Veil Ministries
-A church without walls-
www.veilministries.org
provides an interdenominational
monthly service each month.
We invite you to worship with us.
FEBRUARY 2023
A Full-length audio of service is available here PODCAST FEBRUARY 2023
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HYMN: JOYFUL, JOYFUL
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Introduction: Words: Henry J. van Dyke, 1907. Van Dyke wrote this hymn while staying at the home of Harry A. Garfield at Williams College, Massachusetts. It was first published in the 1911 Presbyterian Hymnal. It also appeared in the Poems of Henry van Dyke, 1911.
Music: Ode to joy from the 9th Symphony, 4th Movement, of Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824. Arranged by Edward Hodges, 1864
These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.
AUDIO FILE To hear the audio file Joyful, Joyful please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
1.
Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
Hail thee as the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the clouds of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day.
2.
All thy works with joy surround thee,
Earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around thee,
Centre of unbroken praise;
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Bloss'ming meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in thee.
3.
Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean-depth of happy rest.
Thou the Father, Christ our brother--
All who live in love are thine;
Teach us how to love other,
Lift us to the joy divine.
4.
Mortals, join the mighty chorus
Which the morning stars began;
Father-love is reigning o'er us,
Brother-love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music lifts us sunward
In the triumph song of life.
Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)
PRAYER: THE LORD’S PRAYER sung by Andrea Bocelli
AUDIO FILE To hear the audio file Intro The Lord's Prayer please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
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HYMN: BLESSED ASSURANCE
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Introduction: Fanny Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having a large pipe organ installed. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, "What do you think the tune says?", Crosby replied, "Blessed assurance; Jesus is mine."
The popular song reflects Fanny Crosby's walk of faith, as expressed by the apostle Paul in Philippians1:21, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (ESV).
Because of Crosby's lyrics, the tune is now called "Blessed Assurance".
AUDIO FILE To hear the audio file Blessed Assurance please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
1.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Chorus
This is my story, this is my song.
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
2.
Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
3.
Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I, in my Saviour, am happy and blest.
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
GOD’S TITHES AND OUR OFFERINGS
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Giving to someone is an absolute pleasure if we love that person. In fact, if our love is great, our giving is limitless. It’s certainly not regarded as a hardship.
Our love for God extends to our giving to his work. So often we express our love in hymns and music of all sorts, and these are lovely ways to tell God how much we do love him. But loving includes giving of finance, too. Therefore there is now an opportunity given at this part of the service to express our love for God by allowing finance to be channelled to whichever church or ministry from which you feel you are receiving blessing.
MUSICAL MOMENTS
Introduction.To hear the audio file Introduction-Musical Moments please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
CHORAL: To hear the audio file All that I haveplease right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)ALL THAT I HAVE sung by Royal Oak Songsters with Band accompaniment. My friend Richard Phillips composed some lovely music to my words.
BRASS: BY LOVE COMPELLED. To hear the audio file By love compelled please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)A meditation by Colonel Ray Steadman-Allen.
In Ray’s own words, he gives us an insight to the meditation;-
“Under the compulsion of God's love, men seek and receive divine forgiveness. This thought is demonstrated in two songs, 'O Saviour, I am coming', and 'Take all my sins away.' The sequel, desire for consecration and service finds its expression in the chorus, 'All my days and all my hours.' ”
BIBLE READING: 2 Corinthians 12;7-10
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Paul writes…..
12 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
HYMN: FILL THOU MY LIFE, O LORD, MY GOD
To hear the audio file Intro Fill thou my life please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)Introduction: The author of this hymn is Horatius Bonar who was educated at the university of Edinburgh. He was known for writing the Kelso Tracts. He was a famous evangelical preacher and poet
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1.
Fill though my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e'en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!
2.
Praise in the common words I speak,
Life's common looks and tones,
In fellowship at hearth and board
With my beloved ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.
3.
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of thee and of thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt thou, Lord, from me, e'en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.
4.
So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with thee.
Horatius Bonar (1808-89), alt
POEM
IN OBEDIENCE
(Can be sung to the tune: Just as I am)
To hear the audio file Intro In Obedience please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
Each day presents a choice for us,
God’s word to heed or disobey,
To listen or to disregard
The tasks he has for us each day.
God’s voice we dearly want to hear
To learn the detail of his plan,
But trusting where we cannot see
Can often seem beyond mere man.
But there are words in Holy Writ
Placed there for us-for you and me,
And God its myst’ries will reveal-
The things we find so hard to see.
Then having read and understood,
By grace let’s seek God to obey
That every choice we make each day
His life in us we will display.
