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10/17/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, OT29B Call to Confession
All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession, OT29B Out of the raging storm, Almighty God, we hear your voice, and we are ashamed. We use your name in vain when we blame you for the chaos in our lives. We pretend to know the answers to questions of the universe that are beyond our comprehension. Our empty words are void of knowledge. Absent of understanding, we speak declare condemnation and speak pain with a false sense of wisdom and compassion. Forgive us, we pray. Move your spirit among us, humbling our hearts, and renewing a right spirit within us, that we might remember that we are children of the Sovereign, Creator God who spoke creation into being and then called it good. Reignite in us a faith in your created order, and help us to trust that you work all things together for good. Assurance of God's Grace God has promised that when we confess our sin, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive us our sin, removing it as far as the east is from the west, and remembering it no more. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Since we have been forgiven in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day.
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10/16/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, OT29B Come, you who know the answers
and you who only have questions. Come, you who are confident and you whose faith is shaky at best. Come, you creatures of the dust and stand in the presence of the Creator whose wisdom is beyond human comprehension and whose perspective is reaches beyond eternity, and worship. Click here to reflect on this week's passages. 10/12/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, OT28B Oh, Lord, our hearts are like blobs of melted wax.
We droop, sticking wherever we fall, in awkward postures of sorrow and humility, hardened by our separation from the warmth of your love and your light. Hear our cries for mercy! If indeed our complaints are seen as rebellion, then do not cover us with your hand or stifle our groaning, but listen to our suffering, O God. Hear our cries for justice! We cannot begin to understand the reasons behind natural disasters or terminal illness or abandonment or war, and it overwhelms us as we take it in. Do not hide your face from us in our desperation. Do not cut us off. Hear our cries for healing, O God, for we are so in need of your redeeming grace! Almighty God, our Rock and our Fortress, surround us with your loving care, light up the darkness and lead us to places of wholeness and of peace that our fears will not overtake our joy and enthusiasm for life. 10/10/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, OT28B Call to Confession
In the day of our trouble we seek the Lord; in the night our hands are stretched out without wearying; our souls refuse to be comforted. When we remember God, we moan; when we meditate, our spirits faint. Ps. 22:2-3 Let us confess our sins before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession, OT28B We seek the Lord while the Lord may be found; we call upon the Lord while the Lord is near; we are wicked, and we forsake your ways, we unrighteous focus on our own thoughts, our own plans, our own ways, for we are certain we are right. Return us to you, and have compassion on us, O God, we pray, and in your mercy, abundantly pardon. Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you and against our neighbor in the name of righteousness. Move your Spirit in and among us individually, and collectively, healing our divisiveness and reconciling us, one to another, and to you. Assurance of God's Grace In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19) In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day. 10/10/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, OT28B Come, you travelers along the road of despair,
whose complaints are bitter, whose mouths are filled with arguments. You. Yes, you. Come. Come, you seekers who cannot see God either before you or behind you. You, and all your friends. Come. Come, you who want to vanish in the darkness and hide. Come to the place called Hope in the presence of God. Come and worship and be restored in the company of believers. 10/5/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, OT27B From the soles of our feet
to the crowns of our heads, Lord, we feel the pain of untold stories, of judgment, of laughter, of unresolved anger and of fear. Hear our prayers for mercy. Sitting in piles of ashes, we mourn a loss of dignity and decency, of compassion and diligence and truth. Hear our prayers for justice. Cynical about you and your activity in the world, we curse you. Our bewilderment and our outrage feels insufficient in the face of trial, and we wonder what evil has been unleashed and why. Hear our prayers for faith. Restore to us the joy of our salvation, Lord. Grant peace in the face of adversity and strength to perseverance. Move your Spirit in and among your people everywhere and ignite in your church a fire of love that will burn brightly and light the way to hope for all who are in pain. 10/3/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, OT27B Call to Confession
Who among us is upright and blameless, for we all stumble in many ways. Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession, OT27B Our feet have not held fast to your steps, O God; We have not kept your way but have turned aside. We have departed from the commandment of your lips, loving not the way we have been loved; We have not treasured the words of your mouth more than our portion of food, more than shelter, more than life itself. Instead, Lord, we mock you and we mock others, pretending we know better, pretending we know more, pretending we are qualified to sit in the seat of judgment, pretending we are sovereign. Forgive us, we pray. Inspire in us a heart for mercy, a compassion that is at least decent and at most empathetic and kind. Strengthen our faith, that we may trust in your activity in our world, and in our individual and communal lives. Assurance of God's Grace "Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9:6) In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day. 10/2/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, OT27B Welcome, you God-fearing,
evil-haters. Welcome, you devoted. Welcome, you hurting and lonely. Welcome you doubtful and cursing. Welcome, all, to a time of worship in the presence of God. Open your hearts to God's healing peace. Click here to join the conversation about this week's passages. 9/28/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, OT26B O God, our Fortress and our Rock,
your children are terrified! The gut-wrenching fear that silences the stories that leave us shaking in our shoes is threatening to tear us apart. The politics of superiority damage the psyche and intimidate the child in us who is longing to be safe. We have donned our sackcloth -- our mourning clothes -- and shut ourselves away from the world to hide the pain on our faces, to cover our socially unacceptable tears. Angry and aching, we relive the attacks made on our physcial beings and our character even as we are dismissed as unimportant ... non-essential ... unworthy. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers! Depressed and disturbed, dismayed and disgusted, exhausted and enraged, we come to you in fervent hope that you will erase the ugliness that rears its giant head before us. Hear our desperate prayers for healing and wholeness, for compassion and justice and peace of mind, body, and spirit. Grant wisdom, O God, to those in power, that they might hear and be moved to act appropriately. Grant discernment, Source of all Truth, that all who seek your guidance will be strengthened and encouraged even in the darkest days, to lift their voice in the name of all that is holy to preserve the lives of those who stand in harm's way. Rescue your people, we pray, from destructive ambition and greed and from self-identifying bias. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers. 9/26/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, OT26B Call to Confession
Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations, but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them. (Proverbs 24:24-25) Let us confess our sin before God and receive God's mercy and God's blessing. Prayer of Confession, OT26B We do not like it, Lord, when others disagree with us, when the world laughs at our bravado, when strangers refuse to bow to our way of being in the world. We hiss and rare and lash out defensively with angry words and untruths, and we rally our troops around us on the basis of sheer narcissism, and self-righteousness. Our egocentric attitudes block out any and all ability to see other humans as children of God, and we pray for their destruction, for their demise, and for our own victory. Almighty God, open our eyes to our own ignorance. Forgive our single-minded self-centeredness, and open our eyes to the lies we have perpetuated as truth. Transform our hearts, O merciful God, before we destroy ourselves and others with us, that hope will reign, and your eternal glory will be made known throughout the earth. Assurance of God's Grace If it had not been the Lord who was on our side— let Israel now say— if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; (Psalm 124:1-3) In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Since we have been forgiven in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to those whom you encounter this day ... especially those with whom you disagree. |
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