Wednesday 8 December 2010<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal">DAILY LECTIONARY</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<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">Isaiah 6:1-13<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the whole earth is full of his glory.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The pivots* on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph* touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">keep looking, but do not understand.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Make the mind of this people dull,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and stop their ears,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and shut their eyes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">so that they may not look with their eyes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and listen with their ears,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and comprehend with their minds,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and turn and be healed.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’ And he said:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘Until cities lie waste</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>without inhabitant,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and houses without people,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and the land is utterly desolate;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">until the Lord sends everyone far away,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even if a tenth part remains in it,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>it will be burned again,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">like a terebinth or an oak</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>whose stump remains standing</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when it is felled.’*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The holy seed is its stump.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2 Thessalonians 1:1-12</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Grace to you and peace from God our* Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters,* as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is evidence of the righteous judgement of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marvelled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfil by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John 7:53-8:11</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.* When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’* And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Morning Psalms: Psalm 38</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 38</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>or discipline me in your wrath.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For your arrows have sunk into me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and your hand has come down on me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is no soundness in my flesh</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>because of your indignation;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">there is no health in my bones</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>because of my sin.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For my iniquities have gone over my head;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My wounds grow foul and fester</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>because of my foolishness;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>all day long I go around mourning.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For my loins are filled with burning,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and there is no soundness in my flesh.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am utterly spent and crushed;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I groan because of the tumult of my heart.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">O Lord, all my longing is known to you;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my sighing is not hidden from you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My heart throbs, my strength fails me;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and my neighbours stand far off.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those who seek my life lay their snares;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and meditate treachery all day long.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But I am like the deaf, I do not hear;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>like the mute, who cannot speak.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Truly, I am like one who does not hear,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and in whose mouth is no retort.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For I pray, ‘Only do not let them rejoice over me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>those who boast against me when my foot slips.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For I am ready to fall,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and my pain is ever with me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I confess my iniquity;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am sorry for my sin.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those who are my foes without cause* are mighty,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and many are those who hate me wrongfully.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those who render me evil for good</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>are my adversaries because I follow after good.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not forsake me, O Lord;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>O my God, do not be far from me;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">make haste to help me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>O Lord, my salvation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Evening Psalms: Psalm 119:25-48</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 119:25-48</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My soul clings to the dust;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>revive me according to your word.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I told of my ways, you answered me;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>teach me your statutes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Make me understand the way of your precepts,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and I will meditate on your wondrous works.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My soul melts away for sorrow;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>strengthen me according to your word.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Put false ways far from me;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and graciously teach me your law.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have chosen the way of faithfulness;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I set your ordinances before me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I cling to your decrees, O Lord;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>let me not be put to shame.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I run the way of your commandments,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for you enlarge my understanding.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and I will observe it to the end.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Give me understanding, that I may keep your law</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and observe it with my whole heart.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lead me in the path of your commandments,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for I delight in it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Turn my heart to your decrees,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and not to selfish gain.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>give me life in your ways.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Confirm to your servant your promise,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>which is for those who fear you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Turn away the disgrace that I dread,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for your ordinances are good.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">See, I have longed for your precepts;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in your righteousness give me life.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>your salvation according to your promise.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for I trust in your word.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for my hope is in your ordinances.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will keep your law continually,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for ever and ever.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I shall walk at liberty,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for I have sought your precepts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will also speak of your decrees before kings,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and shall not be put to shame;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I find my delight in your commandments,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>because I love them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I revere your commandments, which I love,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and I will meditate on your statutes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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