After Pentecost | Monday 25 Nov 2024
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening:
Almighty and everlasting God,
whose will it is to restore all things
in your well-beloved Son,
the King of kings and Lord of lords:
Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth,
divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed
and brought together under his most gracious rule;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
“The witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven
calling to them, “Come up here.”
They went up to heaven in a cloud,
and their enemies watched them.”
(Revelation 11:12)
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From the Psalms: Psalm 63 | “Psalm 63” | Emmy Rose, Bethel Music
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OT Reading: 2 Kings 23:15-25 (GW)
23:15 He also tore down the altar at Bethel—the place of worship made by Jeroboam (Nebat’s son), who had made Israel sin. He tore down both the altar and the place of worship. They burned the worship site, crushing it to powder and burning the pole dedicated to Asherah.
When Josiah turned and saw the tombs on the hill there, he sent men to take the bones out of the tombs and burn them on the altar to make it unclean. This fulfilled the Lord’s word announced by the man of God. Then he asked, “What is this monument that I see?”
The people of the city answered him, “It’s the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah to announce that you would do these things to the altar of Bethel.”
So Josiah said, “Let him rest. Don’t disturb his bones.” So they left his bones with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.
Josiah also got rid of all the temples at the illegal places of worship in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had built these places to make the Lord furious. He did to them everything that he had done to the worship places at Bethel. He slaughtered all the priests of the illegal worship sites on their altars and then burned human bones on them. He went back to Jerusalem.
The king ordered all the people to celebrate the Passover for the Lord their God as it is written in this Book of the Promise. The Passover had never been celebrated like this during the time of the judges who governed Israel or during the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem for the Lord.
Josiah also got rid of the mediums, psychics, family idols, other idols, and disgusting gods that could be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to confirm the words of the Teachings written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple.
No king before Josiah had turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and strength, as directed in Moses’ Teachings. No other ⌞king⌟ was like Josiah.
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O Jerusalem by Barry & Batya Segal
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NT Reading: Revelation 11:1-14 (GW)
God’s Two Witnesses
11:1 Then I was given a stick like a measuring stick. I was told, “Stand up and measure the temple of God and the altar. Count those who worship there. But do not measure the temple courtyard. Leave that out, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. I will allow my two witnesses who wear sackcloth to speak what God has revealed. They will speak for 1,260 days.”
These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to hurt them, fire comes out of the witnesses’ mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed the same way. These witnesses have authority to shut the sky in order to keep rain from falling during the time they speak what God has revealed. They have authority to turn water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague as often as they want.
When the witnesses finish their testimony, the beast which comes from the bottomless pit will fight them, conquer them, and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie on the street of the important city where their Lord was crucified. The spiritual names of that city are Sodom and Egypt. For 3½ days some members of the people, tribes, languages, and nations will look at the witnesses’ dead bodies and will not allow anyone to bury them. Those living on earth will gloat over the witnesses’ death. They will celebrate and send gifts to each other because these two prophets had tormented those living on earth.
After 3½ days the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who watched them. The witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven calling to them, “Come up here.” They went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified. They gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second catastrophe is over. The third catastrophe will soon be here.
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Day of Judgement | Christ Church Mayfair
1. Day of judgement! Day of wonders!
Hear the awe-full sound
Louder than a thousand thunders
Shakes the vast creation round.
2. Jesus calls: the dead awaken,
Rise from earth and sea.
All the pow’rs of nature, shaken
by his look, prepare to flee.
(Chorus)
When all earth and heaven melt away,
Gracious Saviour, own me in that Day.
3. Every knee shall bow before Him,
Every heart exposed.
All the stains of our rebellion
Clear before His judgement throne.
(Bridge)
Under earth and heaven’s blackened sky,
Gracious Saviour, You were lifted high.
Bearing all the curse that my sin deserved
As You bled upon that tree;
God the judge hangs cursed for me.
4. Rise now sinner, come to Jesus
Pardoning grace to know.
Meet Him now as gracious Saviour,
Not just then as Judge alone.
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Merciful God, you desire not the death of sinners, but rather that they should turn to you and live; and through your only Son you have revealed yourself as the God who pardons iniquity. Have mercy on the unrepentant and those who do not believe. Awaken in them, by your Word and Holy Spirit, a deep sense of their sinfulness and peril. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of your Word. Grant them to know and believe that there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so bring them home and number them among your children, that they may be yours for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Sovereign Lord: We pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
+ Do what only you can do to make your faithful people the blessing promised to every family on earth.
+ Protect them from the assaults of the evil one, coming from every direction and in every form.
+ Grant your heavenly wisdom to Israel’s leadership; give them the courage to do what’s right in your sight.
+ Comfort all those who mourn the loss of loved ones; deliver the hostages from captivity and restore their souls.
+ Destroy every stronghold and every expression of the evil death cult terrorizing the Middle East.
+ Protect the Israel Defense Forces and every soldier engaged in their mission to root out this evil.
+ Strengthen the Messianic communities; use them to restore your faithful people to their proper place in your kingdom.
+ Unify your faithful people around your promise to Abraham – to bless every family on earth through them.
+ Intervene in the Middle East in ways that only you can; protect the innocent and punish the guilty, that all may live in peace.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hasten, O Father, the coming of your kingdom; and grant that we your servants, who now live by faith, may with joy behold your Son at his coming in glorious majesty; even Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate. 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.
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The Peanut Gallery 