Daily Pause

Luke 11:33-36 The Message

No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It is put on a lamp stand, so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. 34 Your eye is a lamp, lighting up you whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35 Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. 36 Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.

Isaiah 29:13-14 

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. 14 Therefore, once more will I astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

Psalm 107:1-9

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;    his love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,    from east and west, from north and south.[a]

4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,    finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,    and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,    and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way    to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty    and fills the hungry with good things.

John 6:29-35

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Psalm 84 
How lovely is your dwelling place,    Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,    for the courts of the Lord;  my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;    they are ever praising you.[c]

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
7 They go from strength to strength,    till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;    listen to me, God of Jacob.
10 Better is one day in your courts    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

John 4:8-18  
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?  13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Psalm 42   

As the deer pants for streams of water,    so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.    When can I go and meet with God?
4 These things I remember    as I pour out my soul:  how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d] with shouts of joy and praise    among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?    Why so disturbed within me?   Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,    my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep    in the roar of your waterfalls;   all your waves and breakers    have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,    at night his song is with me—    a prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 34

I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”