Isaiah 55
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
An Invitation to Abundant Life
55 Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.(A)
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.(B)
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.(C)
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.(D)
5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.(E)
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;(F)
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.(G)
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.(H)
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,(I)
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.(J)
12 For you shall go out in joy
and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.(K)
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.(L)
Galatians 5:1-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 1
The Nature of Christian Freedom
2 Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4 You who want to be reckoned as righteous[a] by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.(B) 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.(C) 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working[b] through love.(D)
7 You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?(E) 8 Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. 10 I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.(F) 11 But my brothers and sisters, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,[c] but through love become enslaved to one another.(G) 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”(H) 15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
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Mark 8:27-9:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”(A) 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”(B) 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”[a](C) 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.(D)
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.(E) 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”(F)
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come[b] after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.(G) 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,[c] will save it.(H) 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words[d] in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”(I) 9 1
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.