Book of Common Prayer
106 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord because he is good!
His faithful love will last forever!
2 No one can describe how great the Lord really is.
No one can praise him enough.
3 Those who obey his commands are happy.
They do good things all the time.
4 Lord, remember me when you show kindness to your people.
Remember to save me too!
5 Let me share in the good things
that you do for your chosen people.
Let me rejoice with your nation.
Let me join with your people in praise.
6 We sinned just as our ancestors did.
We were wrong; we did bad things!
7 Lord, our ancestors learned nothing
from the miracles you did in Egypt.
They forgot your kindness at the Red Sea
and rebelled against you.
8 But the Lord saved our ancestors for the honor of his name.
He saved them to show his great power.
9 He gave the command, and the Red Sea became dry.
He led them through the deep sea on land as dry as the desert.
10 He saved our ancestors
and rescued them from their enemies.
11 He covered their enemies with the sea.
Not one of them escaped!
12 Then our ancestors believed what he had said.
They sang praises to him.
13 But they quickly forgot about what he did.
They did not listen to his advice.
14 They became hungry in the desert,
and they tested him in the wilderness.
15 He gave them what they asked for,
but he also gave them a terrible disease.
16 The people became jealous of Moses.
They became jealous of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
17 The ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.
Then the ground closed up and covered Abiram’s group.
18 Then a fire burned that mob of people.
It burned those wicked people.
19 The people made a golden calf at Mount Horeb.
They worshiped a statue!
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull!
21 They forgot all about God, the one who saved them,
the one who did the miracles in Egypt.
22 He did amazing things there in Ham’s country[a]!
He did awesome things at the Red Sea!
23 God wanted to destroy those people,
but Moses, the leader he chose, stood in the way.
God was very angry, but Moses begged him to stop,
so God did not destroy the people.[b]
24 But then they refused to go into the wonderful land of Canaan.
They did not believe that God would help them defeat the people there.
25 Our ancestors complained in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
26 So he swore that they would die
in the desert.
27 He promised to scatter them among the nations
and to let other people defeat their descendants.
28 At Baal Peor they joined in worshiping Baal
and ate sacrifices to honor the dead.[c]
29 The Lord became angry with his people,
so he made them sick.
30 But Phinehas prayed[d] to God,
and God stopped the sickness.
31 He considered what Phinehas did a good work,
and it will be remembered forever and ever.
32 At Meribah the people made the Lord angry
and created trouble for Moses.
33 They upset Moses,
and he spoke without stopping to think.
34 The Lord told the people to destroy the other nations living in Canaan.
But the Israelites did not obey him.
35 They mixed with the other people
and did what those people were doing.
36 They began worshiping the false gods those people worshiped.
And their idols became a trap.
37 They even offered their own children
as sacrifices to demons.
38 They killed their innocent sons and daughters
and offered them to the false gods of Canaan.
So the land was polluted with the sin of murder.
39 They were unfaithful to him,
and they became dirty with the sins of other nations.
40 So the Lord became angry with his people.
He rejected those who belonged to him.
41 He gave his people to other nations
and let their enemies rule over them.
42 Their enemies controlled them
and made life hard for them.
43 He saved his people many times,
but they turned against him and did what they wanted to do.
His people did many bad things.
44 But whenever they were in trouble,
he listened to their prayers.
45 He always remembered his agreement,
and because of his faithful love, he comforted them.
46 Other nations took them as prisoners,
but the Lord caused them to be kind to his people.
47 Lord our God, save us!
Bring us back together from those nations.
Then we will give thanks to your holy name
and joyfully praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He always was and will always be worthy of praise.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Return to the Lord
14 Israel, you fell and sinned against God. So come back to the Lord your God. 2 Think about what you will say, and come back to the Lord. Say to him,
“Take away our sin,
and accept these words as our sacrifice.
We offer you the praise from our lips.[a]
3 Assyria will not save us.
We will not ride on war horses.
We will never again say, ‘Our God’
to something we made with our hands.
