Prayers of the People

But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and the Lord’s word from Jerusalem; and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. But every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. No one will make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Armies has spoken. Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. --Micah 4:1‭-‬5

Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the water to boil. Make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence! When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence. For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him. You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time. Shall we be saved? For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face fro...

Week of November 29: Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. --Psalm 86:6

Woe to those who devise wrongdoing, Who practice evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, Because it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields, so they seize them; And houses, so they take them. They exploit a man and his house, A person and his inheritance. Therefore this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am planning against this family a catastrophe From which you cannot remove your necks; And you will not walk haughtily, For it will be an evil time. On that day they will take up against you a song of mocking And utter a song of mourning and say, ‘We are completely destroyed! He exchanges the share of my people; How He removes it from me! To the apostate He apportions our fields.’ Therefore you will have no one applying a measuring line For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord . ‘Do not prophesy,’ so they prophesy. But if they do not prophesy about these things, Insults will not be turned back. Is it being said, house of Jacob: ‘Is the Spirit of the Lord impatie...

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. --1 Thessalonians 4:13‭-‬18

Finally then, brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel even more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. Now as to the love of the brothers and sisters, you have no need for anyone to w...

Listen, Shepherd of Israel, Who leads Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, awaken Your power, And come to save us! God, restore us And make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. Lord God of armies, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears, And You have made them drink tears in large measure. You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves. God of armies, restore us And make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name. Lord God of armies, restore us; Make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. --Psalms 80:1‭-‬7‭, ‬17‭-‬19

Daily readings of Scripture can supplement and enhance your personal daily worship and prayer times. The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) provides suggested Scripture readings, for Sunday's and festival days, that follow the Christian liturgical calendar. And daily readings expand upon the RCL, providing daily suggested readings for the full three-year cycle of the RCL. Thursday, November 26, 2020 begins a new cycle ("Year B"). To learn more, visit the website: lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

Truly, truly, I say to you, a time is coming and even now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this; for a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment. “I can do nothing on My own. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony I receive is not from man, but I say ...

To You, Lord , I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the sound of my pleadings when I cry to You for help, When I raise my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. Do not drag me away with the wicked And with those who practice injustice, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts. Give back to them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices; Give back to them according to the work of their hands; Repay them what is due them. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord Nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord , Because He has heard the sound of my pleading. The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart triumphs, And with my song I shall thank Him. The Lord is their strength, And He is a refuge of salvation to His anointed. Save Your people and bless ...

O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and rescue me, Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is no one to rescue me. O Lord my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, If I have done evil to my friend, Or have plundered my enemy for no reason, Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah Arise, Lord , in Your anger; Raise Yourself against the rage of my enemies, And stir Yourself for me; You have ordered judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And return on high over it. The Lord judges the peoples; Vindicate me, Lord , according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. Please let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God puts hearts and minds to the test. My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, And a Go...

You, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. --Jude 20

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come ...

“And I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful animals from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will make showers fall in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord , when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have saved them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plunder to the nations, and the animals of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them afraid. I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations anymore. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Is...

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her guilt has been removed, That she has received of the Lord ’ s hand Double for all her sins.” The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the uneven ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; The people are indeed grass! The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Go up on a high mountain, Zion, messenger o...

Shout joyfully to the Lord , all the earth. Serve the Lord with jubilation; Come before Him with rejoicing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting And His faithfulness is to all generations. --Psalms 100:1‭-‬5

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household slaves, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and he eats and drinks with those habitually drunk; then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and he will cut him in two and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  --Matthew 24:45‭-‬51

But we ask you, brothers and sisters, to recognize those who diligently labor among you and are in leadership over you in the Lord, and give you instruction, and that you regard them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek what is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. --1 Thessalonians 5:12‭-‬18

Therefore you have no excuse, you foolish person, everyone of you who passes judgment; for in that matter in which you judge someone else, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, you foolish person who passes judgment on those who practice such things, and yet does them as well, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay each person according to his deeds : to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life; but to those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unri...

Be silent before the Lord G od ! For the day of the Lord is near, Because the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests. And it will come about at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the people Who are stagnant in spirit, Who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good nor harm!’ Their wealth will become plunder, And their houses desolate; Yes, they will build houses but not inhabit them, And plant vineyards but not drink their wine.” The great day of the Lord is near, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the Lord ! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. That day is a day of anger, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. I will bring distress on mankind So that they will walk like those who are blind, Because they have sinned against the Lo...

Week of November 15: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. --Luke 6:12

“Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” --Matthew 12:43‭-‬45

The Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the Lord’s commandments. They didn’t do so. When the Lord raised up judges for them, then the Lord was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it grieved the Lord because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways. The Lord’s anger burnt against Israel; and he said, “Because this nation transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer...

I lift up my eyes to you, you who sit in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord, our God, until he has mercy on us. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud. --Psalms 123:1‭-‬4

“But immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. “Now from the fig tree learn this parable: When its branch has now become tender and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near. Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that he is near, even at the doors. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. --Matthew 24:29‭-‬35

“Behold, the days come,” says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the Lord. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer each teach his neighbour, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” --Jeremiah 31:31‭-‬34

May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love towards one another and towards all men, even as we also do towards you, to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. --1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature. In the law it is written, “By men of strange languages and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people. They won’t even listen to me that way, says the Lord.” Therefore other languages are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to the unbelieving; but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to those who believe. If therefore the whole assembly is assembled together and all speak with other languages, and unlearned or unbelieving people come in, won’t they say that you are crazy? But if all prophesy, and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. So he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is amongst you indeed. --1 Corinthians 14:20-25

“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light. As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. Won’t the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies. Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream." --Amos 5:18‭-‬24

Week of November 8: When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. --Mark 11:25

Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginning of birth pains. “Then they will deliver you up to oppression and will kill you....

Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. All Israel, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses comm...

The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. They ate unleavened cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, in the same day. The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. --Joshua 5:10‭-‬12

Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments, --Psalms 78:1‭-‬7

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread.” He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever may tell his father or his mother, “Whatever help you might otherwise have gotten from me is a gift devoted to God,” he shall not honour his father or mother.’ You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’” --Matthew 15:1‭-‬9

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. For you will eat the labour of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you. Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive shoots around your table. Behold, this is how the man who fears the Lord is blessed. May the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.  --Psalms 128:1‭-‬6

So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city. --Joshua 6:20

For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, God’s word, which also works in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost. But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus...

Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, in Gilgal. He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is mighty, and that you may fear the Lord your God forever.’” --Joshua 4:20‭-‬24

The Lord says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray—for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him: “Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them. The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.” But as for me, I am full of power by the Lord’s Spirit, and of judgement, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin. Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Isn’...

Week of November 1: Give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. --2 Chronicles 6:19