The Daily Lectionary for TUESDAY, Sept 17, 2019

The Daily Lectionary

TUESDAY, September 17, 2019

(Revised Common Lectionary Year C)

(Semi-continuous Reading Plan)

Psalm 94

God the Avenger of the Righteous
1  O Lord, you God of vengeance,
     you God of vengeance, shine forth!
2  Rise up, O judge of the earth;
     give to the proud what they deserve!
3  O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
     how long shall the wicked exult?

4  They pour out their arrogant words;
     all the evildoers boast.
5  They crush your people, O Lord,
     and afflict your heritage.
6  They kill the widow and the stranger,
     they murder the orphan,
7  and they say, “The Lord does not see;
     the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

8  Understand, O dullest of the people;
     fools, when will you be wise?
9  He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
   He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations,
   he who teaches knowledge to humankind,
     does he not chastise?
11   The Lord knows our thoughts,
     that they are but an empty breath.

12 Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,
     and whom you teach out of your law,
13 giving them respite from days of trouble,
     until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake his people;
     he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
     and all the upright in heart will follow it.

16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
     Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not been my help,
     my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot is slipping,”
     your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
     your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
     those who contrive mischief by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
     and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,
     and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their iniquity
     and wipe them out for their wickedness;
     the Lord our God will wipe them out.

Jeremiah 5:18-31

5:18 But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob,
     proclaim it in Judah:
21 Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
     who have eyes, but do not see,
     who have ears, but do not hear.
22 Do you not fear me? says the Lord;
     Do you not tremble before me?
   I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
     a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
   though the waves toss, they cannot prevail,
     though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
     they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
     “Let us fear the Lord our God,
   who gives the rain in its season,
     the autumn rain and the spring rain,
   and keeps for us
     the weeks appointed for the harvest.”
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
     and your sins have deprived you of good.
26 For scoundrels are found among my people;
     they take over the goods of others.
   Like fowlers they set a trap;
     they catch human beings.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
     their houses are full of treachery;
   therefore they have become great and rich,
28   they have grown fat and sleek.
   They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
     they do not judge with justice
   the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
     and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
       says the Lord,
     and shall I not bring retribution
     on a nation such as this?

30 An appalling and horrible thing
     has happened in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy falsely,
     and the priests rule as the prophets direct;
   my people love to have it so,
     but what will you do when the end comes?

2 Peter 3:8-13

3:8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Optional parts of the readings are set off in [square brackets.]

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

The Daily Lectionary is a three year cyclical lectionary. We are currently in Year C. Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent in 2019, we will be in Year A. The year which ended at Advent 2018 was Year B. These readings complement the Sunday and festival readings: Thursday through Saturday readings help prepare the reader for the Sunday ahead; Monday through Wednesday readings help the reader reflect and digest on what they heard in worship. Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org
With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

The Daily Prayer for TUESDAY, Sept 17, 2019

The Daily Prayer

for TUESDAY, September 17, 2019

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Hildegard was sent to the convent at the age of eight, where she learned to read Scripture, pray, and chant. Even as a child, she experienced supernatural religious visions in which she saw things invisible to others, foretold the future, and was filled with a luminosity she later called “the reflection of the Living Light.” At age thirty-eight, she became abbess of the Benedictine community in which she was raised and, five years later, received her call to prophesy when she saw a fiery light that infused her heart and mind with knowledge. She finally was able to understand her visions as a means of divine revelation and began to write extensively about them. Her term for the grace of God inherent in all living things was viriditas, or greenness, endearing her in our generation to followers of creation spirituality. Hildegard’s holistic approach to God and humanity is relevant today, particularly to those longing for wholeness and healing for all of creation.

Hildegard wrote, “We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.”

Lord, when you invited Adam to name the animals, you invited us all to participate in your creative work. Teach us to rejoice in your creation and assist in its care, that we, your humble creatures, may in all things give you praise. Amen.

