Today our passages are Leviticus 19:1–20:21; Mark 8:11-38; Psalm
42:1-11; and Proverbs 10:17. The readings are from The
Message by Eugene H.
Peterson. If you find these readings helpful, please
consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main
Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal.
Leviticus 19-20:21 (The Message)
Leviticus 19
"I Am God, Your God"
1-2 God spoke to Moses: "Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them, Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy. 3 "Every one of you must respect his mother and father. "Keep my Sabbaths. I am God, your God.4 "Don't take up with no-god idols. Don't make gods of cast metal. I am God, your God.
5-8 "When you sacrifice a Peace-Offering to God, do it as you've been taught so it is acceptable. Eat it on the day you sacrifice it and the day following. Whatever is left until the third day is to be burned up. If it is eaten on the third day it is polluted meat and not acceptable. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has violated what is holy to God. That person will be cut off from his people.
9-10 "When you harvest your land, don't harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don't strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.
11 "Don't steal.
"Don't lie.
"Don't deceive anyone.
12 "Don't swear falsely using my name, violating the name of your God. I am God.
13 "Don't exploit your friend or rob him.
"Don't hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
14 "Don't curse the deaf; don't put a stumbling block in front of the blind; fear your God. I am God.
15 "Don't pervert justice. Don't show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16 "Don't spread gossip and rumors.
"Don't just stand by when your neighbor's life is in danger. I am God.
17 "Don't secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18 "Don't seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
"Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.
19 "Keep my decrees.
"Don't mate two different kinds of animals.
"Don't plant your fields with two kinds of seed.
"Don't wear clothes woven of two kinds of material.
20-22 "If a man has sex with a slave girl who is engaged to another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be an investigation. But they aren't to be put to death because she wasn't free. The man must bring a Compensation-Offering to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, a ram of compensation. The priest will perform the ritual of atonement for him before God with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed. Then he will stand forgiven of the sin he committed.
23-25 "When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don't eat the fruit for three years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth year you can eat its fruit; you'll have richer harvests this way. I am God, your God.
26 "Don't eat meat with blood in it.
"Don't practice divination or sorcery.
27 "Don't cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard.
28 "Don't gash your bodies on behalf of the dead.
"Don't tattoo yourselves. I am God.
29 "Don't violate your daughter by making her a whore—the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.
30 "Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary: I am God.
31 "Don't dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you'll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.
32 "Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God. I am God.
33-34 "When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don't take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.
35-36 "Don't cheat when measuring length, weight, or quantity. Use honest scales and weights and measures. I am God, your God. I brought you out of Egypt.
37 "Keep all my decrees and all my laws. Yes, do them. I am God."
Leviticus 20
1-5 God spoke to Moses: "Tell the Israelites, Each and every Israelite and foreigner in Israel who gives his child to the god Molech must be put to death. The community must kill him by stoning. I will resolutely reject that man and cut him off from his people. By giving his child to the god Molech he has polluted my Sanctuary and desecrated my holy name. If the people of the land look the other way as if nothing had happened when that man gives his child to the god Molech and fail to kill him, I will resolutely reject that man and his family, and him and all who join him in prostituting themselves in the rituals of the god Molech I will cut off from their people. 6 "I will resolutely reject persons who dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums, prostituting themselves in their practices. I will cut them off from their people.7-8 "Set yourselves apart for a holy life. Live a holy life, because I am God, your God. Do what I tell you; live the way I tell you. I am the God who makes you holy.
9 "Any and every person who curses his father or mother must be put to death. By cursing his father or mother he is responsible for his own death.
10 "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—the wife, say, of his neighbor—both the man and the woman, the adulterer and adulteress, must be put to death.
11 "If a man has sex with his father's wife, he has violated his father. Both the man and woman must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.
12 "If a man has sex with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is perverse. And they are responsible for their own deaths.
13 "If a man has sex with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is abhorrent. They must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.
14 "If a man marries both a woman and her mother, that's wicked. All three of them must be burned at the stake, purging the wickedness from the community.
15 "If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death and you must kill the animal.
16 "If a woman has sex with an animal, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. And they are responsible for their deaths.
17 "If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or mother, and they have sex, that's a disgrace. They must be publicly cut off from their people. He has violated his sister and will be held responsible.
18 "If a man sleeps with a woman during her period and has sex with her, he has uncovered her 'fountain' and she has revealed her 'fountain'—both of them must be cut off from their people.
19 "Don't have sex with your aunt on either your mother's or father's side. That violates a close relative. Both of you are held responsible.
20 "If a man has sex with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible and die childless.
21 "If a man marries his brother's wife, it's a defilement. He has shamed his brother. They will be childless.
Mark 8:11-38 (The Message)
11-12When they arrived, the Pharisees came out and started
in on him, badgering him to prove himself, pushing him up against the wall.
Provoked, he said, "Why does this generation clamor for miraculous guarantees?
If I have anything to say about it, you'll not get so much as a hint of a
guarantee."
Contaminating Yeast
13-15He then left them, got back in the boat, and headed
for the other side. But the disciples forgot to pack a lunch. Except for a
single loaf of bread, there wasn't a crumb in the boat. Jesus warned, "Be very
careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the
followers of Herod."
16-19Meanwhile, the disciples were finding fault with each
other because they had forgotten to bring bread. Jesus overheard and said, "Why
are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don't you see the point of all this?
Don't you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand?
How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?"
They said, "Twelve."
20"And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags
full of leftovers did you get?"
"Seven."
21He
said, "Do you still not get it?"
22-23They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a
sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the
hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man's eyes, laid hands
on him, and asked, "Do you see anything?"
24-26He looked up. "I see men. They look like walking
trees." So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized
that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty
focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, "Don't enter the village."
The Messiah
27Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages
around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, "Who do the people say I
am?"
28"Some say 'John the Baptizer,'" they said. "Others say
'Elijah.' Still others say 'one of the prophets.'"
29He
then asked, "And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?"
Peter gave the answer: "You are the Christ,
the Messiah."
30-32Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a
word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: "It is necessary
that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty
by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three
days rise up alive." He said this simply and clearly so they couldn't miss it.
32-33But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing
his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter.
"Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works."
34-37Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,
"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the
driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll
show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to
saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you
want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
38"If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I'm
leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that
you'll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all
the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels."
Psalm 42:1-11 (The Message)
Psalm 42
A psalm of the sons of Korah
1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;I want to drink God,
deep draughts of God.
I'm thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, "Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God's presence?"
I'm on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
people knock at my door,
Pestering,
"Where is this God of yours?"
4 These are the things I go over and over,
emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
right out in front,
Leading them all,
eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
celebrating, all of us, God's feast!
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I'll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He's my God.
6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God's prayer.
9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
"Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
harassed by enemies?"
They're out for the kill, these
tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
"Where is this God of yours?"
11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I'll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He's my God.
Proverbs 10:17 (The Message)
17 The road to life is a disciplined life;
ignore correction and you're lost for good.
Verse of the
Day
“God showed his love for us when he sent his
only Son into the world to give us life.” - 1
John 4:9
Today's passage is from the Contemporary
English Version.
Thought
for the Day
Danish author who’s best remembered for his fairy tales, Hans Christian
Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine,
freedom, and a little flower.”
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