AME Zion Universal Reading August 29th 2021
- Artisans Called by God
- Aug 24, 2021
- 21 min read
Updated: Aug 29, 2021
First Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
1And it will be, when you come into the land which the Lord, your God, gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and settle in it,2that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you. And you shall put [them] into a basket and go to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose to have His Name dwell there.3And you shall come to the kohen who will be [serving] in those days, and say to him, "I declare this day to the Lord, your God, that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us."4And the kohen will take the basket from your hand, laying it before the altar of the Lord, your God.5And you shall call out and say before the Lord, your God, "An Aramean [sought to] destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there with a small number of people, and there, he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation.6And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us.7So we cried out to the Lord, God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.8And the Lord brought us out from Egypt with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, with great awe, and with signs and wonders.9And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.10And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given to me." Then, you shall lay it before the Lord, your God, and prostrate yourself before the Lord, your God.11Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you.
2 Corinthians 4:16–5:10 (NLT):
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Chapter 5
New Bodies
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
Second Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
12When you have finished tithing all the tithes of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give [them] to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that they can eat to satiety in your cities.13Then you shall say before the Lord, your God, "I have removed the holy [portion] from the house, and I have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, according to all Your commandment that You commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten [them].14I did not eat any of it [second tithe] while in my mourning, nor did I consume any of it while unclean; neither did I use any of it for the dead. I obeyed the Lord, my God; I did according to all that You commanded me.15Look down from Your holy dwelling, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given to us, as You swore to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey.
Monday
1 Corinthians 15:15–23 (NLT):
16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
Third Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
16This day, the Lord, your God, is commanding you to fulfill these statutes and ordinances, and you will observe and fulfill them with all your heart and with all your soul.17You have selected the Lord this day, to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to observe His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and to obey Him.18And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments,19and to make you supreme, above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke.
Tuesday
Ephesians 3:14–21 (NLT): Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Fourth Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 27
1And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Observe all of the commandment that I command you this day.2And it will be, on the day that you cross the Jordan to the land the Lord, your God, is giving you, that you shall set up for yourself huge stones, and plaster them with lime.3When you cross, you shall write upon them all the words of this Torah, in order that you may come to the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, God of your forefathers, has spoken to you.4And it will be, when you cross the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, [regarding] which I command you this day on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with lime.5And there, you shall build an altar to the Lord, your God, an altar of stones. You shall not wield any iron upon them.6You shall build the altar of the Lord, your God, out of whole stones. And on it, you shall offer up burnt offerings to the Lord, your God.7And you shall slaughter peace offerings, and you shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God.8You shall write upon the stones all the words of this Torah, very clearly.9Moses and the Levitic priests spoke to all Israel, saying, "Pay attention and listen, O Israel! This day, you have become a people to the Lord, your God.10You shall therefore obey the Lord, your God, and fulfill His commandments and His statutes, which I command you this day.
Wednesday
Ecclesiastes 12:8–14 (NLT): Concluding Thoughts about the Teacher
8 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”
9 Keep this in mind: The Teacher was considered wise, and he taught the people everything he knew. He listened carefully to many proverbs, studying and classifying them. 10 The Teacher sought to find just the right words to express truths clearly.
11 The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.
12 But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.
13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
Fifth Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 27
11And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying,12When you cross the Jordan, the following shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.13And the following shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naftali.14The Levites shall speak up, saying to every individual of Israel, in a loud voice:15"Cursed be the man who makes any graven or molten image an abomination to the Lord, the handiwork of a craftsman and sets it up in secret! And all the people shall respond, saying, 'Amen!'16Cursed be he who degrades his father and mother. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'17Cursed be he who moves back his neighbor's landmark. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'18Cursed be he who misguides a blind person on the way. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'19Cursed be he who perverts the judgment of the stranger, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'20Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, thus uncovering the corner of his father's garment. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'21Cursed be he who lies with any animal. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'22Cursed be he who lies with his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'23Cursed be he who lies with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'24Cursed be he who strikes his fellow in secret. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'25Cursed be he who takes a bribe to put an innocent person to death. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'26Cursed be he who does not uphold the words of this Torah, to fulfill them. And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
1And it will be if you obey the Lord, your God, to observe to fulfill all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord, your God, will place you supreme above all the nations of the earth.2And all these blessings will come upon you and cleave to you, if you obey the Lord, your God.3You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.4Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your soil, the fruit of your livestock, the offspring of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep.5Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.6You shall be blessed when you come, and you shall be blessed when you depart.
