Hey, anyone who’s thirsty, come for water.
Whoever has no silver, come, buy and eat.
Come, buy without silver,
wine and milk without cost.
Why weigh out silver for what isn’t bread,
and your labour for what isn’t filling?
Listen hard to me and eat what’s good;
you can delight your appetite with rich food.

Bend your ear, come to me;
listen, so you may come to life.
I will solemnize for you a permanent pact,
the trustworthy commitments to David.
Here, I made him a witness for peoples,
a leader and commander for peoples.
Here, you’ll call a nation that you don’t acknowledge,
and a nation that doesn’t acknowledge you will run to you,
For the sake of Yahweh your God,
and for Israel’s sacred one, because he’s glorifying you.

Enquire of Yahweh while he is letting himself be found,
call him while he’s near.
The faithless person must abandon his way,
the person who brings trouble [must abandon] his intentions.
He must turn back to Yahweh so he may have compassion on him,
to our God because he does much pardoning.

Because my intentions are not your intentions,
your ways are not my ways (Yahweh’s declaration).
Because the heavens are higher than the earth;
so are my ways higher than your ways,
my intentions than your intentions.

The Bible for Everyone

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)

In that hour some of the Pharisees
came to him and said to (Jesus):
‘Leave and go from here,
because Herod wants to kill you.’

And he said to them:
‘Go and say to that fox –
“Look, I am casting out demons
and performing healings
today and the next day
and on the third day I will be finished.”

‘Nevertheless it is necessary for me to go
today, the next day and on the third (day)
because it is not possible for a prophet to be killed
outside Jerusalem.

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem
who kills the prophets
and stones those sent to her,
how often I have wanted to gather together your children
just as hen (gathers) her brood
under her wings
yet you have not wanted (that).

‘Look, your house is deserted to you.
I say to you all:
you will not see me until you say:
“Blessed (is) is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”‘

Eternal God and Father,
you create us by your power,
and redeem us by your love,
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves in love and service
to one another and to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Become (with others) my imitators, brothers/ sisters
and pay attention to those who walk
as you have an example in us.

For many walk –
those who I have warned you about,
and now I warn (you), even weeping,
– who are enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction,
whose god is the gut
and (their) glory is in their shame,
they think fixedly about earthly things.

For our citizenship is in the heavens,
from which indeed we also eagerly-await as Saviour
the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will change the body of our lowliness
into the likeness of the body of his glory
in keeping with the working of his power
and he will subject all things to himself.

So then, my beloved and longed for brothers /sisters
my joy and crown,
stand like this, in the Lord,
beloved.

O Lord, in whom is our hope,
remove far from us, we pray thee,
empty hopes and presumptuous confidence.
Make our hearts so right with thy most holy and loving heart,
that hoping in thee we may do good;
until that day when faith and hope
shall be abolished by sight and possession,
and love shall be all in all.

Christina Rossetti (1830-94)

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Keep us, O Lord, while we tarry on this earth,
in a serious seeking after thee,
and in an affectionate walking with thee,
every day of our lives;
that when thou comest,
we may be found not hiding our talent,
nor yet asleep with our lamp unfurnished,
but waiting and longing for our Lord,
our glorious King, for ever and ever.

Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

Then, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit,
departed from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness.
He was tested by the Devil
for forty days.
And he ate nothing
in those days,
and when they ended
he was hungry.

The Devil said to him:
‘If you are the Son of God,
speak to this stone
so that it becomes a bread.’
And Jesus said to him:
‘It is written:
Not only by bread
shall a human live’ (Dt 8:3)

And when he had led him up
he showed him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.
And the Devil said to him:
I will give to you this all this domain
and their glory,
because it has been given to me
and I give it to whoever I choose.
So then if you bow down before me,
all this will be yours.
And Jesus replied:
It is written:
The Lord, your God, you will bow down to
and serve only him. (Dt 6:13)

Then he took him to Jerusalem
and put him upon the highest point of the Temple,
and said to him:
If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here.
For it is written:
He will give orders to his angels angels about you
to protect you.
And
They will lift you up, with their hands
so that you do not strike a stone with you foot. (Ps 91 11-12)
And Jesus answered him:
It has been said:
Do not test the Lord, your God. (Dt 6 16)

And when the Devil had ended every temptation
he left him until another opportunity

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee…

Lord God,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

But what does it (the Torah) say?:
      The word is near you, 
      in your mouth and in your heart (Dt 30:14)
– this is the word of faith, 
      which we preach.
Because if you confess with your mouth
      (that) Jesus is the Lord
      and that God raised him from the dead people,
            you will be saved. 
For Scripture says:
     Everyone who believes in him,
           will not be be put to shame. (Isa 28:16)
For there is no difference
      between the Jew and the Greek.
for the same is Lord of all, 
     who is generous to all 
            who call upon him.
For everyone who calls upon
    the name of the Lord will be saved. (Joel 2:32)
 

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power, be our support;
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance:
That we may seek your face
with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Amen.

Alcuin