Christian Living on Town

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Prayers of the People, Form I

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, Acts 2:42-47, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 17:11-19, Psalm 68:19

Deacon or other leader With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord, saying "Lord, have mercy." For the peace from above, for the loving-kindness of God, and for the ...

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The Church's Funeral

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 4:15-16, Revelation 3:1-3, James 2:17, Matthew 16:18, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Peter 2:4-5, Romans 12:4-5, Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians 3:9

The story goes about a young man (or woman!) with dreams of growing a small church nestled in rural Oklahoma. Despite his relentless efforts, the church continued to teeter on the edge of extinction a...

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Lord–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Thank

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Nehemiah 1:1-11, Acts 16:25-34, Mark 4:35-41, Acts 2:1-13, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 11:28-30, Acts 1:8

Lord–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Thank You that there’s no place we can hide from Your Spirit, no place we can flee from Your presence. We can’t go beyond the reach of Your love, nor out-distance the...

liturgy

Adapted from Acts 2:42-46

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:42-46

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread; and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ...

liturgy

Free us, Lord, from our obsession with

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 16:24, Acts 2:44-45, James 2:14-17, Mark 10:43-45, 1 John 3:17-18, John 13:14-15, Isaiah 58:6-7

Free us, Lord, from our obsession with ourselves long enough to care for others; to be so concerned about the well-being of the human community that me don’t have to worry about our place, our church,...

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Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:33-34, Luke 18:28-30, Acts 2:44-45, Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:29-30, Luke 14:26

Family and property, then, were not for the ancient Jew simply what they are to the modern western world. Both carried religious and cultural significance far beyond personal, let alone “individual,” ...

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Welcomed Guests

Author

Rowan Williams

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 25:6, Matthew 26:26-28, Acts 2:42-46, Psalm 23:5-6, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, John 6:56, Revelation 3:20

For Christians, to share in the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, means to live as people who know that they are always guests – that they have been welcomed and that they are wanted. It is, perhaps, the...

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Author

Richard Halverson

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 1 John 1:3, Acts 17:16-34, Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 14:6, Matthew 16:18

In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an in...

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Eating Together as a Family

Author

Terry A. Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 3:20, 1 Corinthians 10:16, Proverbs 15:17, Isaiah 25:6, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Acts 2:46, Psalm 128:3

We become who we are in the environment of home. We are shaped by our families. Home is formative. Sociologist Cody C. Delistraty explored the most recent scientific literature for Atlantic Monthly an...

liturgy

Prayers of the People, Form IV

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:15, Acts 2:1-41, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 10:25-37, John 11:25-26, Revelation 21:4

Deacon or other leader Let us pray for the Church and for the world. Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glo...

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The Pastor’s Visit

Author

Source Unknown

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, Psalm 150:1-6, Acts 2:42, Psalm 122:1, Galatians 6:2, Matthew 18:20, Colossians 3:16

The story is told of a man who had gone to church for several years but suddenly stopped attending. His pastor dropped by one evening unannounced. The man answered the door and invited him in. Of cour...

liturgy

Almighty God, we pray for your

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 5:10, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 9:20-22, Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 73:26

Almighty God, we pray for your blessing on the church in this place. Here may the faithful find salvation, and the careless be awakened. Here may the doubting find faith, and the anxious be encou...

liturgy

O God, we thank you that you have not

Author

William Barclay

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Colossians 3:23-24, Psalm 119:105, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Samuel 1:24-28, Acts 2:42-47

O God, we thank you that you have not treated us as we deserve. We thank you that, though you are Creator, Judge and King, you are also Father, so that, though we are wandering children, there is alw...

liturgy

Inspired by Acts 2 (1)

Author

James Ferguson

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:null

O God, the Father Almighty, who has promised to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask you,; look graciously upon us assembled with one accord in one place to make our prayer to you, and to wait for y...

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Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

The Kingdom of God

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, Ephesians 4:11-13, Acts 2:42-47, Colossians 1:18, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Ephesians 2:19-22

Churches are not the kingdom of God, but are primary and inevitable expressions, outposts, and instrumentalities of the presence of the kingdom among us.