Verse of the Day for TUESDAY, Sept 17, 2019

Ephesians 5:1 (NIV) Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children

Read all of Ephesians 5

Listen to Ephesians 5

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Un dia a la Vez - Tuesday, Sept 17, 2019

Los ángeles

Fortalézcanse con el gran poder del Señor. Pónganse toda la armadura de Dios para que puedan hacer frente a las artimañas del diablo.

~ Efesios 6:10-11 (NVI)

Ayer analizamos que los ángeles existen y la Biblia registra su existencia. Sin embargo, hay personas que se desvían con este asunto. Estudian los ángeles más que la misma Biblia. Los endiosan y hablan de los milagros que hicieron los ángeles en sus vidas. Así que dejan a Dios en un segundo plano. Debemos reconocer que los ángeles existen, pero sin olvidarnos de Dios.

Nada ni nadie debe ser más importante en nuestras vidas que Dios.

Me impresionó mucho saber que el diablo no es como lo pintan: rojo, con cuernos y cola. Resulta que el diablo era un ángel muy hermoso llamado Lucero, o Lucifer, que significa «hijo de la mañana». Su gran pecado fue su enorme egoísmo y su deseo de igualarse a Dios o estar por encima de Él. Deseaba que lo adoraran y le reconocieran como a Dios.

A raíz de esto, se formó una gran batalla en el cielo y expulsaron de allí a Lucifer y la tercera parte de ellos, a los que se les conoce como ángeles caídos. A partir de ese momento, Satanás se convirtió en el príncipe de este mundo que solo desea robar, matar y destruir.

Por eso debemos entender que el enemigo quiere siempre hacernos daño. Entonces, cuando nos quiere tentar y hacer caer, se presenta con cosas agradables y llamativas, pues quiere engañarnos.

Por eso, mi invitación hoy es a que nos pongamos la armadura de Dios, a fin de estar firme contra todas las cosas que trama el diablo en nuestra contra.

Un Día a la Vez Copyright © by Claudia Pinzón
Ayer analizamos que los ángeles existen y la Biblia registra su existencia. Sin embargo, hay personas que se desvían con este asunto. Estudian los ángeles más que la misma Biblia.

Standing Strong Through the Storm - Tuesday, Sept 17, 2019

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

~ Matthew 5:42 (NIV)

The second part of the Great Commandment (Luke 10:27) is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan. In this story Jesus defines our neighbor as anyone in need of help. This kind of love is very practical.

It was the middle of winter and the elderly Christian in prison had a badly infected ear. He thanked God that he had been able to keep his fur hat affording him some protection from the biting cold. At least he had a pillow at night.

One day one of his cellmates asked him for his fur hat. The Christian had been willing to share food with his cellmates, but felt he could not give up his hat. After all, he had an infected ear. He needed that hat.

Through the night he wrestled with his conscience. He was haunted by this scripture: “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42).

After a night of prayer, he sought forgiveness before God and was ready to hand over his hat. In the morning he learned that during the night the guards had taken the cellmate to another prison with a more severe climate.

That same morning, the guards held a routine check of the cell and among the personal objects confiscated was the believer’s fur hat.

He had tried to keep something that he was about to lose and God wanted to see the hat used for continued good with the other prisoner. Many years later, this believer remembered that lesson in Christian maturity which the Holy Spirit taught him.

RESPONSE: Today I will live in the realization that people are more important than things.

PRAYER: Help me, Lord, to not be tied down by my possessions but be open to sharing what You have given me with others in need.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS), a daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. © 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission.

LHM Daily Devotions - September 17, 2019 - The Price of a Person

"The Price of a Person"

Sep. 17, 2019

Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat? The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."

~ Amos 8:4-7 (ESV)

When I read this part of the Bible, I remember a hot summer day years ago when I went to help a refugee with some paperwork at her job. She was 70 years old and tiny, with bones like a hummingbird's. She did assembly work in St. Louis; I hope she made minimum wage, but I can't be sure. I am very sure that she had no insurance through her job.

