Daily Reading for Thursday April 19, 2018

Acts 8:26-40

26 However, Jehovah’s* angel+ spoke to Philip, saying: “Get up and go to the south to the road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gazʹa.” (This is a desert road.) 27 With that he got up and went, and look! an E·thi·oʹpi·an eunuch,* a man who had authority under Can·daʹce, queen of the E·thi·oʹpi·ans, and who was in charge of all her treasure. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship,+ 28 and he was returning and was sitting in his chariot, reading aloud the prophet Isaiah. 29 So the spirit said to Philip: “Go over and approach this chariot.” 30 Philip ran alongside and heard him reading aloud Isaiah the prophet, and he said: “Do you actually know* what you are reading?” 31 He said: “Really, how could I ever do so unless someone guided me?” So he urged Philip to get on and sit down with him. 32 Now this was the passage of Scripture that he was reading: “Like a sheep he was brought to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.+ 33 During his humiliation, justice was taken away from him.+ Who will tell the details of his generation? Because his life is taken away from the earth.”+
34 The eunuch then said to Philip: “I beg you, about whom does the prophet say this? About himself or about some other man?” 35 Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he declared to him the good news about Jesus. 36 Now as they were going along the road, they came to a body of water, and the eunuch said: “Look! Here is water; what prevents me from getting baptized?” 37 * —— 38 With that he commanded the chariot to halt, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, Jehovah’s* spirit quickly led Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him anymore, but he went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, found himself in Ashʹdod, and he went through the territory and kept on declaring the good news to all the cities until he got to Caes·a·reʹa.+

Psalms 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
8 Praise our God, you peoples,+
And let the sound of his praise be heard.
9 He preserves us alive;+
He does not allow our feet to stumble.+
16 Come and listen, all you who fear God,
And I will tell you what he has done for me.*+
17 I called to him with my mouth
And glorified him with my tongue.
20 Praise to God, who did not reject my prayer
Or withhold his loyal love from me.

John 6:44-51
44 No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him,+ and I will resurrect him on the last day.+ 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by Jehovah.’*+ Everyone who has listened to the Father and has learned comes to me. 46 Not that any man has seen the Father,+ except the one who is from God; this one has seen the Father.+ 47 Most truly I say to you, whoever believes has everlasting life.+
48 “I am the bread of life.+ 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness and yet they died.+ 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and for a fact, the bread that I will give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”+