Book of Common Prayer

6 So, let us leave behind the first teachings about Christ. And let us go on to things that are grown up. We must not go back to the beginning again and talk about turning away from doing things that bring death to us. We must not go back again and talk about believing in God. Let us go forward.

² We must not go back to teaching about baptizing people in water, about putting hands on people's heads, about people being raised from death, and about people being judged for ever.

³ If God will let us, we will go on to build on these things.

⁴ Some people had light in their hearts once. They knew the gift from heaven.

⁵ They had the Holy Spirit. They knew the word of God is good and felt the powers of the next world.

⁶ If people who were like that leave their faith in Christ, they cannot come to God again. They themselves nail God's Son up on the cross again. They are holding him up to shame before everyone.

⁷ The ground drinks the water that often rains on it. It makes plants grow for the people who take care of it. And God blesses that ground.

⁸ But if it grows thorns and weeds, it is no good. It will soon be cursed. In the end, it will be burned with fire.

⁹ This is the way we talk. But dear people, we are sure that better things are true about you. Yes, you show all the good ways of people who have been saved from their wrong ways.

¹⁰ God does what is right. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for him. You have helped God's people and you are still helping them.

¹¹ We want every one of you to try in the same way. Then you will get what you hope for right up to the end.

¹² Do not give up. But be like the people who get what God has promised. They believe God and keep on believing for a long time.

⁵¹ The time was near for Jesus to be taken up to heaven. Then he started off for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of him.

⁵² They went to one of the towns of the Samaritan people to get ready for him.

⁵³ But the people would not take him in because he was going to Jerusalem.

⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw that, they said, `Lord, do you want us to ask for fire to come down from the sky and burn them up?'

⁵⁵ But he turned and said to them, `Stop that! You do not think about what kind of spirit you are showing.

⁵⁶ The Son of Man did not come to kill people, but to save them.' And they went on to another town.

⁵⁷ As they went along on the road, a man said to him, `I will go anywhere you go.'

⁵⁸ Jesus said, `Foxes have holes to live in. Birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lie down to rest.'

⁵⁹ Jesus said to another man who followed him, `Come with me.' But the man said, `Lord, let me go first and bury my father.'

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, `Let those who are dead bury their own dead people. As for you, go and tell people about God's kingdom.'

⁶¹ Another man said to Jesus, `Sir, I will go with you. But let me go first to my home and tell them I am going.'

⁶² Jesus said to him, `Any person who starts doing something and then keeps looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God.'