READING #1 – Acts 1:4-9 (New International Version (NIV))
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
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READING #2 – From the Sermon “Occasional Mercies” by John Dunne
“God made Sun and Moon to distinguish seasons, and day, and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons. But God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies. In paradise, the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in heaven it is always Autumne, his mercies are ever in their maturity. We ask our daily bread and God never says you should have come yesterday, he never says you must come again tomorrow, but TODAY.
“TODAY if you will hear his voice, TODAY he will heare you…
“Though you have been without spring, though you have no fortune, or understanding or conscience, though you have been in night until now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied until now, NOW God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all its shadowes… ALL occasions invite his mercies and ALL times are his seasons.
“TODAY if you will hear his voice, TODAY he will heare you…”