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TODAY’S READINGS
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

FIRST READING:  Acts 10:44-48
⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, ⁴⁶for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ ⁴⁸So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

RESPONSIVE READING:  Psalm 98
¹ O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him victory.
² The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
⁴ Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
⁵ Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.
⁷ Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.
⁸ Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy
⁹ at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

SECOND READING:  1 John 5:1-6
¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, ⁴for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. ⁵Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

GOSPEL:  John 15:9-17
⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

¹²‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

(Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.)