Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Proverbs 6:20–35

²⁰My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. ²¹Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. ²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. ²³For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, ²⁴keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. ²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, ²⁶for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. ²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? ²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? ²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. ³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. ³²But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. ³³Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; ³⁴for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. ³⁵He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.

 

 

Psalm 104

¹Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. ²He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent ³and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. ⁴He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. ⁵He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. ⁶You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. ⁷But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; ⁸they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. ⁹You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. ¹⁰He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. ¹¹They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. ¹²The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. ¹³He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. ¹⁴He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-- bringing forth food from the earth: ¹⁵wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. ¹⁶The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. ¹⁷There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees. ¹⁸The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys. ¹⁹The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. ²⁰You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. ²¹The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. ²²The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. ²³Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening. ²⁴How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. ²⁵There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large and small. ²⁶There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. ²⁷These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. ²⁸When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. ²⁹When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. ³⁰When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. ³¹May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works-- ³²he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. ³³I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. ³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. ³⁵But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD.

 

 

Hebrews 10:11–18

¹¹Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, ¹⁴because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

¹⁶"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

¹⁷Then he adds:

"Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

¹⁸And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.