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image:  A Poor Man’s Memory, George Christakis (2012)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel (12th Century Latin Antiphon)

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All Who Are Thirsty (Brown & Robertson, 2008)

Love Came Down At Christmas (Rossetti, 1885; Mejias 2009)

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God Is Love Let Heaven Adore Him

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Why So Heavy, O My Soul? (Caswall, 1873; Wells, 2009)

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None Other Lamb

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Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Robinson, 1758; Nettleton, 1825) ; Pete Gretz, guitar (2012)

Preparation for Worship

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Charles Wesley, 1739

Call to Worship for the Second Sunday in AdventIsaiah 65: 17-19,24-25

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.

Presentation of New Members & The Sacrament of Baptism

Old Testament Reading   Isaiah 42:1-4

 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.  In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

We Confess Our Sin Together

Our gracious Father, You sent Your Son to die and rise to new life in order that death might be brought to an end and that we too might live a new life. Yet we have too often chosen death over life. In our thoughts, words, and deeds we have rebelled against You and Your intentions for us. In so doing, we have broken our fellowship with You, whose love is better than life and whom to know is life itself. In so doing, we have hurt others, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes deliberately, and have diminished their lives. In so doing, we have damaged ourselves who were created to reflect Your beauty. Father, forgive us our sin for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God Declares Our Forgiveness — Hebrews 2:14-15

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

Sermon — Mark 5:21-43

²¹ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ²² Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴ And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?'” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” ³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Songs of Praise

Benediction

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image:  The Queensboro Bridge, Edward Hopper (1913)

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (18th Century English Carol)

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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Charles Wesley, 1745)

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All Things New (Horatius Bonar, 1846)

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This Is The Christ (Martin Luther, 1539)

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Jesus Lover of My Soul (Charles Wesley, 1740)

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Dayspring (Charles Wesley, 1740)

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Preparation for Worship

“A legion of demons has been, as I believed, cast out of me. I would prefer merely to forget all of this that I have known and simply rest at the feet of the Savior. But lo it is said to me, so strongly as to compel me against my will, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you’.”   —Gregory the Great, 6^th century

Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.”   –Charles Wesley, 1739

Call to Worship for the Second Sunday in AdventIsaiah 64:1-4

O, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You! For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

Mission Update  Northside Church of Richmond

Old Testament Reading   Isaiah 65:1-6

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay.”

We Confess Our Sin Together adapted from Protestant Reformation confessions by Guy de Brès & John Calvin

Lord, You created man from the dust of the earth and made and formed him in Your image and likeness— good, just, and holy; we were able by our own will to conform in all things to Your perfect will. But when we were in honor we did not understand it, and we did not recognize our excellence. We subjected ourselves willingly to sin and consequently to death and the curse, listening to the word of the devil. For we transgressed the commandment of life, which we had received, and by our sin we separated ourselves from You, our true Life, and we corrupted our entire nature. So we made ourselves guilty and subject to physical and spiritual death, we became wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all our ways. We forfeited all the excellent gifts which we had received from Your hand, and we retained none of them except for small traces which are enough to make us inexcusable. Moreover, all the light in us is turned to darkness, as the Scripture teaches us: “The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not receive it.” Here John calls all of us “darkness.”

Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord, have mercy upon us.

God Declares Our Forgiveness — Colossians 1:12-14

Give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.  In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Sermon — Mark 5:1-20

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when Jesushad stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. ⁷ And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. ¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Musical Offering — “This is the Christ” (Martin Luther, 1539)

Songs of Praise

Benediction

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image:  Snow Storm, Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, Joseph Turner (1842)

Gloria (Mejias & Byrd, 2009)

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::: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Charles Wesley, 1745)

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Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (Liturgy of St. James, 4th century)

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::: In Christ Alone (Getty & Townend, 2002)

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O Come All Ye Faithful (John F. Wade, 1743)

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Preparation for Worship and Communion

Jesus, Deliverer,
Come Thou to me;
Soothe Thou my voyaging
Over life’s sea:
Thou, when the storm of death
Roars, sweeping by,
Whisper, O God of God,
“Peace! it is I.”

