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.

Why Do We Love You, Jesus?--Feb. 6, 2014


 Why do we love you, Lord Jesus?
Is it that you hear our voice
and our supplications--
when our loved ones
die, you comfort us?
Because you have the
words of eternal life and
are the Holy One of God?
Or that disregarding shame,
you endured the cross, and you
are seated at the right hand of God?
Where could we go but to you, Jesus?

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 116, 147:12-20; 26; 130
Gen. 23:1-20
Heb. 11:32-12:2
John 6:60-71

Selected Verses

Ps. 116:1
I love the LORD, because he has heard
          my voice and my supplications.

Gen. 23:3-4
Abraham rose up from beside his dead, and said to the Hittites, "I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight."

Heb. 12:2
…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

John 6:68-69
Simon Peter answered [Jesus], "Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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