English Worship at St. John's Lutheran Church

¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting; ¹⁵ but through the true love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, even Christ; ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint that supplies strength, according to the effective working by which every part does its work, makes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16

²⁶ And he said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who throws seed on the ground, ²⁷ and sleeps and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows he does not know. ²⁸ For the earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Mark 4:26-29

¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you reject this word, and trust in deceit and falsehood, and lean on it: ¹³ This iniquity will be to you as a breach opening in a high wall ready to fall, whose ruin comes suddenly in a moment. ¹⁴ And He will shatter it as one breaks a potter’s vessel in pieces, and does not spare it, so that in the fragments thereof there will not be found so much as a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to draw water out of the cistern.
¹⁵ For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In rest and quietness ye shall be delivered; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But ye would not ¹⁶ But said, Nay, we will flee on horses: therefore ye shall flee. “We will ride on the swift,” therefore those who pursue you will be swift. ¹⁷ At the threat of one a thousand will flee, At the threat of five you will flee, So that the remnant of you will be like a beacon on the top of a mountain, And like a banner on a hill. ¹⁸ Therefore the LORD delays to be gracious to you, And therefore He holds back, That He will have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of righteousness: Blessed are all who wait for Him!
a) 30.4: Jerusalem.

Isaiah 30:12-18