Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Potter’s House
18 The word came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.”
3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making a work on the wheels. 4 Whenever the pot that he was making from the clay became flawed in the hand of the potter, he remade it into another pot, as it pleased the potter to make.
5 Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares Adonai. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it. 8 But if that nation turns from their evil, because of what I have spoken against it, I will relent concerning the calamity that I planned to do to it. 9 Or at another time I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to build up or to plant it. 10 But if it does evil in My sight, not listening to My voice, then I will relent of the good that I had said I would do to it.”
11 So now, speak to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus says Adonai: “I am about to bring calamity against you, and devise disaster against you. Turn back now—everyone from his evil way—and amend your ways and your doings.
How Precious Your Thoughts!
Psalm 139
1 For the music director: a psalm of David.
Adonai, You searched me and know me.
2 Whenever I sit down or stand up, You know it.
You discern my thinking from afar.
3 You observe my journeying and my resting
and You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, Adonai, You know all about it.
5 You hemmed me in behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
13 For You have created my conscience.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made!
Wonderful are Your works—
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was unformed,
and in Your book were written the days that were formed—
when not one of them had come to be.
17 How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand!
When I awake, I am still with You.
Greetings to a House Group
1 Paul, a prisoner of Messiah Yeshua, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved and fellow worker.
2 To Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the community that meets in your house:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Messiah Yeshua!
Thanks for Love and Comfort
4 I thank my God always when mentioning you in my prayers, 5 hearing of your love and the trust you have toward the Lord Yeshua and all the kedoshim. 6 May the fellowship of your faith become effective, with the recognition of all the good that is ours in Messiah. 7 For I’ve received much joy and comfort in your love, brother, because the hearts of the kedoshim have been refreshed through you.
Request for Philemon’s Runaway
8 Therefore, though I have plenty of boldness in Messiah to order you to do what’s right, 9 yet for love’s sake I appeal to you instead. I, Paul, am an old man and now also a prisoner belonging to Messiah Yeshua. 10 I beg you for my child Onesimus—for whom I became a spiritual father while in chains. 11 He once was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and me. 12 I sent him back to you—he is my very heart. 13 I really wanted to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he might serve me while I am in chains for the Good News. 14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness wouldn’t be by force but by free will.
15 For perhaps he was separated from you for a while in order that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave—as a beloved brother, especially to me but even more so to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 But if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay. (Not to mention that you owe me your very self.) 20 Yes, brother, let me have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Messiah.
Added Request and Farewell
21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than what I say.
Telling Parables Along the Road
25 Now great crowds were traveling with Yeshua; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—and yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and figure out the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and isn’t able to finish everything, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish!’
31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, won’t first sit down to consider whether he is able with ten thousand to confront the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [a] 32 If not, while the other is still far away, he sends an ambassador and asks for peace. 33 So in the same way, whoever does not renounce all that he has, cannot be My disciple.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.