Book of Common Prayer
11 Jesus Christ himself is the foundation. No one can make another one.
12 People build with gold, silver, very fine stones, wood, grass, or straw on top of the foundation.
13 But the day will come when everyone's work can be seen. Their work will be tested by fire and the fire will show what kind of work each one did.
14 If the work a man did is not burned up in the fire, he will be paid for his work.
15 But if a man's work is burned up, he will lose everything. He himself will be saved, like a man pulled out of the fire.
16 You know that you are God's house. The spirit of God lives in you.
17 God will punish anyone who spoils his house. His house is holy, and you are the house.
18 Do not be fooled. If any one of you thinks that he is wise in the things of this world, he should count himself as not being wise. Then he would really be wise.
19 The things that look wise to the people of this world look foolish to God. The holy writings say, `He catches the wise people in their own tricks.'
20 It also says, `The Lord knows that the wise men's thoughts are good for nothing.'
21 So do not be proud of men. Everything belongs to you.
22 Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the things which are now, and the things which are to come, everything is yours!
23 And you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God!
31 Jesus' mother and brothers came to him. They stood outside. They sent someone to him.
32 Many people were sitting around him. They said, `See, your mother and your brothers are outside. They want you.'
33 Jesus asked them, `Who are my mother and my brothers?'
34 Then he looked at the people who sat around him. He said, `These people are my mother and my brothers!
35 Anyone who obeys God is my brother, my sister, and my mother.'
4 Jesus began to teach people by the sea again. Many people came to him. So he got in a boat on the sea and sat down. The people were by the sea on the land.
2 He told the people stories and taught them many things.
3 He said, `Listen. A man went out to sow some seed.
4 As he sowed it, some of the seed fell on the road. Birds came and ate the seed.
5 Some seed fell on the stony ground. Not much ground covered the stones. The seed started to grow right away because it was not deep in the ground.
6 When the sun began to shine, it was too hot for the new plants. They died because they had no roots.
7 Some seed fell among the weeds. The weeds grew up and made the new plants die. So no seeds grew on them.
8 But some seed fell on good ground. That seed grew and the plants gave more seed. Some plants gave thirty seeds. Some gave sixty. And some gave a hundred.'
9 Jesus said to them, `Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'
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