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.

Filled with Your Spirit, Bold and Diligent--May 20, 2018



O Lord our God, we rejoice before you,
remembering how you have set us free.
May our meditation be pleasing to you.
Fill us with your Holy Spirit, and we will
worship you in spirit and in truth, speaking
your word with boldness, and diligently
obeying your commandments.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 104; 150; 29; 33
Deut. 16:9-12
Acts 4:18-21, 23-33
John 4:19-26

Selected Verses
Ps. 104:34
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
          for I rejoice in the LORD. 

Deut. 16:11-12
Rejoice before the LORD your God--you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you--at the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.  Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and diligently observe these statutes.  [The LORD to Israel]

Acts 4:31
When [Peter, John, and their friends] had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

John 4:23-24
"…But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."  [Jesus to the woman of Samaria]

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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