Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, on this day, January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing its entire seven member crew, which included a Highschool teacher, the first private citizen to fly aboard the craft. In his address to the nation after this disaster, President Ronald Reagan stated: “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth,’ to ‘touch the face of God.’ ”

William J. Federer. American Minute

God is more concerned about His workers
than He is about their work,
for if the workers are what they ought to be,
the work will be what it ought to be.
--- Warren W. Wiersbe


Confession of errors is like a broom
which sweeps away the dirt
and leaves the surface brighter and clearer.
I feel stronger for confession.
--- Mohandas Gandhi

... from here, there and everywhere

12     A scoundrel, a vicious man,
lives by crooked speech,
13     winking his eyes, shuffling his feet,
pointing with his fingers.
14     With deceit in his heart,
he is always plotting evil and sowing discord.
15     Therefore disaster suddenly overcomes him;
unexpectedly, he is broken beyond repair.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                But it is hardly credible that one could so persecute Jesus!

     Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? --- Acts 26:14.

     Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.

     Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only—a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

As though a voice
     said to me not
in words: I ask the supreme
     gesture. Take me
as I am. And the sky
was round as though everything
was inside.
     But my mind,
I said, holding it
     in my unseen
hands: the pain of it
     is what keeps
me human. What you ask
     is an assemblage
that shall pass unscathed
     through the bonfire
of its knowledge.
          You do yourself
harm, coming to us
with your sleeves rolled up
     as though not responsible
for deception. We have seen
you lay life like a cloth
          over the bones
at our parties and wave
     your cold wand and expect
us to smile, when you took it away
     again and there was nothing.

The Poems of R.S. Thomas , (Fayettesville: University of Arkansas Press), 1985

     Genesis 27

     Rebekah, and Jacob her son, plotted to deceive Isaac and get the blessing for Jacob that Isaac wanted to go to his oldest son, Esau. Disguised to fool the now-blind Isaac, Jacob stood before his father and lied, “I am Esau your firstborn” (v. 19).

     How completely unnecessary! At the brothers’ births God had told Rebekah that the older would serve the younger (25:23). Yet as the critical time drew closer and closer, mother and son felt impelled to “help God out.”

     What was the result? Jacob did receive the blessing—which he would have received anyway. Bitterness was heightened between the brothers, and Esau’s hatred became so intense that he planned to kill Jacob after their father died. Rebekah, who had plotted to help her favorite son, was forced to send him away for 20 years, and did not live to see him return.

     True, it worked out in the end. But the anger, the fear, the separation—all these might have been avoided had Jacob and Rebekah simply trusted God and rejected deceit.

Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The Teacher's Commentary (323). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

     Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
--- Philippians 3:13–14.

     [Paul] cultivated a wise forgetfulness. (Classic Sermons on the Apostle Paul (Kregel Classic Sermons Series) )

     And what are some of the things that we ought to forget? We ought to forget our blunders. How many blunders we all make! Learn how to make them bridges over which we will span the chasms and go to better days.

     We are to learn how to forget our losses. In human life losses of all kinds come. No one is to whine and mope because losses come. We are to learn to get past them and to forget them.

     We are to learn how to forget life’s injuries. Refuse to let them rankle like poisons in the heart and thus vitiate every high thing that the spirit should hold most dear.

     We are to learn how to forget our successes. There is danger in success. A person who can bear success can bear anything. Easier far can the human spirit bear adversity than it can bear prosperity, for the human spirit is lifted up. If we do not learn what success is for, the day comes for our undoing and our downfall and our defeat.

     We are to learn how to forget our sorrows—and sooner or later these sorrows come to us, each and all. We are to take these sorrows to the great, refining, overruling Master and ask him so to dispose, so to rule and overrule in them and with them that we may come out of them all refined and disciplined, the better educated and more useful. You are to learn how to so have it woven into the warp and woof of your life that you will not be weaker and worse for the sorrow but will be richer and stronger and better because of such sorrow.

