January 29, 2010

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August 23, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 103 Blessed Be the Name
Welcome and Puritan Prayer
Hymn 408 Have Faith in God
Scripture Reading: Psalm 18; 16 - 29
Morning Prayer
Hymn 441 Take Time to Be Holy
Message Matthew 18: 21 - 22
Hymn 525 I will Praise Him
Benediction
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The Valley of Vision

(A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

CONTRITION

O THOU MOST HIGH,
It becomes me to be low in thy presence. I am nothing compared with thee; I possess not the rank and power of angels, but thou hast made me what I am, and placed me where I am; help me to acquiesce in thy sovereign pleasure. I thank thee that in the embryo state of my endless being I am capable by grace of improvement; that I can bear thy image, not by submissiveness, but by design, and can work with thee and advance thy cause and glory. But, alas, the crown has fallen from my head; I have sinned; I am alien to thee; my head is deceitful and wicked,my mind an enemy to thy law. Yet, in my lostness thou has laid help on the mighty one and He comes between to put His hands on us both, my umpire, daysman, mediator, whose blood is my peace, whose righteousness is my strength, whose condemnation is my freedom, whose Spirit is my power, whose heaven is my heritage. Grant that I may feel more the strength of thy grace in subduing the evil of my nature, in loosing me from the present evil world, in supporting me under the trials of life, in enabling me to abide with thee in my valleys, in exercising me to have a conscience void of offence before thee and before men. In all my affairs may I distinguish between duty and anxiety, and may my character and not my circumstances chiefly engage me.

August 16, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 8 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Welcome and Puritan Prayer

Hymn 279 Faith of Our Fathers

Scripture Reading: Psalm 18

Morning Prayer

Hymn 405 My Faith Has Found a Resting Place

Message Matthew 18: 15 - 20

Hymn 515 Since Jesus Came into My Heart

Benediction

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The Valley of Vision
(A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

CONFESSION AND PETITION

HOLY LORD,
I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find thy mind in thy Word, of neglect to seek thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, But I bless thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ; Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do thou rule over me in liberty and power. I thank thee that many of my prayers have been refused - I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to thy rule. I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross. No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in thee. Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

August 9, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 51 Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Welcome and Puritan Prayer

Hymn 345 Blessed Assurance

Scripture Reading: Psalm 17

Morning Prayer

Hymn 259 Breathe on Me, Breath of God

Message Matthew 18: 15 - 20

Hymn 478 Soldiers of Christ, Arise

Benediction

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The Valley of Vision
A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

CONTINUAL REPENTANCE

O GOD OF GRACE,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom's robe, decking me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for thou dost always justify the ungodly; I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and thou art always bringing forth the best robe. Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day's work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun. Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.

August 2, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 2 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Welcome and Puritan Prayer
Hymn 436 Whiter Than Snow
Scripture Reading: Psalm 16
Morning Prayer
Hymn 275 How Firm a Foundation
Message Matthew 18: 15 - 20
Hymn 116 Take the Name of Jesus with You
Benediction
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The Valley of Vision

(A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

THE DEEPS

LORD JESUS,
Give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach; Help me chastely to fee it, and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be thine alone. Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from thee. Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until thou alone art seen in me, thy beauty golden like summer harvest, thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty. I have not master but thee, no law by thy will, no delight but thyself, no wealth but that thou givest, no good but that thou blessest, no peace but that thou bestowest. I am nothing but that thou makest me, I have nothing but that I receive from thee, I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

July 26, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 460 All the Way My Savior Leads Me
Welcome and Puritan Prayer
Hymn 405 My Faith Has Found a Resting Place
Scripture Reading: Psalm 15
Morning Prayer Message Baptism - Selected Scriptures
Hymn 373 Where He Leads Me
Baptism Service
Hymn 493 It Is Well with My Soul
Benediction
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The Valley of Vision

(A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

SELF-DEPRECATION

O LORD,
My every sense, member, faculty, affection, is a snare to me, I can scarce open my eyes but I envy those above me, or despise those below. I covet honour and riches of the mighty, and am proud and unmerciful to the rags of others; If I behold beauty it is a bait to lust, or see deformity, it stirs up loathing and disdain; How soon do slanders, vain jests, and wanton speeches creep into my heart! Am I comely? what fuel for pride!Am I deformed? what an occasion for repining!Am I gifted? how I lust after applause!Am I unlearned! how I despise what I have not!Am I in authority? how prone to abuse my trust, make will my law, exclude others' enjoyments, serve my own interests and policy!Am I inferior? how much I grudge others' pre-eminence!Am I rich? how exalted I become!Thou knowest that all these are snares by my corruptions, and that my greatest snare is myself. I bewail that my apprehensions are dull, my thoughts mean, my affections stupid, my expressions low, my life unbeseeming; Yet what canst thou expect of dust but levity, of corruption but defilement? Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin.

July 19, 2009

Morning Worship

Hymn 10 O Worship the King
Welcome and Puritan Prayer
Special Music by Gary Mckinny and Les Waldrop
Scripture Reading: Psalm 14
Morning Prayer
Hymn 56 Day by Day
Message Matthew 18: 10 - 14
Hymn 462 Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
Benediction
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The Valley of Vision

(A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

HEART CORRUPTIONS

O GOD,
May thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to thy tender mercy. I am full of infirmities, wants, sin; thou art full of grace. I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my wilful sin; All my powers of body and soul are defiled: A fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being; I have gone from on odious room to another, walked in a no-man's-land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature. I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself; I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns and thistles; I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away; I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt. Lord, dost thou have mercy on me? Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride, at the false god of self, and I lie in pieces before thee. But thou hast given me another master and lord, thy Son, Jesus, and now my heart is turned towards holiness, my life speeds as an arrow from a bow towards complete obedience to thee. Help me in all my doings to put down sin and to humble pride. Save me from the love of the world and the pride of life, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let Christ's nature be seen in me day by day. Grant me grace to bear thy will without repining, and delight to be not only chiselled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ for ever.