Sunday, December 12, 2004

Devotions For Sunday Advent Week 3

Opening
Timeless, spaceless, single, lonely, yet sublimely Three, Thou are grandly, always, only God in Unity! Lone in grandeur, lone in glory, who shall tell Thy wondrous story? Awful Trinity!

Observe a period of silence

Scripture
Psalm 34:1-10 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord ; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord , and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord , and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. O fear the Lord , you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (NRSV)

John 10:1-13 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. (NIV)

Romans 8:18-25 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (NIV)
Meditation
In the shadow of Your wings I will sing Your praises, O Lord. I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. O wait for the Lord! Have courage and wait, wait for the Lord. In the shadow of Your wings I will sing Your praises, O Lord
Offer Prayer’s For Others

The Collect
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let Your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

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