Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Psalm 87
Fundamenta ejus
1 His foundation is on the holy mountains. *
The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
2 Glorious things are spoken of you, *
Zion, city of our God.
3 I record Egypt and Babylon as those who know me; *
behold Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia:
in Zion were they born.
4 And of Zion it shall be said, ‘Each one was born in her, *
and the Most High himself has established her.’
5 The Lord will record as he writes up the peoples, *
‘This one also was born there.’
6 And as they dance they shall sing, *
‘All my fresh springs are in you.’
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."
Evening Prayer I
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! *
My soul has a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
2 The sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young: *
at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
3 Blessed are they who dwell in your house: *
they will always be praising you.
4 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, *
in whose heart are the highways to Zion,
5 Who going through the barren valley find there a spring, *
and the early rains will clothe it with blessing.
6 They will go from strength to strength *
and appear before God in Zion.
7 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; *
listen, O God of Jacob.
8 Behold our defender, O God, *
and look upon the face of your anointed.
9 For one day in your courts *
is better than a thousand.
10 I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God *
than dwell in the tents of ungodliness.
11 For the Lord God is both sun and shield;
he will give grace and glory; *
no good thing shall the Lord withhold
from those who walk with integrity.
12 O Lord God of hosts, *
blessed are those who put their trust in you.
1 Alleluia.
O praise God in his holiness; *
praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts; *
praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with the blast of the trumpet; *
praise him upon the harp and lyre.
4 Praise him with timbrel and dances; *
praise him upon the strings and pipe.
5 Praise him with ringing cymbals; *
praise him upon the clashing cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath *
praise the Lord.
Alleluia.
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.
See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’
And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders.
So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers.
When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.
But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.’
The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.
After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers.
And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us;
and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.
Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.’
The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.
Morning Prayer
1 Be joyful in God, all the earth; *
sing the glory of his name;
sing the glory of his praise.
2 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! *
Because of your great strength
your enemies shall bow before you.
3 ‘All the earth shall worship you, *
sing to you, sing praise to your name.’
4 Come now and behold the works of God, *
how wonderful he is in his dealings with humankind.
5 He turned the sea into dry land;
the river they passed through on foot; *
there we rejoiced in him.
6 In his might he rules for ever;
his eyes keep watch over the nations; *
let no rebel rise up against him.
7 Bless our God, O you peoples; *
make the voice of his praise to be heard,
8 Who holds our souls in life *
and suffers not our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us; *
you have tried us as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare; *
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water; *
but you brought us out into a place of liberty.
12 I will come into your house with burnt offerings
and will pay you my vows, *
which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you fat burnt sacrifices
with the smoke of rams; *
I will sacrifice oxen and goats.
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, *
and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.
15 I called out to him with my mouth *
and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had nursed evil in my heart, *
the Lord would not have heard me,
17 But in truth God has heard me; *
he has heeded the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, *
nor withheld his loving mercy from me.
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.
And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me.
He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day.
The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD."
Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him,
saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’
Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying,
‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me.
As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.
I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”
But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”
But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.
At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were.
The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.
He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter;
he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.”
And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’
When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’
Evening Prayer II
1 The Lord is king: let the earth rejoice; *
let the multitude of the isles be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness are round about him; *
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him *
and burns up his enemies on every side.
4 His lightnings lit up the world; *
the earth saw it and trembled.
5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, *
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declared his righteousness, *
and all the peoples have seen his glory.
7 Confounded be all who worship carved images
and delight in mere idols. *
Bow down before him, all you gods.
8 Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced, *
because of your judgements, O Lord.
9 For you, Lord, are most high over all the earth; *
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; *
he preserves the lives of his faithful
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light has sprung up for the righteous *
and joy for the true of heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, *
and give thanks to his holy name.
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *
before the gods will I sing praise to you.
2 I will bow down towards your holy temple and praise your name,
because of your love and faithfulness; *
for you have glorified your name
and your word above all things.
3 In the day that I called to you, you answered me; *
you put new strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, *
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, *
that great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Though the Lord be high, he watches over the lowly; *
as for the proud, he regards them from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you will preserve me; *
you will stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies;
your right hand will save me.
8 The Lord shall make good his purpose for me; *
your loving-kindness, O Lord, endures for ever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God."
And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength--
he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.
But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us—
we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.
And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) —those leaders contributed nothing to me.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised
(for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles),
and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.