The Daily Lectionary for WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019

The Daily Lectionary

WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019

(Revised Common Lectionary Year A)

Psalm 21

(God comes with judgment and strength)

Thanksgiving for Victory
To the leader. A Psalm of David.
1  In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord,
     and in your help how greatly he exults!
2  You have given him his heart’s desire,
     and have not withheld the request of his lips.   Selah
3  For you meet him with rich blessings;
     you set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4  He asked you for life; you gave it to him—
     length of days forever and ever.
5  His glory is great through your help;
     splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6  You bestow on him blessings forever;
     you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7  For the king trusts in the Lord,
     and through the steadfast love of the Most High
         he shall not be moved.

8  Your hand will find out all your enemies;
     your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9  You will make them like a fiery furnace
     when you appear.
   The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
     and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring from the earth,
     and their children from among humankind.
11 If they plan evil against you,
     if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight;
     you will aim at their faces with your bows.

13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
     We will sing and praise your power.

Genesis 15:1-18

(God’s covenant with Abram)

God’s Covenant with Abram
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” 4 But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

7 Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.

Matthew 12:33-37

(A good tree bears good fruit)

A Tree and Its Fruit
12:33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

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 A. Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent in 2020, we will be in Year B. The year which ended at Advent 2019 was Year C. 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
The Daily Lectionary for WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019
Psalm 21; Genesis 15:1-18; Matthew 12:33-37

The Daily Prayer for WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019

The Daily Prayer

WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019

In 1981 scores of Salvadoran troops from the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion occupied the town of El Mozote in rural El Salvador, interrogating its citizens about the whereabouts of guerilla troops suspected to be in the area. Though the residents of El Mozote, many of them born-again evangelicals, were known to be neutral in the conflict between the Salvadoran government and the FMLN resistance, nearly one thousand men, women, and children were systematically killed in the largest massacre of modern Latin American history.

The inscription on a memorial in El Mozote’s town square reads, “They did not die, they are with us, with you, and with all humanity.”

Lord, we give thanks for the faithful who have gone before us. Strengthen us by their witness of courage and help us live lives that might encourage those who long for the gift of faith. Amen.

Verse of the Day for WEDNESDAY, December 11, 2019

Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Read all of Isaiah 7

Listen to Isaiah 7

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 - Miércoles 11 de Diciembre de 2019

Lo único eterno

Más bien, acumulen para sí tesoros en el cielo, donde ni la polilla ni el óxido carcomen, ni los ladrones se meten a robar.

—Mateo 6:20 (NVI)

¡Qué consuelo saber que aunque nuestra madre y nuestro padre nos abandonen, Dios nunca nos abandonará! Esta es una hermosa promesa que vemos cumplida en cada uno de los que han experimentado el abandono. En realidad, Dios se encarga de recogerlos en sus brazos y decirles: «Tranquilos, no teman, yo estoy con ustedes».

Las cosas eternas vienen de Dios. Todo lo que vemos en esta tierra, trabajos, bienes y demás, son extras, pues en cuanto partamos de este mundo, «nada» nos podremos llevar.

Por eso sabiamente la Palabra dice: «No acumulen para sí tesoros en la tierra» (Mateo 6:19), pues nuestro corazón se puede dañar a causa del dinero que algún día tendremos que abandonar.

Amigos, Dios nos conoce a cada uno de nosotros a la perfección y puede saber si nuestro corazón está dañado por el dinero o las riquezas. Ahora bien, con esto no quiero decir que no puedes ser próspero y mantener un estilo de vida como mereces por ser hijo del Dueño del oro y de la plata.

No obstante, si tus riquezas valen más, ocupan el primer lugar en tu corazón y han desplazado a Dios, tienes invertido el orden de estos principios.

Hoy es tu oportunidad de rendir esta esfera de tu vida a Dios y Él, que es grande y poderoso, te ayudará..

Un Día a la Vez Copyright © by Claudia Pinzón
Esta es una hermosa promesa que vemos cumplida en cada uno de los que han experimentado el abandono.

Standing Strong Through the Storm - Wednesday, December 11, 2019

DELIVERANCE COMES THROUGH ENDURANCE

…if we endure, we will also reign with him…

—2 Timothy 2:12a (NIV)

Our Open Doors colleague, Ron Boyd-MacMillan, shares the following insight from his teaching, “Why I Need to Encounter the Persecuted Church.”

