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Today, as yesterday, take time to pause and reflect on these scriptures after you read each. The audio version (above) includes a musical interlude for this time.\xa0 What is the Spirit saying to you today?

Psalm 51:1-6
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Joel 2:1-2, 12-13
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand\u2014
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
nor ever will be in ages to come. \u2026
\u201cEven now,\u201d declares the Lord,
\u201creturn to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.\u201d
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

Galatians 2:15-16, 19-21
\u201cWe who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. \u2026 \u201cFor through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!\u201d

John 4:22-26
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.\u201d The woman said, \u201cI know that Messiah\u201d (called Christ) \u201cis coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.\u201d Then Jesus declared, \u201cI, the one speaking to you\u2014I am he.\u201d

Prayer
Have mercy on us, O God. \xa0We know that we can never be justified before you by our own works, righteousness, or worship which are always, despite our best efforts, tainted by impure motives and imperfect action. \xa0Remind us today that we have been crucified with Christ, our Messiah, such that we no longer live by our own doing, but by faith in him which gives us life.

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