Saturday 17 May 2008

1Let not many of you be teachers,my brothers, knowingthat we will receive heavier judgment.2For we all stumble in many things.Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person,able to bridle the whole body also.3Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouthsso that they may obey us,and we guide their whole body.4Behold, the ships also,though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds,are yet guided by a very small rudder,wherever the pilot desires.5So the tongue is also a little member,and boasts great things.See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!6And the tongue is a fire.The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue,which defiles the whole body,and sets on fire the course of nature,and is set on fire by Gehenna.7For every kind of animal,bird, creeping thing,and sea creature is tamed,and has been tamed by mankind;8but nobody can tame the tongue.It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.9With it we bless our God and Father,and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God.10Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

2Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases.For the faithful fail from among the children of men.3Everyone lies to his neighbor.They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.

4May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,and the tongue that boasts,5who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.Our lips are our own.Who is lord over us?”

7The Lord’s words are flawless words,as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.8You will keep them, Lord.You will preserve them from this generation forever.

2After six days Jesus took with him Peter,James, and John,and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves,and he was changed into another form in front of them.3His clothing became glistening,exceedingly white,like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.4Elijah and Moses appeared to them,and they were talking with Jesus.

5Peter answered Jesus,“Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.Let’s make three tents:one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”6For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid.

7A cloud came, overshadowing them,and a voice came out of the cloud,“This is my beloved Son.Listen to him.”

8Suddenly looking around,they saw no one with them any more,except Jesus only.

9As they were coming down from the mountain,he commanded themthat they should tell no one what things they had seen,until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.10They kept this saying to themselves,questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.

11They asked him, saying,“Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

12He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first,and restores all things.How is it written about the Son of Man,that he should suffer many things and be despised?13But I tell you that Elijah has come,and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to,even as it is written about him.”