Book of Common Prayer

The Lord Is Good to His People

106 Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. ² Who can put into words the great works of the Lord? Who can make known all His praise? ³ Happy are those who are faithful in being fair and who always do what is right and good!

⁴ O Lord, remember me when You show favor to Your people. Visit me also when You save them. ⁵ So I may share in the well-being of Your chosen ones. So I may share in the joy of Your nation, and be proud of Your people.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers. We have done wrong. We have been sinful in our actions. ⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your powerful works. They did not remember how many times You showed Your loving-kindness. But they turned against You by the sea, the Red Sea. ⁸ Yet He saved them because of the honor of His name, and to make His great power known. ⁹ So He spoke sharp words to the Red Sea and it dried up. And He led them through the sea as through a desert. ¹⁰ He saved them from the hand of those who hated them. He set them free from the hand of those who went against them. ¹¹ And the waters covered those who hated them. Not one of them was left. ¹² Then they believed His promises. They sang His praise.

¹³ But they soon forgot His works. They did not wait to hear what He wanted them to do. ¹⁴ They wanted many things in the desert, and they tempted God there. ¹⁵ So He gave them what they wanted, but He allowed their souls to become weak because of it.

¹⁶ They were jealous of Moses in the place where they set up their tents. And they were jealous of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord. ¹⁷ So the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan. It closed over the group of Abiram. ¹⁸ And a fire came among their followers. It burned up the sinful people.

¹⁹ They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a god of gold. ²⁰ They traded their shining-greatness for something that looked like a bull that eats grass. ²¹ They forgot the God Who saved them, Who had done great things in Egypt, ²² powerful works in the land of Ham, and works that brought fear by the Red Sea. ²³ So He said that He would destroy them. But Moses, His chosen one, stood in the way to keep His anger from destroying them. ²⁴ Then they hated the good land. They did not believe in His Word. ²⁵ But they complained in their tents. They did not listen to the voice of the Lord. ²⁶ So He swore to them that He would let them die in the desert. ²⁷ And He would spread out their children among the nations and divide them over all the earth.

²⁸ They joined themselves to Baal of Peor and ate gifts given to the dead. ²⁹ They made the Lord angry by their actions and a sickness broke out among them. ³⁰ Then Phinehas stood up and came between them, and the sickness was stopped. ³¹ And this made him right with God to all people forever.

³² They also made the Lord angry at the waters of Meribah. And trouble came to Moses because of them. ³³ He spoke from his lips without thinking because they went against the Spirit of God.

³⁴ They did not destroy the people as the Lord told them to do. ³⁵ But they mixed with the nations and learned their ways. ³⁶ They served their gods, which became a trap to them. ³⁷ They even gave their sons and daughters as gifts on an altar to the demons. ³⁸ They poured out the blood of those who were not guilty, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they gave on an altar to the gods of Canaan. And the land was poisoned with blood. ³⁹ They made themselves unclean by what they did. They were not true to God in what they did.

⁴⁰ So the Lord was angry with His people. He hated His people. ⁴¹ So He handed them over to the nations. And those who hated them ruled over them. ⁴² Those who hated them held a strong power over them. And they were made to obey them. ⁴³ God set them free many times. But they always turned against Him and went deeper into sin.

⁴⁴ But He looked upon their trouble when He heard their cry. ⁴⁵ He remembered His agreement because of them, and took pity on them by the greatness of His loving-kindness. ⁴⁶ Those who held them also saw how God took pity on them.

⁴⁷ O Lord our God, save us! Gather us from among the nations. And we will give thanks to Your holy name and find honor in Your praise. ⁴⁸ Honor and thanks be to the Lord, the God of Israel, forever and ever. Let all the people say, “Let it be so!” Praise the Lord!

