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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 for the Morning

Heavenly Lord, you have brought me to the beginning of a new day. As the world is renewed fresh and clean, so I ask you to renew my heart with your strength and purpose. Forgive me the errors of yesterday and bless me to walk closer in your way today. This is the day I begin my life anew; shine through me so that every person I meet may feel your presence in my soul. Take my hand, precious Lord, for I cannot make it by myself. Through Christ I pray and live,

Prayer for Goodness (based on Psalm 1)

Heavenly Father, who has given us the gift of thy law, so that we might know our sin, and thy Son, that we might be forgiven where we fall short. Give me the grace to remember your holy Word, when my surroundings tempt me to confusion and weakness, that I might more nearly approach true obedience to your will. Help me to resist the arguments of the ungodly; let me not be deceived by false beauty; and let me never replace the truth which you have put into my heart with the clever words of men. Through Christ I pray,

Blessing

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace, this day and evermore.

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.

Psalm 1:4-6

Acts 2:14-21 (NKJV)

Peter�s Sermon [1]

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

Notes on the Scripture

At the end of yesterday's Scripture, the followers of Christ were running around speaking different languages after the Holy Spirit descended upon them. Onlookers decided they were drunk. But Peter stands up to speak, and says, basically, "they aren't drunk, it's only 10 a.m."

At that time, Jews measured days and hours differently than we do. The Jewish day was about the same as ours — sunrise to sunset. Day ended precisely when three stars (actually two of them planets) were visible.

But "hours" were very different. "Daytime hours" were a different length than "night hours", and they changed every day! No matter how long the daytime lasted, it had exactly 12 hours. In summer, when days are longer, Hebrew hours were longer — perhaps 70 minutes. In the middle of winter, when days are short, an hour might have been only 50 minutes long. The third hour of the day would thus have started when the day was 1/6 over. So 10:00 a.m. is an approximation of the time of day.

Peter then launches into a long sermon, the first real sermon is Christian church history. He starts with one of the most convincing arguments that could be made to a Jewish crowd; that the events he claimed were happening — the coming of the Holy Spirit — were prophesied in the Jewish Bible, i.e. the Old Testament. Like a modern day preacher, he supports his sermon by citing Scripture.

His first such citation is a lengthy quote from Joel, in which Joel predicted a time when God would pour out his spirit upon the earth. It doesn't exactly match what was happening, but it was close enough to get the crowd's attention.

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