if you persist in the pursuit of God’s presence in your life, your life will also grow in meaning and in freedom.

The Lord’s Prayer

Song of Faith – #64 (LBG) – Song Of The Redeemed 

Scripture Reading

OT – Proverbs 3:5-6; Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

NT – John 15:4-5; Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing    

Responsorial Reading : From Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague.

He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge;

His faithfulness is a shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night,

Nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon…

For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone…

“Because he loves Me, I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him.

When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.

I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

Message           Celebrating our Day of Dependence 

Communion

Song of Unity  #19 – Some Trust in Chariots

Offering           Please place your offering in the basket at the entrance of the church as you leave. Thanks and be blessed!

Prayer of Intercession

Our Lord, first of all we want to praise you for your desire to hear our prayers. We come to seek an audience before the Great King of kings and the Sovereign Lord of lords, and yet we need not tremble before such power, because we come to you based not upon our own goodness, but upon your grace. 

We come to you in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord for the grace that you give to hear our prayers. 

We pray for those among us who are presently living with troubles and concerns that have come to them. These may be health concerns, they may be family concerns, financial, or any number of other troubles that we encounter in this world. Please help each one in these situations, and assure them of your presence with them. 

We bring the prayer requests of our fellow Christians who in some places of the world are in deep need. We continue to pray for the orphans and all people of the Log Churches of Kenya. As before, we ask that you provide for them food during these times of extreme shortages caused first by the locust plague, and then by the Covid-19 restrictions. 

We pray for also for our own country. We are also in deep need, but perhaps not in the same ways. Ours is a crisis of morality more than it is of material goods. Cause us to find our way back to your paths. 

Thank you for your gracious answer to all of our prayers. 

Thank you Father, for listening to the voices of all of your servants. Amen

Closing Song    America the Beautiful

Benediction