LEVITICUS 19:1-20:21
MARK 8:11-38
PSALM 42:1-11
PROVERBS 10:17
LEVITICUS 19:1-20:21
The LORD also said to Moses, 2 " Say this to the entire community of Israel: You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. 3 Each of you must show respect for your mother and father, and you must always observe my Sabbath days of rest, for I, the LORD, am your God. 4 Do not put your trust in idols or make gods of metal for yourselves. I, the LORD, am your God. 5 " When you sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, offer it properly so it will be accepted on your behalf. 6 You must eat it on the same day you offer it or on the next day at the latest. Any leftovers that remain until the third day must be burned. 7 If any of the offering is eaten on the third day, it will be contaminated, and I will not accept it. 8 If you eat it on the third day, you will answer for the sin of profaning what is holy to the LORD and must be cut off from the community.9 " When you harvest your crops, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. 10 It is the same with your grape crop--do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners who live among you, for I, the LORD, am your God. 11 " Do not steal. " Do not cheat one another. " Do not lie. 12 " Do not use my name to swear a falsehood and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. 13 " Do not cheat or rob anyone. " Always pay your hired workers promptly. 14 " Show your fear of God by treating the deaf with respect and by not taking advantage of the blind. I am the LORD. 15 " Always judge your neighbors fairly, neither favoring the poor nor showing deference to the rich. 16 " Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. " Do not try to get ahead at the cost of your neighbor's life, for I am the LORD. 17 " Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. " Confront your neighbors directly so you will not be held guilty for their crimes. 18 " Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. 19 " You must obey all my laws. " Do not breed your cattle with other kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of fabric. 20 " If a man has sexual intercourse with a slave girl who is committed to become someone else's wife, compensation must be paid. But since she had not been freed at the time, the couple will not be put to death. 21 The man, however, must bring a ram as a guilt offering and present it to the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle. 22 The priest will then make atonement for him before the LORD with the sacrificial ram of the guilt offering, and the man will be forgiven. 23 " When you enter the land and plant fruit trees, leave the fruit unharvested for the first three years and consider it forbidden. 24 In the fourth year the entire crop will be devoted to the LORD as an outburst of praise. 25 Finally, in the fifth year you may eat the fruit. In this way, its yield will be increased. I, the LORD, am your God. 26 " Never eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. " Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft. 27 " Do not trim off the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards. 28 " Never cut your bodies in mourning for the dead or mark your skin with tattoos, for I am the LORD. 29 " Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with promiscuity and detestable wickedness. 30 " Keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence toward my sanctuary, for I am the LORD. 31 " Do not rely on mediums and psychics, for you will be defiled by them. I, the LORD, am your God. 32 " Show your fear of God by standing up in the presence of elderly people and showing respect for the aged. I am the LORD. 33 " Do not exploit the foreigners who live in your land. 34 They should be treated like everyone else, and you must love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God. 35 " Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or volume. 36 Your scales and weights must be accurate. Your containers for measuring dry goods or liquids must be accurate. I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 You must be careful to obey all of my laws and regulations, for I am the LORD."20:1 THE LORD said to Moses, 2 " Give the Israelites these instructions, which apply to those who are Israelites by birth as well as to the foreigners living among you. If any among them devote their children as burnt offerings to Molech, they must be stoned to death by people of the community. 3 I myself will turn against them and cut them off from the community, because they have defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name by giving their children to Molech. 4 And if the people of the community ignore this offering of children to Molech and refuse to execute the guilty parents, 5 then I myself will turn against them and cut them off from the community, along with all those who commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. 6 " If any among the people are unfaithful by consulting and following mediums or psychics, I will turn against them and cut them off from the community. 7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I, the LORD, am your God. 8 Keep all my laws and obey them, for I am the LORD, who makes you holy. 9 " All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. 10 " If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. 11 If a man has intercourse with his father's wife, both the man and the woman must die, for they are guilty of a capital offense. 12 If a man has intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both must be put to death. They have acted contrary to nature and are guilty of a capital offense. 13 " The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have committed a detestable act and are guilty of a capital offense. 14 If a man has intercourse with both a woman and her mother, such an act is terribly wicked. All three of them must be burned to death to wipe out such wickedness from among you. 15 " If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed. 16 If a woman approaches a male animal to have intercourse with it, she and the animal must both be put to death. Both must die, for they are guilty of a capital offense. 17 " If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, it is a terrible disgrace. Both of them must be publicly cut off from the community. Since the man has had intercourse with his sister, he will suffer the consequences of his guilt. 18 If a man has intercourse with a woman suffering from a hemorrhage, both of them must be cut off from the community, because he exposed the source of her flow, and she allowed him to do it. 19 " If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, whether his mother's sister or his father's sister, he has violated a close relative. Both parties are guilty of a capital offense. 20 If a man has intercourse with his uncle's wife, he has violated his uncle. Both the man and woman involved are guilty of a capital offense and will die childless. 21 If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity. He has violated his brother, and the guilty couple will remain childless."
MARK 8:11-38
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came to argue with him. Testing him to see if he was from God, they demanded, " Give us a miraculous sign from heaven to prove yourself." 12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply and said, " Why do you people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I assure you, I will not give this generation any such sign." 13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake. 14 But the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any food, so there was only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, " Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod."16 They decided he was saying this because they hadn't brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said, " Why are you so worried about having no food? Won't you ever learn or understand? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ` You have eyes--can't you see? You have ears--can't you hear?' Don't you remember anything at all? 19 What about the five thousand men I fed with five loaves of bread? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?" " Twelve," they said. 20 " And when I fed the four thousand with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?" " Seven," they said. 21 " Don't you understand even yet?" he asked them.22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch and heal the man. 23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, " Can you see anything now?" 24 The man looked around. " Yes," he said, " I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around." 25 Then Jesus placed his hands over the man's eyes again. As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, " Don't go back into the village on your way home." 27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, " Who do people say I am?" 28 " Well," they replied, " some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets." 29 Then Jesus asked, " Who do you say I am?" Peter replied, " You are the Messiah." 30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then Jesus began to tell them that he, the Son of Man, would suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, and three days later he would rise again. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and told him he shouldn't say things like that. 33 Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then said to Peter very sternly, " Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's."34 Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. " If any of you wants to be my follower," he told them, " you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. 36 And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels."
PSALM 42:1-11
For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I come and stand before him?
3 Day and night, I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
" Where is this God of yours?"
4 My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
leading a great procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks--
it was the sound of a great celebration!
5 Why am I discouraged?
Why so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again--
my Savior and 6 my God!
Now I am deeply discouraged,
but I will remember your kindness--
from Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan,
from the land of Mount Mizar.
7 I hear the tumult of the raging seas
as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
8 Through each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me,
and through each night I sing his songs,
praying to God who gives me life.
9 " O God my rock," I cry,
" Why have you forsaken me?
Why must I wander in darkness,
oppressed by my enemies?"
10 Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound.
They scoff, " Where is this God of yours?"
11 Why am I discouraged?
Why so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again--
my Savior and my God!
PROVERBS 10:17
People who accept correction are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore it will lead others astray.
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