Holy Qurbana
Worship Service
Lectionary Theme: Into the New Year with the God of Hope
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Jeremiah 29:8-14 First Lesson
8. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,
9. for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.
10. For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
11. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
12. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.
13. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,
14. I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
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Jude 20-25 Second Lesson
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Ephesians 4:17-24 Epistle
17. Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds;
18. they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
19. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20. That is not the way you learned Christ!
21. For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus,
22. to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
23. and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24. and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
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Matthew 7:7-12 Gospel
7. “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
8. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
9. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone?
10. Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake?
11. If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12. “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.