This is because you are the one who
shows mercy to orphans.”
The Lord Will Forgive Israel
4 The Lord says,
“I will forgive them for leaving me.
I will show them my love without limits,
because I have stopped being angry.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel.
Israel will blossom like the lily.
He will grow like the cedar trees of Lebanon.
6 His branches will grow,
and he will be like a beautiful olive tree.
He will be like the sweet smell
from the cedar trees of Lebanon.
7 The people of Israel will again live under my protection.
They will grow like grain.
They will bloom like a vine.
They will be like the wine of Lebanon.
The Lord Warns Israel About Idols
8 “Ephraim, I will have nothing more to do with idols.
I am the one who answers your prayers and watches over you.[b]
I am like a fir tree that is always green.
Your fruit comes from me.”
Final Advice
9 A wise person understands these things,
and a smart person should learn them.
The Lord’s ways are right.
Good people will live by them.
Sinners will die by them.[c]
Paul Speaks to the Jewish Leaders
30 The next day the commander decided to learn why the Jews were accusing Paul. So he ordered the leading priests and the whole high council to meet together. He had Paul’s chains taken off and had him brought in to face the council.
23 Paul looked at the council members and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life in a good way before God. I have always done what I thought was right.” 2 Ananias,[a] the high priest, was there. When he heard this, he told the men who were standing near Paul to hit him in the mouth. 3 Paul said to Ananias, “God will hit you too! You are like a dirty wall that has been painted white. You sit there and judge me, using the Law of Moses. But you are telling them to hit me, and that is against the law.”
4 The men standing near Paul said to him, “Are you sure you want to insult God’s high priest like that?”
5 Paul said, “Brothers, I did not know this man was the high priest. The Scriptures say, ‘You must not say bad things about a leader of your people.’[b]”
6 Paul knew that some of the men in the council meeting were Sadducees and some were Pharisees. So he shouted, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee and my father was a Pharisee! I am on trial here because I believe that people will rise from death.”
7 When Paul said this, a big argument started between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The group was divided. 8 (The Sadducees believe that after people die, they will not live again as an angel or as a spirit. But the Pharisees believe in both.) 9 All these Jews began shouting louder and louder. Some of the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, stood up and argued, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe an angel or a spirit really did speak to him.”
10 The argument turned into a fight, and the commander was afraid that the Jews would tear Paul to pieces. So he told the soldiers to go down and take Paul away from these Jews and put him in the army building.
11 The next night the Lord Jesus came and stood by Paul. He said, “Be brave! You have told people in Jerusalem about me. You must do the same in Rome.”
39 Jesus told them this story: “Can a blind man lead another blind man? No. Both of them will fall into a ditch. 40 Students are not better than their teacher. But when they have been fully taught, they will be like their teacher.
41 “Why do you notice the small piece of dust that is in your friend’s eye, but you don’t see the big piece of wood that is in your own eye? 42 You say to your friend, ‘Let me get that little piece of dust out of your eye.’ Why do you say this? Can’t you see that big piece of wood in your own eye? You are a hypocrite. First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to get the dust out of your friend’s eye.
Only Good Trees Produce Good Fruit(A)
43 “A good tree does not produce bad fruit. And a bad tree does not produce good fruit. 44 Every tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces. You won’t find figs on thorny weeds. And you can’t pick grapes from thornbushes! 45 Good people have good things saved in their hearts. That’s why they say good things. But those who are evil have hearts full of evil, and that’s why they say things that are evil. What people say with their mouths comes from what fills their hearts.
Two Kinds of People(B)
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but you don’t do what I say? 47 The people who come to me, who listen to my teachings and obey them—I will show you what they are like: 48 They are like a man building a house. He digs deep and builds his house on rock. The floods come, and the water crashes against the house. But the flood cannot move the house, because it was built well.
49 “But the people who hear my words and do not obey are like a man who builds a house without preparing a foundation. When the floods come, the house falls down easily and is completely destroyed.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International