2 Corinthians 11.5-21
(Epistle)
5For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast, they may be recognized just like us.
13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
21To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
1 Timothy 3.13-4.5
(Epistle, Image)
13For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly,
15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.
1But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,
2through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,
3forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
4For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.
5For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.
Mark 4.1-9
(Gospel)
1Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.
2He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,
3“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow.
4As he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.
5Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.
6When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.”
9He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 9.51-57, 10.22-24, 13.22
(Gospel, Image)
51It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem
52and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him.
53They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem.
54When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
55But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are.
56For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
57As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.”
22Turning to the disciples, he said, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son desires to reveal him.”
23Turning to the disciples, he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see,
24for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.”
22He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.