Book of Common Prayer

19 After this I heard a loud sound in heaven. It sounded like many people calling. They said, `Praise our God! He saves people. He is great and power belongs to him.

² The way God punishes is true and right. He has punished the bad woman who spoiled the earth with her wrong ways. He has made her pay for the killing of his servants.'

³ They said again, `Praise God! The smoke where she burns goes up for ever and ever!'

⁴ Then the twenty-four leaders and the four living beings kneeled down. They worshipped God who was sitting on his throne, and they said, `Amen! Yes, it is so! Praise God!'

⁵ A voice from the throne said, `Praise our God, all his servants, all who respect and honour him: you who are great and you who are not great, praise him!'

⁶ Then I heard a sound in heaven. It sounded like many people and much water flowing and like loud thunder. They said, `Praise God! The Lord our God, who has all power, rules!

⁷ We will be glad and very happy! We will praise him. The time has come for the Lamb to marry. The woman who will marry him is ready.

⁸ She was given the right to wear fine linen, shining and clean.' The fine linen means the good things God's people have done.

⁹ The angel said to me, `Write this: God blesses those who are called to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb.' And he said to me, `These are the true words of God.'

¹⁰ Then I kneeled down in front of him to worship him. But he said to me, `You must not do that! I am only a servant like you and like your brothers who tell about Jesus. Worship God! Those who tell about Jesus have the spirit of a prophet.'

²⁶ Many people were going with Jesus. He turned to them and said, `If any man comes to me, he must hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sister. Yes, he must hate himself too. If he does not, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁷ If anyone does not carry his cross [is not ready to die] and come with me, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ `When any of you wants to build a high house, you sit down first and see how much it will cost. You want to see if you have enough money to finish it.

²⁹ If you do not have enough money, you will not be able to finish it after you have made the foundation. Then all the people who see it will laugh at you.

³⁰ They will say, "This man started to build a house and could not finish it."

³¹ `When a king goes to fight against another king, he sits down first and thinks about the matter. He will ask himself, "Can I fight him with ten thousand soldiers? He has twenty thousand soldiers."

³² If he cannot fight him, he will send some men to meet the other king while he is still far away. He will try to make peace with him.

³³ `In the same way, any one of you who does not give up all he has cannot be my disciple.'

³⁴ `Salt is good. But if the salt has lost its taste, how can it be made salty again?

³⁵ It is not good for the land or the dirt pile. People throw it away. `Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!"