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.

Melt Our Frozen Hearts--Feb. 8, 2018


Our hearts are frozen in fury, O God;
Send out your word, and melt them,
that we may bless rather than curse,
and leave vengeance in your hands,
for this is what is pleasing to you.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62
Gen. 27:30-45
Rom. 12:9-21
John 8:21-32

Selected Verses
Ps. 147:18
[The LORD] sends out his word, and melts them;
          he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow. 

Gen. 27:42-44
But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.  Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away…"

Rom. 12:14, 19
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  …Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

John 8:29
"…And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him."  [Jesus, to the Pharisees]

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