God’s Promise of Mercy

Malachi 3:13-18

“You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.

“But you ask, ‘What have we said about you?’

You have said, ‘It’s useless to serve God.

What’s the use of doing what he says or trying to show

the Lord Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?

As we see it, proud people are the ones who are happy.

Evil people not only prosper, but they test God’s patience

with their evil deeds and get away with it.”

Then the people who feared the Lord spoke to one another,

and the Lord listened and heard what they said.

In his presence, there was written down in a book a record

of those who feared the Lord and respected him.

“They will be my people,” says the Lord Almighty.

“On the day when I act, they will be my very own.

I will be merciful to them, as a father is merciful to the son who serves him.

Once again my people will see the difference between what

happens to the righteous and to the wicked, to the person

who serves me and the one who does not.

I see the pain

by Aaron Armstrong

I see how you go on from day to day
With smiles for everyone in every way
But deep down inside
I see the pain that you hide
And the hurt that just won’t go away
Give it to me I will take it all
I died for this reason to save your soul
I know it is hard, but you just must let go
Give it to me, I’ll remove it all
At the foot of the cross fall on your knees
And I will hear you when you cry out to me
You do not have to carry this load alone
Give it to me and I will lead you on.

by Christina Rosetti

Lord seek us, Lord find us
In Thy patient care,
Be Thy love before us, behind us
Lest he bait a snare,
Lest he forge a chain to bind us,
Lest he speak us fair,
Turn not from us, call to mind us,
Find, embrace us, hear.
Be Thy love before us, behind us,
Round us everywhere.

Erling C. Olsen

“There is only one book in the world that bears the impress of the hand of God and that vibrates with His breath. That Book is the Bible.”

The Promise of the Lord’s Coming

2 Peter 3:8-15

But do not forget one thing, my dear friends!
There is no difference in the Lord’s sight
between one day and a thousand years;
to him the two are the same.
The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised,
as some think.
Instead, he is patient with you,
because he does not want anyone to be destroyed,
but wants all to turn away from their sins.
But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief.
On that Day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise,
the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed,
and the earth with everything in it will vanish.
Since all these things will be destroyed in this way,
what kind of people should you be?
Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God,
as you wait fot the Day of God
and do your best to make it come soon -
the Day when the heavens will burn up,
and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat.
But we wait for what God has promised:
a new heaven and a new earth,
where righteousness will be at home.
And so, my friends, as you wait for that day,
do your best to be pure and faultless in God’s sight
and to be at peace with him.
Look on our Lord’s patience as the opportunity
he has giving you to be saved,
just as our dear brother Paul; wrote to you,
using the wisdom that God gave him.

I know He hears

By Sheryl Johnson

Each night I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
I pray my love to Him each night
and to always keep us in His light.
I know He hears each word I speak
and listens to each and all I seek,
for every morning that I wake
I realize all He’s done for my sake.
Sometimes I ask Him to hold me tight
and to help me make it through the night.
I know He hears each and every prayer,
for I feel His arms and how they care.
I pray that my food He will bless
and I pray He will listen as I confess.
Now I know He hears me as I pray,
for I feel at ease at the end of each day.
I know He hears each time I bow
and I know He’s listening to me right now.
I know my troubles on Him have poured,
but I know He hears, for he’s my Lord.

Teacher’s Prayer

I want to teach my students how to live this life on earth,
face its struggles and its strife and improve their worth,
not just the lesson in a book or how the rivers flow,
but how to choose the proper path wherever they may go,
to understand eternal truth and know the right from wrong,
and gather all the beauty of a flower and a song,
for if I help the world to grow in wisdom and in grace,
then I shall feel that I have won and I have filled my place.
And so I ask your guidance, God, that I may do my part,
for character and confidence and happiness of heart.

Famous Quote

“All self-effort is but sinking sand.
Christ alone is the Rock of our salvation.”

by Mary Stewart

Keep us, O God, from pettiness;
let us be large in thought,in word,in deed.
Let us be done with faultfinding
and leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretenses
and meet each other, face to face,
without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment
and always generous.
Let us take time for all things;
make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put in action our better impulses
-straightforward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize it is
the little things of life that create difficulties;
that in the big things of life we are as one.
Oh, Lord, let us not forget to be kind.
Amen

Before The Altar

by Amy Lowell

Before the Altar, bowed, he stands
With empty hands;
Upon it perfumed offerings burn
Wreathing with smoke the sacrificial urn.
Not one of all these has he given,
No flame of his has leapt to Heaven
Fire-souled, vermilion-hearted,
Forked, and darted,
Consuming what a few spare pence
Have cheaply bought, to fling from hence
In idly-asked petition. His sole condition
Love and poverty.
And while the moon
Swings slow across the sky,
Athwart a waving pine tree,
And soon
Tips all the needles there
With silver sparkles, bitterly
He gazes, while his soul
Grows hard with thinking of the poorness of his dole. “Shining and distant Goddess, hear my prayer
Where you swim in the high air!
With charity look down on me,
Under this tree,
Tending the gifts I have not brought,
The rare and goodly things
I have not sought.
Instead, take from me all my life!.

“Upon the wings
Of shimmering moonbeams
I pack my poet’s dreams
For you.
My wearying strife,
My courage, my loss,
Into the night I toss
For you.
Golden Divinity,
Deign to look down on me
Who so unworthily
Offers to you:
All life has known,
Seeds withered unsown,
Hopes turning quick to fears,
Laughter which dies in tears.
The shredded remnant of a man
Is all the span
And compass of my offering to you. 

“Empty and silent, I
Kneel before your pure, calm majesty.
On this stone, in this urn
I pour my heart and watch it burn,
Myself the sacrifice; but be
Still unmoved: Divinity.” 

From the altar, bathed in moonlight,
The smoke rose straight in the quiet night