I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always - Daily Bible Readings May 13,2015

1^ST READING

 

Paul preached in Athens. Athens was the cosmopolitan capital of the Greek Empire and just heard the Gospel for the first time. I remember my first time to hear the Gospel and understand it as Good News for me. It was a wake-up call for me. I was challenged to leave my lethargy and accept a personal relationship with God. I am forever grateful that I took the challenge.

 

Acts 17:15, 22-18:1

15 After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. 22 Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, 27 so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. 30 God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31 because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” 33 And so Paul left them. 34 But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. 18:1 After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.

 

P S A L M

 

Psalm 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14

R: Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

1 Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights. 2 Praise him, all you his angels, praise him, all you his hosts. (R) 11 Let the kings of the earth and all peoples, the princes and all the judges of the earth, 12 Young men too, and maidens, old men and boys. (R) 13 Praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven. (R) 14 He has lifted up the horn of his people. Be this his praise from all his faithful ones, from the children of Israel, the people close to him. Alleluia. (R)

 

GOSPEL

 

The truth is what the world needs. There are so many lobby groups in the political arena that are misguided about the truth of the human person. Same-sex marriage is an oxymoron — it cannot be a marriage if there is no possibility of children. Abortion, embryo experimentation and harvesting are all morally wrong. The truth is being silenced by the strident noise of the lobbyists and, unfortunately, many are listening to them. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to speak the truth through us.

 

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.

 

John 16:12-15

12 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. 13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.  15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

 

 

think: The truth is what the world needs.

 

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: __________________

 

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God’s special verse/thought for me today_

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