Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Bet: Hidden in My Heart
9 How can a young man keep his path pure?
By guarding it with your words.[a]
10 With all my heart I seek you.
Do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your sayings[b] in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O Lord!
Teach me your statutes.
13 With my lips I tell about all the judgments
that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in the way that is taught by your testimonies
as much as I delight in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts,
and I will consider your paths.
16 In your statutes I delight.
I will not forget your words.
8 Bring out the people who are blind, though they have eyes,
and the people who are deaf, though they have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let peoples be assembled.
Who among them has declared this?
Who has made known to us the former things?
Let them produce their witnesses to show that they were right,
so that people can hear and say, “This is truth.”
10 You are my witnesses, declares the Lord.
You are my servant, whom I have chosen,
so that you may know me and believe in me,
so that you will understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
and after me there will not be another.
11 I, yes I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
12 I myself declared it.
I brought salvation, and I announced it.
It was not some strange god among you.
You are my witnesses, declares the Lord,
and I am God.
13 Indeed, from the first day, I am he.
There is no one who can deliver anyone from my hand.
I act, and who can reverse it?
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God. 6 He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament[a] (not of letter, but of spirit).[b] For the letter kills, but the spirit[c] gives life.
The Ministry of the Spirit
7 If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look directly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (though it was fading), 8 how will the ministry of the spirit[d] not be much more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory. 10 In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it. 11 Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.