Christian testimonies on the whole tend to be dominated by those who experienced wonderful deliverances: deliverances of healing, from cancer or other life threatening diseases, or deliverances from debt, or romance less marriages. Even when it comes to reporting on the persecuted, we read of Chinese house church leaders released from the grip of a deadly fever, or border guards with eyes miraculously blinded to the Bibles sitting in plain view on the back seat.

Yet it has to be said that deliverance stories—though they tend to grab the headlines—are not the norm. A dear old Christian in Beijing used to say to me, “Remember, for every deliverance story you hear, there are a hundred endurance stories.” He was right. The story of the persecuted is primarily one of endurance.

I never saw this principle better illustrated than in the story of an old Chinese woman known throughout the world as “Auntie Mabel.” A doctor in Beijing, she was well known for her bright Christian witness. She never married in order to look after a sick brother. Her family was wealthy. They lived in a large house in central Beijing. All that changed abruptly in 1949. Her large house marked her out as one of the landlord class. She was evicted from her house and forced to live in a garden shed, with just a stove, two deck chairs and an old bed.

The Red Guards—teenagers who were given power to direct the Cultural Revolution—began to visit her, beating her up, parading her in the streets, and forcing her to wear a placard with her crimes written on them. So thorough were the Red Guards that they erected a large sign outside her house declaring her a pariah because she had distributed “imperialistic literature.” Mabel was shunned by neighbors, victimized daily by her work gang, and regularly beaten by Red Guards.

Many years later, she knew why she endured all this. In the early eighties, after Mao died, Mabel began to receive a stream of visitors saying, “During the Cultural Revolution, there was a large sign outside your house full of your crimes. One of them was that you had distributed Bibles. So I’m here on the chance that you have some left.”

Amazingly that sign which made her life such a misery became the means of a new ministry. It kept people away from her during the Cultural Revolution, but afterwards, after she had endured, it drew them. A number of high-ranking members of the Communist Party in China today owe their faith to her endurance.

She reflected, “It’s been nice to know why. It helps my faith. But it was hard. Every day was hard. I can’t say I saw Jesus, or even felt him close most of the time. I just got the strength to keep going, and that was enough.”

God can deliver us by transforming a situation, but more often He delivers by giving us the strength to endure the situation. That way, others are transformed as well as ourselves.

RESPONSE: Today I will endure all challenges knowing that God has a purpose and I am in His hands.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for saints like Aunty Mabel who are such an inspiration and testimony.

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 - December 11, 2019 - JESUS FOR YOU

"JESUS FOR YOU"

Dec. 11, 2019

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."

—Luke 1:30-33 (ESV)

Notice what the angel says to Mary—or rather, what he doesn't say. The angel doesn't say, "The pre-existent Son of God, the Source of your existence, is beginning His incarnation and the redemption of the cosmos." Imagine Mary's face if he had said that!? If it had been me, I would have been babbling: "The who, the what?"

No, he explains what God is doing in a way Mary can understand. Mary knows about pregnancy and babies and what it means to raise them. And as a good Jewish girl, she knows all about the coming Messiah, the Savior of her people.

What God is saying to Mary was this: "This Jesus is for you." He is for you personally, not for far-off theologians or professors at some college. He is your Savior. He is God-with-you, both your child and your Lord.

And God goes on saying this to each one of us, doesn't He? This Jesus is your Savior—the One who is with you in your troubled life and sets you free from the power of evil. He is the One who will walk with you even through death. He will raise you—you personally!—from the dead on the day that He comes back, because you are His and He is yours.

THE PRAYER: Lord, thank You that You have given Yourself to me as my Savior. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

• Have you taken care of a baby? Is it an easy or hard job? Why?
• What is your favorite name or title for Jesus? Why?
• What does it mean to you that Jesus is for you?

Advent Devotions were 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).
Have you taken care of a baby? Is it an easy or hard job? Why?

CPTLN devocional del 11 de Diciembre de 2019 - Jesús para ti

ADVIENTO—NAVIDAD 2019

Jesús para ti

11 de Diciembre de 2019

El ángel le dijo: "María, no temas. Dios te ha concedido su gracia. Vas a quedar encinta, y darás a luz un hijo, y le pondrás por nombre JESÚS. Éste será un gran hombre, y lo llamarán Hijo del Altísimo. Dios, el Señor, le dará el trono de David, su padre, y reinará sobre la casa de Jacob para siempre, y su reino no tendrá fin."

—Lucas 1:30-33 (RVC)

Presta atención a lo que el ángel le dice a María, o más bien, a lo que no le dice. El ángel no dice: "El preexistente Hijo de Dios, la fuente de tu existencia está comenzando su encarnación y la redención del cosmos." ¡Imagina la cara de María si él hubiera dicho eso! Si hubiera sido yo, habría balbuceado: "¿Quién, qué, cómo?"

No, el ángel explica lo que Dios está haciendo de una manera que María puede entender. María sabe sobre el embarazo y los bebés y lo que significa criarlos. Y como una buena niña judía, sabe todo sobre el Mesías venidero, el Salvador de su pueblo.

Lo que Dios le estaba diciendo a María fue: "Este Jesús es para ti." Él es para ti, personalmente, no para ciertos teólogos o profesores lejanos en alguna universidad. Él es tu Salvador. Él es "Dios contigo", él es tanto tu hijo como tu Señor.

Y Dios sigue diciéndonos esto a cada uno de nosotros. Este Jesús es tu Salvador, el que está contigo en tu vida problemática y te libera del poder del mal. Él es quien caminará contigo incluso a través de la muerte. Él te resucitará de los muertos -¡a ti personalmente!- el día que regrese en gloria, porque tú eres suyo y él es tuyo.

ORACIÓN: Señor, gracias porque te has entregado a mí como mi Salvador. En tu nombre. Amén.

Dra. Kari Vo

Para reflexionar:

• ¿Cuál es tu nombre o título favorito para Jesús? ¿Por qué?
• ¿Qué significa para ti que Jesús es para ti?

© Copyright 2019 Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones. ¡Utilice estas devociones en sus boletines! Usado con permiso. Todos los derechos reservados por la Int'l LLL.
¿Cuál es tu nombre o título favorito para Jesús? ¿Por qué?

Ministérios Pão Diário - É todo um presente!

É todo um presente!


Leia: Efésios 2:1-9
 | A Bíblia em um ano: Oseias 5–8; Apocalipse 2


Baixe a versão MP3

Porque pela graça sois salvos, mediante a fé; e isto não vem de vós; é dom de Deus.

—Efésios 2:8


O Café Rendezvous em Londres tem iluminação agradável, sofás confortáveis e o aroma de café no ar. O que ele não tem são os preços. Começou, originalmente como um projeto de uma igreja local, mas o lugar foi transformado um ano depois que começou. Os gerentes sentiram que Deus os chamava para fazer algo radical, “oferecer um menu grátis”. Hoje você pode pedir um café, bolo, ou sanduíche sem custo. Não há sequer uma caixa de doação. Tudo é um presente.

Perguntei ao gerente o porquê de serem tão generosos. “Estamos apenas tentando tratar as pessoas como Deus nos trata”, disse ele. “Deus nos dá quer o agradeçamos ou não. Ele é generoso conosco além do que podemos imaginar.”

Jesus morreu para nos livrar de nossos pecados e reconciliar-nos com Deus. Ele se levantou do túmulo e está vivo agora. Por isso, cada coisa errada que fizemos pode ser perdoada, e podemos ter uma nova vida hoje (Efésios 2:1-5). E uma das coisas mais incríveis sobre isso é que é tudo gratuito. Não podemos comprar a nova vida que Jesus oferece. Não podemos nem doar para custear o gasto (vv.8,9). É tudo um presente.

À medida que aquelas pessoas servem seus bolos e cafés, demonstram aos outros um vislumbre da generosidade de Deus. Foi-nos oferecida a vida eterna gratuitamente porque Jesus já pagou essa dívida.

A vida eterna é um presente pronto para ser recebido.

por Sheridan Voysey

© 2019 Ministérios Pão Diário
O Café Rendezvous em Londres tem iluminação agradável, sofás confortáveis e o aroma de café no ar. O que ele não tem são os preços.