Sunday 1 March 2009<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal">DAILY LECTIONARY</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Email Evangelism, forward to a friend: http://www.dailylectionary.org</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Deuteronomy 8:1-10</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.* The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">1 Corinthians 1:17-31</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:* not many of you were wise by human standards,* not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one* might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in* the Lord.’</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Mark 2:18-22</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people* came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’*</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Morning Psalms: Psalm 63:1-11, 98</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 63:1-11</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">O God, you are my God, I seek you,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my soul thirsts for you;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">my flesh faints for you,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>beholding your power and glory.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because your steadfast love is better than life,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my lips will praise you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So I will bless you as long as I live;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will lift up my hands and call on your name.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and my mouth praises you with joyful lips</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">when I think of you on my bed,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and meditate on you in the watches of the night;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">for you have been my help,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My soul clings to you;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>your right hand upholds me.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">But those who seek to destroy my life</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>shall go down into the depths of the earth;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">they shall be given over to the power of the sword,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they shall be prey for jackals.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But the king shall rejoice in God;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>all who swear by him shall exult,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for the mouths of liars will be stopped.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 98</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">O sing to the Lord a new song,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for he has done marvellous things.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">His right hand and his holy arm</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>have gained him victory.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord has made known his victory;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to the house of Israel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All the ends of the earth have seen</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the victory of our God.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>break forth into joyous song and sing praises.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>with the lyre and the sound of melody.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With trumpets and the sound of the horn</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the world and those who live in it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let the floods clap their hands;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>let the hills sing together for joy</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to judge the earth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He will judge the world with righteousness,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and the peoples with equity.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Evening Psalms: Psalm 103</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 103</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, O my soul,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and all that is within me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>bless his holy name.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, O my soul,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and do not forget all his benefits—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">who forgives all your iniquity,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who heals all your diseases,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">who redeems your life from the Pit,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">who satisfies you with good as long as you live*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord works vindication</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and justice for all who are oppressed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He made known his ways to Moses,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>his acts to the people of Israel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord is merciful and gracious,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He will not always accuse,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>nor will he keep his anger for ever.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He does not deal with us according to our sins,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>nor repay us according to our iniquities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For as the heavens are high above the earth,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">as far as the east is from the west,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>so far he removes our transgressions from us.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a father has compassion for his children,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For he knows how we were made;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he remembers that we are dust.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">As for mortals, their days are like grass;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they flourish like a flower of the field;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and its place knows it no more.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>on those who fear him,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and his righteousness to children’s children,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to those who keep his covenant</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and remember to do his commandments.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and his kingdom rules over all.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, O you his angels,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>you mighty ones who do his bidding,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>obedient to his spoken word.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, all his hosts,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>his ministers that do his will.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, all his works,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in all places of his dominion.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bless the Lord, O my soul.</p>
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