Book of Common Prayer
David wrote this prayer.
God will help me
16 Please keep me safe, God,
because I come to you for help.
2 I have said to the Lord,
‘You are my Lord.
All the good things that I have in my life
are gifts from you.’
3 When I think about your own people who live in this land,
it makes me happy!
They are truly great people!
4 But many troubles will come
to people who choose to worship other gods.
I will not join with them
to offer gifts of blood to their gods.
I will never use the names of their gods
to make promises.
5 You, Lord, are all that I need.
What you give to me is enough,
for me and for my descendants.
6 Yes, you have given to me a good way of life.
Your gifts are better than good fields
or valuable land.
7 I will praise the Lord,
who is my guide through life.
In the dark nights,
you help me to learn what is right.
8 I will always trust the Lord to be with me.
He is very near to me,
so I will not be upset.
9 I am truly happy and I thank God.
I know that my life is safe with God.
10 You, Lord, will not leave me
in the deep hole of death.
As one who belongs to you,
you will not leave my body to spoil in the grave.
11 You will lead me along the path of life.
Because you are with me,
I am very happy.
I know that I will be with you for ever,
and that makes me very happy!
David wrote this prayer.
A prayer for help
17 Lord, please listen to me.
I am asking you to do something that is right.
I am speaking what is true,
so please do what I ask you to do.
2 Say clearly that I am not guilty.
You can see for yourself that I am right.
3 You look deep into my mind.
You check my thoughts at night.
When you test me,
you find nothing that is wrong.
I have decided that I will never tell any lies.
4 I have watched people do bad things.
But I have obeyed your commands.
I have not joined with cruel people
to do what they do.
5 No, I carefully follow your ways.
I do not turn away from them.
6 I pray to you, God,
because you will answer me.
Please listen to me when I pray to you.
7 Do great things that show your faithful love!
You have the power to keep people safe from their enemies.
You help them when they trust you for help.
8 Please keep me safe,
in the same way that people take care of their eyes.
Keep me near to you,
in the way that birds protect their babies under their wings.
9 Keep me safe from the wicked men who attack me.
My enemies are all around me,
and they want to kill me!
10 They refuse to be kind to anyone.
They speak proud words.
11 Now they have found me. They are ready to attack!
They look for their chance
to knock me down to the ground.
12 They are like hungry lions.
They want to tear me into pieces.
They are hiding like young lions.
They are ready to jump out and catch me!
13 Lord, please do something!
Fight against them! Knock them down!
Take your sword and save me from those wicked men.
14 Lord, use your power to save me from them.
They only think about this world,
and they enjoy the good things that it gives them.
So give them all that you have ready for them.
Give them more than they want!
May their children also have plenty,
and enough left to give to their children too.
15 As for me, Lord, I am not guilty of sin.
So I will see your face.
When I wake up, I will see you clearly,
and I will be really happy!
The leader must use the music called ‘The Deer of the Dawn.’
This is a song that David wrote.
Please help me, God!
22 My God!
My God, why have you left me alone?
Why is my help far away?
I am crying out in great pain!
2 My God!
I call aloud to you for help every day,
all day and all night!
But you do not answer my prayers,
so I cannot sleep.
3 I know that you are the Holy God.
You sit on your throne as king,
and Israel's people praise you.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you.
When they trusted you, you saved them.
5 They called aloud to you and you saved them.
They trusted in you,
and you did not disappoint them.[a]
6 People insult me.
They think that I am worth nothing.
It seems that I am only a worm,
and I am not really a man.
7 Everyone that sees me laughs at me.
They laugh and they shake their heads.
8 They say, ‘He should trust in the Lord!
The Lord should save him.
If the Lord is really happy with him,
the Lord should rescue him.’
9 Lord, you brought me safely to birth.
You took care of me at my mother's breasts.
10 From the day that I was born,
I have always been in your care.
You have been my God since my mother gave birth to me.
11 So do not stay far from me now.
Trouble is near to me,
and there is nobody to help me.
12 There is danger all round me,
like the strong bulls of Bashan.[b]
I cannot move
because my enemies are very near, all around me.
13 They open their mouths like lions!
They are ready to eat me!
They are like lions that tear their food into pieces.
14 My strength has gone,
like water that is poured away.
