Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote.
The love of God[a]
103 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Everything that is in me, praise his holy name!
2 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Never forget all the good things that he has done for you!
3 He forgives all my sins.
He makes me well again when I am ill.
4 He saves me from the deep hole of death's power.
He always loves me and he is kind to me.
That is how he blesses me so much!
5 He gives me many good things for my life here.
So I become strong again, with the strength of a young eagle.
6 The Lord does what is right and fair.
He helps poor people who suffer.
7 He showed Moses how he works to help his people.
He showed the Israelites the great things that he could do.
8 The Lord is kind to people and he forgives them.
He is slow to get angry and his love always continues.
9 He will not always tell us that we are wrong.
He will not always continue to be angry.
10 We should receive much punishment for the bad things that we do.
But the Lord does not punish us so much.
11 For people who worship him, his faithful love is very great.
How far is the sky above the earth? His love is greater than that!
12 How far is the east from the west?
The Lord has taken our sins further away than that!
He no longer says that we are guilty.
13 As a father is kind to his children, the Lord is kind to us.
He is kind to people who worship him.
14 He knows that we are weak humans.
He remembers that he used dust to make us.
15 A person's life is like grass that quickly dies.
He is strong only for a short time, like wild flowers in a field.
16 A hot wind blows over flowers and they die!
Nobody even remembers where they were growing.
17 But the faithful love of the Lord
will always be with people who worship him.
He promises to be kind to their children's children for ever.
18 He continues to love people who obey his covenant.
Those are the people who obey his laws.
19 The Lord rules from his throne in heaven.
He rules as king over everything.
20 You who are the Lord's angels,
you strong angels who do what he tells you to do,
praise the Lord!
21 All of you who belong to his armies in heaven,
his servants who do what he wants,
praise the Lord!
22 Yes, everything that the Lord has made,
in all the places that he rules over,
praise the Lord!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
The Lord does great things[a]
111 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
I will thank the Lord with all that I am,
when we, his people, meet together.
2 The Lord does great things!
People who enjoy them,
think carefully about them.
3 Everything that he does
shows that he is a very great king!
He will always do what is completely right.
4 The Lord causes us to remember his miracles.
He is kind and he forgives people.
5 He gives food to the people who serve him.
He always remembers the covenant
that he made with his people.
6 He said that he would use his great power
to help his people.
He has given to them
the lands where other nations lived.
7 He is always honest and fair
in the things that he does.
His rules help people to live well.
8 They will continue to be right for all time.
People should trust those rules and obey them.
9 He rescued his people
so that they became free.
He made his covenant with them
so that it would continue for ever.
His name is holy,
and people should respect him with fear.
10 If you want to live in a wise way,
respect and obey the Lord.[b]
Everyone who lives in the way that he teaches
will understand what is right.
People should praise the Lord for ever!
Hallelujah, God does great things[a]
114 God led Israel's people out of Egypt.
Jacob's descendants left that foreign land.
2 Then Judah became God's special place for his people.
There he ruled over Israel's people.
3 The sea looked and ran away!
Then the Jordan River turned back![b]
4 The mountains shook,
like sheep that are jumping.
The hills jumped like lambs.[c]
5 Tell me, sea, why did you run away?
Tell me, Jordan River, why did you turn back?
6 And you mountains and hills,
why did you jump like sheep?
7 Earth, you should shake with fear!
The Lord, Jacob's God, has come to you,
so be afraid!
8 He changes a rock into a pool of water!
Water pours out of a hard rock![d]
28 The Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight, the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt. The firstborn son of Pharaoh, the king, died. But also, the firstborn son of any man who was in prison died. Every firstborn son in Egypt died. All the firstborn animals also died. 30 Pharaoh and all his officers woke up in the middle of the night. All the Egyptians also woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone was crying loudly everywhere in Egypt. In every home, somebody had died that night.
The Israelites leave Egypt
31 During the night, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Get out of here! Take all the Israelites with you and go away from my people! Go and worship the Lord, as you asked me before. 32 Take all your animals with you, as you have said. Just go away! But also pray that God will bless me.’
33 The Egyptians were telling the Israelites to leave quickly. They wanted them to go out of the country immediately. The Egyptians said, ‘If we do not send them away immediately, we will all die!’
