Open Word

FIRST READING

Job 38:22-38

Verse 22. Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail, Verse 23. which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle? Verse 24. In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth? Verse 25. Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt, Verse 26. to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives, Verse 27. to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass? Verse 28. Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew? Verse 29. From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven, Verse 30. when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen? Verse 31. Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? Verse 32. Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs? Verse 33. Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? Verse 34. Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you? Verse 35. Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? Verse 36. Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind? Verse 37. Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens Verse 38. when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?

PSALM

Psalm 8

For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.

From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise on account of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and avenger.

When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place —

what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet:

all sheep and oxen, and even the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

SECOND READING

John 14:15-17

Verse 15. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Verse 16. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever — Verse 17. the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.