Book of Common Prayer

God is good, so thank him^[a]

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

¹⁶ The Lord Almighty says to the people,

That is what the Lord says.

²⁵ ‘I have heard the lies that these prophets are saying. They say that they have messages from me. They say, “God has spoken to me in a dream!” ²⁶ But all their words are lies. Their messages are their own ideas. When will they stop deceiving people? ²⁷ They want to make my people forget who I am. They use their dreams to do this. They tell them to each other. They are as bad as their ancestors. They also forgot who I am when they worshipped the false god, Baal.

²⁸ If a prophet has a dream, he should say what it is. If a prophet receives a message from me, he should speak that message faithfully. But dreams are very different from my messages. Straw is not the same as wheat! ²⁹ A message from me is like a fire that burns things. It is like a hammer that breaks a rock into pieces.’ That is what the Lord says.

³⁰ ‘I tell you that I am against those prophets! They say that they speak messages from me. But they are using each other's ideas. ³¹ They say, “This message is from the Lord,” but it is their own words that they speak. ³² Yes, I am against those who have dreams and use them to deceive people. They are using cruel lies to lead the people away from me. I did not send those prophets to speak on my behalf. They do nothing to help my people.’ That is what the Lord says.

¹⁹ Yes, I am a free man. I am not anybody's slave. But I choose to serve everybody like a slave. I do that so that I can help many more people to believe in Christ. ²⁰ When I was among Jews, I lived like they do, because I wanted to bring Jews to Christ. The Law that God gave to Moses no longer has authority over me. But I chose to obey that Law when I was among Jewish people who obey it. I did that so that I could help them to believe in Christ. ²¹ With Gentile people, who do not have Moses' Law, I lived like they do. I continued to respect God's Law. Yes, I obey Christ's law. But I lived like a Gentile, so that I could help Gentiles to believe in Christ. ²² With weak people, I became like someone who is weak too. I did that so that I could bring weak people to believe in Christ. Whoever I am living among, I live like they do. I want to do everything that I can to save some of them.

²³ I want to help people to accept God's good news. That is why I do all these things. I want to share in the good things that the good news gives to believers.

²⁴ Think about how people run in a race. All the runners run, but only one of them receives the prize. You must run like that, to win the race. ²⁵ People who run in races prepare their bodies well. They make themselves work very hard. They do this so that they will win a prize that will quickly become spoiled. But we work hard to receive a prize that will never become spoiled.

²⁶ Because of that, I do not run with no purpose. I do not fight like someone who only hits the air. ²⁷ I make my body do what I want it to do. I make it like my slave. I have told God's message to other people. I do not want to lose the prize myself. So I try very much to obey the rules of the race.

Jesus tells his disciples how he will die

³¹ Then Jesus began to teach his disciples about the things that must happen to the Son of Man.^[a] He would have to suffer in many ways. The important Jews, the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law would turn against him. People would kill him. But after three days, he would become alive again.

³² What Jesus said was very clear. Then Peter took Jesus away from the other disciples. Peter began to tell Jesus that he must not say things like that.

³³ Jesus turned round and he looked at his disciples. He said that Peter was not saying good things. He said to Peter, ‘Satan, go away from me!^[b] Your thoughts do not come from God. Instead, you are thinking like men think.’

³⁴ Then Jesus asked the crowd and his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘A person who wants to come with me must not think about himself. He must decide that his own life is not important. He must be like someone who carries his own cross to go and die. Then he may come with me as my disciple. ³⁵ Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me and God's good news will have true life. ³⁶ A person may get everything in the whole world for himself. But if he loses his life, it will not be any good for him. ³⁷ There is nothing that a person can give to get back his life.

³⁸ People who are living today do not obey God. They are very bad. But you must not be ashamed of me or of my words. If you are, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you. One day he will return and God's holy angels will be with him. He will have the bright glory of his Father. He will be ashamed of you on that day if you are ashamed of him now.’

Three disciples see how great Jesus is

9 Jesus then said to them, ‘I tell you this: Some people who are standing here will see God begin to rule in his kingdom with great power. They will see that before they die.’