Sunday 16th November

OT: Micah 6. 6-8

 ‘With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?  Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’  He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?

NT: 1Timothy 6. 11-16

 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.  Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.  In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 18. 35-43

 As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening.  They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’  Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’  Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him,  ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’  Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God.

Thursday 20^th November

 OT: Proverbs 20. 28; 21. 1-4, 7

 Loyalty and faithfulness preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by righteousness. 

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.  All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, but the Lord weighs the heart.   To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.  Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the lamp of the wicked—are sin. The violence of the wicked will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is just.

Gospel: Luke 19. 41-44

 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it,  saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.  They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’