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Sunday morning, the Railsplitter
Festival events opened with a Community Church service led by Ryan
Edgecombe.
Edgecombe started with a prayer of
thanks for all the activities then led a worship time with songs
that may have been sung during Abraham Lincoln’s era. Songs included
“Sweet Hour of Prayer,” “The Everlasting Arms,” “Have Thine Own Way
Lord,” and “Near the Cross.”
Between each song Edgecombe read
passages of scripture. The first verses were from Matthew 26:41 and
Mark 11:24, which refer to watching and praying in harmony with
Christ. A verse from Deuteronomy 33:27 refers to God as our refuge
and underneath are his everlasting arms. Isaiah 64:8 says we are the
clay and God is the potter, so we are all the work of his hand.
After the final song, “Near the Cross,,” Edgecombe read a verse from
Colossians 1:14 which talks about Jesus redeeming us through his
blood and forgiving us of our sins.
Edgecombe referred to the prodigal son and said we are reminded that
love and mercy has found us. God knows the good bad and ugly and
still churches for us even if he could not guarantee we will
respond.
A prayer of communion was followed by an open communion service.
Mike Anderson played the dulcimer as communion was passed around.
The devotional Edgecombe led came from First Timothy 2:1-7. In the
first two verses, Paul urges everyone to “pray for all people, ask
God to help them, intercede on their behalf and give thanks for
them. The passage also says we need to pray for kings and those in
authority so “we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by
godliness and dignity.”
In verses 3 and 4, Paul says “this is good and pleases God our
Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”
Verses 5 and 6 remind us remind us “there is one God, and one
mediator who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus.
He gave Himself to purchase freedom for everyone.” This message is
one “God gave to the world at just the right time.”
As verse 7 says Paul was “chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach
the Gentiles this message about faith.” Paul then says, “I am not
exaggerating. I am just telling the truth.”
Edgecombe read a quote from nineteenth century Anglican Pastor
Walter Locke that “God's will to save is as wide as his will to
create.” In this passage, Edgecombe said we can really see the heart
of God.
Out here Edgecombe said as we see the beauty of God’s creation, we
realize there must be a loving God with all the beauty of the trees,
the green grass and the blue sky. Even the rain we got Saturday
refreshes the land.
In these verses, Paul says to pray for everyone with no limitations.
We should not put people in a box somewhere and say they’re too
different from me, I’m not going to pray for them.
We are to pray for everybody. Edgecombe said it means any
distinction we can think of from the richest to the poorest and from
the most educated to the least educated. It means praying for those
from one political party to the other political party.
It means no matter what faith someone is, we need to pray for them.
It does not matter if we know them or are best friends with them. It
does not matter if they're from a different culture or have
different color of skin or they speak a different language.
Edgecombe said, “We pray for everybody.” Nobody is outside of our
ability to pray for them.
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Prayer is
powerful, but Edgecombe does not know if we always believe it.
We sometimes say, “I cannot do much, but I can pray.” God and
the Holy Spirit use prayer. God works in a through prayer.
The more we pray in commitment, in faith and in harmony with
kingdom principles, Edgecombe said, I think God is going to
honor that. Some beautiful things can happen through prayer.
Edgecombe said God wants everyone to be saved and understand the
truth because Christ died for all. Christ gave his life to
purchase freedom for everyone. The theme there is “all, all,
all.” Pray for all because we want salvation for all and we
think Christ died for all.
We have a heart for people. Edgecombe said we when we look at
other human beings, we do not see an enemy. We see someone that
God created special and someone Christ died for. We see someone
God has a plan for.
God has sanctified us. Christians and the church should lead the
way in showing others how to treat people, show respect to
people, care for people and how you speak the truth in a loving
way to people. Edgecombe reminded everyone there that it is
about how we have conversations with people and show compassion
to people.
Edgecombe feels like we have a theological foundation to lead
the way in showing the rest of the world how to act. He said
sometimes the church shoots itself in its own foot and doesn’t
do a very good job at showing that. However, there is hope for
us because we have a loving savior and the spirit isn’t done
working in our lives.
Christ’s love for all is a foundation of missionary work. When
Edgecombe was in West Africa he learned so much and saw the bond
of Christian unity.
In quoting William Barclay, Edgecombe said they may be lost, but
they can be found. They may be ignorant, but they can be
enlightened. They may be sinners, but they can be saved. No one
is outside of our prayers or outside the grace of God. We look
at people and see potential children of God. We see people that
God loves deeply.
Edgecombe then said everything would be null and void except for
two eternal truths. First, there is one God, creator, father and
creator of love. We are not polytheists who believe we need to
make the right sacrifice to the right God. With the Greeks and
their many Gods, Edgecombe said it was about fear and
manipulation.
Our God is the creator and embodiment of sacrificial, selfless,
longsuffering love. Edgecombe said all he said would be wrong if
not for the fact there is one God and one mediator.
As the text says, “there is one God and one mediator who can
reconcile God and humanity…the man Christ Jesus who gave his
life to purchase freedom for everyone.”
We do not need angels or priests or
prophets as our mediator because we have Jesus Christ. Edgecombe
said Christ is the final priest and fulfillment of the prophets. He
is the only mediator we need.
As Edgecombe came to the end of the devotional, he said our world
and our country need uniting. Christ is the one who can break walls
down.
When the church is at its best, the walls come down. When the church
is distracted, disrupted or loses sight of the main purpose, he said
the church can build walls that separate people, divide people and
push people away that should not be pushed away. Christ is calling
us to have the walls come down and to bring people in and connect
them to the one true God.
Ended with everyone singing the hymn Amazing Grace and saying the
Lord's prayer together.
Angela Reiners |
