Keep Seeking, Keep Trusting
[2 Peter 3:9-13 ESV] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
[Joel 1:15-2:2 ESV] Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. To you, O LORD, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
Call to Worship – Psalm 27:1-4 (UMH 758)
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me,
to devour my flesh,
my adversaries and foes
shall stumble and fall.
to devour my flesh,
my adversaries and foes
shall stumble and fall.
3 Though a host encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4 One thing I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in the Lord’s temple.
in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in the Lord’s temple.
Music
405 – Seek ye First
2008 – Let All Things Now Living
2128 – Come and Find the Quiet Center
133 – Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
2008 – Let All Things Now Living
2128 – Come and Find the Quiet Center
133 – Leaning on the Everlasting Arms