Anatolius of Constantinople (c.458AD)

Call to WorshipGloria (Mejias & Byrd, 2009)

Declaration of FaithThe Nicene Creed (325AD)

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets; and we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

The Ministry of Prayer Luke 11:2-4

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 the evil one. For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Old Testament Reading   Psalm 65:5-8

You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the Hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, Who formed the mountains by Your power, having armed Yourself with strength, Who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear Your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades You call forth songs of joy.

Sermon — Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Preparation for the Lord’s Supper — from the Book of Common Prayer

 Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of the faith:

 Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

 Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

 Therefore let us keep the feast.

 The gifts of God for the people of God.

 We Confess Our Sin Together

Lord, You alone are full of grace and truth. Our peace depends on Your coming, but we have not kept watch for You. We have occupied ourselves with our own concerns. We have sought our own glory above Yours. We have not waited to find Your will for us. Forgive us for our sins against You. Lord Jesus Christ, Word made flesh, all creation waits for Your peace, for Your pardon, and for Your grace. Even so: come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

God Declares Our Forgiveness — Zephaniah 3:14-15

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!  The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, He has turned away your enemies.  The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.

Benediction

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image:  Seeds, 草間 彌生 (2012)

Be Thou My Vision (Irish Hymn, 8th century)  chart[bandcamp track=3137703094  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Help My Unbelief (John Newton, 1779)  chart 

Gather Them In (Peter La Grand, 2008)  chart[bandcamp track=1336227612  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Praise the Savior Now and Ever (V. Fortunatus, 6th century) chart [bandcamp track=381888658  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Jesus Savior Pilot Me (Edward Hopper, 1871)  chart                    [bandcamp track=3066709800  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Preparation for Worship

“The Lord of the harvest must determine when, and what, and where the harvest shall be.”  —Charles Bridges

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”  —Leonard Cohen

Call to WorshipPhilippians 2:5-11

Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Covenant Baptism

The Ministry of Prayer

New Testament Reading  I Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We Confess Our Sin Together  Help my Unbelief (John Newton, 1779)

God Declares Our Forgiveness — Ephesians 1:7

In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of his grace.

Children’s Sermon

Sermon — Mark 4:21-34

²¹ And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? ²² For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. ²⁵ For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

²⁶ And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. ²⁷ He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. ²⁸ The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. ³⁴ He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Benediction

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:::  Worship Study Guide for Nov 18 2012

:::  Order of Worship

:::  Sermon Audio

image :  The Veteran in a New Field, Winslow Homer (1865)

Preparation for Worship

“There is no mechanical solution to true spirituality or the true Christian life.  Anything that has the mark of the mechanical is a mistake.  It is not possible to say, ‘Read so many of the chapters of the Bible every day, and you will have this much sanctifi­cation.’  It is not possible to say, ‘Pray so long every day, and you will have a certain amount of sanctification.’  It is not possible to add the two together and to say, ‘You will have this big a piece of sanctification.’  This is a purely mechanical solution, and it denies the whole Christian position.  For the fact is that the Christian life, true spirituality, can never have a mechanical solution. The real solution is being cast up into the moment-by-moment communion, personal communion with God Himself, and letting Christ’s truth flow through me through the agency of the Holy Spirit.”

Francis Schaeffer

Call to Worship   Isaiah 55:10-12

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

:::  In Tenderness (W. Spencer Walton, 1894)

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Membership & Baptism

The Ministry of Prayer  

:::  He Loves Us (David Crowder)

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New Testament Reading  I Corinthians 2:4-10

My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.  But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.  None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

We Confess Our Sin Together

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, forgive us.  Instead of being separated from the world, we coddle our secret sins.  Instead of hearing Your Word, we are shaped by every other voice, belief, and perspective.  Instead of eagerly following You in Your mission to the world, we choose sheltered and self-focused lives.  Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us.  Our only hope is in Your finished work.  You lived the life we should have lived.  You died the death we should have died: in our place, as our substitute, to make atonement for our sins.

God Declares Our Forgiveness  Ephesians 2:12-13

Remember that you were once separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

:::  Creator of the Stars (7th Century Latin Hymn)

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Sermon  Mark 4:1-20

¹ Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁰ And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, ¹² so that

“they may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.”

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

:::   None Other Lamb (Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894)

audio / chart / history

:::  Grace Flows Down (Giglio, Bell & Padgett, 2000)

audio /  chart / history

:::  Abide With Me (Henry Francis Lyte, 1847)

audio /  score / history

Benediction