Book of Common Prayer

The Prayer of a Sufferer^[a]

Determination to Obey the Law of the Lord

A Prayer for Understanding

Trusting the Law of the Lord

A Vision of a Basket of Fruit

8 I had another vision from the Sovereign Lord. In it I saw a basket of fruit. ² The Lord asked, “Amos, what do you see?”

“A basket of fruit,” I answered.

The Lord said to me, “The end^[a] has come for my people Israel. I will not change my mind again about punishing them. ³ On that day the songs in the palace will become cries of mourning. There will be dead bodies everywhere. They will be cast out in silence.”^[b]

Israel's Doom

⁴ Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. ⁵ You say to yourselves, “We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers. ⁶ We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. We'll find someone poor who can't pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we'll buy him as a slave.”

⁷ The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, “I will never forget their evil deeds. ⁸ And so the earth will quake, and everyone in the land will be in distress. The whole country will be shaken; it will rise and fall like the Nile River. ⁹ The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ¹⁰ I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.

¹¹ “The time is coming when I will send famine on the land. People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ¹² People will wander from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean and then on around from the north to the east. They will look everywhere for a message from the Lord, but they will not find it. ¹³ On that day even healthy young men and women will collapse from thirst. ¹⁴ Those who swear by the idols of Samaria, who say, ‘By the god of Dan’ or ‘By the god of Beersheba’—those people will fall and not rise again.”

^17 (A)When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last. ¹⁸ I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead. ¹⁹ Write, then, the things you see, both the things that are now and the things that will happen afterward. ²⁰ Here is the secret meaning of the seven stars that you see in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The Message to Ephesus

2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

“This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven gold lampstands. ² I know what you have done; I know how hard you have worked and how patient you have been. I know that you cannot tolerate evil people and that you have tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and have found out that they are liars. ³ You are patient, you have suffered for my sake, and you have not given up. ⁴ But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. ⁵ Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first. If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But this is what you have in your favor: you hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I do.

^7 (B)“If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!

“To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life that grows in the Garden of God.

Jesus Warns against the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees^(A)

23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. ² “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses' Law. ³ So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practice what they preach. ⁴ They tie onto people's backs loads that are heavy and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry those loads. ^5 (B)They do everything so that people will see them. Look at the straps with scripture verses on them which they wear on their foreheads and arms, and notice how large they are! Notice also how long are the tassels on their cloaks!^{[a] 6} They love the best places at feasts and the reserved seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them ‘Teacher.’ ⁸ You must not be called ‘Teacher,’ because you are all equal and have only one Teacher. ⁹ And you must not call anyone here on earth ‘Father,’ because you have only the one Father in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor should you be called ‘Leader,’ because your one and only leader is the Messiah. ^11 (C)The greatest one among you must be your servant. ^12 (D)Whoever makes himself great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be made great.