Thursday 31 January 2008 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Thursday 31 January 2008 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Genesis 16:15-17:14

Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore,
Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him* Ishmael.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and
said to him, 'I am God Almighty;* walk before me, and be blameless. And
I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you
exceedingly numerous.' Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,
'As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a
multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram,* but your name
shall be Abraham;* for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of
nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations
of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant
between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your
offspring* after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring
after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan,
for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.'

 God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and
your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my
covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring
after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall
circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the
covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male
among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the
slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any
foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your
house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall
my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised
male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut
off from his people; he has broken my covenant.'
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Hebrews 10:1-10

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the
true form of these realities, it* can never, by the same sacrifices that
are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who
approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the
worshippers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any
consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin
year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats
to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ* came into the world, he
said,
'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
   but a body you have prepared for me; 
in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
   you have taken no pleasure. 
Then I said, "See, God, I have come to do your will, O God"
   (in the scroll of the book* it is written of me).' 
When he said above, 'You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in
sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings' (these
are offered according to the law), then he added, 'See, I have come to
do your will.' He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
And it is by God's will* that we have been sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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John 5:30-47

'I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is
just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent
me.

 'If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another
who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.
You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I
accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be
saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to
rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than
John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very
works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have
never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word
abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

 'You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have
eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse
to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But
I know that you do not have the love of God in* you. I have come in my
Father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own
name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory
from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who
alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;
your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed
Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not
believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 50

Psalm 50

The mighty one, God the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting. 
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
   God shines forth. 


Our God comes and does not keep silence,
   before him is a devouring fire,
   and a mighty tempest all around him. 
He calls to the heavens above
   and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 
'Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!' 
The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge.
          Selah 


'Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
   I am God, your God. 
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt-offerings are continually before me. 
I will not accept a bull from your house,
   or goats from your folds. 
For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
   the cattle on a thousand hills. 
I know all the birds of the air,*
   and all that moves in the field is mine. 


'If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
   for the world and all that is in it is mine. 
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
   or drink the blood of goats? 
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,*
   and pay your vows to the Most High. 
Call on me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.' 


But to the wicked God says:
   'What right have you to recite my statutes,
   or take my covenant on your lips? 
For you hate discipline,
   and you cast my words behind you. 
You make friends with a thief when you see one,
   and you keep company with adulterers. 


'You give your mouth free rein for evil,
   and your tongue frames deceit. 
You sit and speak against your kin;
   you slander your own mother's child. 
These things you have done and I have been silent;
   you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. 


'Mark this, then, you who forget God,
   or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver. 
Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me;
   to those who go the right way*
   I will show the salvation of God.'
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Evening Psalms:  Psalm 8, 84

Psalm 8

O Lord, our Sovereign,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth! 


You have set your glory above the heavens. 
   Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
   to silence the enemy and the avenger. 


When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established; 
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals* that you care for them? 


Yet you have made them a little lower than God,*
   and crowned them with glory and honour. 
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
   you have put all things under their feet, 
all sheep and oxen,
   and also the beasts of the field, 
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
   whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 


O Lord, our Sovereign,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!



Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place,
   O Lord of hosts! 
My soul longs, indeed it faints
   for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
   to the living God. 


Even the sparrow finds a home,
   and the swallow a nest for herself,
   where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
   my King and my God. 
Happy are those who live in your house,
   ever singing your praise.
          Selah 


Happy are those whose strength is in you,
   in whose heart are the highways to Zion.* 
As they go through the valley of Baca
   they make it a place of springs;
   the early rain also covers it with pools. 
They go from strength to strength;
   the God of gods will be seen in Zion. 


O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
   give ear, O God of Jacob!
          Selah 
Behold our shield, O God;
   look on the face of your anointed. 


For a day in your courts is better
   than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than live in the tents of wickedness. 
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
   he bestows favour and honour.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
   from those who walk uprightly. 
O Lord of hosts,
   happy is everyone who trusts in you.
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