After Pentecost | Friday 31 May 2024

+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening:

O Lord,
we entreat you mercifully to hear us,
and grant that we,
to whom you have given the desire to pray,
may by your mighty aid
be defended and comforted in all our adversities;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

“I am convinced that
nothing can ever separate us from God’s love
which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us.”
(Romans 8:38)

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From Psalms: 139:1-6, 13-18 – “Where Can I Go – Psalm 139” | Ellie Holcomb

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OT Reading: 1 Samuel 1:19-27 (GW)

1:19 Early in the morning Elkanah and his family got up and worshiped in front of the Lord. Then they returned home to Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel [God Hears], because she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”

Samuel’s Childhood

1:21 To keep his vow, Elkanah and his entire household again went to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord. But Hannah didn’t go. She told her husband, “I’ll wait until the boy is weaned. Then I’ll bring him and present him to the Lord, and he’ll stay there permanently.”

“Do what you think is best,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Wait until you’ve weaned him. May the Lord keep his word.” The woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

As soon as she had weaned Samuel, she took him with her. She also brought a three-year-old bull, half a bushel of flour, and a full wineskin. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh while the boy was ⌞still⌟ a child.

Then the parents butchered the bull and brought the child to Eli. “Sir,” Hannah said, “as sure as you live, I’m the woman who stood here next to you and prayed to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request.

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Draw Me Close To You / Michael W. Smith / Spirit-Led Insights

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NT Reading: Romans 8:31-39 (GW)

8:31 What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over ⌞to death⌟ for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him. Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love? As Scripture says:

“We are being killed all day long because of you.
We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.”

The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

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I Am Sure (Romans 8:38-39) / Kenny Clark

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Prayer: ACNA | BCP2019

+ O God, almighty and merciful, you heal the broken-hearted, and turn the sadness of the sorrowful to joy, Let your  fatherly goodness be upon all whom you have made. Remember in pity all those who are this day destitute, homeless,  elderly, infirm, or forgotten. Bless the multitude of your poor. Lift up those who are cast down. Mightily befriend  innocent sufferers, and sanctify to them the endurance of their wrongs. Cheer with hope all who are discouraged and  downcast, and by your heavenly grace preserve from falling those whose poverty tempts them to sin. Though they be  troubled on every side, suffer them not to be distressed; though they are perplexed, save them from despair. Grant  this, O Lord, for the love of him who for our sakes became poor, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

+ Sovereign Lord: We pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

• • Protect Israel from the fiery darts of the evil one coming from every direction, both within and without.
  • Grant your heavenly wisdom to those guiding Israel militarily, politically, and diplomatically; give them hearts to receive, and the courage to do, what’s right in your sight.
  • Comfort those who grieve and mourn the loss of loved ones, and rebuke those who would use grief for evil purposes.
  • Bring swift and certain justice to all those complicit in the Oct 7th atrocities; deliver the hostages from captivity, and restore their souls.
  • Send your heavenly hosts to destroy every stronghold of the evil death cult terrorizing the Middle East.
  • Strengthen the Messianic communities – Jew and Arab alike – bind them together in love, that they may be a source of help, and healing, and hope;
  • And use them in the restoration of your people to their proper place in your Kingdom.
  • We pray in Jesus’ Name.

Thomas à Kempis
+ Our God, in whom we trust: Strengthen us not to regard overmuch who is for us or who is against us, but to see to it  that we be with you in everything we do. Amen.

Closing: FaithandWorship.com | John Birch

The Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil,
and keep us in eternal life.

+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.