34 So the Israelites took their bread before they had cooked it. They had not even put the yeast into it. They put the bread in dishes and they put clothes round the dishes. Then they carried the dishes on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites obeyed Moses. They asked the Egyptians for silver and gold. They also asked them for clothes. 36 The Lord had caused the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. Because of this, the Egyptians gave the Israelites everything that they asked for. In that way, the Israelites took away all the valuable things that belonged to the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites travelled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men who walked. There were also many women and children. 38 Many other people also travelled with them. They had a very large number of sheep, goats and cows. 39 The Israelites cooked the bread that they had brought with them from Egypt. It had no yeast in it, because they had to leave Egypt quickly. The Egyptians did not let them wait. So the Israelites did not have time to prepare any food for themselves.[a]
People do live again after death
12 We all speak this message: God raised Christ up after his death. But some of you say that dead people do not live again. 13 Anyone who says that is wrong. If dead people do not live again, then Christ did not rise up after his death. He would still be dead. 14 And if God did not raise Christ up, it does no good for us to tell God's good news to people. There would be nothing for you to believe. 15 We would have been telling lies about God, because we told you that God raised Christ up after his death. But if dead people do not live again, that would not be true.
16 So, if dead people never rise to a new life, then Christ himself did not rise after his death. 17 And if Christ did not rise, then you have believed a false message. God would still say that you are guilty, because of your sins.
18 Also, think about those people who believed in Christ but they have already died. If dead people do not rise to a new life, those people would have no life with God. 19 As believers, we trust Christ to lead us into a new life after death. But if we only trust him to help us in this life, we should be very sad. Everybody should be very sorry for us, more than for anyone else.
20 But it is really true that God raised Christ up after his death. He rose up to go to God in heaven. He was the first, so we know that believers who die will also rise up.
21 All people die because of what one man did. That was Adam.[a] And it is because of another man that people can rise up after death to a new life. That is Christ. 22 As people, all of us belong to Adam's family. So all of us must die. But all people who belong to Christ will live again after death. 23 It is like this: First of all, Christ died and then he became alive again. Then, when Christ returns, his people will live again too. 24 After that, the end of everything will happen. Christ will win against every ruler and power and authority. He will give the kingdom to God, the Father. God will rule over everything.
25 Christ himself must rule as king until he has won against all his enemies. 26 The last enemy that he must destroy is death. 27 It says in the Bible, ‘God has put all things under his authority.’[b]
But it is clear that the words ‘all things’ do not include God himself. No, because it is God who put all things under Christ's authority. 28 When God has put all things under Christ's authority, then God's Son, Jesus Christ, will put himself under his Father's authority. Then God will have complete authority over all things, everywhere.
The end of Mark's book
9 [a] [Jesus became alive again early on the first day of the week. He appeared first to Mary from Magdala. Jesus had caused seven bad spirits to leave her. 10 She went to the people who had been with Jesus. They were all very sad and they were crying. Mary spoke to them. 11 She told them that Jesus was alive. And she told them that she had seen him. But they did not believe it.
12 After these things had happened, Jesus appeared to two other disciples. They were walking away from Jerusalem to their village. It seemed to them that Jesus was different. 13 Those two disciples went and told all the other disciples. But the other disciples did not believe them.
14 After that, Jesus appeared to the 11 apostles while they were eating. He told them that they were wrong not to believe. They should have been ready to believe. People had seen that he was now alive again. But the disciples had not believed them.
15 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Go to all people everywhere in the world. Tell God's good news to everyone. 16 If a person believes in me, then you should baptize that person. And God will save that person. But if a person does not believe, God will judge that person to be guilty. 17 These miracles will happen when people believe in me. On my behalf, they will send bad spirits out of people. They will speak new languages. 18 If they pick up a snake, it will not hurt them. If they drink poison, it will not hurt them. They will put their hands on ill people, and God will make those people well.’
Jesus goes up to heaven
19 So, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to the disciples, God took him up into heaven. There he sat down at the right side of God.
20 The disciples went out everywhere. They told people God's good news. The Lord worked with them. He did powerful things to show that the message which they spoke was true.]
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