Opening Prayer
Oh Lord, You have loved me with an everlasting love; You have drawn me with lovingkindness -Jeremiah 31:3 (silent reflection) Prayer of the Bible There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. O God you have made everything beautiful in its time. You have also set eternity in human hearts. -Ecclesiastes 3: 1,11 (Free expression of praise and thanksgiving to God) Confession of Sin Come, O thou all-victorious Lord! Thy power to us make known; Strike with the hammer of thy word, And break these hearts of stone. O that we all might now begin, Our foolishness to mourn; And turn at once from every sin, And to our Savior turn! Give us ourselves and thee to know, In this our gracious day; Repentance unto life bestow, And take our sins away. -Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Hymn: Come, O Thou All Victorious Lord (Time of silence for confession of sin) The Words of Jesus About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. -John 7: 14-17 (Think deeply on these life-giving words of Jesus) Prayers for Ourselves and Others They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. -Acts 1:14 (Time to bring before God our own needs and the needs of others) Closing Prayer “Blessed Spirit of God, come to us in all Thy fullness and power, to clothe us in our nakedness, to enrich us in our poverty, to inflame us in our feebleness. Be closer to us than breathing, nearer than hands or feet. As lovers live each in each, so live in us and we in Thee. As the fire gives of itself to the molten iron, so give Thy presence to us. Compass our minds with Thy wisdom. Saturate our souls with Thy righteousness. Fire our wills with Thy might. Melt our hearts with Thy love. Do everything at all times to make us wholly Thine until Thy wealth is ours and we are lost in Thee” -Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929) |