Daily Readings - 12/09/2026

^10:14 This is the reason, my dear brothers, why you must keep clear of idolatry.

^10:15 I say to you as sensible people: judge for yourselves what I am saying.

^10:16 The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ.

^10:17 The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.

^10:18 Look at the other Israel, the race, where those who eat the sacrifices are in communion with the altar.

^10:19 Does this mean that the food sacrificed to idols has a real value, or that the idol itself is real?

^10:20 Not at all. It simply means that the sacrifices that they offer they sacrifice to demons who are not God.[*c] I have no desire to see you in communion with demons.

^10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take your share at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons.

^10:22 Do we want to make the Lord angry; are we stronger than he is?

^115:1 Not by us, Yahweh, not by us, by you alone is glory deserved, by your love and your faithfulness!

^115:2 Do the pagans ask, ‘Where is their God?’

^115:3 Ours is the God whose will is sovereign in the heavens and on earth,

^115:4 whereas their idols, in silver and gold, products of human skill,

^115:5 have mouths, but never speak, eyes, but never see,

^115:6 ears, but never hear, noses, but never smell,

^115:7 hands, but never touch, feet, but never walk, and not a sound from their throats.

^115:8 their makers will end up like them, and so will anyone who relies on them.

^115:9 House of Israel, rely on Yahweh, on him, our help and shield!

^115:10 House of Aaron, rely on Yahweh, on him, our help and shield!

^115:11 You who fear Yahweh, rely on Yahweh, on him, our help and shield!

^115:12 Yahweh remembers us, he will bless, he will bless the House of Israel, he will bless the House of Aaron,

^115:13 he will bless those who fear Yahweh, without distinction of rank.[*a]

^115:14 May Yahweh add to your numbers, yours and your children’s too!

^115:15 May you be blessed by Yahweh, maker of heaven and earth!

^115:16 Heaven belongs to Yahweh, earth he bestows on man.

^115:17 The dead cannot praise Yahweh, they have gone down to silence;

^115:18 but we, the living, bless Yahweh henceforth and evermore.

^6:43 ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit.

^6:44 For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles.

^6:45 A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.

^6:46 ‘Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and not do what I say?

^6:47 ‘Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them-I will show you what he is like.

^6:48 He is like the man who when he built his house dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built.

^6:49 But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man who built his house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!’

^27:30 Resentment and anger, these are foul things too, and both are found with the sinner.

^28:1 He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.

^28:2 Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.

^28:3 If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord?

^28:4 Showing no pity for a man like himself, can he then plead for his own sins?

^28:5 Mere creature of flesh, he cherishes resentment; who will forgive him his sins?

^28:6 Remember the last things, and stop hating, remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments.

^28:7 Remember the commandments, and do not bear your neighbour ill-will; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the offence.

^102:1 Yahweh, hear my prayer, let my cry for help reach you;

^102:2 do not hide your face from me when I am in trouble; bend down to listen to me, when I call, be quick to answer me!

^102:3 For my days are vanishing like smoke, my bones smouldering like logs,

^102:4 my heart shrivelling like scorched grass and my appetite has gone;

^102:5 whenever I heave a sigh, my bones stick through my skin.

^102:6 I live in a desert like the pelican, in a ruin like the screech owl,

^102:7 I stay awake, lamenting like a lone bird on the roof;

^102:8 my enemies insult me all day long, those who used to praise me now use me as a curse.

^102:9 Ashes are the bread I eat, what I drink I lace with tears,

^102:10 under your furious anger, since you only picked me up to throw me down;

^102:11 my days dwindle away like a shadow, I am as dry as hay.

^102:12 Whereas, Yahweh, you remain for ever; each generation in turn remembers you!

^102:13 Rise, take pity on Zion! – the time has come to have mercy on her, the hour has come;

^102:14 for your servants prize her stones and are moved to pity by her dust.

^102:15 Then will the nations fear the name of Yahweh and all kings on earth respect your glory;

^102:16 when Yahweh builds Zion anew, he will be seen in his glory;

^102:17 he will answer the prayer of the abandoned, he will not scorn their petitions.

^102:18 Put this on record for the next generation, so that a race still to be born can praise God:

^102:19 Yahweh has leaned down from the heights of his sanctuary, has looked down at earth from heaven,

^102:20 to hear the sighing of the captive, and to set free those doomed to die.

^102:28 Your servants’ sons will have a permanent home, and their descendants be in your presence always,

^102:21 to proclaim the name of Yahweh in Zion, his praise in Jerusalem;

^102:22 nations and kingdoms will be united and offer worship to Yahweh together.

^102:25 Aeons ago, you laid earth’s foundations, the heavens are the work of your hands;

^102:26 all will vanish, though you remain, all wear out like a garment, like clothes that need changing you will change them;

^102:27 but yourself, you never change, and your years are unending.

^14:7 The life and death of each of us has its influence on others;

^14:8 if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord.

^14:9 This explains why Christ both died and came to life, it was so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

^18:21 Then Peter went up to him and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’

^18:22 Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.

^18:23 ‘And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants.

^18:24 When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents;[*c]

^18:25 but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt.

^18:26 At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.”

^18:27 And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt.

^18:28 Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii;[*d] and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said.

^18:29 His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you”.

^18:30 But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt.

^18:31 His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him.

^18:32 Then the master sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me.

^18:33 Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?”

^18:34 And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.

^18:35 And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’