Tuesday 13 May 2008 DAILY LECTIONARY

[info at dailylectionary.org]

Tuesday 13 May 2008  
DAILY LECTIONARY

Email Evangelism, forward to a friend: http://www.dailylectionary.org

******************************************************************
Ezekiel 33:21-33

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day
of the month, someone who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and
said, 'The city has fallen.' Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me
the evening before the fugitive came; but he had opened my mouth by the
time the fugitive came to me in the morning; so my mouth was opened, and
I was no longer unable to speak.
 The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, the inhabitants of these waste
places in the land of Israel keep saying, 'Abraham was only one man, yet
he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given
to us to possess.' Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You
eat flesh with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed
blood; shall you then possess the land? You depend on your swords, you
commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbour's wife; shall
you then possess the land? Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: As
I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the
sword; and those who are in the open field I will give to the wild
animals to be devoured; and those who are in strongholds and in caves
shall die by pestilence. I will make the land a desolation and a waste,
and its proud might shall come to an end; and the mountains of Israel
shall be so desolate that no one will pass through. Then they shall know
that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste
because of all their abominations that they have committed.

 As for you, mortal, your people who talk together about you by the
walls, and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to a
neighbour, 'Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.'
They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people,
and they hear your words, but they will not obey them. For flattery is
on their lips, but their heart is set on their gain. To them you are
like a singer of love songs,* one who has a beautiful voice and plays
well on an instrument; they hear what you say, but they will not do it.
When this comes-and come it will!-then they shall know that a prophet
has been among them.
******************************************************************
1 John 2:1-11

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not
sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and
not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

 Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his
commandments. Whoever says, 'I have come to know him', but does not obey
his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not
exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God
has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:
whoever says, 'I abide in him', ought to walk just as he walked.
 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment
that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word
that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true
in him and in you, because* the darkness is passing away and the true
light is already shining. Whoever says, 'I am in the light', while
hating a brother or sister,* is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a
brother or sister* lives in the light, and in such a person* there is no
cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer* is in the
darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go,
because the darkness has brought on blindness.
******************************************************************
Matthew 9:35-10:4

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing
every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is
plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the
harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.'
Then Jesus* summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over
unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every
sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also
known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his
brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the
tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;* Simon the
Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
******************************************************************
Morning Psalms:  Psalm 121, 122, 123

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills-
   from where will my help come? 
My help comes from the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth. 


He will not let your foot be moved;
   he who keeps you will not slumber. 
He who keeps Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep. 


The Lord is your keeper;
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 
The sun shall not strike you by day,
   nor the moon by night. 


The Lord will keep you from all evil;
   he will keep your life. 
The Lord will keep
   your going out and your coming in
   from this time on and for evermore.


Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
   'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' 
Our feet are standing
   within your gates, O Jerusalem. 


Jerusalem-built as a city
   that is bound firmly together. 
To it the tribes go up,
   the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
   to give thanks to the name of the Lord. 
For there the thrones for judgement were set up,
   the thrones of the house of David. 


Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   'May they prosper who love you. 
Peace be within your walls,
   and security within your towers.' 
For the sake of my relatives and friends
   I will say, 'Peace be within you.' 
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
   I will seek your good.


Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 
As the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
   until he has mercy upon us. 


Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
   for we have had more than enough of contempt. 
Our soul has had more than its fill
   of the scorn of those who are at ease,
   of the contempt of the proud.
******************************************************************
Evening Psalms:  Psalm 124, 125, 126

Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
   -let Israel now say- 
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
   when our enemies attacked us, 
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
   when their anger was kindled against us; 
then the flood would have swept us away,
   the torrent would have gone over us; 
then over us would have gone
   the raging waters. 


Blessed be the Lord,
   who has not given us
   as prey to their teeth. 
We have escaped like a bird
   from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
   and we have escaped. 


Our help is in the name of the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth.


Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
   which cannot be moved, but abides for ever. 
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
   so the Lord surrounds his people,
   from this time on and for evermore. 
For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest
   on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous may not stretch out
   their hands to do wrong. 
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
   and to those who are upright in their hearts. 
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
   the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
   Peace be upon Israel!


Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,*
   we were like those who dream. 
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
   'The Lord has done great things for them.' 
The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced. 


Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
   like the watercourses in the Negeb. 
May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy. 
Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.
******************************************************************