Scripture Readings from the 9:30 a.m. Worship Service
Aldersgate United Methodist Church, March 23, 2003

(All Scripture References are from the NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (Wheaton, Illinois:  Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:16)

3 See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. ² Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. ³ And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

⁶ So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. ⁷ Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

³⁵ Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? ³⁶ (Even the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) ³⁷ No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. ³⁸ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. ³⁹ Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39) 

⁹ I command you—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. ² He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. ³ He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. ⁴ Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. ⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)

¹ Give honor to the Lord, you angels; give honor to the Lord for his glory and strength. ² Give honor to the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. ³ The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.  ⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. ⁵ The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶ He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf and Mount Hermon to leap like a young bull. ⁷ The voice of the Lord strikes with lightning bolts. ⁸ The voice of the Lord makes the desert quake; the Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh. ⁹ The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!” ¹⁰ The Lord rules over the floodwaters. The Lord reigns as king forever. ¹¹ The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace. (Psalm 29)

¹ God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. ² So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. ³ Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! ⁴ A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. ⁵ God himself lives in that city; it cannot be destroyed. God will protect it at the break of day. ⁶ The nations are in an uproar, and kingdoms crumble! God thunders, and the earth melts! ⁷ The Lord Almighty is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. ⁸ Come, see the glorious works of the Lord: See how he brings destruction upon the world ⁹ and causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear in two; he burns the shields with fire. ¹⁰ “Be silent, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” The Lord Almighty is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. (Psalm 46)

¹ O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! ² From the ends of the earth, I will cry to you for help, for my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, ³ for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. ⁴ Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings! (Psalm 61:1-4)

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. ²⁶ My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. ²⁷ But those who desert him will perish, for you destroy those who abandon you. ²⁸ But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do. (Psalm 73:25-28)

²⁷ My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, ²⁹ for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.” (John 10:27-30)

²⁷ “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)

⁹ Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. ¹⁰ Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus….Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:6-9)

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶ Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

²⁷ O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? ²⁸ Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. ²⁹ He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. ³⁰ Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. ³¹ But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:27-31)

¹⁵ Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. ¹⁶ Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together. ¹⁸ Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything. ¹⁹ For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, ²⁰ and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. ²¹ This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, ²² yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. ²³ But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. (Colossians 1:15-23a)

¹ I love you, Lord; you are my strength. ² The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold. ³ I will call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, for he saves me from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1-3)

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord protects me from danger—so why should I tremble? ² When evil people come to destroy me,when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. ³ Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will know no fear. Even if they attack me, I remain confident. ⁴ The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. ⁵ For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. ⁶ Then I will hold my head high, above my enemies who surround me. At his Tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music. ⁷ Listen to my pleading, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me! ⁸ My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”  ⁹ Do not hide yourself from me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation! ¹⁰ Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close. ¹¹ Teach me how to live, O Lord. Lead me along the path of honesty, for my enemies are waiting for me to fall. ¹² Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I’ve never done and breathe out violence against me. ¹³ Yet I am confident that I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. ¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. (Psalm 27)

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. ² He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. ³ He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the Lord. ⁴ Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud, or in those who worship idols. ⁵ O Lord my God, you have done many miracles for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them. (Psalm 40:1-5)

But now, O Israel, the Lord who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. ² When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. ³ For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…” (Isaiah 43:1-3a)

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. ² He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. ³ To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory. (Isaiah 61:1-3)

²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. ²⁸ And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.  (Romans 8:26-28)

⁴³ “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48) 

⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love. ⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  ¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us. (1 John 4:7-12)

¹⁴ You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. ¹⁵ Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:14-16)

¹⁶ For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And since we are his children, we will share his treasures—for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.¹⁸ Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.  (Romans 8:16-18)

³ All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. ⁴ For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵ And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see. ⁶ So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. ⁷ These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.  ⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband. ³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.” ⁵ And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making all things new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” ⁶ And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge! ⁷ All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. (Revelation 21:1-7)

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