Amos 8:1-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Basket of Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
“The end[a] has come upon my people Israel;
I will spare them no longer.(A)
3 The songs of the temple[b] shall become wailings on that day,”
says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”(B)
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(C)
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(D)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(E)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(F)
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(G)
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.(H)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.(I)
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(J)
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.(K)
Colossians 1:15-28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Supremacy of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,(A) 16 for in[a] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in[b] him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.(B) 19 For in him all the fullness of God[c] was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.(C)
21 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled[d] in his fleshly body[e] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,(D) 23 provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature[f] under heaven. I, Paul, became a minister of this gospel.(E)
Paul’s Interest in the Colossians
24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25 I became its minister according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,(F) 26 the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.(G) 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.(H) 28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.[g](I)
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Luke 10:38-42
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus Visits Martha and Mary
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him.[a](A) 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’s[b] feet and listened to what he was saying.(B) 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, 42 but few things are needed—indeed only one.[c] Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”(C)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.