Ezekiel 11
Wicked Rulers Will Be Judges
1 Moreover the Spirit took me up and brought me to the front gate of the Lord’s house, the gate which looks eastward; and behold, on the porches of the gate were about twenty-five men. I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, the princes of the people.†
2 Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plan worthless things and give evil counsel in this city,
3 who say, ‘Have not the houses been constructed recently? This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’
4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man!”
5 Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said to me, “Say this, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the deliberations of your spirit.
6 You multiplied your dead in this city and filled its streets with the wounded.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Your dead, whom you trampled in its midst, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron; but I shall bring you out of the midst of it.
8 You fear the sword; thus I will bring a sword upon you,’ says the Lord.
9 ‘I will bring you out of its midst and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments on you.
10 You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the borders of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
11 This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in its midst. I will judge you at the borders of Israel.
12 You shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”
13 Then it came to pass while I was prophesying that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. So I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice, “Alas, alas, O Lord! Will you make a complete end to the remnant of Israel?”
God Will Restore the Exiles
14 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
15 “Son of man, your brethren, and the men of your captivity, and all the house of Israel are at their end, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, ‘Keep far away from the Lord. This land was given to us as an inheritance.’
16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I will reject them among the nations, and scatter them into every land; yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries wherever they may go.’ ”
17 Therefore I said, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I shall also receive them from the nations, and gather them from the countries where I scattered them; and I will give them the land of Israel.’ ”†
18 They shall enter there and remove all its abominations and lawlessness from it.
19 Then I will give them another heart and put a new spirit within them. I shall remove the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
20 so they may walk in My commandments, keep My ordinances, and do them. They will be My people, and I shall be their God.
21 But as for the heart set upon their abominations and lawlessness—as their heart went after these things—so I have recompensed their ways on their own heads,” says the Lord.
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them.
23 Then the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain opposite the city.
24 The Spirit took me up—in a vision by the Spirit of God—and brought me to the land of the Chaldeans, to the captivity. Then I rose up from the vision I saw,
25 and spoke to the host of captives all the words the Lord made known to me.
Psalms 115
1 Alleluia. †I believed; therefore, I spoke; I was greatly humbled.
2 I said in my ecstasy, “Every man is a liar.”
3 What shall I give back to the Lord For all He rendered to me?
4 I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord.
5 Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His holy ones.
6 O Lord, I am Your servant; I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid. You broke apart my bonds;
7 I will offer a sacrifice of praise;
8 I shall pay my vows to the Lord In the presence of all His people,
9 In the courts of the Lord’s house, In your midst, O Jerusalem.
Psalms 116
1 Alleluia. †Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; Praise Him, all you peoples,
2 For His mercy rules over us; And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Proverbs of Solomon 25
1 These are the miscellaneous instructions of Solomon which the friends of Hezekiah, the King of Judah, wrote out.
2 The Glory of God hides a word, And the glory of the king honors deeds.
3 Heaven is high, and earth is deep, But the heart of the king is incapable of disproof.
4 Beat drossy silver, And it will be made entirely clean.†
5 Slay the ungodly from before the king, And his throne shall be established in righteousness.†
James 1
Greeting
1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.†
The Purpose of Trials
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,†
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Wisdom for Trials
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.†
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.†
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,†
10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
Temptations
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.†
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.†
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.†
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.†
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.†
The Corrective: Hear and Do
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;†
20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.†
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.†
26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.†
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Thank you Father.
Father, bless. ☦
God bless you, Matrona. – FA