Prayers

John 20:31 ' ... these are written, that you all might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you all might have life through his name.

God are you real?

This is the testimony of how God answered a very straight and simple cry from the heart of a teenager who had been brought up going to church, but who did not know God for himself.

'Jesus, lover of my soul', by Charles Wesley

Performed by Chris Eaton to a new tune that he composed.

Psalm 5 vv 1 - 3 'Give ear to my words, O Lord'

Maranatha Singers

Psalm 91

¹ He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

² I will say of the LORD,

'He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.'

My stubborn will at last has yielded. Sweet will of God still fold me closer

From CD 'Into my Heart' by NYCYP. Words by Mrs C H Morris. Original congregational, prayerful tune here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZaM8g5zsZ8

Psalm 32

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

³ When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. [Pause]

⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you, and mine iniquity have I not hid.

I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD';

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶ For this shall every one that is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh to him.

⁷ You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; you shall compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸ 'I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with mine eye.'

⁹ Be, all of you, not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near to you.

¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusts in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

¹¹ Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, all you righteous: and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.

What does it mean to be 'upright in heart'?

The apostle John quotes Jesus of Nazareth, who reminds us of God's power to heal and forgive those who turn from sin [repent] and look to Him and the means of deliverance He has provided.

[Numbers 21 vv 5 - 9]

John 3

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: ¹⁵ that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸ He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

²⁰ For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

²¹ But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Matthew 5

⁶ Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Psalm 18 vv 3 + 46 'I will call upon the Lord'

1 Peter 1

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you ⁵ who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶ Wherein you all greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you all are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

⁷ That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

⁸ Whom having not seen, you all love; in whom, though now you all see him not, yet believing, you all rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

⁹ receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

2 Peter 3 v 13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.

[Isaiah 65 v 17]

Isaiah 66 v 22

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.