I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

In Every Good Work and Word--Dec. 17, 2017


Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father,
you have loved us and through grace you
have given us eternal comfort and good hope.
Comfort our hearts and strengthen them in every
good work and word; we can do nothing on our own,
and we must seek to do not our will, but your will.
Be mindful, O God, of your mercy and of your
steadfast love--they have been from of old.
Bestow them upon the peoples plucked
from the lands you have given them,
and show us how we can help.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 24; 150; 25;110
Amos 9:11-15
2 Thess. 2:1-3, 13-17
John 5:30-47

Selected Verses
Ps. 25:6
Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,
          for they have been from of old. 

Amos 9:15
I will plant them upon their land,
          and they shall never again be plucked up
          out of the land that I have given them,
                        says the LORD your God.

2 Thess. 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

John 5:30
"I can do nothing on my own.  As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.  …"  [Jesus to those who wanted to kill him]

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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