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Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer of Repentance and Hope

Lord, who wills that which is good, let me not follow the inclinations of my heart, but lead me to live always according to Your good will. Have mercy upon Your Creatures and upon me, a great sinner.

Heavenly King, grant me Your kingdom, which You have promised to Your beloved; strengthen my heart to hate sin, and to love You alone, and to do Your will. Have mercy upon Your Creatures and upon me, a great sinner.

Protector of Your creatures, by the sign of Your cross keep my soul and body from the allurements of sin, from the temptations of the devil and unjust people, and from all perils of soul and body. Have mercy upon Your Creatures and upon me, a great sinner.

Christ, the guardian of all, let Your Right Hand guard and shelter me by day and by night, while at home and while away, while sleeping and while awake, that I may never fall. Have mercy upon Your Creatures and upon me, a great sinner, today and forever,

Mason Barge 9/2021

~ Parthenios of Crete, ca. 1870

Lord of Healing

Lord of my greatest fear: Let in your peace.

Lord of my darkest shame: Let in your grace.

Lord of my oldest grudge: Let in your forgiveness.

Lord of my loneliest moment: Let in your presence.

Lord of my truest self – my all: Let in your fullness.

~ Allison Pepper

Meditation

“God has no use for the prayers of people who won’t listen to Him.”

Proverbs 28:9

Closing Praise

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.

Office of Prime, Western Breviary 9/4/2014

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Independence

Matthew 24:29-31 (ESV)

The Second Coming

mmediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Notes on the Scripture

Christ tells us in simple, unmistakable language is that a day will come when He will return and gather his elect, and that His second coming will be announced by terrible disruption of natural forces. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will fall from heaven. We would imagine that such events will end life as we know it and, in fact, we learn in Revelation that the earth will be destroyed.

This leaves a huge temptation to speculation. Will it be caused by a global nuclear war? A great volcano? Collision with an asteroid? But speculation is counterproductive in Biblical interpretation. God tells us what we need to know: life on earth will end some day in cataclysm, and we will be saved from it. The details are unimportant, or He would have told them to us.

Christ never expected people to simply take him at his word. Throughout his ministry he performed miracles whose primary purpose was to establish his credentials for his claims. He proved his power over death by resurrecting the dead, including his own resurrection. He proved his power to heal us by causing men blind from birth to see. He proved his power over nature by stilling storms. He proved his power to care for us by feeding multitudes with a few fish and loaves of bread.

In Matthew 24, he proves his prophetic power by predicting the destruction of the Temple and by giving those who would listen instructions on how to survive it. That his prophecy of the Temple’s destruction came true, and that his advice on how to survive it was accurate, is an historical fact. Those who did not flee, as he told them to, were butchered: man, woman, and child.

Anyone who does not believe that Christ will return to save his faithful and bring us to eternal life — and that the earth will be devastated and then destroyed in the process — is blind to the truth. It is then that the dead will be raised; for Paul was instructed to tell us that “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air . . . .” (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Many churches give short shrift to eschatology — the five-dollar word for what will happen at the end of this age — in part because of the confusing weirdness of the Book of Revelation. Or, some churches lack the true conviction of faith in God’s Word. But we do not have to read Revelation; here we have it from Christ himself, in straightforward language. Although the imagery is disturbing, it is not hard to follow.

Have confidence in this. It is a fundamental promise of Christianity. It is fantastic, no doubt; but no more fantastic to us than a prediction of the Temple’s total destruction was to the listener of 30 A.D.

Church on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia. This magnificent ornate Orthodox cathedral was built on the site of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

Daily Inspiration

“A Strong Tower”

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