August 31, 2019

Matthew 1:18-25 NIV

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be
married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the
Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose
her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She
will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people
from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God
with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and
took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a
son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Luke 5:1-11
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around
him and listening to the word of God. 2He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the
fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to
Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people
from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the
nets for a catch.”
5Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But
because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to
break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came
and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a
sinful man!” 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11So they
pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

September 1, 2019
Genesis 28:10-22, 35:9-14
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for
the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and
lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top
reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above
it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of
Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants
will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north
and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with
you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not
leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not
aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the
house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a
pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called
Luz.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I
am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s
household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be
God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said
to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.”
So he named him Israel.
And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a
community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I
gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after
you.” Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.
Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a
drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.

1 John 4:9-19
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that
we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and
his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have
seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone
acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we
know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made
complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are
like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us.

September 2, 2019
Luke 18; 9-14
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told
this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The
Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers,
evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and
said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Col. 3:12-14

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a
grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love,
which binds them all together in perfect unity.

September 3, 2019
Ruth 1: 1-21
Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons
1In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah,
together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2The man’s name
was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They
were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4They married Moabite
women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5both Mahlon
and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
6When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7With her two daughters-in-law she left
the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of
Judah.
8Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the
Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9May the Lord
grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10and said to her, “We will go back with you to your
people.”
11But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any
more sons, who could become your husbands? 12Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have
another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then
gave birth to sons— 13would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No,
my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and
where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17Where you die I will
die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates
you and me.” 18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole
town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very
bitter. 21I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has
afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Hebrews 12:15

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and
defile many.

September 4, 2019
Ephesians 2:11-18
Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by
those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now
in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in
one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were
near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

1 Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.

September 5, 2019
Psalms 24:1-10
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.,
Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors, The Lord Almighty—
that the King of glory may come in. he is the King of glory.
Who is he, this King of glory?

1 Timothy 1:17
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.