Book of Common Prayer

³² What more should I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.

³³ Men believed God and were able to win over other nations. They made people do what was right. They got what God promised them. They were not eaten by lions.

³⁴ The big, hot fire did not burn them. They got away from men who wanted to kill them with long knives or swords. They were weak, but they became strong. They became very strong to fight. They drove away the armies of their enemies.

³⁵ Women had children who died and were raised to life again. Some people allowed themselves to be beaten to death. They would not go free because they wanted to rise again to a better life.

³⁶ Others were laughed at and beaten very hard. They were even tied with chains and put into prison.

³⁷ They were killed with stones. They were tested. They were cut in pieces. They were killed with swords. They walked about wearing skins of sheep and goats. They were very poor. They were treated very badly. They were punished.

³⁸ They were really too good to be in this world. They walked about in the desert and in the mountains, and in the holes in the hills and in the holes among the rocks on the earth.

³⁹ All of these people had good things said about them because they believed God. But they did not get what God had promised.

⁴⁰ God planned something better. They will be made perfect but only with us.

12 We have all these people all around us, proving to us that we should believe God. So then, like people running a race, we must take off everything that is heavy. We must put off all wrong, wrong things that get in our way. We must not stop running until we reach the mark that has been put in front of us.

² We must keep our eyes on Jesus. He believed from first to last. What was put in front of him made him glad, so he did not give up when the people nailed him on a cross. He did not care about the shame. And now he is sitting beside God.

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had gone away. There was no sea any more.

² I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was all ready and waiting, like a woman dressed for her wedding and ready to meet her husband.

³ I heard a loud voice in heaven. It said, `Look! God's house is now set up among the people. God will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them.

⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes. No one will die. No one will ever cry or be sad for any reason. No one will ever have trouble. The old things are gone.'

²² I did not see any temple in the city. The Lord God, who has all power, and the Lamb, are its temple.

²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to give light in it. The glory of God gives light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

²⁴ Those who are saved will walk in its light. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

²⁵ The doors of the city will never be shut in the day time, and there will be no night.

²⁶ The glory and the honour of all nations will be brought into the city.

²⁷ Nothing that is not holy will ever go in. People who do wrong things and tell lies will never go in. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life will go in.

22 Then the angel showed me a river of the water which gives life. It was as clear as glass. It flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.

² It flows through the middle of the street of the city. On each side of the river is the tree which gives life. It has twelve kinds of fruit, and it bears its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree could heal the people of all nations.

³ Nothing that God hates will be in the city any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be there. And his servants will serve him.

⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

⁵ There will be no night there. They do not need the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun. The Lord God will give them light. They will rule for ever and ever.