Daily Readings - 20/10/2026

^2:12 do not forget, I say, that you had no Christ and were excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants with their Promise; you were immersed in this world, without hope and without God.

^2:13 But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.

^2:14 For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility

^2:15 caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace

^2:16 through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God; In his own person he killed the hostility.

^2:17 Later he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near at hand.[*b]

^2:18 Through him, both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father.

^2:19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household.

^2:20 You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets[*c] for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.

^2:21 As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord;

^2:22 and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.

^84:1 How I love your palace, Yahweh Sabaoth! How my soul yearns and pines for Yahweh’s courts!

^84:2 My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

^84:3 The sparrow has found its home at last, the swallow a nest for its young, your altars, Yahweh Sabaoth, my king and my God.

^84:4 Happy those who live in your house and can praise you all day long;

^84:5 and happy the pilgrims inspired by you with courage to make the Ascents! (pause)

^84:6 As they go through the Valley of the Weeper,[*a] they make it a place of springs, clothed in blessings by early rains.

^84:7 Thence they make their way from height to height, soon to be seen before God on Zion.

^84:8 Yahweh Sabaoth, hear my prayer, listen, God of Jacob;

^84:9 God our shield, now look on us and be kind to your anointed. (pause)

^84:10 A single day in your courts is worth more than a thousand elsewhere; merely to stand on the steps of God’s[*b] house is better than living with the wicked.

^84:11 For God is battlement and shield, conferring grace and glory; Yahweh withholds nothing good from those who walk without blame.

^84:12 Yahweh Sabaoth, happy the man who puts his trust in you!

^12:35 ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit.

^12:36 Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.

^12:37 Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them.

^12:38 It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready.