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Reading
First Lesson
Jonah 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD,
was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore
I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and
repentest thee of the evil.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me;
for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of
the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the
shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over
Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him
from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the Next
day,
and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared
a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,
that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is
better for me to die than to live.
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the
gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the
which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came
up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are
more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between
their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
QUESTIONS - Jonah 4. Why wasn't Jonah's anger justified? Am I sometimes like Jonah? How? Why? RESOLVE.
Second
Lesson
1 Peter 1:1-9
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of
the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are
in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ:
8 Whom
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your
souls.
QUESTIONS - 1 Peter 1:1-9. How close am I to the inheritance incorruptible of verse 4? What keeps me from being closer to it than I am? How is my heaviness through manifold temptations? (V. 6) Is my faith strong enough to give me joy unspeakable and full of glory? (V. 8) RESOLVE.