Daily Bible Readings

October 20, 2011
1st READING


The Apostle Paul makes it very clear that as human beings we are slaves either to sin or to righteousness. We have to choose whom to serve. Many think that they are free to do whatever they desire without any thought to the will of God. They are, in fact, not free at all but slaves to their own passions and desires. True freedom is found only in obedience to the will of God for us.


Romans 6:19-23

19 Brothers and sisters: I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

P S A L M


Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

G O S P E L


Jesus often used some strange expressions and said the opposite of what one may expect. Here is one example. Jesus wants to bring fire to the earth. What kind of fire is this? It is the fire in the heart of God that also burned in the heart of Jesus, His Son. It is the fire that descended upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. It is the fire that burns in the hearts of the martyrs and saints. Let us open our hearts to be filled with this fire, too.

ALLELUIA
R: Alleluia, alleluia

I consider all things so much rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R: Alleluia, alleluia

Luke 12:49-53

49 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! 50 There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three; 53 a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

my reflections
t h i n k : True freedom is found only in obedience to the will of God for us.

God’s special verse/thought for me today________________

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T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Nahum 1-3