God of love you are our only strength, our only refuge, our only hope. Amid all the voices of fear in this world we turn to you for your grace. Speak to us and bring us safely under your wing. We pray...
Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwel...
Pastor: Lord of all, the demands of Your righteousness are too hard for us to fulfill alone, People: so we use this excuse to ignore Your law. Pastor: You forgive our iniquity and remember our sin...
Matthew 5:14-16 , 1 John 4:18-19 , Acts 4:29-31 , Romans 12:9-11 , 2 Corinthians 3:12, Esther 4:14, James 2:14-17
Gracious God, you have called us to be light in a dark world, and we have remained hidden. Thinking of ourselves first, we have withheld courage and compassion. Merciful God, hear our confessions and ...
Richard Attenborough’s movie Gandhi has a scene set in South Africa where the young Indian lawyer and a white clergyman are walking together on a boardwalk, contrary to South African law at the time. ...
Isaiah 61:1-3, 2 Kings 5:1-14 , Jeremiah 33:6, Luke 4:18-21, James 5:14-15, Psalm 103:2-4
Leader: Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs. Brief silence Leader: Heavenly Father, with joy the Church continues to celebra...
Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 5:9, James 3:18, Amos 5:24, John 14:27 , Jeremiah 6:14 , Proverbs 3:17
Almighty God, we settle for false peace. We see no need to rock the boat, so we allow injustice to rule and reign. God, give us the conviction to take on the work of peace-making. Give us the courage,...
Isaiah 30:21, Proverbs 3:5-6 , Deuteronomy 30:19-20 , John 14:6, Psalm 25:4-5, Matthew 11:28-30
Pastor: God our gracious Father, our Creator; Jesus, our Redeemer, the Way, the Truth, the Life; Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Guide, to You we lift our hearts in prayer. For those who have lost...
Isaiah 64:8, Micah 6:8, Matthew 22:37-39, Romans 12:2, Psalm 51:10
O Holy God, we come before you in humility, recognizing we have resorted to competition rather than compassion. We have doubted the depth of your love for us, and in turn have been unloving to our fam...
Last week, an atheist came up to me and asked how I could believe in a God who made parents eat their children. Naturally, I was a little confused. A lot of people have odd ideas about God, but ...
Pastor: God of all mercy and consolation, come to the aid of Your people, turning us from our sin to live for You alone. Give us the power of Your Holy Spirit that, attentive to Your Word, we may c...
Acts 1:9-11, Matthew 28:18-20, Ephesians 4:8-10, John 14:15-18, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 13:5-6, Revelation 1:12-20
Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things:Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to hispromise, he abides with...
Psalm 127:7-8, Matthew 28:20, 1 Peter 3:15, Matthew 5:14-16, Proverbs 3:5-6, Colossians 4:5-6
Leader: As you go through your week, may you remember that not only is God for you, God is with you. And just as you can trust Jesus’ death and resurrection for your eternal life, you can trust God wi...
Matthew 4:18-20 , Luke 10:33-37, John 13:34-35, John 8:10-11, Luke 15:20-24 , Matthew 9:9-13 , Galatians 6:2
Gracious God, we desire to follow when you call. We long to live according to the ways of Jesus, yet we find ourselves stumbling. Forgive us for the times we have ignored your call to follow you in th...
Isaiah 6:1-8, Exodus 33:12-23, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Acts 9:1-19, Matthew 17:1-8, Psalm 16:11
Sometimes, of course, the sense of God with us becomes much more distinct. My oldest brother, J. I. Willard, served for over thirty years as a minister under the blessing of God. But his entry into th...
Luke 4:18-19, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Hosea 6:1-2, Luke 4:18-19, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Psalm 30:2-5
Prayer of Confession Pastor: We join with all of creation to shout the praise of Almighty God, and to sing for joy at His loving faithfulness. Yet we must confess to God and one another that we have ...
John 8:12, Psalm 27:1 , John 1:5, Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 5:14-16, Proverbs 3:5-6, Ephesians 5:8-9
All-gracious God, you promise that your light drowns out darkness, yet the darkness is so persistent. We cannot see in front of us, so we look to our own knowledge and ways. Forgive us for turning to ...
James 4:8, Proverbs 3:34, Matthew 11:28-30, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 51:17
Leader: Come near to God and he will come near to you. People: Wash your hands and purify your hearts. Leader: Grieve your sins and you will be forgiven. People: Humble yourselves befo...
Leader: God of life, when life is broken, All: we turn to you. Loving Christ, when hearts are broken, you come to us. Holy Spirit, this broken world needs us; flow through us to all the...
Luke 10:30-37, Matthew 25:35-40, Mark 6:34, 1 John 4:19-21, James 1:27 , Proverbs 19:17, Isaiah 58:6-7
Father God, you see us; you have compassion; and you care for your greatest creation – people. You have also called us to notice, to listen, and to love others. Yet in our selfishness, we have ignored...
Psalm 142:4-5, Isaiah 49:15-16, Psalm 34:18, Hebrews 4:15, Matthew 28:20, John 14:18, Romans 8:38-39, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 40:1-12
This story is probably apocryphal, but conveys a truth nonetheless. During the early 19th century, following the Napoleonic Wars, a French soldier was captured and imprisoned. He was thrown into a...
Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. People: Amen. Pastor: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. People: Put on the full armor of ...
Exodus 34:6–7, Genesis 39:21, Micah 6:8, Titus 3:4–5, Luke 6:35–36, Psalm 136:1
In the Old Testament, God is often praised for his kindness. There is a beautiful word in Hebrew— hesed —which is so rich in meaning that it gets translated in many ways. Very often it is translat...
Job 1:20-21, Daniel 3:17-18, Habakkuk 3:17-18, Luke 22:42, Psalm 34:18-19 , John 6:66-69
A few days ago I met with a young couple. Their toddler was injured in a car accident. When I visited them in the hospital, the child was on life support. As we stood outside the ICU and spoke, I saw,...
Is it possible that God’s promises are given less consideration and value today than in the time of evangelist Dwight Moody? Moody described the preciousness of God’s promises this way: Let a man ...
Pastor: Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another. People: Gracious God, have mercy on us. In Your compassion forgive us our sins, known and unknown, things done and...
1 Samuel 3:4-10, Exodus 23:20, Isaiah 30:21, Acts 16:6-10, John 10:27-28, Psalm 91:11-12
One remarkable illustration concerns Peter Marshall, the Scot who in the middle of the twentieth century became one of America’s most widely acclaimed ministers. Through his outstanding qualities as a...
John 1:12, 1 John 3:1, Isaiah 53:5-6, Matthew 6:12, Psalm 51:1-10
Pastor: Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. People: Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by wh...
Luke 11:1–4 , Romans 8:26–27, Psalm 119:171–173 , Exodus 33:11 , Deuteronomy 6:4–9 , 1 Samuel 3:1–10
When our will wholeheartedly enters into the prayer of Christ, then we pray correctly. Only in Jesus Christ are we able to pray, and with him we also know that we shall be heard. And so we must learn ...