Book of Common Prayer

¹⁴ That is why I kneel down before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ From him every family in heaven or on earth gets its name.

¹⁶ I ask him to make you very strong in heart by his Spirit. He has great and wonderful blessings and is able to do so because of the fullness of his glory.

¹⁷ And I ask that Christ may live in your hearts because you believe in him. I ask that you may live and grow in love.

¹⁸ I ask that God will give you power to know how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. All Christians should know that.

¹⁹ I ask God that you may know the love of Christ which is more than we can ever know. I ask that you may be filled with everything that God has.

²⁰ God can do much more than we ask him to do, or we even think of. He does it by his power which is working in us.

²¹ So, praise him in the church meeting in Christ Jesus. Praise him for ever and ever! May it be so!

²³ Jesus was walking through the grainfields on the Sabbath day. His disciples began to pick some of the seed (to eat) as they went along.

²⁴ The Pharisees said to Jesus, `Why do your disciples do what is not right on the Sabbath day?'

²⁵ Jesus answered them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men who were with him were hungry.

²⁶ He went into God's house when Abiathar was the high priest. Some bread was there for God. It was not right for them to eat it. Only the priests have the right to eat it. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the people who were with him.'

²⁷ Jesus went on to say, `The Sabbath was made for the good of man. Man was not made for the Sabbath.

²⁸ So the Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'

3 Jesus went into the meeting house again. A man was there whose right hand was thin and weak.

² The Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.

³ He spoke to the man whose hand was thin and weak. He said, `Stand here.'

⁴ Then he spoke to the Pharisees. He said, `Is it right to do good things on the Sabbath day or to do wrong things? Is it right to heal people so they will live, or to let them die?' But the Pharisees said nothing.

⁵ Jesus was angry as he looked at them. And he was sad that their hearts were so hard. Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man did so, and it was made well like the other hand.

⁶ The Pharisees went out. Right away they and the servants of King Herod planned together how to kill Jesus.