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.

Purify Me from Dead Works--Jan. 28, 2020


Purify my conscience from dead works,
O Christ, that I may worship the Living God.
Surely, you are my helper, the upholder of my life.
How am I to know this—through your Spirit.
Help me, O Spirit, and help me want
to be made well.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 54; 146; 28; 99
Gen. 15:1-11, 17-21
Heb. 9:1-14
John 5:1-18

Selected Verses
Ps. 54:4
But surely, God is my helper;
          the Lord is the upholder of my life.

Gen. 15:7-8
Then [the LORD] said to [Abram], “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”  But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 

Heb. 9:14
…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

John 5:6
When Jesus saw [the invalid] lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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