Daily Readings - 26/12/2025

^6:8 Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people.

^6:9 But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen,[*c] and others from Cilicia and Asia.

^6:10 They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said.

^7:54 They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.

^7:55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.

^7:56 ‘I can see heaven thrown open’ he said ‘and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

^7:57 At this all the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they all rushed at him,

^7:58 sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses[*q] put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

^7:59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’.

^31:1 In you, Yahweh, I take shelter; never let me be disgraced. In your righteousness deliver me, rescue me,

^31:2 turn your ear to me, make haste! Be a sheltering rock for me, a walled fortress to save me!

^31:3 For you are my rock, my fortress; for the sake of your name, guide me, lead me!

^31:4 Pull me out of the net they have spread for me, for you are my refuge;

^31:5 into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, Yahweh. God of truth,

^31:6 you hate those who serve worthless idols; but I put my trust in Yahweh:

^31:7 I will exult, and rejoice in your love! You, who have seen my wretchedness, and known the miseries of my soul,

^31:8 have not handed me over to the enemy, you have given my feet space and to spare.

^31:9 Take pity on me, Yahweh, I am in trouble now. Grief wastes away my eye, my throat, my inmost parts.

^31:10 For my life is worn out with sorrow, my years with sighs; my strength yields under misery, my bones are wasting away.

^31:11 To every one of my oppressors I am contemptible, loathsome to my neighbours, to my friends a thing of fear. Those who see me in the street hurry past me;

^31:12 I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts, something discarded.

^31:13 I hear their endless slanders, threats from every quarter, as they combine against me, plotting to take my life.

^31:14 But I put my trust in you, Yahweh, I say, ‘You are my God’.

^31:15 My days are in your hand, rescue me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors;

^31:16 let your face smile on your servant, save me in your love.

^31:17 I invoke you; Yahweh; do not let me be disgraced, let the disgrace fall on the wicked! May they go speechless to Sheol,

^31:18 their lying lips struck dumb for those insolent slurs on the virtuous, for that arrogance and contempt.

^31:19 Yahweh, how great your goodness, reserved for those who fear you, bestowed on those who take shelter in you, for all mankind to see!

^31:20 Safe in your presence you hide them far from the wiles of men; inside your tent you shelter them far from the war of tongues.

^31:21 Blessed be Yahweh, who performs marvels of love for me (in a fortress-city)!

^31:22 In my alarm I exclaimed, ‘I have been snatched out of your sight!’ Yet you heard my petition when I called to you for help.

^31:23 Love Yahweh, all you devout: Yahweh, protector of the faithful, will repay the arrogant with interest.

^31:24 Be strong, let your heart be bold, all you who hope in Yahweh!

^10:17 ‘Beware of men: they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues.

^10:18 You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the pagans.

^10:19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes;

^10:20 because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.

^10:21 ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.

^10:22 You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.