Israel Remembers God’s Loving-Kindness

⁷ I will tell of the loving-kindness of the Lord, and praise Him for all He has done. I will tell of all the Lord has given us, the great goodness He has shown to the family of Israel and given to them because of His loving-pity and His great loving-kindness. ⁸ For He said, “For sure they are My people, sons who will not be false to Me.” So He saved them from the punishment of sin. ⁹ He suffered with them in all their troubles, and the angel of the Lord saved them. In His loving-kindness He paid the price and made them free. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of long ago. ¹⁰ But they turned against Him and made His Holy Spirit have sorrow. So He turned Himself and hated them, and fought against them. ¹¹ Then His people remembered the days long ago, the days of Moses. Where is He Who brought them through the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He Who put His Holy Spirit among them? ¹² Where is He Who caused His great arm to be at the right hand of Moses? Where is He Who divided the waters in front of them to make for Himself a name that lasts forever. ¹³ Who led them through the sea? Like a horse in the desert, they did not lose their step. ¹⁴ Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So You led Your people, to make for Yourself a great and honored name.

1 This letter is from Paul, a missionary of Jesus Christ. God has sent me to tell that He has promised life that lasts forever through Christ Jesus. ² I am writing to you, Timothy. You are my much-loved son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you His loving-favor and loving-kindness and peace.

Timothy’s Special Gift

³ I thank God for you. I pray for you night and day. I am working for God the way my early fathers worked. My heart says I am free from sin. ⁴ When I remember your tears, it makes me want to see you. That would fill me with joy. ⁵ I remember your true faith. It is the same faith your grandmother Lois had and your mother Eunice had. I am sure you have that same faith also.

⁶ For this reason, I ask you to keep using the gift God gave you. It came to you when I laid my hands on you and prayed that God would use you. ⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us a spirit of power and of love and of a good mind. ⁸ Do not be ashamed to tell others about what our Lord said, or of me here in prison. I am here because of Jesus Christ. Be ready to suffer for preaching the Good News and God will give you the strength you need. ⁹ He is the One Who saved us from the punishment of sin. He is the One Who chose us to do His work. It is not because of anything we have done. But it was His plan from the beginning that He would give us His loving-favor through Christ Jesus. ¹⁰ We know about it now because of the coming of Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. He put a stop to the power of death and brought life that never dies which is seen through the Good News. ¹¹ I have been chosen to be a missionary and a preacher and a teacher of this Good News. ¹² For this reason, I am suffering. But I am not ashamed. I know the One in Whom I have put my trust. I am sure He is able to keep safe that which I have trusted to Him until the day He comes again. ¹³ Keep all the things I taught you. They were given to you in the faith and love of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ Keep safe that which He has trusted you with by the Holy Spirit Who lives in us.

A Person Filled with Bad or Good ^(A)

²⁴ “When a demon is gone out of a man, it goes through dry places to find rest. If it finds none, it says, ‘I will go back to my house I came from.’ ²⁵ When the demon comes back, it finds the house cleaned and looking good. ²⁶ Then the demon goes out and comes back bringing seven demons worse than itself. They go in and live there. In the end that man is worse than at the first.” ²⁷ As Jesus was talking, a woman of the group said with a loud voice, “The woman is happy who gave You birth and who fed You.” ²⁸ But He said, “Yes, but those who hear the Word of God and obey it are happy.”

Jesus Tells about Jonah ^(B)

²⁹ When the people were gathered near Jesus, He said, “The people of this day are sinful. They are looking for something special to see. They will get nothing special to see, except what Jonah the early preacher did. ³⁰ As Jonah was something special to the people of the city of Nineveh, the Son of Man will be to the people of this day also. ³¹ The queen of the south will stand up on the day men stand before God. She will say the people of this day are guilty because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wise sayings of Solomon. And look, Someone greater than Solomon is here! ³² The men of Nineveh will stand up on the day men stand before God. They will say the people of this day are guilty because the men of Nineveh were sorry for their sins and turned from them when Jonah preached. And look, Someone greater than Jonah is here!

Jesus Teaches about Light

³³ “No man lights a lamp and then hides it under a pail. He puts the light on a lamp-stand so those who come in can see it. ³⁴ The eye is the light of the body. When your eye is good, your whole body is full of light. When your eye is sinful, your whole body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Be careful that the light in you is not dark. ³⁶ If your whole body is full of light, with no dark part, then it will shine. It will be as a lamp that gives light.”