Daily Readings - 05/09/2026

^4:6 Now in everything I have said here, brothers, I have taken Apollos and myself as an example (remember the maxim: ‘Keep to what is written’); it is not for you, so full of your own importance, to go taking sides for one man against another.

^4:7 In any case, brother, has anybody given you some special right? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not?

^4:8 Is it that you have everything you want – that you are rich already, in possession of your kingdom, with us left outside? Indeed I wish you were really kings, and we could be kings with you!

^4:9 But instead, it seems to me, God has put us apostles at the end of his parade, with the men sentenced to death; it is true – we have been put on show in front of the whole universe, angels as well as men.

^4:10 Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies.

^4:11 To this day, we go without food and drink and clothes; we are beaten and have no homes;

^4:12 we work for our living with our own hands. When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we put up with it;

^4:13 we are insulted and we answer politely. We are treated as the offal of the world, still to this day, the scum of the earth.

^4:14 I am saying all this not just to make you ashamed but to bring you, as my dearest children, to your senses.

^4:15 You might have thousands of guardians in Christ, but not more than one father and it was I who begot you in Christ Jesus by preaching the Good News.

^144:1 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,

^144:2 my love, my bastion, my citadel, my saviour, I shelter behind him, my shield, he makes the nations submit to me.

^144:3 Yahweh, what is man, that you should notice him? A human being, that you should think about him?

^144:4 Man’s life, a mere puff of wind, his days, as fugitive as shadows.

^144:5 Yahweh, lower your heavens, come down to us! Touch the mountains, make them smoke,

^144:6 flash your lightning – scatter them, shoot your arrows – rout them.

^144:7 Reach down your hand from above, save me, rescue me from deep waters, from the power of aliens

^144:8 who tell nothing but lies, who are prepared to swear to falsehood!

^144:9 God, I have made a new song for you to be played on the ten-string lyre,

^144:10 you who give victory to kings and safety to your servant David. From peril of sword

^144:11 save me, rescue me from the power of aliens who tell nothing but lies, who are prepared to swear to falsehood!

^144:12 May our sons be like plants growing strong from their earliest days, our daughters like corner-statues,[*a] carvings fit for a palace;

^144:13 may our barns overflow with every possible crop, may the sheep in our fields be counted in their thousands and tens of thousands,

^144:14 may our cattle be stout and strong; and may there be an end of raids and exile, and of panic in our streets.

^144:15 Happy the nation of whom this is true, happy the nation whose God is Yahweh!

^6:1 Now one sabbath he happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them.

^6:2 Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?’

^6:3 Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry

^6:4 how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which only the priests are allowed to eat?’

^6:5 And he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is master of the sabbath’.

^94:1 The justice of God Yahweh, God of revenge, God of revenge, appear!

^94:2 Rise, judge of the world, give the proud their deserts!

^94:3 Yahweh, how much longer are the wicked, how much longer are the wicked to triumph?

^94:4 Are these evil men to remain unsilenced, boasting and asserting themselves?

^94:5 Yahweh, they crush your people, they oppress your hereditary people,

^94:6 murdering and massacring widows, orphans and guests.

^94:7 ‘Yahweh sees nothing,’ they say ‘the God of Jacob takes no notice.’

^94:8 You most stupid of men, you fools, think this over and learn some sense.

^94:9 Is the inventor of the ear unable to hear? The creator of the eye unable to see?

^94:10 The punisher of the pagans unable to punish? Yahweh the teacher of mankind

^94:11 knows exactly how men think, how their thoughts are a puff of wind.

^94:12 Yahweh, happy the man whom you instruct, the man whom you teach through your law;

^94:13 his mind is at peace though times are bad, while a pit is being dug for the wicked.

^94:14 For Yahweh has not abandoned or deserted his hereditary people;

^94:15 for verdict will return to righteousness again, and, in its wake, all upright hearts.

^94:16 No one ever stood up for me against the wicked, not a soul took a stand to save me from evil men;

^94:17 without Yahweh’s help, I should, long ago, have gone to the Home of Silence.

^94:18 I need only say, ‘I am slipping’, and your love, Yahweh, immediately supports me;

^94:19 and in the middle of all my troubles you console me and make me happy.

^94:20 You never consent to that corrupt tribunal that imposes disorder as law,

^94:21 that takes the life of the virtuous and condemns the innocent to death.

^94:22 No! Yahweh is still my citadel, my God is a rock where I take shelter;

^94:23 he will pay them back for all their sins, he will silence their wickedness, Yahweh our God will silence them.

^13:8 Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations.

^13:9 All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,[*a] and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself[*b]

^13:10 Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.

^18:15 ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, is between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.

^18:16 If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge.

^18:17 But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community;[*b] and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.

^18:18 ‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.

^18:19 ‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.

^18:20 For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’