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.

The Source of Happiness--Oct. 5, 2012



Happiness does not come to those who receive lavish praise,
nor to stubborn heifers, and not to those who sit undecided.

Happy are those whose strength is in you, O God,
in whose heart are the highways to your kingdom.

Make us seekers of this kind of happiness,
for we call on the name of Jesus Christ.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 84; 148; 25; 40
Hosea 4:11-19
Acts 21:37-22:16
Luke 6:12-26

 

Selected Verses

Ps. 84:5
Happy are those whose strength is in you,
          in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

Hosea 4:16
Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?

Acts 22:16
"'…And now why do you delay?  Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on [Jesus'] name.'  …"  [Paul, telling the people who had been rioting what Ananias had said to him]

Luke 6:26
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.  …"  [Jesus to the great crowds after he came down from the mountain]
 

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