Tuesday 29 January 2013 DAILY LECTIONARY

[Daily Lectionary]

Tuesday 29 January 2013  
DAILY LECTIONARY

Email Evangelism, forward to a friend: http://www.dailylectionary.org
******************************************************************
Isaiah 48:12-21

Listen to me, O Jacob,
   and Israel, whom I called:
I am He; I am the first,
   and I am the last. 
My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
   and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
   they stand at attention. 


Assemble, all of you, and hear!
   Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
   he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
   and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 
I, even I, have spoken and called him,
   I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. 
Draw near to me, hear this!
   From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
   from the time it came to be I have been there.
And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. 


Thus says the Lord,
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
   who teaches you for your own good,
   who leads you in the way you should go. 
O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
   Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
   and your success like the waves of the sea; 
your offspring would have been like the sand,
   and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
   or destroyed from before me. 


Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
   declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it forth to the end of the earth;
   say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!’ 
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
   he made water flow for them from the rock;
   he split open the rock and the water gushed out.
******************************************************************
Galatians 1:18-2:10

Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, ‘The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they glorified God because of me.
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false believers* secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was* eager to do. ******************************************************************
Mark 6:1-13
 
He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary* and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence* at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. 

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
******************************************************************
Morning Psalms:  Psalm 45

Psalm 45

My heart overflows with a goodly theme;
   I address my verses to the king;
   my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. 


You are the most handsome of men;
   grace is poured upon your lips;
   therefore God has blessed you for ever. 
Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
   in your glory and majesty. 


In your majesty ride on victoriously
   for the cause of truth and to defend* the right;
   let your right hand teach you dread deeds. 
Your arrows are sharp
   in the heart of the king’s enemies;
   the peoples fall under you. 


Your throne, O God,* endures for ever and ever.
   Your royal sceptre is a sceptre of equity; 
   you love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
   with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; 
   your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; 
   daughters of kings are among your ladies of honour;
   at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. 


Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;
   forget your people and your father’s house, 
   and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him; 
   the people* of Tyre will seek your favour with gifts,
   the richest of the people with all kinds of wealth. 


The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;* 
   in many-coloured robes she is led to the king;
   behind her the virgins, her companions, follow. 
With joy and gladness they are led along
   as they enter the palace of the king. 


In the place of ancestors you, O king,* shall have sons;
   you will make them princes in all the earth. 
I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations;
   therefore the peoples will praise you for ever and ever.
******************************************************************
Evening Psalms: Psalm 47, 48

Psalm 47

Clap your hands, all you peoples;
   shout to God with loud songs of joy. 
For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,
   a great king over all the earth. 
He subdued peoples under us,
   and nations under our feet. 
He chose our heritage for us,
   the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
          Selah 


God has gone up with a shout,
   the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
   sing praises to our King, sing praises. 
For God is the king of all the earth;
   sing praises with a psalm.* 


God is king over the nations;
   God sits on his holy throne. 
The princes of the peoples gather
   as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
   he is highly exalted.


Psalm 48

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
   in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
   is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
   the city of the great King. 
Within its citadels God
   has shown himself a sure defence. 


Then the kings assembled,
   they came on together. 
As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
   they were in panic, they took to flight; 
trembling took hold of them there,
   pains as of a woman in labour, 
as when an east wind shatters
   the ships of Tarshish. 
As we have heard, so have we seen
   in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God,
   which God establishes for ever.
          Selah 


We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
   in the midst of your temple. 
Your name, O God, like your praise,
   reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory. 
   Let Mount Zion be glad,
let the towns* of Judah rejoice
   because of your judgements. 


Walk about Zion, go all around it,
   count its towers, 
consider well its ramparts;
   go through its citadels,
that you may tell the next generation 
   that this is God,
our God for ever and ever.
   He will be our guide for ever.
******************************************************************