Tuesday 23 March 2010<!--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">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Exodus 5:1-6:1<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” ’ But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.’ Then they said, ‘The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.’ But the king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labours!’ Pharaoh continued, ‘Now they are more numerous than the people of the land * and yet you want them to stop working!’ That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, ‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, “Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.” Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labour at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.’</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So the taskmasters and the supervisors of the people went out and said to the people, ‘Thus says Pharaoh, “I will not give you straw. Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least.” ’ So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt, to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, ‘Complete your work, the same daily assignment as when you were given straw.’ And the supervisors of the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and were asked, ‘Why did you not finish the required quantity of bricks yesterday and today, as you did before?’</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then the Israelite supervisors came to Pharaoh and cried, ‘Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, “Make bricks!” Look how your servants are beaten! You are unjust to your own people.’* He said, ‘You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, “Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.” Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.’ The Israelite supervisors saw that they were in trouble when they were told, ‘You shall not lessen your daily number of bricks.’ As they left Pharaoh, they came upon Moses and Aaron who were waiting to meet them. They said to them, ‘The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odour with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.’</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">1 Corinthians 14:20-33a,39-40</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Brothers and sisters,* do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults. In the law it is written,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘By people of strange tongues</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and by the lips of foreigners</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will speak to this people;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>yet even then they will not listen to me,’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">says the Lord. Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What should be done then, my friends?* When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">(As in all the churches of the saints, So, my friends,* be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Mark 9:42-50</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me,* it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell,* to the unquenchable fire.* And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.*,* And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,* where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘For everyone will be salted with fire.* Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?* Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Morning Psalms: Psalm 121, 122, 123</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 121</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I lift up my eyes to the hills—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>from where will my help come?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My help comes from the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who made heaven and earth.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">He will not let your foot be moved;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he who keeps you will not slumber.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He who keeps Israel</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>will neither slumber nor sleep.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord is your keeper;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the Lord is your shade at your right hand.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The sun shall not strike you by day,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>nor the moon by night.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord will keep you from all evil;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he will keep your life.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord will keep</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>your going out and your coming in</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>from this time on and for evermore.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 122</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I was glad when they said to me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our feet are standing</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>within your gates, O Jerusalem.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Jerusalem—built as a city</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>that is bound firmly together.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To it the tribes go up,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the tribes of the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">as was decreed for Israel,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to give thanks to the name of the Lord.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For there the thrones for judgement were set up,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the thrones of the house of David.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘May they prosper who love you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Peace be within your walls,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and security within your towers.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the sake of my relatives and friends</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will seek your good.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 123</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">To you I lift up my eyes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>O you who are enthroned in the heavens!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the eyes of servants</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>look to the hand of their master,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">as the eyes of a maid</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to the hand of her mistress,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">so our eyes look to the Lord our God,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>until he has mercy upon us.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for we have had more than enough of contempt.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our soul has had more than its fill</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>of the scorn of those who are at ease,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>of the contempt of the proud.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Evening Psalms: Psalm 124, 125, 126</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 124</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">If it had not been the Lord who was on our side</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>—let Israel now say—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when our enemies attacked us,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">then they would have swallowed us up alive,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when their anger was kindled against us;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">then the flood would have swept us away,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the torrent would have gone over us;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">then over us would have gone</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the raging waters.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Blessed be the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who has not given us</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>as prey to their teeth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We have escaped like a bird</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>from the snare of the fowlers;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the snare is broken,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and we have escaped.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Our help is in the name of the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who made heaven and earth.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 125</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>which cannot be moved, but abides for ever.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the mountains surround Jerusalem,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>so the Lord surrounds his people,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>from this time on and for evermore.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>on the land allotted to the righteous,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">so that the righteous may not stretch out</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>their hands to do wrong.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and to those who are upright in their hearts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the Lord will lead away with evildoers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Peace be upon Israel!</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 126</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>we were like those who dream.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then our mouth was filled with laughter,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and our tongue with shouts of joy;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">then it was said among the nations,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘The Lord has done great things for them.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord has done great things for us,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and we rejoiced.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Restore our fortunes, O Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>like the watercourses in the Negeb.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">May those who sow in tears</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>reap with shouts of joy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those who go out weeping,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>bearing the seed for sowing,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">shall come home with shouts of joy,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>carrying their sheaves.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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