3.12.2012

Today's Bible story

March 12, 2012

We hope that today is a good day.

Today's Bible story based on the calendar of the Catholic Church.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/calendar.php

Most of these contents are things of The World English Bible.
http://ebible.org/web/

We hope that everyone in the peace of the Lord.

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+ Saints: St. Theophanes the Chronicler

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+ First Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15ab

1 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

2 The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

3 She said to her mistress, "I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy."

4 Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, "The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this."

5 The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."
He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy."

7 It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me."

8 It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean."

11 But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, "Behold, I thought, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.'

12 Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them, and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?'"

14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15ab He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, "See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.

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+ Psalm: Psalms 42:1, 2, 43:3, 4

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants after you, God*The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim.".

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

3 Oh, send out your light and your truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy hill,
To your tents.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my exceeding joy.
I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.

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+ Gospel: Luke 4:24-30

24 He said, "Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.

26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

27 There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian."

28 They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.

29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

30 But he, passing through their midst, went his way.

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+ Today's Reading: Exodus 24:1-18

1 He said to Moses, "Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance.

2 Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him."

3 Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do."

4 Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5 He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to Yahweh.

6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken will we do, and be obedient."

8 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words."

9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.

10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire *or, lapis lazuli stone, like the skies for clearness.

11 He didn't lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.

12 Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them."

13 Moses rose up with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up onto God's Mountain.

14 He said to the elders, "Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them."

15 Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16 The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

17 The appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

18 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

*24:10: or, lapis lazuli

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