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Jumping out of the Bible

Author

Francis Chan

Keywords

The Bible

Scripture

Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 25:35-40, Isaiah 58:10, Luke 14:13-14, James 1:27

In Francis Chan’s latest book “Letters to the Church,” he shares about his first year after leaving his large church in suburban Los Angeles to start something new. It was something Francis himself wa...

liturgy

We praise and thank you, O Lord, that

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 119:103, Luke 22:19, Psalm 34:18, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Matthew 28:19-20, John 14:16-17, Matthew 6:9-13, Numbers 6:24-26, Matthew 25:36, Psalm 33:12, Romans 8:26, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Acts 2:42

We praise and thank you, O Lord, that you have fed us with your Word [and at your table]. Grateful for your gifts and mindful of the communion of your saints, we offer to you our prayers for all pe...

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Trust and Belonging

Author

Stanley Hauerwas

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:42-47, 1 Thessalonians 5:11-15, 1 Corinthians 12:27, Romans 12:4-5, Galatians 6:2

We were created to communicate, to speak truth fully to one another, so that we might be members of one another. To be members of one another means we must learn to trust one another. Trust, like trut...

Quote

Author

G. K. Chesterton

Keywords

Scripture

John 19:38-42, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:4, Acts 2:24, Colossians 2:12, Isaiah 53:9, Luke 24:6-7

They took the body down from the cross and one of the few rich men among the first Christians obtained permission to bury it in a rock tomb in his garden the Romans setting a military guard lest there...

liturgy

Invocation of the Holy Spirit

Author

The Northumbria Community

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:26, Acts 9:1-19, Matthew 17:1-8, Isaiah 61:1, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Acts 2:1-4, Acts 2:1-41

Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven, where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory seems but ordinary, bathe us with the brilliance of Your light like dew.

Quote

Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 1:7, James 5:16, Matthew 18:20, John 15:12-14, Hebrews 10:19-25, 1 Peter 2:9-10, 1 Corinthians 12:25-27, Ephesians 4:1-6, Romans 12:2-8, Galatians 6:1-2, Acts 2:42-47, Colossians 3:11-17, 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, Psalm 133:1, John 13:34-35

Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian community that is more than this, and none that is less than this.

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What is Fellowship?

Author

James I. Packer

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:42-47, 1 John 1:3, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 John 1:7, Romans 12:4-5, Galatians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 1:9

What is meant by fellowship in this verse? Gossip? Cups of tea? Tours? No. What is being referred to is something of a quite different order and on a quite different level. “They met constantly to hea...

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Author

Dan B. Allender & Larry Crabb

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 18:21–22, Nehemiah 8:1–3, Isaiah 61:1–2, Acts 2:44–47, 1 Corinthians 12:12, 26, Psalm 133:1

The more I understand people and their needs, the more I am persuaded that God has uniquely designed the local church to respond to those needs.

liturgy

God–Creator of the universe, Redeemer

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 2:42-47, Philippians 2:1-5, Mark 2:1-2, Matthew 14:13-21, Luke 10:25-37, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

God–Creator of the universe, Redeemer of humanity, Sustainer of your people, and our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. You hold the galaxies in the palm of your hand–and yet You know each of us by nam...

Quote

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9, Galatians 6:2, Colossians 3:16, Romans 12:4-5, Acts 2:42-47, Ephesians 4:15-16

Far too many people, especially within evangelicalism, think that the individual is all that matters, and that the corporate dimension is a distraction or diversion. Of course Christianity is deeply p...

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Embodying a Decision

Author

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 6:2, Matthew 4:19-20, Hebrews 11:8, Acts 2:37-38, Mark 10:50

Billy Graham had a weekly radio show titled The Hour of Decision. Normally it was a tape recording of the service and message he’d given at a recent evangelistic rally. And at the conclusion of every ...

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The Flow of Abundance

Author

Mark Scandrette

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 19:16-30, Acts 2:42-47

We are meant to be part of the flow of abundance: to open our hands to receive what we need and share what we have with others. Jesus taught his followers to be radically generous when he said: “Sell ...

liturgy

Adapted from Ephesians 3:18-19

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:18-19, Acts 2:42-47, John 13:1-17, Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 103:11-12, 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:38-39

I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and heig...

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Using Aslan to Explain the Gospel

Author

Scott McKnight

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 2:15, Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Isaiah 53:5, John 10:27-28

If I am asked to break the gospel and a gospel culture down into simple statements, I would borrow imagery from the man from Northern Ireland, from Belfast, C. S. Lewis. From The Lion, the Witch and t...

liturgy

Your Joy is Our Strength

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 3:2, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Acts 2:44-45, Luke 1:38, Psalm 16:11, Nehemiah 8:10

Wondrous God Father-Son-Spirit Your joy is our strength Nothing more Nothing less Nothing else Grant us grace to receive you and your joy Grant us grace to trust it above all other powers and plans ...

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