Daily Readings - 01/07/2026

^50:1 Yahweh, God of gods, speaks, he summons the earth. From east to west,

^50:2 from Zion, perfection of beauty, he shines.

^50:3 Let our God come, and be silent no more! Preceding him, a devouring fire, round him, a raging storm;

^50:4 he summons the heavens above and the earth, to his people’s trial:

^50:5 ‘Assemble my faithful before me who sealed my covenant by sacrifice!’

^50:6 Let the heavens proclaim his righteousness when God himself is judge! (Pause)

^50:8 ‘I am not finding fault with your sacrifices, those holocausts constantly before me;

^50:9 I do not claim one extra bull from your homes, nor one extra goat from your pens,

^50:10 ‘since all the forest animals are already mine, and the cattle on my mountains in their thousands;

^50:11 I know all the birds of the air, nothing moves in the field that does not belong to me.

^50:12 ‘If I were hungry, I should not tell you, since the world and all it holds is mine.

^50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink goats’ blood?

^50:14 ‘No, let thanksgiving be your sacrifice to God, fulfil the vows you make to the Most High;

^50:15 then you can invoke me in your troubles and I will rescue you, and you shall honour me.’

^50:16 But to the wicked man God says: ‘What business have you reciting my statutes, standing there mouthing my covenant,

^50:17 since you detest my discipline and thrust my words behind you?

^50:18 ‘You make friends with a thief as soon as you see one, you feel at home with adulterers,

^50:19 your mouth is given freely to evil and your tongue to inventing lies.

^50:20 ‘You sit there, slandering your own brother, you malign your own mother’s son.

^50:21 You do this, and expect me to say nothing?

^50:22 ‘You are leaving God out of account; take care! Or I will tear you to pieces where no one can rescue you!

^50:23 Whoever makes thanksgiving his sacrifice honours me; to the upright man I will show how God can save.’

^8:28 When he reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs – creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way.

^8:29 They stood there shouting, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?'[*d]

^8:30 Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding,

^8:31 and the devils pleaded with Jesus, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs’.

^8:32 And he said to them, ‘Go then’, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water.

^8:33 The swineherds ran off and made for the town, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

^8:34 At this the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave the neighbourhood.