     We are to learn how to forget our sins. If Paul had not learned how to forget his sins he would have been crippled utterly. Paul consented to the death of Stephen. Paul persecuted the church. Paul was a ringleader in sin. Paul seemed to run the whole gamut of sin. He called himself the chief of sinners, and perhaps he was. When we look at the debit side of our lives do our hearts faint within us? Mine faints within me. But then the Master of life says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
--- George W. Truett

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     The apostle Paul, having stood alone before the Roman emperor, the most powerful man on earth, said, “When I was first put on trial, no one helped me … But the Lord stood beside me. He gave me … strength” (2 Tim 4:16-17). Centuries later, another stood before the greatest ruler on earth making a similar defense—and Luther, too, discovered that God gives unexplained courage at critical moments.

     Pope Leo had demanded that Martin Luther retract his teachings. Luther responded by burning the papal orders, and the impasse forced Emperor Charles V to convene an Imperial Congress in Worms, a German city on the Rhine, on January 28, 1521.

     Leo sent lawyers to discredit Luther, who determined to defend himself even at risk of life. “I will not flee, still less recant,” Luther said. “May the Lord Jesus strengthen me.” Luther left Wittenberg on the ten-day journey with three friends, riding in a rough two-wheel cart. Crowds gathered along the way, and Luther preached at every stop. But as he grew closer to Worms, suspense grew. His friends warned he would suffer the same fate as John Hus. “Though Hus was burned,” Luther replied, “the truth was not burned, and Christ still lives. … I shall go to Worms, though there were as many devils there as tiles on the roofs.”

     Luther’s arrival in Worms was heralded by city watchmen blowing horns, and thousands gathered. Stepping from his wagon, Luther whispered, “God will be with me.” Shortly, he stood before Emperor Charles V and the congress. The tension was thick as fog, and Luther, appearing to lose his nerve, mumbled and seemed near collapse. But the next day, fortified by prayer, he thundered his defense of the sufficiency of Scripture. “I cannot and will not recant!” he reportedly said. “Here I stand. God help me! Amen.” The congress erupted in confusion and was abruptly adjourned. Luther’s friends quickly spirited him to safety. Luther later said, “I was fearless, I was afraid of nothing; God can make one so desperately bold.”

     And such is the testimony of all those who stand alone for Christ in perilous times.

     The Lord will always keep me from being harmed by evil, and he will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.
--- 2 Timothy 4:18a.

Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK AFTER EPIPHANY
YEAR 2

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 55
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 138, 139:1–18 (19–24)
Old Testament Genesis 18:1–16
New Testament Hebrews 10:26–39
Gospel John 6:16–27

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 55

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

1 Give ear to my prayer, O God;
do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am troubled in my complaint.
I am distraught 3 by the noise of the enemy,
because of the clamor of the wicked.
For they bring trouble upon me,
and in anger they cherish enmity against me.

4 My heart is in anguish within me,
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “O that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 truly, I would flee far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter for myself
from the raging wind and tempest.”

9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.

12 It is not enemies who taunt me—
I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—
I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company;
we walked in the house of God with the throng.
15 Let death come upon them;
let them go down alive to Sheol;
for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

16 But I call upon God,
and the LORD will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan,
and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah
will hear, and will humble them—
because they do not change,
and do not fear God.

20 My companion laid hands on a friend
and violated a covenant with me
21 with speech smoother than butter,
but with a heart set on war;
with words that were softer than oil,
but in fact were drawn swords.

22 Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

23 But you, O God, will cast them down
into the lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.

PSALMS (EVENING)
Psalm 138, 139:1–18 (19–24)

Of David.

1 I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
for you have exalted your name and your word
above everything.
3 On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O LORD,
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly;
but the haughty he perceives from far away.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
and your right hand delivers me.
8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O LORD, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

[ 19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20 those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.]

OLD TESTAMENT
Genesis 18:1–16

18 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way.

NEW TESTAMENT
Hebrews 10:26–39

26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” 29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. 35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

37 For yet “in a very little while,
the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one will live by faith.
My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.”

39 But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.

GOSPEL
John 6:16–27

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. 22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary