Bulletin 6.29.25
"''HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.'" Revelation 4:8
A Reflection Before The Service
A Reflection Before The Service
How shall a work please God, if it proceeds from a reluctant and resisting heart?
To fulfill the law, however, is to do its works with pleasure, and love, and to live a godly and good life of one’s own accord, without the compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost… But the Holy Ghost is not given except in, with, and by faith in Jesus Christ, as (Paul) says in the introduction; and faith does not come, except only through God’s Word or Gospel, which preaches Christ, that He is God’s Son and a man, and has died and risen again for our sakes…
Hence it comes that faith alone makes righteous and fulfills the law; for out of Christ’s merit, (faith) brings the Spirit, and the Spirit makes the heart glad and free, as the law requires that it shall be. Thus good works come out of faith. That is what (Paul) means in Romans 3:31, after he has rejected the works of the law, so that it sounds as though he would abolish the law by faith; “Nay,” he says, “we establish the law by faith,” that is, we fulfill it by faith.
– Martin Luther, Introduction to St Paul’s Letter to the Romans (1545)
When I listen carefully to the words with which the elder son attacks his father – self-righteous, self-pitying, jealous words – I hear a deeper complaint. It is the complaint that comes from a heart that feels it never received what it was due. It is the complaint expressed in countless subtle and not-so-subtle ways, forming a bedrock of human resentment. It is the complaint that cries out: “I tried so hard, worked so long, did so much, and still I have not received what others get so easily. Why do people not thank me, not invite me, not play with me, not honor me, while they pay so much attention to those who take life so easily and so casually?”
- Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (1992; p. 72)
The Call To Worship
The Call To Worship
The Revelation of Jesus Christ 4.5-8
Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD,
THE ALMIGHTY,
WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."
(Prayer)
A Reflection Before The Service
How shall a work please God, if it proceeds from a reluctant and resisting heart?
To fulfill the law, however, is to do its works with pleasure, and love, and to live a godly and good life of one’s own accord, without the compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost… But the Holy Ghost is not given except in, with, and by faith in Jesus Christ, as (Paul) says in the introduction; and faith does not come, except only through God’s Word or Gospel, which preaches Christ, that He is God’s Son and a man, and has died and risen again for our sakes…
Hence it comes that faith alone makes righteous and fulfills the law; for out of Christ’s merit, (faith) brings the Spirit, and the Spirit makes the heart glad and free, as the law requires that it shall be. Thus good works come out of faith. That is what (Paul) means in Romans 3:31, after he has rejected the works of the law, so that it sounds as though he would abolish the law by faith; “Nay,” he says, “we establish the law by faith,” that is, we fulfill it by faith.
– Martin Luther, Introduction to St Paul’s Letter to the Romans (1545)
When I listen carefully to the words with which the elder son attacks his father – self-righteous, self-pitying, jealous words – I hear a deeper complaint. It is the complaint that comes from a heart that feels it never received what it was due. It is the complaint expressed in countless subtle and not-so-subtle ways, forming a bedrock of human resentment. It is the complaint that cries out: “I tried so hard, worked so long, did so much, and still I have not received what others get so easily. Why do people not thank me, not invite me, not play with me, not honor me, while they pay so much attention to those who take life so easily and so casually?”
- Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (1992; p. 72)
The Call To Worship
The Revelation of Jesus Christ 4.5-8
Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD,
THE ALMIGHTY,
WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."
(Prayer)
29/06/25