Lord open our mouths so we can tell you how great you are. Yours are the hands that made the universe
Blessed are you, God of compassion and mercy, to you be praise and glory for ever. In the darkness of our sin, your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance. As we rejoice in the gift of your saving help, sustain us with your bountiful Spirit and open our lips to sing your praise. Blesse be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Blessed be God for ever!
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty!
Amen
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2 Peter 1.1-15
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
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Posted 22 Dec 2014, 02:12 by Mark Broomhead
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Isaiah 52.13-53.end
See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
Just as there were many who were astonished at him
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—
so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
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Posted 22 Dec 2014, 02:11 by Mark Broomhead
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Psalm 124
Refrain:Our help is in the name of the Lord.
1If the Lord himself had not been on our side, • now may Israel say;
2If the Lord had not been on our side, • when enemies rose up against us;
3Then would they have swallowed us alive • when their anger burned against us;
4Then would the waters have overwhelmed us and the torrent gone over our soul; • over our soul would have swept the raging waters. R
5But blessed be the Lord • who has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
6Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowler; • the snare is broken and we are delivered.
7Our help is in the name of the Lord, • who has made heaven and earth.
Refrain:Our help is in the name of the Lord.
O God, maker of heaven and earth, you save us in the water of baptism and by the suffering of your Son you set us free; help us to put our trust in his victory and to know the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ our Lord. |
Posted 22 Dec 2014, 02:10 by Mark Broomhead
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We offer our prayers for: The day, its tasks and opportunities The world and its needs The mission of God
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because our dreams were too small,
When we arrived safely
Because we took the easy route.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the all the stuff we have
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have stopped dreaming of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ. Amen May the peace of Jesus the Christ Be with you, wherever he takes you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home amazed at where you have been, Amazed by what you have seen. May he bring you home Celebrating, to live the revolution united under our master. The Black sheep that lights the darkness Jesus the Christ. Amen |
