Lent Readings: Monday 19 March

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LEAVING ADDICTION FOR HEALING...

Psalm 89:1-18 TNIV

A maskil ^[a] of Ethan the Ezrahite.

^{[b] 1} I will sing of the LORD's great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.

² I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

³ You said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant,

⁴ 'I will establish your line forever
and make your throne firm through all generations.'" ^[c]

⁵ The heavens praise your wonders, LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶ For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?

⁷ In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him.

⁸ Who is like you, LORD God Almighty?
You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

⁹ You rule over the surging sea;
when its waves mount up, you still them.

¹⁰ You crushed Rahab like one of the slain;
with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.

¹¹ The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.

¹² You created the north and the south;
Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.

¹³ Your arm is endued with power;
your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
love and faithfulness go before you.

¹⁵ Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, LORD.

¹⁶ They rejoice in your name all day long;
they exult in your righteousness.

¹⁷ For you are their glory and strength,
and by your favor you exalt our horn. ^[d]

¹⁸ Indeed, our shield ^[e] belongs to the LORD,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Jeremiah 16:10-21 TNIV

¹⁰ "When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?' ¹¹ then say to them, 'It is because your ancestors forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. ¹² But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'

¹⁴ "However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' ¹⁵ but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.

¹⁶ "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. ¹⁷ My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols."

¹⁹ LORD, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
"Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.

²⁰ Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!"

²¹ "Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the LORD.

Romans 7:1-12 TNIV

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

¹ Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were controlled by our sinful nature, ^[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." ^{[b] 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

John 6:1-15 TNIV

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

¹ Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered him, "It would take almost a year's wages ^[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ⁹ "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

¹⁰ Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." ¹⁵ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.