December 21st

Morning Readings

Pay your Vows

Psalm 116:7-19

⁷ Return to your rest, my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.

⁸ For you, LORD, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,

⁹ that I may walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁰ I trusted in the LORD when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";

¹¹ in my alarm I said,
"Everyone is a liar."

¹² What shall I return to the LORD
for all his goodness to me?

¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁴ I will fulfil my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of those faithful to him.

¹⁶ Truly I am your servant, LORD;
I am your servant, as was my mother before me;
you have loosed my bonds of affliction.

¹⁷ I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁸ I will fulfil my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the LORD—
in your midst, Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD.

Psalm 118:5-9

⁵ When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD;
he brought me into a spacious place.

⁶ The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can human beings do to me?

⁷ The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.

⁸ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in human beings.

⁹ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.

Psalm 118:13-15

¹³ I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.

¹⁴ The LORD is my strength and my defence ^[a];
he has become my salvation.

¹⁵ Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 118:14 Or song
   

Psalm 118:19

¹⁹ Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

Psalm 118:24

²⁴ The LORD has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.

Evening Readings

The Inward Witness

1 John 5:2-21

² This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³ In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the ^[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. ⁹ We accept human testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. ¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

¹⁶ If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. ¹⁷ All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸ We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. ¹⁹ We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. ²⁰ We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹ Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Footnotes:

1. 1 John 5:8 Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. ⁸And there are three that testify on earth: the (not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century)
   

Leaves for Plucking

Philippians 3:13-14

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:20

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ...