Sunday

1 Peter 2:11  Dearly beloved: I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

Prayer:
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Monday
ISAIAH 48:12-22
Listen to Me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I call: I am the first, and I am
forever. My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand established
heaven. I shall call them, and they will stand together. All shall be
gathered and hear: Who declared these things to them? Because I love you,
I did your will against Babylon, to slay the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken,
I have called him, I have brought him, and made his way prosper.
Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning,
nor did I speak in a dark place of the earth. When it took place, I was there,
and now the Lord and His Spirit have sent Me.” Thus says the Lord who delivers
you, the Holy One of Israel: “I am your God, who showed you how to
find the way wherein you should walk. If only you had heeded My commandments,
then your peace would be like a river, and your righteousness
as a wave of the sea. Your seed would also be like the sand, and the offspring
of your womb like the dust of the ground. Neither would you be utterly destroyed
now, nor would your name perish before Me.” Go forth from Babylon,
you who are fleeing from the Chaldeans. Proclaim a voice of gladness
and let it become well known. Proclaim it to the end of the earth, and say,
“The Lord delivered His servant Jacob.” If they shall thirst, He will lead
them through the desert, and water shall flow from the rock for them. He
will split the rock, the water shall flow, and My people will drink. “There is
no rejoicing,” says the Lord, “for the ungodly.”

Prayer:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer,

Tuesday
NAHUM 1:2-8
God is jealous, and the Lord is an avenger; the Lord is avenging with
fury; the Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and drives out His enemies.
The Lord is patient and His power is great, but the Lord will not acquit
the guilty. His way is in destruction and in a whirlwind; the clouds are
the dust of His feet. He threatens the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up
all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel have diminished, and the flowers of Lebanon
have died out. By Him the mountains are shaken and the hills quake,
and the earth heaves at His presence—the whole earth and all who dwell in
it. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can withstand the fierceness of
His anger? His fury melts away ruling powers, and He shatters the rocks
into pieces. The Lord is merciful to those who wait on Him in the day of affliction,
and He knows those who reverence Him. For with an overwhelming
flood He shall make an end to those rising up, and darkness will pursue
His enemies.

Prayer:
O Lord come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me.

 

Wednesday
ZEPHANIAH 1:2-12
“Let all things be totally consumed from the face of the earth,” says the
Lord. “Let man and cattle cease. Let the birds of the air and the fish of the
sea be consumed. I shall drive mankind from the face of the land,” says the
Lord. “I shall stretch out My hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And I shall remove the names of Baal from this place
and the names of the priests— those who worship the host of heaven on the
housetops and who swear oaths by the Lord and who swear oaths by their
king— those who turn away from the Lord, neither seeking the Lord nor
holding steadfastly to Him. “Fear before the presence of the Lord God, for
the day of the Lord is at hand. The Lord has prepared His sacrifice; He has
sanctified His guests. And it shall be in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice that I
shall take vengeance on the princes and on the king’s house, and upon all
clothed with strange garments. And I will openly take vengeance upon all
those in the gates in that day, on those who fill the house of the Lord their
God with ungodliness and deceit. “And in that day,” says the Lord, “there
will be from the gate the sound of shouting from men killing, and a wailing
from the second gate along with a great destruction from the hills. Mourn,
those of you dwelling here, being cut down in pieces; for all the people are
like Canaan. All those exalting in silver are utterly destroyed. “And it shall
come to pass in that day that I shall search Jerusalem with a lamp and shall
take vengeance on the men having scorned their charge, the ones saying in
18
their hearts, ‘The Lord shall not do any good, nor shall He do any harm.’

Prayer:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
Thursday
ZEPHANIAH 1:14-END, 2:1-2
“For the great day of the Lord is near. It is near and quick. The sound of
the day of the Lord is bitter and harsh. A mighty day of wrath has been appointed:
a day of affliction and distress, a day of unseasonable happenings
and destruction, a day of gloom and darkness, a day of cloud and vapor, a
day of the trumpet and shouting against the fortified cities and the high towers.
I will greatly afflict the men, and they will walk as blind men, for they
sinned against the Lord; and He shall pour out their blood as dust and their
flesh as dung. Their silver and gold shall not be able to deliver them in the
day of the wrath of the Lord, but the whole land shall be consumed by the
fire of His zeal; for He will bring about a speedy end to all those who dwell
in the land. “O untaught nation, be gathered together and united to one another,
before you become like a flower that passes away, before the anger of
the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the wrath of the Lord comes
upon you! Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth. Bring about justice,
seek righteousness, and give answer to these things, so you may be sheltered
in the day of the Lord’s wrath

Prayer:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord god of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with Thy Glory.

Friday
JOEL 1:5-15
Get sober, you who are drunk from your wine, and weep, mourn all you
who drink wine, for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth. For a
nation strong and numberless came up against My land. His teeth are the
teeth of a lion and his molars those of a young lion. He laid waste My vine
and splintered My fig tree. He diligently searched out and uprooted My
vine, peeling off its outer bark. Mourn before Me more than a virgin bride
clothed with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat-offering and
the drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord. Mourn, you
priests, you who serve at the altar, for the fields languish and the land
mourns; for the grain withers, the wine is dried up, and the olive oil is
scarce. The farmers are exhausted. Mourn for the sake of your fields of
wheat and barley, for the harvest from the field has been lost. The vine is
shriveled up, and the fig trees are scarce in number. The pomegranate and
the palm tree, the apple tree and all the trees of the field are withered, for
they put to shame the delight of the sons of men. Gird yourself with sackcloth
and wail, you priests. Mourn, you who serve at the altar. Go in, sleep
in sackcloth, you who minister unto God, for the grain-offering and drinkoffering
are withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn
assembly. Gather all the elders and all the people of the land into the
house of the Lord your God, and cry out fervently to the Lord. Alas! Alas!
Alas! For the day of the Lord draws near, and it will come as misery upon
misery.

Prayer:

Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and on those in the tombs bestowing life.

Saturday
MICAH 2:3-11 [SELECTION]
Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am devising evils against this
tribe from which you shall not lift up your neck, nor will you suddenly walk
upright, for this is a time of evil. In that day a parable shall be taken up
against you, and a dirge will be wailed, saying, ‘In misery we have suffered
hardship. The portion of my people has been measured out with a measuring
line, and there was no one who was able to stop Him. Our fields have
been divided among them.’ Therefore there will be no one to put out a
measuring line for a lot for you in the assembly of the Lord. “Do not shed
tears, nor even weep over these things; for He will not dismiss the reproaches
who says, ‘The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord;
are these not His practices? Are not His words good with Him, and have
they not proceeded as predicted? And previously, for enmity my people resisted
against His peace. They flayed his skin to remove hope in the ravages
of war. Therefore those leading my people will be cast out of their luxurious
homes; they have been driven out because of their wicked practices. Draw
near to the everlasting mountains.’ ” Arise and depart, for this is not a final
resting place for you on account of uncleanness; you have been utterly destroyed
by corruption. You were pursued by no one pursuing!

Prayer:

Christ is in our midst…He is and always shall be.