Perseverance

Notes of meeting on 22 January 2013

Group coming before the baby Jesus and worshipping him offering our lives and all our talents in his service.

Jesus standing before us enveloping us in his light. His very life through the action of the Holy Spirit entering our hearts magnifying our gifts and talents for the use of the Kingdom. This is a preparation and though much would be asked of us he Jesus would equip us with authority in his name.
"You will be like lambs among wolves yet none shall hurt you" (Luke 10 v3)

2 Thessalonians 3 v 1-5
1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord's message may spread quickly, and be received with honour as it was among you;
2 and pray that we may be preserved from bigoted and evil people, for not everyone has faith.
3 You can rely on the Lord, who will give you strength and guard you from the evil One,
4 and we, in the Lord, have every confidence in you, that you are doing and will go on doing all that we tell you.
5 May the Lord turn your hearts towards the love of God and the perseverance of Christ.


Amos 8 v 4 -  and 9 v 8- 15
8
4 Listen to this, you who crush the needy and reduce the oppressed to nothing,
5 you who say, 'When will New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our wheat? Then, we can make the bushel-measure smaller and the shekel-weight bigger, by fraudulently tampering with the scales.
6 We can buy up the weak for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and even get a price for the sweepings of the wheat.'
7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, 'Never will I forget anything they have done.'
9 'On that Day- declares the Lord Yahweh- I shall make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation; I shall make you all wear sacking round your waists and have all your heads shaved. I shall make it like the mourning for an only child, and it will end like the bitterest of days.
11 'The days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh- when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yahweh's word, but will not find it.
13 'That Day, fine girls and stalwart youths will faint from thirst.
14 The people who swear by the Sin of Samaria, who say, "Long live your god, Dan!" and "Hurrah for the pilgrimage to Beersheba!" will all fall, never to rise again.'

9
8 Look, Lord Yahweh's eyes are on the sinful kingdom, I shall wipe it off the face of the earth, although I shall not destroy the House of Jacob completely -declares Yahweh.
9 For look, I shall give the command and shall shake out the House of Israel among all nations as a sieve is shaken out without one grain falling on the ground.
10 All the sinners of my people will perish by the sword, who say, 'Disaster will never approach or overtake us.'
11 On that Day, I shall rebuild the tottering hut of David, make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,
12 for them to be master of what is left of Edom and of all the nations once called mine -Yahweh declares, and he will perform it.
13 The days are coming- declares Yahweh- when the ploughman will tread on the heels of the reaper, and the treader of grapes on the heels of the sower of seed, and the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it.
14 I shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out gardens and eat their produce.
15 And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yahweh, your God.

2 Peter 1 v 2 -11
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of our Lord.
3 By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion.
5 With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding,
6 understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion,
7 devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.
8 The possession and growth of these qualities will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffectual or unproductive.
9 But without them, a person is blind or short-sighted, forgetting how the sins of the past were washed away.
10 Instead of this, brothers, never allow your choice or calling to waver; then there will be no danger of your stumbling,
11 for in this way you will be given the generous gift of entry to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.