What I remember most was the blast of hot air that came at me when I walked into the building she stood in. "Stood," I say; there were no chairs for the workers, and not even a floor. The building was nothing but a metal hut set up in the middle of the asphalt parking lot near a strip mall. There was no air conditioning and no windows. It must have been 120 degrees in there. I was not surprised when she fainted.

We didn't know how to help her. Oh, we took her to the hospital—which resulted in a bill she could not afford to pay. But she could not afford to quit working in the sweatshop: her family needed the money. And there were no other jobs she was qualified for—none, at least, that didn't have the same impossible working conditions.

What was the value of her life?

To her children and grandchildren, she meant everything. They loved her, and she was their breadwinner. To her bosses, well, she was an easily replaceable worker. There is always another desperate person to do this work. And everybody knows the sweatshop won't get shut down.

And the work itself? Well, it was some sort of plastic toy, I believe. The kind of thing that works for a week and then gets broken and tossed in the trash. The cost of a few dollars. The value of her life.
"That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals." These things—injustice and danger and deep, deep poverty—they happen in America. They may not be happening to you. They are certainly happening around you, possibly to your children or grandchildren, probably to your neighbors.

And who cares? You, I hope. The Lord Jesus, certainly. Because He is the One who bought every single one of us human beings at infinite cost, at the cost of His own life. You are not a disposable plastic toy in Jesus' eyes; you are cherished and valuable, whether you are rich or poor, comfortable or suffering. And so are your neighbors.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to grasp the value You set on us, and to show that same love and value to my neighbors. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

• What is the most valuable thing you own? How do you treat it?
• What helps you to remember the immense value Jesus set on your life?
• Do you know anyone who is suffering right now? How can you help?

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo. Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
What is the most valuable thing you own?

Devocional del CPTLN del 17 de Septiembre de 2019 -

ALIMENTO DIARIO

El precio de una persona

17 de Septiembre de 2019

Oigan esto, ustedes, los que explotan a los menesterosos y dejan en la ruina a los pobres de la tierra. Ustedes dicen: «¿Cuándo pasará la fiesta de luna nueva? ¡Entonces podremos vender el trigo! ¿Y cuándo pasará el día de reposo, para que abramos los graneros? ¡Achicaremos la medida, subiremos el precio, y adulteraremos la balanza! ¡Así podremos comprar a los pobres por dinero, y a los necesitados a cambio de un par de zapatos! ¡Hasta los desechos del trigo podremos vender!» Pero el Señor ha jurado por la gloria de Jacob: «¡No voy a olvidar ninguna de sus malas acciones!»

~ Amós 8:4-7 (RVC)

Cuando leo esta parte de la Biblia, recuerdo un caluroso día de verano hace años cuando fui a ayudar a una refugiada con algunos documentos en su trabajo. Tenía 70 años y era pequeña, con huesos como los de un colibrí. Hacía trabajos de ensamblaje en St. Louis; imagino que ganaría el salario mínimo, pero no puedo estar segura. De lo que sí estoy muy segura es de que no tenía seguro de salud a través de su trabajo.

Lo que más recuerdo fue la ráfaga de aire caliente que me llegó cuando entré en el edificio en el que ella estaba de pie. "De pie", digo; no había sillas para los trabajadores, y ni siquiera piso. El edificio no era más que una cabaña de metal en medio del estacionamiento de asfalto cerca de un centro comercial. No había aire acondicionado ni ventanas. Debe haber estado a 120 grados allí. No me sorprendió cuando se desmayó.

No sabíamos cómo ayudarla. La llevamos al hospital, lo que resultó en una factura que no podía pagar. Pero no podía darse el lujo de dejar de trabajar en la fábrica de explotación: su familia necesitaba el dinero. Y no había otros trabajos para los cuales estuviera capacitada, al menos ninguno que no tuviera las mismas condiciones de trabajo imposibles.

¿Cuánto valía su vida?

