Lessons for January 8, 2006 -  Baptism of our Lord Sunday

The first lesson

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. 3Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." Together these made up one day. (NLT)

Psalm 29 

L.  Give honor to the Lord, you angels; 
C.  give honor to the Lord for his glory and strength. 
L.  Give honor to the Lord for the glory of his name.
C.  Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
L.  The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders.
C.  The Lord thunders over the mighty sea. 
L.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 
C.  The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon. 
L.  He makes Lebanon's mountains skip like a calf 
C.  and Mount Hermon to leap like a young bull. 
L.  The voice of the Lord strikes with lightning bolts. 
C.  The voice of the Lord makes the desert quake; the Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh. 
L.  The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.
C.  In his Temple everyone shouts, "Glory!"
L.  The Lord rules over the floodwaters. The Lord reigns as king forever
C.  The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace. (NLT)

The second lesson

Acts 19:1-7
 
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior provinces. Finally, he came to Ephesus, where he found several believers. 2"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them. "No," they replied, "we don't know what you mean. We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."  3"Then what baptism did you experience?" he asked. And they replied, "The baptism of John."  4Paul said, "John's baptism was to demonstrate a desire to turn from sin and turn to God. John himself told the people to believe in Jesus, the one John said would come later."  5As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. 7There were about twelve men in all.  (NLT)

The Gospel Lesson

Mark 4:1-11
 
Once again Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore. There was such a large crowd along the shore that he got into a boat and sat down and spoke from there. 2He began to teach the people by telling many stories such as this one:  3"Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plant sprang up quickly, 6but it soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. 7Other seed fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades so that it produced no grain. 8Still other seed fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted." Then he said, 9"Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!" 
10Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him, "What do your stories mean?"  11He replied, "You are permitted to understand the secret about the Kingdom of God. But I am using these stories to conceal everything about it from outsiders.   (NLT)