My bones do not join together properly.
I feel weak inside
and hope has disappeared.
15 My mouth has become dry like a piece of a broken pot.
My tongue sticks to my mouth.
You have left me down in the dirt,
as good as dead!
16 Wicked people are everywhere around me.
They are ready to attack me,
like a group of wild dogs.
They tear apart my hands and my feet.
17 My body is so weak
I can count all my bones.
My enemies look at me and they laugh.
They are happy because I have pain.
18 They have taken my clothes,
and they choose what they want for themselves.
They throw dice to decide who receives each piece.
19 But Lord, please do not stay far away from me!
You can make me strong again.
Please hurry to help me!
20 Keep me safe!
My enemies want to kill me with their swords.
Save my life from those wild dogs!
21 Do not let those lions eat me!
Keep me safe from the horns of those wild bulls!
I know that you have answered my prayer!
22 I will tell my people how great you are.
I will praise you when we meet together.
23 Everyone who serves the Lord must praise him!
All Jacob's descendants must respect him!
Yes, all Israel's people must worship him!
24 God did not forget to help the man who was in pain.
He did not turn away from the one who suffered.
When he called to God for help,
God answered his prayer.[c]
25 Yes, I will praise you, God,
in the great meeting of your people.
I will give to you what I have promised to give.
Everyone who serves you, Lord, will see that.
26 Poor people will have plenty of food to eat.
Those who come to the Lord will praise him.
May God help you to live well for ever!
27 People everywhere in the world will respect the Lord.
They will turn to him for help.
Families from all nations will worship you.
28 The Lord rules as king over all the nations.
29 All the rich people on earth will bend down,
and they will worship God.
Everyone will die one day.
They must all bend down in front of God.
Nobody can keep himself alive.
30 Our children will also serve God.
And they will tell their children about our Lord.
31 They will speak about all the great things that God has done
to save his people.
People who have not yet been born
will learn about the things that God has done.[d]
Amos is sad
5 You people of Israel's family, listen to the sad song that I will sing about you:
2 ‘You are like a young woman that died young, without children. Now you have fallen down and you will not rise up again. You lie there on the ground. There is nobody there to help you to get up.’
3 This is what the Lord God says to you: ‘1,000 soldiers will go out from a city to fight, but only 100 soldiers will come back. From another city, 100 soldiers will go out to fight, but only ten will come back.’
4 To the people of Israel's family, the Lord says, ‘Come back to me and you will live. 5 Do not go to Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba. Do not try to find me there, because I am not there. I will send enemies to destroy those places. They will take the people away as slaves.’
6 Return to the Lord and you will live. If you do not do that, he will come like fire to punish you. He will completely destroy Joseph's descendants. Bethel and all its people will burn. Nobody will be able to stop the fire. 7 You people change what is right and true to make lies. You are not fair or honest.
8 The Lord made the groups of stars called Pleiades and Orion. The Lord changes the night into dawn, and he changes the day back to night again. He takes the water in the sea, and he pours it out as rain on the earth. The Lord is his name!
9 He quickly destroys strong people. He knocks down their strong buildings and their walls.
10 ‘You Israelites hate honest judges. You laugh at anyone who speaks the truth. 11 You cheat poor people so that they pay too much tax. You take away their food for yourselves. Because of that, you will not live in the beautiful houses that you have built for yourselves. You will not drink wine from the vines that you have planted.
12 I, the Lord, know all the wrong things that you have done. They are very many and they are very bad. You are cruel to good people. You take bribes to tell lies. Sometimes a person gives money to you to make you tell lies. As a result, poor people do not receive justice. 13 This is such an evil time that clever people say nothing. That is how they keep themselves safe.’
14 You say that the Lord God Almighty is with you. Stop doing evil things. Do good things, so that you will live. Then the Lord God Almighty will really be with you, as you say. 15 Hate evil things and love good things. When you judge people, be fair and honest. Then maybe the Lord God Almighty will be kind to those of his people who still remain, Joseph's descendants.
16 The Lord, the Lord God Almighty says, ‘All the people will be sad. They will weep and cry loudly in all the streets. They will tell the farmers to weep with them. They will tell the singers to sing sad songs for them. 17 In every field and garden, people will be weeping, because I will come to punish them all.’ That is what the Lord says.
