Cam Villages Pop-Up Prayer: Readings for 14 December 2018

This is Friday’s Common Lectionary Bible reading, which we will include in the Cam Villages pop-up prayer. This week’s morning prayer will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury, at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. 

1 Thessalonians 4.1-12

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.
But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, 10 for indeed you do it towards all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; 11 and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you; 12 that you may walk properly towards those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

Psalm 85

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.
LORD, you have been favourable to your land.
You have restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You have forgiven the iniquity of your people.
You have covered all their sin.
Selah.
You have taken away all your wrath.
You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.
Turn us, God of our salvation,
and cause your indignation towards us to cease.
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you draw out your anger to all generations?
Won’t you revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your loving kindness, LORD.
Grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God, the LORD, will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, his saints;
but let them not turn again to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth meet together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth springs out of the earth.
Righteousness has looked down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD will give that which is good.
Our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness goes before him,
And prepares the way for his steps.

Cam Villages Pop-Up Prayer: Readings for 9 November 2018

This is Friday’s Common Lectionary Bible reading, which we will include in the Cam Villages pop-up prayer. This week’s morning prayer will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury, at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. 

Revelation 3:14-end

14  “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write:
“The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning* of God’s creation, says these things:
15  “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. 17  Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; 18  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19  As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. 20  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. 21  He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.”

Psalm 16

A Poem by David.

Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
My soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord.
Apart from you I have no good thing.”
As for the saints who are in the earth,
they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god.
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
nor take their names on my lips.
The LORD assigned my portion and my cup.
You made my lot secure.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel.
Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices.
My body shall also dwell in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,
neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life.
In your presence is fullness of joy.
In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.

Cam Villages Pop-Up Prayer: Readings for 19 October 2018

This is Friday’s Common Lectionary Bible reading, which we will include in the Cam Villages pop-up prayer. This week’s morning prayer will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury, at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. 

2 Kings 24.18-25.12

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done.Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them from his presence.

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built siege-works against it all round. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city wall; the king with all the soldiers fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all round the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; all his army was scattered, deserting him. Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fetters and took him to Babylon.

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the population.But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vine-dressers and tillers of the soil.

Psalm 142

A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
I cry with my voice to the LORD.
With my voice, I ask the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him.
I tell him my troubles.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
you knew my route.
On the path in which I walk,
they have hidden a snare for me.
Look on my right, and see;
for there is no one who is concerned for me.
Refuge has fled from me.
No one cares for my soul.
I cried to you, LORD.
I said, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need.
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me.
Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name.
The righteous will surround me,
for you will be good to me.

Cam Villages Pop-Up Prayer: Readings for 14 September 2018

Bible reading

This is Friday’s Common Lectionary Bible reading, which we will include in the Cam Villages pop-up prayer. This week’s morning prayer will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Church, Littlebury, at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. 

John 12.27-36a
‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

Psalm 2

1 Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take a stand,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let’s break their bonds apart,
and cast their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens will laugh.
The Lord will have them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his anger,
and terrify them in his wrath:
6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
7 I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my son.
Today I have become your father.
8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance,
the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore be wise, you kings.
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way,
for his wrath will soon be kindled.
Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.