Jer. 26:1–15
26:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim of Judah. 2The Lord said, “Go stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. Speak out to all the people who are coming from the towns of Judah to worship in the Lord’s temple. Tell them everything I command you to tell them. Do not leave out a single word. 3Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. 4Tell them that the Lord says, ‘You must obey me; you must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. 5You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. But you have not paid any attention to them. 6If you do not obey me, then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”
7The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the Lord’s temple. 8Jeremiah had just barely finished saying all the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people when all at once some of the priests, the prophets, and the people grabbed him and shouted, “You deserve to die! 9How dare you claim the Lord’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the Lord’s temple.
10However, some of the officials of Judah heard about what was happening, and they rushed up to the Lord’s temple from the royal palace. They set up court at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s temple. 11Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said, “This man should be condemned to die because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so with your own ears.”
12Then Jeremiah made his defense before all the officials and all the people. “The Lord sent me to prophesy everything you have heard me say against this temple and against this city. 13But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would. 14As to my case, I am in your power. Do to me what you deem fair and proper. 15But you should take careful note of this: If you put me to death, you will bring on yourselves and this city and those who live in it the guilt of murdering an innocent man. For the Lord has sent me to speak all this where you can hear it. That is the truth!”
(NET Bible)Ps. 149
149:1 Praise the Lord.
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Praise him in the assembly of the godly.
2Let Israel rejoice in their Creator.
Let the people of Zion delight in their King.
3Let them praise his name with dancing.
Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp.
4For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he exalts the oppressed by delivering them.
5Let the godly rejoice because of their vindication.
Let them shout for joy upon their beds.
6May the praises of God be in their mouths
and a two-edged sword in their hands,
7in order to take revenge on the nations
and punish foreigners.
8The godly bind their enemies’ kings in chains
and their nobles in iron shackles,
9and execute the judgment to which their enemies have been sentenced.
All his loyal followers will be vindicated.
Praise the Lord.
(NET Bible)Acts 15:22–35
15:22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to send men chosen from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leaders among the brothers, to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. 23They sent this letter with them:
From the apostles and elders, your brothers, to the Gentile brothers and sisters in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings! 24Since we have heard that some have gone out from among us with no orders from us and have confused you, upsetting your minds by what they said, 25we have unanimously decided to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul, 26who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas who will tell you these things themselves in person. 28For it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place any greater burden on you than these necessary rules: 29that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from doing these things, you will do well. Farewell.
30So when they were dismissed, they went down to Antioch, and after gathering the entire group together, they delivered the letter. 31When they read it aloud, the people rejoiced at its encouragement. 32Both Judas and Silas, who were prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with a long speech. 33After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming (along with many others) the word of the Lord.
(NET Bible)As early as 1523 [Luther] wrote in Vom Anbetendes Sakraments: “Beware of this; forget knowledge and understanding that are so vainly exercised as to how it is possible for flesh and blood to be present, and because they cannot comprehend it refuse to believe it. Hold fast to the word that Christ spoke, ‘Take, this is my body, this is my blood.’ We must not wickedly trifle with God’s words as those who, without any clearly expressed warrant, want to give another meaning to some word differing from its natural meaning, as those do who sacrilegiously try to twist the word is into meaning ‘it signifies,’ and so distort this statement of Christ, ‘ is is my body,’ that it is to mean, ‘this signifies my body.’ But we shall and will simply stand by Christ’s words; He will not betray us, and we will repel such error with no other sword than the fact that Christ does not say, ‘this signifies my body, but this is my body.’ For if such evil frivolity be permitted in one place so that we could say, without any foundation in Scripture, that ‘is’ means ‘signifies,’ there would be no protection against a similar interpretation in any other case, and all Scripture would be nullified because there would be no reason why such wicked trifling could be permitted in one case and denied in another.” (30)
–Johann Michael Reu, Luther on the Scriptures
This daily Bible reading guide, Reading the Word of God, was conceived and prepared as a result of the ongoing discussions between representatives of three church bodies: Lutheran Church—Canada (LCC), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). The following individuals have represented their church bodies and approved this introduction and the reading guide: LCC: President Robert Bugbee; NALC: Bishop John Bradosky, Revs. Mark Chavez, James Nestingen, and David Wendel; LCMS: Revs. Albert Collver, Joel Lehenbauer, John Pless, and Larry Vogel.