Saturday 13 August 2022 DAILY LECTIONARY

[info at dailylectionary.org]

Saturday 13 August 2022  
DAILY LECTIONARY

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

Notice: At times email providers change their spam filters. To keep
your daily lectionary reading from going to spam please add
dailylectionary at dailylectionary.org and info at dailylectionary.org to
your white list. 

For help with setting a white list check www.whitelist.guide or search
the web. Please do not send us questions on how to set up a white
list. We are not computer savvy and therefore are unable to provide
assistance.
******************************************************************
Judges 16:1-14

Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to
her. The Gazites were told,* ‘Samson has come here.’ So they
encircled the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city
gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, ‘Let us wait until the
light of the morning; then we will kill him.’ But Samson lay only
until midnight. Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of
the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them
on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in
front of Hebron.

 After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek,
whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and
said to her, ‘Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so
great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order
to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of
silver.’ So Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me what makes
your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could
subdue you.’ Samson said to her, ‘If they bind me with seven fresh
bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be
like anyone else.’ Then the lords of the Philistines brought her
seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with
them. While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to
him, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ But he snapped the
bowstrings, as a strand of fibre snaps when it touches the fire. So
the secret of his strength was not known.

 Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘You have mocked me and told me lies;
please tell me how you could be bound.’ He said to her, ‘If they
bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become
weak, and be like anyone else.’ So Delilah took new ropes and bound
him with them, and said to him, ‘The Philistines are upon you,
Samson!’ (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he
snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

 Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘Until now you have mocked me and
told me lies; tell me how you could be bound.’ He said to her, ‘If
you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight
with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.’ So
while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them
into the web,* and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him,
‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ But he awoke from his
sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
******************************************************************
Acts 7:30-43

‘Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the
wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses
saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look,
there came the voice of the Lord: “I am the God of your ancestors,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses began to tremble and
did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, “Take off the
sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy
ground. I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in
Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue
them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.”

 ‘It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, “Who made
you a ruler and a judge?” and whom God now sent as both ruler and
liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led
them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea,
and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to
the Israelites, “God will raise up a prophet for you from your own
people* as he raised me up.” He is the one who was in the
congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at
Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living oracles to
give to us. Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they
pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
saying to Aaron, “Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as
for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know
what has happened to him.” At that time they made a calf, offered a
sacrifice to the idol, and revelled in the works of their hands. But
God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of
heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
   for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 
No; you took along the tent of Moloch,
   and the star of your god Rephan,
     the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.”
******************************************************************
John 5:1-18

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.

 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in
Hebrew* Beth-zatha,* which has five porticoes. In these lay many
invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.* One man was there who had been
ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew
that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to
be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to
put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am
making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to
him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made
well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been
cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your
mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me,
“Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man
who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had
been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in* the
crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to
him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that
nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews
that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started
persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am
working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill
him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also
calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
******************************************************************
Morning Psalms:  Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-13

Psalm 107:33-43

He turns rivers into a desert,
   springs of water into thirsty ground, 
a fruitful land into a salty waste,
   because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. 
He turns a desert into pools of water,
   a parched land into springs of water. 
And there he lets the hungry live,
   and they establish a town to live in; 
they sow fields, and plant vineyards,
   and get a fruitful yield. 
By his blessing they multiply greatly,
   and he does not let their cattle decrease. 

When they are diminished and brought low
   through oppression, trouble, and sorrow, 
he pours contempt on princes
   and makes them wander in trackless wastes; 
but he raises up the needy out of distress,
   and makes their families like flocks. 
The upright see it and are glad;
   and all wickedness stops its mouth. 
Let those who are wise give heed to these things,
   and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Psalm 108:1-13

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;*
   I will sing and make melody.
   Awake, my soul!* 
Awake, O harp and lyre!
   I will awake the dawn. 
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
   and I will sing praises to you among the nations. 
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
   and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
   and let your glory be over all the earth. 
Give victory with your right hand, and answer me,
   so that those whom you love may be rescued. 

God has promised in his sanctuary:*
   ‘With exultation I will divide up Shechem,
   and portion out the Vale of Succoth. 
Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
   Ephraim is my helmet;
   Judah is my sceptre. 
Moab is my wash-basin;
   on Edom I hurl my shoe;
   over Philistia I shout in triumph.’ 

Who will bring me to the fortified city?
   Who will lead me to Edom? 
Have you not rejected us, O God?
   You do not go out, O God, with our armies. 
O grant us help against the foe,
   for human help is worthless. 
With God we shall do valiantly;
   it is he who will tread down our foes.
******************************************************************
Evening Psalms:  Psalm 33

Psalm 33

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.
   Praise befits the upright. 
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
   make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. 
Sing to him a new song;
   play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 

For the word of the Lord is upright,
   and all his work is done in faithfulness. 
He loves righteousness and justice;
   the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
   and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 
He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
   he put the deeps in storehouses. 

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
   let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 
For he spoke, and it came to be;
   he commanded, and it stood firm. 

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
   he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 
The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
   the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
   the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. 

The Lord looks down from heaven;
   he sees all humankind. 
>From where he sits enthroned he watches
   all the inhabitants of the earth— 
he who fashions the hearts of them all,
   and observes all their deeds. 
A king is not saved by his great army;
   a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 
The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
   and by its great might it cannot save. 

Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
   on those who hope in his steadfast love, 
to deliver their soul from death,
   and to keep them alive in famine. 

Our soul waits for the Lord;
   he is our help and shield. 
Our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name. 
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
   even as we hope in you.
******************************************************************


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://dailylectionary.org/pipermail/dailylectionary_dailylectionary.org/attachments/20220813/5ed3ea7b/attachment.html>