Praise and Worship, Readings and Contemplation

 


(CSB, unless otherwise noted)

God arises. His enemies scatter, and those who hate him flee from his presence.
As smoke is blown away, so you blow them away.
As wax melts before the fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God.
But the righteous are glad; they rejoice before God and celebrate with joy.
Sing to God! Sing praises to his name.
Exalt him who rides on the clouds—
his name is the Lord—and celebrate before him.
God in his holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows.
God provides homes for those who are deserted.
He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a scorched land.
God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the desert.
Selah
The earth trembled and the skies poured rain before God, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
You, God, showered abundant rain; you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:1-9

God, give your justice to the king and your righteousness to the king’s son.
-Psalm 721

Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.
-Hebrews 12:15

So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard— just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?

You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons.
-Galatians 3:5-7

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
-Hebrews 11:1

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.
-Hebrews 11:8

“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
-John 15:12-13

But now I ask you, lady (not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but the one we have had from the beginning), that we love one another.  (Now this is love: that we walk according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; thus you should walk in it. 
-2 John 1:5-6 (NET)

“Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”
-Mark 1:17

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
-Mark 8:34

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:10-14

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
-James 4:8

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
-1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV)

I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!
-Psalm 66:17-20 (NET)


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