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.

To Seize the Hope Set Before Us--Jan. 18, 2015


If only we would seize the hope
you have set before us, Jesus!

If only we would listen to you,
then we could walk in your ways,
reaping that for which we did not labor.

You are the one who blots out our transgressions
for your own sake, and who will not remember our sins.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 19; 150; 81; 113
Isa. 43:14-44:5
Heb. 6:17-6:10
John 4:27-42

Selected Verses
Ps. 81:13
O that my people would listen to me,
          that Israel would walk in my ways! 

Isa. 43:25
 I, I am He
          who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
          and I will not remember your sins. 

Heb. 6:18
…so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. 

John 4:38
"…I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.  Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”  [Jesus to his disciples]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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