Para sus hijos y nietos, ella valía todo. La amaban y ella era el sostén de la familia. Para sus jefes, bueno, ella era una trabajadora fácilmente reemplazable. Siempre hay otra persona desesperada que quiera hacer ese trabajo. Y todos sabemos que a la fábrica de explotación no la van a cerrar.

¿Y el trabajo en sí? Bueno, creo que era una especie de juguete de plástico. El tipo de cosa que sirve durante una semana y luego se rompe y se tira a la basura. El costo de unos pocos dólares. El valor de su vida.

"¡Así podremos comprar a los pobres por dinero, y a los necesitados a cambio de un par de zapatos!" Estas cosas: injusticia y peligro y pobreza profunda, suceden en Estados Unidos. Puede que te estén pasando a ti. Ciertamente están sucediendo a tu alrededor, posiblemente a tus hijos o nietos, probablemente a tus vecinos.

¿Y a quién le importa? A ti, espero. Al Señor Jesús, ciertamente. Porque Él es quien compró a cada uno de nosotros, seres humanos, a un costo infinito: a costa de su propia vida. A los ojos de Jesús no eres un juguete de plástico desechable; eres apreciado y valioso, ya seas rico o pobre, estés cómodo o sufriendo. Y también tus vecinos.

ORACIÓN: Querido Señor, ayúdame a comprender el valor que Tú nos asignas y a mostrar el mismo amor y valor a mi prójimo. Amén.

Dra. Kari Vo

Para reflexionar:

• ¿Qué te ayuda a recordar el inmenso valor que Jesús da a tu vida?
• ¿Conoces a alguien que esté sufriendo en este momento? ¿Cómo puedes ayudar?

© Copyright 2019 Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones. Que a través de estos devocionales, la Palabra de Dios te refresque en tu diario caminar.
¿Qué te ayuda a recordar el inmenso valor que Jesús da a tu vida?

Nuestro Pan Diario - Más que agua

Más que agua

Leer: Gálatas 3:23-29 | La Biblia en un año: Proverbios 27−29 2 Corintios 10

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Porque todos los que habéis sido bautizados en Cristo, de Cristo estáis revestidos (v. 27).

Uno de mis recuerdos más tempranos de la niñez en la iglesia es el de un pastor que caminaba por el pasillo y nos alentaba a «recordar las aguas del bautismo». ¿Recordar las aguas? —me preguntaba yo—. ¿Cómo se recuerda el agua? Luego, nos rociaba a todos con agua, lo cual, a esa edad, me encantaba pero también me confundía.

¿Por qué debemos pensar en el bautismo? Cuando una persona se bautiza, hay mucho más que solo agua: simboliza que por la fe en Jesús, fuimos revestidos de Él (Gálatas 3:27). En otras palabras, se celebra que pertenecemos a Cristo, y que Él vive en y a través de nosotros.

Como si esto significara poco, el pasaje nos dice que si hemos sido revestidos de Cristo, nuestra identidad está en Él: somos hijos de Dios (v. 26). Y como tales, por la fe en Jesucristo —no por cumplir la ley del Antiguo Testamento—, recompusimos nuestra relación con Dios (vv. 23-25). Fuimos liberados y unidos por medio de Cristo, y ahora somos de Él (v. 29).

Por eso, hay muy buenas razones para recordar el bautismo y todo lo que este representa. No es el simple hecho en sí, sino que demuestra que le pertenecemos a Cristo y somos hijos de Dios. Nuestra identidad, futuro y libertad espiritual se encuentran en Él.

Dios, ayúdame a recordar siempre que por la fe en Jesús, soy tu hijo.

¿Qué significa para ti estar revestido de Cristo y pertenecerle? ¿Cómo puedes celebrar con regularidad el significado del bautismo?

Por Peter Chin

© 2019 Ministerios Nuestro Pan Diario
Cuando una persona se bautiza, hay mucho más que solo agua: simboliza que por la fe en Jesús, fuimos revestidos de Él.