February 16, 2025

Jeremiah 17:5-10                                 

17:5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make  mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD.

17:6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when relief  comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an  uninhabited salt land.

17:7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.

17:8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by  the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay  green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease  to bear fruit.

17:9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse-- who can understand it?

17:10 I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Psalm 1

1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers,

1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.

1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their  fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they  do, they prosper.

1:4 The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,

1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

15:13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised,

15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain.

15:15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of  God that he raised Christ--whom he did not raise if it is true that the  dead are not raised.

15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

15:17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

15:18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

15:19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

 Luke 6:17-26

6:17 He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of  his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea,  Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

6:18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.

6:19 And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

6:20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

6:21 "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

6:22 "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.

6:23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great  in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

6:24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

6:25 "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

6:26 "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets."