Jer. 26:16–24
26:16 Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, “This man should not be condemned to die. For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” 17Then some of the elders of Judah stepped forward and spoke to all the people gathered there. They said, 18“Micah from Moresheth prophesied during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, ‘The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says,
“‘Zion will become a plowed field.
Jerusalem will become a pile of rubble.
The temple mount will become a mere wooded ridge.”’
19“King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah did not put him to death, did they? Did not Hezekiah show reverence for the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? Did not the Lord forgo destroying them as he threatened he would? But we are on the verge of bringing great disaster on ourselves.”
20Now there was another man who prophesied as the Lord’s representative against this city and this land just as Jeremiah did. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. 21When King Jehoiakim and all his bodyguards and officials heard what he was prophesying, the king sought to have him executed. But Uriah found out about it and fled to Egypt out of fear. 22However, King Jehoiakim sent some men to Egypt, including Elnathan son of Achbor, 23and they brought Uriah back from there. They took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him executed and had his body thrown into the burial place of the common people.
24However, Ahikam son of Shaphan used his influence to keep Jeremiah from being handed over and executed by the people.
(NET Bible)Ps. 150
150:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in the sky, which testifies to his strength!
2Praise him for his mighty acts;
praise him for his surpassing greatness!
3Praise him with the blast of the horn;
praise him with the lyre and the harp!
4Praise him with the tambourine and with dancing;
praise him with stringed instruments and the flute!
5Praise him with loud cymbals;
praise him with clanging cymbals!
6Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
(NET Bible)Acts 15:36–16:10
15:36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing.” 37Barnabas wanted to bring John called Mark along with them too, 38but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. 39They had a sharp disagreement, so that they parted company. Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus, 40but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters. 41He passed through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
16:1 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek. 4As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey. 5So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day.
6They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 7When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this, 8so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas. 9A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
(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.