Thursday
Romans 2:4–11 (NLT):
4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
Sixth Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
7The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you, to be beaten before you; they will come out against you in one direction, but they will flee from you in seven directions.8The Lord will order the blessing to be with you in your granaries, and in every one of your endeavors, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.9The Lord will establish you as His holy people as He swore to you, if you observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, and walk in His ways.10Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they will fear you.11And the Lord will grant you good surplus in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil, on the land which the Lord swore to your forefathers, to give you.12The Lord will open up for you His good treasury, the heaven, to give your land its rain in its [right] time, and to bless everything you do. And you will lend many nations, but you will not [need to] borrow.13And the Lord will set you at the head, and not at the tail, and you will be only at the top, and you will not be at the bottom, if you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am commanding you this day, to observe to fulfill [them].14And you shall not turn right or left from all of the words I am commanding you this day, to follow other deities to worship them.15And it will be, if you do not obey the Lord, your God, to observe to fulfill all His commandments and statutes which I am commanding you this day, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.16You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.17Cursed will be your [food] basket and your kneading bowl.18Cursed will be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your soil, the fruit of your livestock, those born from your cattle and the flock of your sheep.19You shall be cursed when you come, and you shall be cursed when you depart.20The Lord will send the curse of shortages, confusion, and turmoil upon you, in every one of your endeavors which you undertake, until it destroys you and until you quickly vanish, because of your evil deeds in forsaking Me.21The Lord will make pestilence cleave to you, until it has exterminated you from upon the land, to which you are coming, to possess it.22The Lord will strike you with consumption, fever, illnesses with burning fevers, a disease which causes unquenchable thirst, with the sword, with blast, and with yellowing, and they will pursue you until you perish.23And your skies above you will be [like] copper, and the earth below you [like] iron.24The Lord will turn the rain of your land into powder and dust, raining down upon you from the heavens until you are destroyed.25The Lord will cause you to be broken before your enemy: you will come out against them in one direction, but you will flee from them in seven directions. And you will become a terrifying [example] to all the kingdoms on earth.26Your corpse will be food for all birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them [away].27The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with hemorrhoids, with oozing sores, and with dry lesions, from which you will be unable to be cured.28The Lord will strike you with insanity, with blindness, and with bewilderment.29You will grope at midday, as the blind man gropes in the dark, and you will be unsuccessful in your ways. You will be only oppressed and robbed all the days, and no one will save [you].30You will betroth a woman, but another man will lie with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not redeem it[s fruits].31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat from it. Your donkey will be snatched right in front of you, and it will not return to you. Your flock will be given over to your enemies, and you will have no savior.32Your sons and daughters will be given over to another people, and your eyes will see [this] and long for them all day long, but you will be powerless.33A people unknown to you will eat up the fruit of your soil and [the result of] all your toil. You will be only wronged and crushed all the days.34You will go insane from the vision before your eyes that you will behold.35The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with a terrible skin eruption from which you will be unable to be cured; [it will eventually cover you] from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.36The Lord will lead you and your king whom you will have established over you, to a nation unknown to you or your fathers; and there, you will serve other deities [made] of wood and stone.37And you will become an [object of] astonishment, an example, and a topic of discussion, among all the peoples to whom the Lord will lead you.38You will take much seed out to the field, yet you will gather in little, for the locusts will finish it.39You will plant vineyards and work [them], but you will neither drink of [their] wine, or gather [the grapes], because the worms will devour them.40You will have olive trees throughout all your boundaries, but you will not anoint with [their] oil, because your olive trees will drop off.41You will bear sons and daughters, but you will not have them, because they will go into captivity.42All your trees and all the fruit of your soil the cicada will make destitute.43The stranger who is among you will arise