Sunday, December 14, 2025

Advent Readings: Isaiah 28:14-17 and 1 Peter 2:4-7

JOY 🕯🕯🕯


Isaiah 28:14-17 
28:14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,
and we have an agreement with Sheol;
when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,
it will not touch us,
because we have made falsehood our refuge
and have hidden behind treachery.”
16 Therefore the Lord God said:
“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will be unshakable.
17 And I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the mason’s level.”
Hail will sweep away the false refuge,
and water will flood your hiding place.

1 Peter 2:4-7
2:4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God— you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and honored cornerstone,
and the one who believes in him
will never be put to shame.[Is 28:16]

So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving,

The stone that the builders rejected—
this one has become the cornerstone,[Ps 118:22]


CSB

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Advent Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5

PEACE 🕯🕯


God’s People Comforted
40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of hard service is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”

A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; [Or A voice of one calling in the wilderness: / “Prepare the way for the Lord]
make a straight highway for our God [Hebrew; Septuagint make straight the paths of our God] in the desert.
Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

CSB