False teachers are trying to turn people away from God
1 This letter is from me, Jude. I am Jesus Christ's servant and I am James's brother.[a] I am writing to you people that God, the Father, loves. God has chosen you to be his own people. He is keeping you safe until the time when Jesus Christ returns.
2 I pray that God will be kind to you and that he will give you peace in your minds more and more. I want you to know more and more how much God loves you.
3 My friends, I wanted very much to write to you about how God has saved us from sin. That is what he has done for you and for us. But instead of that, I now know that I must write to you about something else. I must tell you to be strong and brave. You must do everything that you can to keep God's true message safe. God has given this message to his special people and his message will never change. Do not let anyone teach you a different message.
4 I say this because certain bad people have secretly come among you. They have turned away from God. They are trying to change God's true message. They teach that we can do any evil things that we want to do. They say that God will be kind and he will forgive us for all those things. They do not accept the authority of Jesus Christ, who is our only Master and our Lord. God will certainly punish those wicked people. A long time ago God said that he would punish people like them.
5 Remember that the Lord brought Israel's people out of Egypt where they had been slaves. But later he destroyed all those same people who did not trust him.[b] I want you to remember these important things. You should already know all about them, but you must never forget them. 6 Also remember that some angels refused to obey God. They took more authority for themselves than God had given them. They left their own proper place with God in heaven.[c] So God has tied them up as prisoners for ever in a completely dark place. He will keep them there until that great day when he will judge everyone.
7 Also, remember what happened to the cities called Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities that were near them.[d] Like those bad angels, the people who lived in those places were also doing evil things. They were having sex with people who were not their husbands or their wives. They liked to have sex in other ways that are not right. God destroyed their cities. He has punished them with fire that never stops burning. That is an example of what will happen to wicked people like them.
8 These false teachers who have come among you do the same kind of bad things. Their dreams deceive them so that they use their bodies to do disgusting things. They refuse to obey God's authority. They insult God's powerful angels. 9 Even the leader of God's angels, Michael, did not speak bad words like that against the Devil. Long ago, Michael argued with the Devil about who should have Moses' dead body.[e] But even when the Devil said bad words against God, Michael himself did not speak against the Devil. He did not think that he should do that. Instead, Michael said, ‘The Lord himself will show that you are wrong.’ 10 But these false teachers speak bad things against anything that they do not understand. They are like animals that cannot think properly. They just do the things that their nature causes them to do. Those are the things that are destroying them.
11 It will be terrible for them! They have lived in the way that Cain lived.[f] They have made the same mistake that Balaam made, because they wanted to get money for themselves.[g] Like Korah, they have refused to obey God.[h] So God will destroy them.
The false teachers are very dangerous
12 When you eat special meals together as believers, those false teachers meet with you. But they are dangerous! They will stop you showing your love for one another. They come only because they want to eat too much. They do not respect God or other people. They only think about themselves and they are not ashamed. They are like clouds that you think will bring rain. But the wind blows those clouds along and there is no rain. They are like trees that have no fruit, even at the time for harvest. People pull trees like that out of the ground. They are completely dead and can give no fruit. 13 Those false teachers are like water in the sea that the wind blows during a storm. The dirt that comes to the top of the water is like the disgusting things that those people do. They are like stars that have moved away from their proper places in the sky. God has prepared a completely dark place for them. God will keep them there for ever.
14 Long ago, Enoch also spoke about those false teachers.[i] Enoch belonged to the seventh family that was born, starting with Adam. He said, ‘Look, the Lord will come with many thousands of his own angels. 15 He will judge all people. He will punish everyone who lives in a way that does not please him. He will punish them because of all the wicked things that they have done. He will punish them because of all the bad words that they have spoken against him.’[j] 16 Those people are always complaining. They like to accuse other people. They do any bad things that will make themselves happy. They speak great things about themselves, to show how important they are. They praise other people only so that they can get something good for themselves.
Jesus tells a story about a meal at a marriage
22 Jesus continued to teach the people with stories. 2 He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. 3 He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.
4 So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”
5 But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. 6 Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and then they killed them. 7 The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who killed the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.
8 Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. 9 So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” 10 Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage was full!
11 Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.[a] 12 The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.
13 The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”
14 God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’
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