(Taken from the series of poem books , Well Versed (Volume 9) by Malcolm Westwood)
VOCAL SOLO: THROUGH IT ALL
Pasted Graphic
SOLOIST: SANDRA ENTERMANN
To hear the audio file Introduction Through it all please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
To hear the audio file Through it all please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
Verse 1
I've had many tears and sorrows
I've had questions for tomorrow
There've been times
I didn't know right from wrong
But in ev'ry situation
God gave blessed consolation
That my trials come
To only make me strong
Chorus 1
Through it all through it all
I've learned to trust in Jesus
I've learned to trust in God
Through it all through it all
I've learned to depend upon His word
Verse 2
I've been to lots of places
And I've seen a lot of faces
There've been times I felt so all alone
But in my lonely hours yes
Those precious lonely hours
Jesus let me know that I was His own
Verse 3
I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through
For if I'd never had a problem
I wouldn't know that He could solve them
I'd never know what faith in God could do
SERMON
Dr. Malcolm Westwood
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When we think of those who are highlighted in the Bible for the wonderful work they did for God, we are tempted to conclude that they are very different from the sort of people we are even though we try to be available and used by God. But here in these verses Paul who we are inclined at times to elevate to saintly behaviour lays his nature bare for us. He seems to stand outside of himself and asks us to accept that when he says, ‘I know a man…’ that man is himself and as he looks at the experience he has had he has a wonder about it. His use of the word ‘Paradise’ can perhaps help us to understand the verses. The word ‘Paradise’ comes from a Persian word meaning ‘a walled garden’
When a Persian king wanted to confer an honour on someone he made him a Companion of the garden which gave him the privilege of walking in the royal gardens with the king.
In what Paul describes he’s saying that he has been in the company of God.
But lest we should assume Paul lived on a series of ‘highs, he quickly goes on to tell us that he has experienced a ‘thorn in his flesh’. The word translated ‘thorn’ actually means a ‘stake’. What that was many academics have speculated over the years and they have suggested many things from spiritual temptations- which would tempt him away from doing God’s will- to carnal temptation (the Roman Catholic belief in this present day.) And others have suggested other ideas but Paul’s word is dramatic and tells us that whatever the ‘stake’ may have been, it was savage for him.
Like scholars of old we could add our ideas to what ‘thorn’ Paul endured. Suggestions have included epilepsy which could have produced trances like Paul described. It was a condition that in the ancient world it was attributed to demons and people who encountered epileptics would spit them to ward off the demons.
The oldest suggestion is that Paul suffered from eye trouble which caused severe headaches.
It brings to our minds, the vision Paul had on the Damascus Road. After the glory Paul had there, he was blind and perhaps his eyes were never the same again. Without over- speculating exactly what the thorn was, it could have been some form of malaria which some have described as being like a red hot poker thrust through the forehead.
Whatever it was it bordered on the extreme of human endurance.
Not surprisingly Paul asked God three times to take it away from him. But as often happens God answered Paul by giving him the strength to bear it.
Perhaps you have met someone who is undergoing the kind of pain of their circumstances which to us would be unbearable. In Paul’s life he encountered opposition besides physical pain and even slander and misjudgement. He discovered IN the agony of his thorn/stake that when God told him his grace would be sufficient to carry him through the severest trial it proved to be true.
Those thoughts about which many commentators have written volumes still have meaning for us today.
We are not ‘on our own’ in the difficulties we face. Many of us can say, as Paul said, ‘I know a man….’ and really be talking about themselves. All of us at some time in life face times which test us to the human limit of our endurance. Some of us are fortunate to have wonderful helping relatives and friends but even so, the difficulties cause us to know the pain of being isolated. No one can really take away the pain however much they care about us.
I’d like to share this thought with anyone who feels their situation is indescribable in the pain which it causes and we wonder how we can keep going . …..when we read that God says his grace will be sufficient, although we want nothing less than the situation to be removed, God offers us a miracle by providing his grace to endure the burdens.
Now lest we should think that can’t relieve the pain of our own or a relative’s suffering –even when that suffering is terminal, or when the carer feels they are reaching the end of their ability to cope, God provides his miraculous grace which defies description yet is so very real in that it covers all our difficulties, demands and doubts.
When we say ‘I know a man’ and it says to the world that it is ‘us’ who are at the extremity of being able to cope, God is saying his ability to cope with our inability to cope he will call grace.
I accept that our question will often be ‘But how do we find in this ‘message’ from God that his grace will supply all we need if the physical and mental burden we are carrying is too much for us to bear. What can possible do that when the daily toll on us is overwhelming. The answer is that he is God! And his ability exceeds every situation we will ever, ever face. This is the God who after seeing the unbearable agony Jesus suffered on the cross did not spare him from that suffering because God’s love for the world was needed for us to benefit from the sacrifice for our sin. But the resurrection followed and we can only imagine the joy of the reuniting in heaven of God and his beloved son.
A God who endured so much suffering for us, can understand our circumstances however unbearable to us they may be.
We understate what God can do for us in our ‘unbearable’ situations because grace seems so often just a pleasant word. I feel led to ask all of us to add to the word grace another word-‘miraculous’. The miraculous grace of God will meet our needs even when we feel we are at the very end of our ability to cope.
Dear friends, I commend you to a God who not only CAN but WILL meet your every need no matter how desperately it is exhausting you and he will do it by his miraculous grace.
I pray you will, in these moments, sense the miraculous grace happening that God has for you.
HYMN
To hear the audio file Simply trusting please right click mouse, then left click to open new tab)
1. Simply trusting every day,
Trusting through a stormy way;
Even when my faith is small,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Refrain:
Trusting as the moments fly,
Trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him whate’er befall,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
2. Singing if my way is clear,
Praying if the path be drear;
If in danger for Him call;
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Refrain:
Trusting as the moments fly,
Trusting as the days go by;
Trusting Him whate’er befall,
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
BENEDICTION
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“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace. ”
(Numbers 6:24-26)
I wouldn't know God could solve them
I'd never know what faith in God could do
If you would like to comment on the service,
please e mail
Dr Malcolm Westwood
on
veil@veilministries.org