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.

Holding Fast to What Is Good--Dec. 8, 2020


Jesus, you knew how to prepare for teaching;

people would rise early in the morning to hear you.

When their cares were many, you cheered their souls.

Why, O Lord, should I be wise in my own eyes, 

shrewd in my own sight, forgetting you?

 

Don’t let me quench the Spirit, 

but help me test everything

and hold fast to what

is good.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 33; 146; 85; 94

Isa. 5:18-25

1 Thess. 5:12-28

Luke 21:29-38

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 94:19

When the cares of my heart are many,

          your consolations cheer my soul.

 

Isa. 5:21

Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
     and shrewd in your own sight!

 

1 Thess. 5:19-21

Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good…

 

Luke 21:37-38

Every day [Jesus] was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called.  And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.


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