March 29, 2019

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Season of Lent

As you enter into this Morning Prayer, remember that God is with you and ready to speak to you because he loves you. Enjoy the presence of your Lord and Savior. Pray as you are able: use the entire email or for a shorter time of prayer, be led through all five sections but focus on one element in each of the sections. 

- Calling - 

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked… He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”  (Psalm 1:1, 3)

 

- Confession -

Prayer of Repentance - From Psalm 51:1-2, 10-12
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; 
According to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. 

(Pause for a time of silent confession)


Words of Assurance - Psalm 103:11-13
Leader: "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.”  


The Invitation
(An invitation to praise God after confession and prior to the daily Psalm(s) and Lessons)

O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
                  as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia!

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.

 

- Constitution - 

Morning Psalm(s) - Psalm 88
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

O LORD, God of my salvation,

I cry out day and night before you.

Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry!

For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

You have put me in the depths of the pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O LORD;

I spread out my hands to you.

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

Your wrath has swept over me;

your dreadful assaults destroy me.

They surround me like a flood all day long;

they close in on me together.

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.

Psalm 95

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the LORD is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers put me to the test

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that generation

and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known my ways.”

Therefore I swore in my wrath,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
          as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen


Old Testament - Jeremiah 11:1–8, 14-20

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.”

And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

“Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”

The LORD made it known to me and I knew;

then you showed me their deeds.

But I was like a gentle lamb

led to the slaughter.

I did not know it was against me

they devised schemes, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,

let us cut him off from the land of the living,

that his name be remembered no more.”

But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,

who tests the heart and the mind,

let me see your vengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.



The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God


New Testament - Romans 6:1–11

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.


The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God


Slowly read one or more of the lessons again... did a word or phrase catch your eye or move your heart...meditate on it and pray your thoughts, desires, needs, and feelings.
 

A Song of Response - Satisfied

All my life long I had panted for a drink from some cool spring 
That I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within 
Hallelujah! He has found me, the One my soul so long has craved! 
Jesus satisfies all my longings, through his blood I now am saved 

Feeding on the filth around me, ‘till my strength was almost gone 
Longed my soul for something better, only still to hunger on 
Hallelujah! He has found me, the One my soul so long has craved! 
Jesus satisfies all my longings, through his blood I now am saved 

Poor I was and sought for riches, something that would satisfy 
But the dust I gathered ‘round me only mocked my soul’s sad cry 
Hallelujah! He has found me, the One my soul so long has craved! 
Jesus satisfies all my longings, through his blood I now am saved 

Well of water ever springing, Bread of Life so rich and free 
Untold wealth that never faileth, my Redeemer is to me 
Hallelujah! He has found me, the One my soul so long has craved! 
Jesus satisfies all my longings, through his blood I now am saved


Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
          as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

 

The Apostle's Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried:
he descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

 

- Communion - 

The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Prayers of Thanksgiving & Petitions
Take this time to offer personal prayers.
Where have you seen the Lord faithfully at work this past week?
Where do you hope to see the Lord's help and healing this coming week?
What prayers can you offer for our church, neighborhood, nation, and world?


A Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

- Commission - 

The General Thanksgiving
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. We pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

Blessing - Numbers 6:24-26
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” 

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God. 

- Family Devotion - 

If you have children, below are two suggestions to help your family create a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading, meditation, and application. Use these suggestions as guides for your specific family situation and the ages of each of your children. Corporate times around the table (like breakfast or dinner) or during bedtime routines may be good times for your family.

Suggestion 1
For a family devotion follow the Calling - Commission flow: 

Calling - Remind your children that God loves them and is with them.                   

Cleansing - Together and/or individually pray your own prayer of repentance or use the corporate prayer of repentance. Remind them that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and rose from the dead, that their sins are forgiven and Jesus now reigns as their king.

Constitution - Read one or more of the appointed readings. Then ask them some follow up questions like: (Read) What does this passage say?  (Think) What does this passage mean? (Live) How does this passage apply to us today? In addition to an appointed reading, you can also read a children's Bible, like The Jesus Storybook Bible.   

Communion - Then pray thanksgivings & petitions and/or The Lord's Prayer. 

Commission - Close by saying the Blessing over your children.

Suggestion 2
For those families going through the 10-minute family devotional Old Story New, this week we are on WEEK 26, PAGE 183-189. 

Close your time with prayers of repentance, thanksgiving, petitions, and/or The Lord's Prayer.