Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
September 19, 2004
Worship 10:00 am, Sunday School 11:10 am

  Morning Praise (9:45 am)
  Announcements
  Prelude

  Call to Worship                                                                                         663

*Hymn                         "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"                              37

*Opening Prayer

*Hymn                         "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic"                           112

  Scripture                                Philippians 4:4-9

  For Children
                                         (Pre-schoolers then leave for Sunday School)

  Scripture                               Jeremiah 29:10-14

  Hymn                                      "Lead me, Lord"                                        538

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise

  Responsive Prayer

  Responsive Scripture Reading                                                                  849

  Testimony to God’s Faithfulness

  Hymn                         "My hope is built on nothing less"                           343

  Responding with our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory

*Sung Benediction        "You shall go out with joy" (lyrics)                           427

*Postlude

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Call to Worship

Leader:   The Lord is my light and my salvation;
People:  whom shall I fear?
Leader:   The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
People:  of whom shall I be afraid?
All:        One thing I ask of you, O Lord,
                       and that I will pursue:
                  to live in your house
                       all the days of my life,
                 to behold your beauty
                      and to seek you in your temple.

Hymnal #663, Psalm 27:1,4 adapted from Revised Standard Version
   

Opening Prayer

O living Christ,
    come to us in the glory of your risen power;
    come to us in the humility of your wondrous love.
Come and reign among us!
Let new life course through our veins,
    new love bind us together,
    and new vision spur us on to follow you forever.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.  AMEN

Hymnal #677, The Iona Community, Scotland,
The New Book of Christian Prayers,
© 1986 Tony Castle. Edited by Tony Castle.
Crossroad/Continuum Publishing Company.
   

For Children

Another sharing by our congregational children's storyteller, Ed Lewis.
   

Responsive Prayer

           Almighty God,
                    from whom comes each good gift of life,
                    we remember your loving kindness and your uncounted mercies
                             as we join in grateful praise.
           For all your gifts to us and to our human race;
                    for our life and the world in which we live,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the order and constancy of nature;
                    for the beauty and bounty of the world;
                    for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest;
                    for the varied joys which every season brings,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the work we are enabled to do,
                    and the truth we are permitted to discover;
                    good there has been in our past,
                    and for all the hopes which lead us on toward better things,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For all the joys and comforts of life;
                    for homes and families;
                    for our friends;
                    for the love, sympathy, and goodwill of persons near and far,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For all cultures, wise government and just laws which order our common life;
                    for education and all the treasures of literature, science, and art,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the discipline of life;
                    for the tasks and trials which train us to know ourselves
                    and which bring us to accept one another,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the desire and power to help others;
                    for every opportunity of serving our generation in ways large or small,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the gift of Jesus Christ, and everything which is ours as his disciples;
                    for the presence and inspiration of your Holy Spirit throughout our days,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
           For the tender ties which bind us to the unseen world;
                    for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth
                    and fills the closing years of life with the light of hope,
                    we give you thanks, O God.
ALL:  God of all grace and love,
                    we have praised you with our lips
                    for all the richness and meaning that life holds for us.
           Now send us into the world to praise you with our lives,
                    through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN

Hymnal #721, from
The Hymnal of the United Church of Christ, ©1974.
United Church Press, 700 Prospect Ave., E.,
Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
   

Responsive Scripture Reading
Romans 8:28-39

For God has always known his own and has established that they are to be conformed to the image of God's Son, so that Christ is but the first-born child among a whole multitude of sisters and brothers.

For those whom God has thus established, God has also called; and those whom God has called, have indeed been fully accepted; and those whom God has accepted, God has also clothed in splendor.

What then shall we say about these things? If God be for us, who can stand against us?

For indeed, God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not with Christ lavish upon us every other good gift?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has called? God has accepted. Who, then, can condemn?

It is Christ Jesus, who died, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are considered sheep to be slaughtered."

But in all these things through the love of Christ we have surpassed the need to conquer.

For I am confident that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hymnal #849, ©1991 Virginia Wiles,
Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St.,
Allentown, PA 18104.
   

Testimony to God’s Faithfulness

         A young mother in our congregation will take this opportunity to share in depth about how God has been faithful throughout her recent struggle with a rare form of cancer. At present, she is officially in 'remission.'
    

Responding with our Tithes and Offerings

Generous God,
    you gave us life;
    now we give our lives back to you.
We present ourselves:
    our work and play,
    our joys and sorrows,
    our thoughts and deeds,
    our gifts and resources,
    to be used by you
      for the sake of all people everywhere,
      through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN

Hymnal #751, from First University United Methodist Church,
Minneapolis, Min.. adapted from Ventures in Worship, Vol. 1,
ed. David J. Randolph, copyright © 1969 Abingdon Press.