Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
18 This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2 “Get up, and go down to the potter’s house; there I will tell you more.” 3 So I went down to the house of the potter; and there he was, working at the wheels. 4 Whenever a pot he made came out imperfect, the potter took the clay and made another pot with it, in whatever shape suited him.
5 Then the word of Adonai came to me: 6 “House of Isra’el, can’t I deal with you as the potter deals with his clay? — says Adonai. Look! You, house of Isra’el, are the same in my hand as the clay in the potter’s hand. 7 At one time, I may speak about uprooting, breaking down and destroying a nation or kingdom; 8 but if that nation turns from their evil, which prompted me to speak against it, then I relent concerning the disaster I had planned to inflict on it. 9 Similarly, at another time, I may speak about building and planting a nation or kingdom; 10 but if it behaves wickedly from my perspective and doesn’t listen to what I say, then I change my mind and don’t do the good I said I would do that would have helped it.
11 “So now, tell the people of Y’hudah and those living in Yerushalayim that this is what Adonai says:
‘I am designing disaster for you,
working out my plan against you.
Turn, each of you, from his evil ways;
improve your conduct and actions.’
139 (0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
3 you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
4 that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
5 You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
6 Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
17 God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
18 If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.
1 From: Sha’ul, a prisoner for the sake of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy
To: Our dear fellow-worker Philemon, 2 along with sister Apphia, our fellow-soldier Archippus and the congregation that gathers in your home:
3 Grace and shalom to you from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
4 I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers, Philemon, 5 for I am hearing about your love and commitment to the Lord Yeshua and to all God’s people. 6 I pray that the fellowship based on your commitment will produce full understanding of every good thing that is ours in union with the Messiah. 7 For your love has given me much joy and encouragement. Brother, you have refreshed the hearts of God’s people.
8 Therefore, I would not hesitate, in union with the Messiah, to direct you to do the thing you ought to do. 9 But since I Sha’ul, am the kind of person I am, an old man and now for the Messiah Yeshua’s sake a prisoner besides, I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. 10 My request to you concerns my son, of whom I became the father while here in prison, Onesimus. 11 His name means “useful,” and although he was once useless to you, he has now become most useful — not only to you but also to me; 12 so that in returning him to you I am sending a part of my very heart. 13 I would dearly have loved to keep him with me, in order for him to serve me in your place while I am in prison because of the Good News. 14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do for me may be voluntary and not forced.
15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a brief period was so that you could have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but as more than a slave, as a dear brother. And that he is, especially to me. But how much dearer he must be to you, both humanly and in union with the Lord!
17 So if you are in fellowship with me, receive him as you would me. 18 And if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me.
19 I, Sha’ul, write with my own hand. I will repay it.
(I won’t mention, of course, that you owe me your very life.) 20 Yes, brother, please do me this favor in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Messiah.
21 Trusting that you will respond positively, I write knowing that you will indeed do more than I am asking.
25 Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. 27 Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it? 29 If you don’t, then when you have laid the foundation but can’t finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you 30 and say, ‘This is the man who began to build, but couldn’t finish!’
31 “Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn’t he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he hasn’t, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.
33 “So every one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.