Daily Readings - 06/10/2026

^1:13 You must have heard of my career as a practising Jew, how merciless I was in persecuting the Church of God, how much damage I did to it,

^1:14 how I stood out among other Jews of my generation, and how enthusiastic I was for the traditions of my ancestors.

^1:15 Then God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb,[*b] called me through his grace and chose

^1:16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans. I did not stop to discuss this with any human being,

^1:17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me, but I went off to Arabia[*c] at once and later went straight back from there to Damascus.

^1:18 Even when after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days,

^1:19 I did not see any of the other apostles; I only saw James, the brother of the Lord,

^1:20 and I swear before God that what I have just written is the literal truth.

^1:21 After that I went to Syria and Cilicia,

^1:22 and was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judaea,

^1:23 who had heard nothing except that their one-time persecutor was now preaching the faith he had previously tried to destroy;

^1:24 and they gave glory to God for me.

^139:1 Yahweh, you examine me and know me,

^139:2 you know if I am standing or sitting, you read my thoughts from far away,

^139:3 whether I walk or lie down, you are watching, you know every detail of my conduct.

^139:4 The word is not even on my tongue, Yahweh, before you know all about it;

^139:5 close behind and close in front you fence me round, shielding me with your hand.

^139:6 Such knowledge is beyond my understanding, a height to which my mind cannot attain.

^139:7 Where could I go to escape your spirit? Where could I flee from your presence?

^139:8 If I climb the heavens, you are there, there too, if I lie in Sheol

^139:9 If I flew to the point of sunrise, or westward across the sea,

^139:10 your hand would still be guiding me, your right hand holding me.

^139:11 If I asked darkness to cover me, and light to become night around me,

^139:12 that darkness would not be dark to you, night would be as light as day.

^139:13 It was you who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother’s womb;

^139:14 for all these mysteries I thank you: for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your works. You know me through and through,

^139:15 from having watched my bones take shape when I was being formed in secret, knitted together in the limbo of the womb.

^139:16 You had scrutinised my every action, all were recorded in your book, my days listed and determined, even before the first of them

^139:17 occurred. God, how hard it is to grasp your thoughts! How impossible to count them!

^139:18 I could no more count them than I could the sand, and suppose I could, you would still be with me.

^139:19 God, If only you would kill the wicked! Men of blood, away from me!

^139:20 They talk blasphemously about you, regard your thoughts as nothing.

^139:21 Yahweh, do I not hate those who hate you, and loathe those who defy you?

^139:22 I hate them with a total hatred, I regard them as my own enemies.

^139:23 God, examine me and know my heart, probe me and know my thoughts;

^139:24 make sure I do not follow pernicious ways, and guide me in the way that is everlasting.

^10:38 In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

^10:39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking.

^10:40 Now Martha who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’

^10:41 But the Lord answered: ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things,

^10:42 and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’