above you, higher and higher, while you will descend lower and lower.44He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be at the head, while you will be at the tail.45All these curses will befall you, pursuing you and overtaking you to destroy you because you did not obey the Lord, your God, to observe His commandments and statutes which He commanded you.46And they will be as a sign and a wonder, upon you and your offspring, forever,47because you did not serve the Lord, your God, with happiness and with gladness of heart, when [you had an] abundance of everything.48Therefore, you will serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, [when you are] in famine, thirst, destitution, and lacking everything, and he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.49The Lord will bring upon you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you will not understand,50a brazen nation, which will not respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.51They will devour the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your soil, to destroy you. They will not leave over anything for you of the grain, wine, oil, offspring of your cattle or flocks of your sheep, until they annihilate you.52And they will besiege you in all your cities, until your high and fortified walls in which you trust come down, throughout all your land. And they will besiege you in all your cities throughout all your land, which the Lord, your God, has given you.53And during the siege and the desperation which your enemies will bring upon you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord, your God, gave you.54The most tender and delicate man among you, will begrudge his own brother and the wife of his embrace and the rest of his children, whom he will leave over,55of giving any one of them of the flesh of his children that he is eating, because not a thing will remain for him in the siege and in the desperation which your enemies will bring upon you, in all your cities.56The most tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set her foot upon the ground, because of delicateness and tenderness, will begrudge the husband of her embrace and her own son and daughter,57and the infants who emerge from between her legs, and her own children whom she will bear, for she will eat them in secret, in destitution, in the siege and the desperation which your enemies will inflict upon you, in your cities.58If you do not observe to fulfill all the words of this Torah, which are written in this scroll, to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord, your God,59Then the Lord [will bring upon] you and your offspring uniquely [horrible] plagues, terrible and unyielding plagues, and evil and unyielding sicknesses.60And He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.61Also, the Lord will bring upon you every disease and plague which is not written in this Torah scroll, to destroy you.62And you will remain few in number, whereas you were once as numerous as the stars of the heavens because you did not obey the Lord, your God.63And it will be, just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good for you and to increase you, so will the Lord cause to rejoice over you to annihilate you and to destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land which you enter therein, to possess it.64And the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other deities unknown to you or your forefathers, [deities of] wood and stone.65And among those nations, you will not be calm, nor will your foot find rest. There, the Lord will give you a trembling heart, dashed hopes, and a depressed soul.66And your life will hang in suspense before you. You will be in fear night and day, and you will not believe in your life.67In the morning, you will say, "If only it were evening! " and in the evening, you will say, "If only it were morning!" because of the fear in your heart which you will experience and because of the sights that you will behold.68And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, You will never see it again. And there, you will seek to be sold to your enemies for slaves and handmaids, but there will be no buyer.69These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
Friday
2 Corinthians 4:1–6 (NLT): Treasure in Fragile Clay Jars
Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
Seventh Portion
Deuteronomy Chapter 29
1And Moses called all of Israel and said to them, "You have seen all that the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land;2the great trials which your very eyes beheld and those great signs and wonders.3Yet until this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.4I led you through the desert for forty years [during which time] your garments did not wear out from upon you, nor did your shoes wear out from upon your feet.5You neither ate bread, nor drank new wine or old wine, in order that you would know that I am the Lord, your God.6And then you arrived at this place. And Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out towards us in battle, and we smote them.7And we took their land, and we gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.8And you shall observe the words of this covenant and fulfill them, in order that you will succeed in all that you do.
Saturday
2 Corinthians 4:7–15 (NLT):
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
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