Mark 8:34-38
Take Up Your Cross

34.) Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.
35.) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it.
36.) For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?
37.) What can a man give in exchange for his life?
38.) For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”




Holman Christian Standard Bible
(HCSB) Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Psalm 37

Instruction in Wisdom
Davidic.

1.) Do not be agitated by evildoers;
do not envy those who do wrong.
2.) For they wither quickly like grass
and wilt like tender green plants.

3.) Trust in the Lord and do what is good;
dwell in the land and live securely.
4.) Take delight in the Lord,
and He will give you your heart’s desires.

5.) Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him, and He will act,
6.) making your righteousness shine like the dawn,
your justice like the noonday.

7.) Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him;
do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way,
by the man who carries out evil plans.

8.) Refrain from anger and give up your rage;
do not be agitated—it can only bring harm.
9.) For evildoers will be destroyed,
but those who put their hope in the Lord
will inherit the land.

Psalm 36
Human Wickedness and God’s Love
For the choir director. A psalm of David, the Lord’s servant.

1.) An oracle within my heart
concerning the transgression of the wicked person:
There is no dread of God before his eyes,
2.) for in his own eyes he flatters himself too much
to discover and hate his sin.
3.) The words of his mouth are malicious and deceptive;
he has stopped acting wisely and doing good.
4.) Even on his bed he makes malicious plans.
He sets himself on a path that is not good
and does not reject evil.

5.) Lord, Your faithful love reaches to heaven,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
6.) Your righteousness is like the highest mountains;
Your judgments, like the deepest sea.
Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7.) God, Your faithful love is so valuable
that people take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8.) They are filled from the abundance of Your house;
You let them drink from Your refreshing stream,
9.) for with You is life’s fountain.
In Your light we will see light.

10.) Spread Your faithful love over those who know You,
and Your righteousness over the upright in heart.
11.) Do not let the foot of the arrogant man come near me
or the hand of the wicked one drive me away.
12.) There the evildoers fall;
they have been thrown down and cannot rise.




Holman Christian Standard Bible
(HCSB) Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Psalm 35

Prayer for Victory
Davidic.

1.) Oppose my opponents, Lord;
fight those who fight me.
2.) Take Your shields—large and small--
and come to my aid.
3.) Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers,
and assure me: “I am your deliverance.”

4.) Let those who seek to kill me
be disgraced and humiliated;
let those who plan to harm me
be turned back and ashamed.
5.) Let them be like chaff in the wind,
with the angel of the Lord driving them away.
6.) Let their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
7.) They hid their net for me without cause;
they dug a pit for me without cause.
8.) Let ruin come on him unexpectedly,
and let the net that he hid ensnare him;
let him fall into it—to his ruin.